theguardian - 6 hours ago

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!Having started the season playing badly but still managing to emerge victorious from every game, the widespread assumption was that Liverpool would inevitably get their act together, improve their performances and continue said winning streak. On the contrary, their level of performance has dipped even further and, in the process, they have become the first team in English top-flight history to win their opening five matches and then lose the next four. And while there’s no getting away from the fact that four consecutive Premier League defeats constitutes something of a crisis for the reigning champions, Football Daily is simply not prepared to accept that a team comprised almost entirely of whey-faced youngsters and senior reserves getting knocked out of Fizzy Cup by Crystal Palace should in any way be lumped into the same bracket as previous defeats. A cursory glance at both team-sheets before kick-off on Wednesday night suggested anything other than defeat for Liverpool’s C team would constitute an upset and have little or nothing in common with Arne Slot’s actual first team getting beaten in consecutive league matches by Palace, Chelsea, Manchester United and Brentford.The piece on Shamrock Rovers (yesterday’s Football Daily) produced a flood of memories concerning this historic club. I recalled standing on the terraces of Glenmalure Park in the 1960s and 1970s as a regular supporter during many successful seasons. Sadly, the ground was sold in 1987 for property development. The Hoops remained homeless for 22 years before the construction of Tallaght Stadium, the finest in the league, became their home to this day. One shudders at the thought of the nature of the diatribe one minority shareholder would concoct in response to any calamitous collapse. Oh yes, it’s that man again with a fondness for investing in green-hooped league monopolisers, Dermot Desmond, with 25% of the shares” – John Weldon.The recent Football Daily focus on the revival of long-throw merchants brings to mind Stoke City v Hull City in November 2008, when Tigers stalwart Dean Windass was booked while still on the bench. He chose to warm up energetically on the touchline alongside Rory Delap in a vain effort to distract the master of the long throw’s superhuman hurling of the ball into the Hull box. Despite Windass’s indignant protest (‘I was only warming up, ref’), on the second occasion he was rewarded for his efforts with a yellow card. Windass is also remembered as the only player in the Scottish Premiership to receive three red cards in one game while being on the pitch for just 20 minutes, playing for Aberdeen against Dundee in a second yellow and automatic red for enthusiastic tackling, the second red for subsequent abuse metered out to the and the third for an assault on the corner flag on his way off. Class act” – David Burnby.This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Continue reading...

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