TTT has moved to Substack

Click here to visit new site: www.tomkinstimes.substack.com

…

This was first published on Substack, but I’ve gone back into this article on the old site and added these bullet points. It is written from the perspective of being read on Substack

If you received this in your email inbox and can see the comments behind the paywall on the TTT Main Hub on Substack, you’re in!

But read the list of bullet points for a few more bits of info:

• TTT has moved
• A lot of people don’t properly read updates or site news, and they should
• TTT is now on Substack
• www.tomkinstimes.com is now just an archive of 13 years’ worth of articles, after a ton of technical issues kept re-arising each time we solved them, making a move essential
• Substack is a publishing platform that publishes all kinds of things, and has built-in subscription software
• Substack is faster, more secure, smoother, easier to publish with, and works out cheaper per subscriber for us
• Substack also sends articles out as newsletters (indeed, this was the original point)
• Substack do free subscriptions and paid subscriptions
• Free subscriptions give you free newsletters to your email inbox, for when content is free
• Paid subscriptions let you read paywalled material, read comments and comment on the website
• If you’re subscribing from scratch, you will be given payment and free options
• TTT is now a clusterfuck of sites
• So, not just one TTT Substack – there is the TTT Main Hub, which is … the main hub
• And there are what I’m calling sub-Substacks, which are smaller, quieter sites, with more bespoke content, co-run with different writers
• These sites are funded and administered independently, albeit under a main umbrella. But a payment made on one of the TTT Substacks will not be viewable to the others, as those running the sub-Substacks will be receiving the payments
• The sub-Substacks are The ZenDen, Dynasty, This Red Planet, and launching next month, The Transfer Hub
• More on the TTT Substack Suite can be read here.
• All preexisting paying subscribers have been given access TTT on Substack to the Main Hub
• Monthly subscribers will have to pay on Substack to continue using the site, as of the 2nd week of October, unless legacy payments have come in more recently, in which case that date will be extended
• The sub-Substacks require separate paid subscriptions (or free ones), but if you were a Benefactor on old TTT, you can request limited-period free access. to the other TTT Substacks
• Substack access operates via email addresses
• We applied your subscription to the email address you used to pay for old TTT (PayPal or Stripe)
• We don’t have your password. You don’t even necessarily need a password. Just the correct email address
• If your desired email address does not tally with the one you used in PayPal or Stripe, let us know, as they need to tally.
• If you were an active paying subscriber but didn’t get this as an email (but read it on the web), it may mean we don’t have the correct email address for you
• If you were a Benefactor on old TTT, let us know if you want a couple of months free access to other three TTT Substacks in operation.
• We will turn off the subscription software on www.tomkinstimes.com in the coming months, but if you paid with PayPal, if would help if you cancelled your recurring payments before then (log in to PayPal, click on your subscription, and cancel).
• Some people may be billed during this period of transition, and in those cases, I’ll go back and add time from those old subscriptions onto this Substack
• No one who has paid for a subscription via the old site will receive anything but that full subscription time
• Some annual subscriptions still need extending to their correct duration beyond an expiry point of October
• The community and debate will be centred on the Main Hub
• The TTT sub-Substacks, or spokes, may have some commenting, but some will have no commenting. Most will be designed to be read, not debated
• Almost everyone contacting us with a problem could have saved us all time by reading the instructions first
• We can tweak a few things on Substack but the beauty is that you can’t start doing crazy customisations, so whoever’s Substack you’re using will work in much the same way, with just different colour schemes, logos, etc.
• There’s bound to be stuff I’ve overlooked, so I’ll update as and when required

Generic Info

• Comment moderation will work as it used to on TTT; i.e. my rules, which I see as fair, with no personal abuse, no spamming, no trolling, and no ultra-sensitive language policing (but offensive words used in offensive ways = ban)
• For any new subscribers, we mostly avoid overt politics, but occasionally allow a political discussion. These are usually enlightening, with a broad spectrum of views and people largely respecting each other’s opinions, but some people are very easily offended, and it’s generally best to avoid politics unless it directly relates to football
• Comments can be viewed in chronological, top-rated and newest order, but you may need all comments to be loaded before sorting. In the app there’s a little icon in the top right corner to toggle between the three
• No, we can’t have the Recent Comments bar back. or popular posts turn yellow, as they were bespoke adjustments in WordPress
• We had to use 51 different plug-ins just to make TTT function on WordPress, and many were costly
• Yes, there is a Substack app, but it’s iOS for the time being; Android due soonish

Okay, back to the original article on this site…

Full and Final (Foolproof?) Instructions For TTT Move To Substack + FAQs

Today (September 20th 2022) marks the 13th anniversary of the launch of The Tomkins Times. What a ride it’s been! It also marks the last day in the active history of the site at www.tomkinstimes.com, and we can now be found on Substack.

