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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network.
It is the Anfield Wrap in association with our friends at Peloton. Very pleased to be with them as ever. With me, I've got Kev Riley, I've got Ian Ryan and I've got Phil Blundell after Liverpool disappointingly drew 1-1 with Chelsea. John Gibbons talking to Rishi Jain about Liverpool's sustainability targets is to come. But we are, as I said before, in association with Peloton.
So, yep, that team challenge was done for Mo Salah. It was excellent that that happened. But Peloton are Liverpool Football Club's official strength and conditioning partner, as well as partnering with the Anfield Rap. And currently, classes are now directly available inside the Spotify app for premium users. 1,400 ad-free classes, including strength, yoga, meditation and outdoor runs.
There is no equipment needed. Just search fitness on Spotify and you're in. You can get involved. It is the easiest in. For anyone who has not yet joined the Tour Peloton Club, that comes with a hashtag. John Gibbons does all the administration around the Tour Peloton Club. He sorts out all the meetings, all the get-togethers, all the end-of-year socials that happen on the Tour Peloton Club.
So you just want to get over to John Gibbons and he'll sort out all your Peloton wants and needs. Don't ask me.
uh it wasn't even don't ask me such things don't exist phil uh but the club does support one another and it is very useful inside the app i have been on that um we had said the peloton were over actually for the game uh that's a nice chat to them yeah yeah lovely people uh and they're very much enjoyed partnering with the amphitheater we've got the bike behind us and we've enjoyed working with them as well uh so yeah it's very warm about peloton at the moment but the tour peloton club honestly you should see the clubhouse
It is magnificent. It's a magnificent building on the grounds of Avenue HQ. You just haven't seen it yet, Phil. At some point it'll emerge. And we'll go from there. There is no clubhouse.
Liverpool 1 Chelsea 1 Ian Ryan it's a dreadful game between two poor sides and it somehow ends up feeling like it's abused with tons of meaning which at the end of the weekend feels like it's almost too much meaning for it to handle given the fact that Villa go on and draw with Burnley and you sort of look at the league table Friday night obviously becomes significant but it just was a it was just a game of football considering the amount of money that's been spent on the footballers you make up both squads I'm not even saying necessarily the ones who are available I'm not even saying necessarily
And as Damian Cavanaugh said stingingly on the post-match show, it was the Premier League champions versus the world champions. And it was just two poor sides. And it was two bald men arguing over a comb or whichever one of those things you want to use. It was a slog.
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Chapter 2: What were the main highlights of the Liverpool vs Chelsea match?
And I think everyone on the ground was finding it difficult to watch precisely how much Liverpool just completely fell in on themselves. And Chelsea absolutely dominated for 20 minutes at Anfield without really being particularly good or even creating all that much. Yeah, it was weird because they had all that ball, but they didn't... It was like they passed the edge of the box and then come back.
And it was very frustrating because they were having the ball for such long periods and we were struggling to get pressure on them. I think it's...
Not as obviously happened this season, but I think one of the biggest problems we've had this season is that sometimes we get to sort of 15, 20 minutes into games of football and teams realise we aren't particularly amazing out of possession in the field and we don't have a great deal of weaponry to go at them.
from a forward-thinking point of view, so teams can go a little bit high up the pitch, be a bit more aggressive, be less concerned about what's going on and think, these probably aren't going to hurt us.
What basically happened is the defence pushed up, Colwell got on the ball a bit more, and then the £200 million midfielders, they've got a very good footballers, were able to just break lines with passes, and we couldn't deal with it. And that's not a good thing that we couldn't deal with it, is it?
That this should be a very simplistic thing to shut down. But we couldn't get to the ball, we couldn't get on the ball, we couldn't win the ball. But then if you did win the ball, what were we going to do with it?
This was part of my issue when I looked at the team sheets. I was like, the game was almost what you could have expected just by looking at the team. So when you actually think about what Liverpool's forward line is, it took them 15, 20 minutes to cotton on to this.
But they eventually do cotton on to it and all of a sudden it looks atrocious. And it was. It wasn't good at all. But I'm also looking at this and I'm a bit like, well, how do you... I think if we'd have been aggressive as a midfield... They just picked the ball off, passed it through us. I mean, they've actually created chances.
And this is sort of the problem with a lot of what I'm watching at the minute is I don't know what the solution is.
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Chapter 3: How did Liverpool's performance impact their season standings?
