By Dan Kennett. The Tomkins Times was fortunate to receive another invite to a Liverpool fansite & bloggers meeting, this time at the Academy in Kirkby. Along with other notable sites, were able to spend a fascinating hour talking to Academy director Frank McParland, Academy technical director/ Head of coaching Rodolfo Borrell and U21s manager [...]
By Dan Kennett. The Tomkins Times was fortunate to receive another invite to the Liverpool fansite & bloggers meeting at Melwood. For the second time we got a chance to speak with the boss and this time the meeting lasted an hour longer than planned! This post is for Subscribers only.
By Dan Kennett. In the 2nd “fans briefing” with representatives of Liverpool fan sites, fanzines, internet TV and internet radio at Melwood, TTT was fortunate enough to have a chance to speak to Brazilian midfield maestro Lucas Leiva. Not only was Lucas comfortable in taking an almost 1 hour Q&A session in his 2nd language, [...]
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By Dan Kennett. Thursday 6th September. A “meet and greet” with Brendan Rodgers that was scheduled for 20 minutes ticks past the hour mark and the manager of a Liverpool Football Club asks one of the Melwood staff to bring him a tactics board. The Liverpool press officer glances at his watch. A motley crew [...]
Comparisons between our two managers this season have been well documented and debated, but just how well do Kenny Dalglish’s efforts this season stack up against Ferguson, Ancelotti, Mancini, Wenger and Redknapp? In this piece I have first compared Dalglish and Hodgson’s stats to baseline Kenny’s success within the club and to set the scene [...]
DATE: 2/2/2011 VENUE: Anfield KICK OFF: 8PM COMPETITION: Preview: It’s been one hell of a season to be a supporter of Liverpool Football Club. The good news of a top class signing in the form of Luis Suárez joining the club had been overshadowed by Fernando Torres handing in a written transfer request before subsequently [...]
Now that the 2009/10 season is consigned to the history books, I thought I’d take a look at our results and performances from a statistical viewpoint. There has been a lot of talk about just how poor a season this has been, with some sections of the media labelling it as our worst showing since 1998/99. While this may be the case when viewed as league position only, the reality is not quite as cut and dried as that.
Match Preview: Now that the 4th Champions League spot has been claimed by Spurs, and with our elimination from the Europa League semi-finals at the hands of Atletico Madrid, the best Liverpool can hope for this season is to finish 6th. This is providing Aston Villa fail to beat Blackburn at home and we beat Hull City in our final game of the season. A far cry from the expectations we had last August, it’s safe to say that no Liverpool supporter will be sad to see the end of what has been a frustrating and depressing season.
Liverpool v Chelsea games are never short of drama or controversy, but this meeting comes with an extra dose of anguish and mixed feelings. A Liverpool victory will maintain our slim chances of finishing 4th yet it could also put Man Utd in the driving seat to secure their 19th league title if they beat Sunderland.
The following article was written for the April/Launch edition of Well Red Magazine, a new publication produced by Tomkins Times member and first-rate blogger, Gareth “Robbo Huyton” Roberts.
The one thing I’m finding strange about this season is the switches in momentum for a number of the bigger clubs.
It seems that Real Madrid aren’t going to go away. They think that Xabi Alonso is uniquely talented, but they aren’t prepared to pay what he’s worth. It’s a little ‘rich’ to suggest the price is too high when you’ve just spent £170m on four players. Perhaps as fans we can’t be too critical of [...]
Sent this to the official site, but will use it here too. Very personal piece, and explains why I may be writing a bit less in the coming months, and possibly not updating the blog very much. Sanguine’ is a great word. It can be a colour – blood-red – and it can also mean [...]
The news that Kenny Dalglish may return, in some capacity, to Liverpool is almost too good to be true. Quite simply, the timing could not be better. Dalglish’s presence may have undermined previous managers, but Rafa Benítez now has the strength of position to have someone like the legendary no.7 onboard without it causing an [...]
To score four goals, and still be in with a shout with five minutes remaining of an 180-minute tie – that looked over after 90 – was an incredible effort by the Reds. It did the club proud on the eve of such a significant anniversary. I was all set for a brave display but [...]
Sent to official Liverpool site, but put up here as well in the meantime. A lot of what I write is based on the premise that there are always at least two ways to look at pretty much everything in football. Very few things in the game are clear-cut. Pros and cons exist with almost [...]
An interview I did for the Bleacher Report, answering questions on various aspects of the season so far: Interview here Thoughts on the Fulham game will appear on .tv this week, hopefully tomorrow. www.paultomkins.com – support my writing by buying my books. Click here to Pre-order Red Race. Compendium and Red Race available only from [...]
It wouldn’t be UEFA if they weren’t having a pop at the top English clubs. Ever since the top sides became Europe’s elite, it seems that they are scrabbling to rewrite the rule book. Now, with UEFA sticking their mighty oars in once more, Liverpool are being criticised for having a squad of “62 professionals”. [...]
Thankfully, most media outlets seem to have seen the massive inaccuracy in Alex Ferguson’s figures relating to Liverpool’s spending. That he should even choose to come out with such figures in the first place is interesting, given his rather undignified reaction to Rafa’s ‘fact’ press conference a couple of months back. I’m also still smiling [...]
Rafa Benítez had his latest press conference interrupted by a "guerilla journalist" (i.e., a wanker) pressing him on why he persists with Lucas Leiva. I’ll admit to being disappointed with how the Brazilian has performed this season; I expected more, and he's had a few stinkers. But he is a full international and the Brazilian [...]
This is designed as an accompaniment piece to my latest article for the LFC website, which I've submitted today. The explanations of the figures are in that article. (I've updated the figures to include most of the well-known home-grown players from all teams, and added Zoran Tosic to United's figures; the Guardian said he and [...]
So why has it all gone wrong in the Premiership, after the best start in donkey’s years? I’ve tried to think of all the reasons I see as valid. Some fans will see a number of these as excuses, but for me it’s the context: the extenuating circumstances, the unique difficulties, and in some cases, [...]
Piece submitted to .tv 23.2.09, but wanted to use it here too, just in case it's not seen as appropriate. I want to pose what I hope is an interesting philosophical question. It involves something bordering on a parallel universe, but only in the loose sense; I’m obviously no astrophysicist (although I did once nearly [...]
To follow on from yesterday's piece, I have submitted this article to liverpoolfc.tv, but also chosen to use it on my blog, as it refers to the same points raised on here. Following my piece earlier in the week, I want to expand on a couple of the themes and clarify one small mistake on [...]
This blog was initially an excerpt taken from an article submitted to www.liverpoolfc.tv over the weekend –– thought the stats were so incredible it was worth sharing with those who don't visit the official site. However, due to Setanta being a media partner of LFC, the full article is going to be edited, which I [...]