So, this will be the final post/article on this version of The Tomkins Times (Legacy TTT or WordPress TTT, at www.tomkinstimes.com). 

The explanation as to what TTT will be like on Substack and the various sub-Substacks we’re launching can be found here, after I published it yesterday. Substack provides the opportunity to try a few new things, and so the format will be the Main TTT Hub, but other, more specialised separate TTT Substacks (sub-Substacks, as I’m calling them), that are explained further down.

All ways to contact us will be listed at the end of this post. Commenting has been shut off on most threads on here but I’ll allow comments on this article until this evening. Then we will shut off all commenting, and the site will be metaphorically laid to rest.

I will update this article if there is anything I’ve overlooked, or if there are resources we can add to explain things better. It’s not paywalled, so even if you can’t access your old subscription on here, you should be able to read the instructions in the coming days/weeks, such as if you’ve been on holiday and not been paying any attention lately.

FYI: There is also an app for Substack on iOS, with an Android one in development.

If you were still a paying subscriber at www.tomkinstimes.com

If you want to stay part of the community and haven’t already worked out how to move across (despite me posting various explanations), then please take the time to read this article, from top to bottom. 

It’ll take 15 minutes at most. If you can’t afford us 15 minutes, then, well, it doesn’t bode well.

The main thing to remember is that Substack access is very much based around an email address, not least as it mails out the articles as newsletters.

The General Stuff

Most of this article is for existing subscribers at www.tomkinstimes.com. 

If you’ve never had a subscription or have one that lapsed in the past, just sign up to Substack and follow the payment instructions (or the ‘free’ instructions if you just want the free newsletters whenever they we publish them).

A Brief Plea For Patience

This is a brief plea for patience, but if you’re too impatient, scroll down

The move was brought forward due to the postponement of the games against Wolves and Chelsea, followed by the international break. This presented an extended period of time with only one Liverpool match, which seemed perfect to try and get everything sorted by the Brighton game at the start of October. 

Whilst we are rushing like blue-arsed flies to get this sorted, your patience is also required and appreciated.

Mistakes will be made, things will be overlooked, people will be left down the back of the sofa, but we can always go back and correct things. That said, if you’ve not seen any of the news about this before now, I cannot legislate for people living under rocks or in caves

Comments will be allowed on this post (below) for legacy subscribers, but soon, all comments on here will be deactivated, and everything will take place at https://tomkinstimes.substack.com – and this site will exist purely for archives. 

In time, we will transfer the best of our archives from this site onto Substack, and while people will no longer be able to access/view the comments on here (1.6 million!), they are all archived.

The new Substacks are up and active, but we’re still moving in some of the fancy furniture and sprucing them up. The main thing was to get the basics sorted, before we add the extras.

Idiots!

If this is the idiot’s guide, then I at least hope people to put in the few minutes required to read it properly!

While these things can seem complicated at first, it’s often just a case of finding out where things are; once you know where they are, it then seems obvious. 

If you’ve read the instructions and are still confused, send us a polite email. And give us time to respond. But just make sure it’s not something clearly explained in this article

Everyone Should Have Paywalled Substack Access Now

For all existing paying subscribers: earlier in September I took all the email addresses connected to your www.tomkinstimes.com payments (that were made with either PayPal or Stripe, which is just a credit/debit card portal), and assigned the remaining time to https://tomkinstimes.substack.com. 

This is your subscription “carried over” to the new platform.

If you cannot access your Substack subscription or see behind the paywall at the TTT Main Hub, it may be because you used an obscure or lapsed email account when paying in the past. Let us know if that’s the case, and we can transfer your payment to your preferred email address. We can’t mind-read what email addresses you use elsewhere, and the only way to work out who paid what, and when, was via the data export facilities in PayPal and Stripe. Hence, those are the email addresses we’ve worked with.

Passwords

No TTT passwords are carried across to Substack. 

I repeat: No passwords are carried across.

Not least as we don’t know your passwords anyway! 

Mostly you don’t even need a password for Substack, just the active link sent to you in an email, which you can request again if you ever can’t log in.

Here are Substack’s instructions if you still can’t access the site:

Log into your Substack account either on Substack’s homepage or through your favourite publication.

1. Navigate to the Sign in button in the top right corner of the page or head directly to this link: http://www.substack.com/sign-in

2. Select whether you’d like a secure access link emailed to you or log in using your password.

I personally haven’t had to log in to Substack unless changing devices. On my computer it remembers me.

Someone on TTT wrote this slightly more expanded version, which may be more helpful if struggling with the above:

Every time you need to sign in, if you enter your email, substack will send you a link.

The simplest way is to attempt to read any of the paywalled articles (they have a little lock image below them). If you can read them you are logged in and should be able to comment.