How? How is this what we're now watching? Second to last home game of this season. How is it this? How is it still this? And for me, that's a question for everybody at Liverpool. It isn't just Arne Schrotts. And it isn't just those players. The how is everyone.
Yeah, I think that's totally fair. I think... I suppose if you are on the outside looking in and you are maybe a fan of another club and you go, well, Liverpool won the league last year and they're probably going to finish fourth or fifth this year and get into the Champions League, they might be thinking, well, how entitled are you?
But I think if you're living and breathing it, there's been a direction of travel now for a long time where, and I've said this before on shows, you can't kid supporters, you can't kid fans. They know what they're watching and what they're watching is... It's a pale imitation of a football team, and certainly a Liverpool team. It's hard to remember a team who's been so backward in coming forward.
You never like to throw words around like cowards and stuff like that, but there's been times where you watch them and it does feel a bit cowardly. That on the weekend felt a bit cowardly, the way they all just retreated. And a lot of that's got to come from the guy in charge. It does. And I'm not letting the players off the hook, by the way.
I think there's been a lot of them this season who've saved up performances that are so far away from what you expect. I actually thought at the weekend there was almost a little bit of... you know, stuff there going on with it, it felt a bit performative, to be honest.
You know, McAllister suddenly going in and throwing in a couple of crunches after he's, like, knocked back this meet-up for the sixth or seventh time. I'm thinking, I'm not sure you're doing that because that's what you want to be doing. It almost felt like he just felt forced into doing it, if I'm being honest. And there's been a huge sense of that. And I think you're almost at a point now where
I don't think the fans certainly aren't having a manager anymore and that's a huge problem for them. So when he's talking about things like next season will look very, very different, I think it's hard to picture how that unfolds because he's also talking about, well, there won't be that many players coming through the door.
There'll be some transition, but there won't be tons and tons of players. Same thing like last season. But I'm looking at a Liverpool squad that needs a lot of work. You can sit here now and probably start reeling them off their positions, but I think they need at least six to come into the squad. At least six. I don't think they're going to do that from what he's saying.
And if he is going to be there, we'll have to wait and see whether that does play out. But he's certainly talking like that. But it's one thing the fans not having yet. But I don't think a lot of the players, certainly the senior players, are having them as well. And I think we've all picked up on the bits, you know, around Salah and stuff.
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Chapter 4: What criticisms were made about Liverpool's tactics and player performance?
Yeah, a little bit. I mean, there was still one frustrating thing where, after the disallowed goal, where Cucurella has obviously switched off
Yeah, they've switched off to allow Cucurella in. About five minutes later, they get a quick free kick, and we let Cucurella back in again. It was just very frustrating, the whole thing, in terms of how it went out. The 50-70 was a little bit of an improvement.
They seemed to get a little bit less space, but I thought they found themselves retreating a bit, and they looked like, in that period, like a team who just had...
very little confidence about them like a team who had lost six in a row and further and further and further back and it was just an example it was just a game of football between two poor teams really wasn't it in terms of what you were expecting from Liverpool from the outset it wasn't a particularly strong forward line it was just quite poor and very frustrating but you know on that Phil you know when you said before about kind of you understand that
It's almost going to be bad because of...
very nature of the makeup of the team there's no forwards and stuff but don't you think and i don't just want to continually bash the manager over the air because you know part of me does feel a little bit sorry for him in a sense that it's just starting to get so uncomfortable now but at the end of the day he's the guy picking the team the guys on the tactics out so you're never going to sack 20 players so the book will always come down to to him now even when you think about the guys who are above him and stuff listen they are deserving of some criticism let's let's be clear
But it will come down to the manager because we've all seen Liverpool teams where you're going into battle and you haven't got your perfect line-up. You haven't got your perfect squad. You've got injuries. You've got suspensions. I just think...
Somewhere along the line, you're looking for the guy who's in charge of the tactics and the picking of the team and getting them in the right headspace and getting them prepared for football matches. You want him to demonstrate things like he did in his first season in fairness, where he's doing something slightly different to make Liverpool harder to beat.
So when they go into Old Trafford, I think everyone, every sensible person goes, fucking hell, they've got no forwards. This is going to be really hard. But you can draw 0-0. You are allowed to draw games 0-0 and be resolute and be tough to beat and be hard to break down and be first every ball. You can be that. You can be that version. You can.
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Chapter 5: What insights did Rishi Jain share about Liverpool FC's sustainability efforts?
But I just find it hard how you can suddenly just flick or flip that mentality from this season under the same fella going into next season. I've talked about the manager a lot where... He's done loads of adversity in his career on the pitch. Now, when he turns up at Liverpool, bear in mind, he's only had five years managing a tough flight. He is a young fella. He's now only still only 47.
So I think when you go through tough times, it's easy when you say it's easy, when you're doing well. It's hard to be questioned because anyone last year trying to question him, he'll just go, look at the fucking league table, soft lad. I'm on top of the league. Are you questioning me?
Now when they're having 18 defeats and maybe there are doubts and senior players are looking at him a little bit and he hasn't got the answers. I think that's where maybe he's losing them a little bit. And I think it's hard to get that back on track. And I'm not sure he got the answers by the way.
I don't think he's kind of lived and breathed some of this where it has been so hard and so tough and he's come out the other side. So I think they are looking at him a little bit and thinking, what do we do here? We need something to buy into here. And they're not seeing it. And they're definitely not seeing it because they're not executing it. So they're either...
Not listening to him, which is bad. Or they're not putting it in. Or maybe a bit of both. But that's no place to be, that. That is no place to be. And I just find it really difficult to see how he suddenly flicks that switch on with some of these boys. Maybe he finds a way by bringing new lads in.
I almost think he thinks if some of the senior ones leave, where maybe there is a little bit of tension, maybe he gets to go again. That feels like a fair bit of wishful thinking, I think.
I think it's interesting the heads burnt out thing because although the manager's head's clearly burnt out, I don't think you can let the players know that or the media know that or the fans know that. He seems quite happy for everyone to know that. You can tell from his messaging, as Ian touches on, his communication is very weird at times. There seems to be no responsibility.
It always needs to be kicked down the road or there always needs to be some sort of an excuse. And I think that's where a lot of the frustration is coming from. We're not stupid and we see what's going on in the pitch. But then for him to go in a press conference and say things like, oh, you'll see that next year things will be better. I'm absolutely convinced. That's really positive and good.
But I don't want to hear that now when we've still got two games left. I don't want to hear about next season. I want to see how he's going to win the next two games.
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Chapter 6: How does the panel view Liverpool's current squad and management decisions?
It was almost just, just forget that. He was dropping little things in and if I could say what I want to say, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I just think,
leave that just because that doesn't that's not gonna land well with the dressing room either you still need these fucking boys to turn up and deliver results you still need them to do that even the ones that aren't going to be there next season you've got to find a way getting them on side and that's where you think about maybe the experience piece comes in um and as i say some of it might just be because he's not been through this type of thing before
And it's a problem for him because he's got no muscle memory to be able to call on. But as Phil said, you know, how much interest have we all got about a fella learning on the job? And that can sound a bit mad because he's going to win a league. And everything went, listen, you need a bit of luck in the season and things went forward that year.
And if it goes for you, then listen, you take it and you run with it and you see where you land. And Liverpool landed the biggest prize. So, It's not necessarily a criticism, but sometimes things just do fall away. Your best player just plays outstanding for the majority of the campaign. And in those moments where you are looking for something special, guess what? He turns up.
He turns up and he can drag people along with him. And some of those issues maybe get a little bit masked and a little bit covered up. But I think even towards the end of last season, you maybe started to see teams just understand a little bit about what the pool is.
actually were about and they were maybe just finding a few chinks in the armour you certainly I think see it in the midfield area and that's just almost been amplified this season pretty much from the start even when they were winning those five games you could see you could see there was problems you could see the spaces were too big you could see the gaps were too big you could see teams getting at Liverpool far too easily and I'm thinking
The guy in charge, he's got to find a way of covering this. He's got to find a way of just covering some of those weaknesses and he's not been able to do that and that's the frustration.
Yeah, I mean, last season, let's be perfectly honest here, last season wasn't like a great tactical achievement from a manager, was it? It was a manager who went, hang on, if I...
set the team up and get the best out of this footballer we've got a chance here and we did and then this season has probably I don't think it's been massively dissimilar as a concept it just hasn't then played out the same way do you think he plays gets the best out of a lot of footballers and resolves a lot of issues he does so he sorts out he sorts out Trent Alexander-Arnold to write back that's sorted out because there was loads of that coming into the season puts the ground
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of Liverpool's injuries on their gameplay?
First full football club to achieve that. Really proud of that. Work doesn't stop. We continue. And then we also took Milos Kirkes down to our allotment in West
saw that yeah people would have seen that he got really into it didn't he he was brilliant actually and one you're teaching them what rhubarb is and that's great and then him pronouncing rhubarb is great but actually that's just a really good opportunity for us to highlight amazing work that's done by colleagues and volunteers across the club has been done so for years but bringing in a player to support that alongside foundation participants gives you a small insight into all the amazing work that's being done
And then I suppose past 12 months, what really shines in that report is our people pillar. So the story, which we were able to tell of little Isaac Kearney as well, that story just tells itself. What an amazing individual, surrounded by great people. We really saw his story. We profiled it.
raised them up in the right way, has all these incredible moments, walking around the AXA training centre, meeting the players, going out with Virgil against City at that time. But what really stands out for me is the impact of that. So the impact of that campaign led to a five-year high in Google searches for both Hirschhorn syndrome, which is a disability.
And for me, that is the most important part. Yes, you've given this individual
an almost once in a lifetime experience and Isaac has gone on to get even more amazing things with just good fame and good for his family for me we've raised awareness of a disability that people may or may not have already known about and his mom has actually told us like she's been able to build this community of people whose family members or sons or daughters have the same disability and almost create the support network which she didn't know existed and for me that's most more important than any sort of engagement numbers or stats that you can give to me
Yeah, that is incredible. So how ingrained is Redway within the football club? Because I think that's a challenge for any organisation, isn't it? You can come up with a strategy and you can write a report, but how successfully have you managed to ingrain what you're trying to achieve within the football club and also with things like suppliers and partners as well?
You know what, it's massively ingrained for me. So I report into John Bamber, who's our chief legal officer, so straight away I'm reporting into the board. So you've got this, it's at the very top of the organisation, not that we'd actually need it, if I'm being very, very honest, because what's brilliant about the Redway is that people really embrace their responsibilities around what we do.
So I always say like, I always test it and go, does the red way happen when I'm not in the room? And it absolutely does. And that's, for me, is success. We've got hundreds of people across the organization who will sit there, they'll embed it into what they do, and they'll just run and go away and do it, which is fantastic.
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Chapter 8: What are the expectations for Liverpool in their upcoming matches?
Also, if you want to look ahead to the 23rd of May, you can do the full Anfield experience with Bruce Grobbelaar and Ian Callaghan. That's a full day including live entertainment and lunch. Or if you prefer the Legends Q&A, Bruce Grobbelaar and Ian Callaghan, the same day as well. And you can also, on the 23rd of May, do a Legends Q&A with Phil Thompson. So a lot's going on on the 23rd of May.
So if you fancy any of that, get yourself to lfc.tv forward slash tours. That's the easiest way to do it, lfc.tv forward slash tours.
Great stuff from Richie and John there. Alright, Album of the Week is You by Underscores. All very hyper-pop, glitch bits and pieces, but with an unbelievable intelligence behind it. Album's an absolute delight, to be honest with you. It was brought to my attention by the wonderful Belinda Johnson, who said, you will like this.
This is not me saying I want you to recommend things to me, Belinda, get a pass.
practically nobody else on the planet does uh so she was right to pass this one over it is it is the business uh really really enjoyed it surprised i missed it when it came out in march uh but do check it out uh you buy underscores uh 34 minutes long uh so it does not outstay it's welcome and that is one of the things that we look for in an album of the week recommendation uh brevity matters and is important uh loads of stuff to come on the anfield wrap this week you're getting two gutters
some would say because of an administrative error but you know that's just one man's view um you're getting two gutters just some guys in a room all try the best uh so you're getting two gutters uh the first gutter uh will be involved with discussion about the manager it will be out tomorrow i know because i've seen the agenda uh rob has written the agenda and it says unavoidably we have to talk about the manager to which i feel like saying rob you can avoid it it's a
It's a show about transfers. He sets the agenda. But he's of the view the manager is the biggest transfer of all. I don't think that's transferable. I don't think it's in the spirit of the Glutton. Well, he's just in there now. You can bring it up in a minute if you want. I can't be arsed talking to him. It's all necessary. Unnecessarily harsh. Am I doing it? I can't even remember.
I might even be doing it. If I wanted to sort of chat about Robert, that's me. It's unnecessarily harsh. That is to come, along with other bits and pieces over the course of the week. There'll be an interview with Jeremy Frimpong that's coming out tomorrow.
And I'm just trying to think off the top of my head, obviously, pre-match warm-ups being squeezed into Thursday because the game's Friday, post-match on Friday, obviously, because it's a massive game. It's a massive game because, Ian, there's two big pictures, obviously, for the weekend. One is what we're up to, and then there's everyone else. So we'll do our bit first. We...
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