If you are not logged in

click on on subscribe (top right corner – don’t worry you won’t have to pay)

Enter your email (if you have more than one it’s the one that substack have been emailing you on)

Click subscribe

You should see a page that says “Check your email It seems you already have an account as xxxxxx@xxxxx.com. We sent you an email with a link that you can use to sign in.

Open that mail and click the “Sign in now” button

This should bring you to https://tomkinstimes.substack.com/

Attempt to open the same article again, this time you should be able to read it

But remember: if we don’t have an up-to-date correct email address for you on file, you won’t be able to access behind the paywall of our Substack, and you need to let us know.

If you had time left on your old subscription, then taking out a new subscription (as long as it’s the same email address we have from your old payments) then you will not be billed until it expires. So if you had two months left and paid again now, it will not start taking money until two months’ time. But again, it has to be the corresponding email addresses.

How Your Access Works and When It Will Expire

For some annual subscribers, the expiry of your Substack access is (temporarily) set as sooner than it should be, but I will alter them to the correct expiration date. 

Initially, it was easier to import all the email addresses en masse via a CSV file and assign a month’s access (via a dropdown menu), rather than doing each one individually, which would (and still will) take eons. Correcting those expiry dates is on the priority list.

All monthly subscribers will see their “carried over” access start to expire soon (early October). Obviously you’ve also been using up access to this site, which has been fully active until the last couple of days. 

Anyone who gets billed via the old method during this period of changeover can either ask for a refund or ask to have it applied to their Substack subscription.

Subscribers also need to cancel their existing TTT payments, i.e. the ones for this site. However, due to issues with the WooCommerce plug-in, people who paid via Stripe cannot cancel – we have to do it for them. PayPal is easy: sign in to PayPal, find your last payment to TTT, click on it, and you can cancel your recurring payment. If subscribers could do that, that would be a big help.

In time, we will cancel all www.tomkinstimes.com subscriptions by switching off the entire payment ecosystem (along with virtually everything else we pay for in order to keep this site active), but we don’t want to do that until everyone has been ferried safely across to Substack, and things are working okay.

Once we switch things off on here there’s no getting any of it back! 

Anyone still billed via the old site in this period of transition, before we turn off the entire billing process, will be refunded or can request it be added to their Substack access. No one will lose money or access to the paywall on Substack.

While Rox helps out on the Helpdesk, we are not some huge company – just me and a half a dozen part-time paid helpers who have been on the TTT journey for most of the 13 years now. 

(We work in the mythical TTT Towers, which basically means working from home, and the TTT Dungeon is not an actual place either. Just in case the police or human rights campaigners are concerned.) 

Payment Methods

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) we can’t do anything with PayPal anymore. 

Substack is 100% Stripe-based, which is essentially just a credit or debit card portal. 

We can’t even transfer your old TTT Stripe-based subscriptions across, as permission was for the old site, not Substack, and the prices are slightly different.

In other words, everyone has to take our a new subscription, once their transferred access to Substack expires. 

When it’s time, Substack will prompt you to pay. 

Substack will tell you when your “carried over” access to Substack has expired, after an automated email warning of your time running out.

And then it should be simple to either subscribe for the first time at the very slightly reduced monthly/annual rate, or if you no longer want to stay part of the TTT community, don’t do anything. You cannot be billed by us on Substack unless you’ve subscribed via Substack. 

If you need help cancelling your old payments, then email us. But again, in time we will press the big button that obliterates all subscriptions created on this site. That may be 1-2 months away.

Benefactors

Existing TTT benefactors – those who paid more for the old site out of the kindness of their hearts – will be granted free periods on the first three sub-Substacks (excluding the Transfer Hub, which will be the last of the sites to go fully live with a paywall).

Simply email me to request that, using the email address already linked to Substack, or that you want linked to Substack.

Debate Section

Contrary to what some people have said, there is already a debate section on the main Substack, but it’s not yet fully fleshed out. I’ll be commenting on the TTT Main Hub, as normal.

The Debate tab is in the top menu.

https://tomkinstimes.substack.com/s/debate

Community 

Access the most recent posts via the Community tab. This tab is on the homepage, but you need to scroll down a bit to see it. Or, use the link:

https://tomkinstimes.substack.com/?sort=community

We can’t control the commenting format on Substack, but it’s far quicker and smoother than it was on here. It doesn’t have all the same bells and whistles, but is simpler, and any developments Substack make will be across the board, so new features will work 100%, unlike features we’ve added here, that had to be plug-ins that often created various clashes and compatibility issues with other plug-ins.

Other TTT Substacks (our sub-Substacks, or Spokes)

The TTT Main Hub on Substack will be cheaper than the old TTT, but there will be totally optional additional paid sub-Substacks for more bespoke content.

This is designed to help us to pay for the content people actually want to pay for, with the current way Substack works allowing for different sections, but all via the same single payment.

But with different Substacks, we can have different areas of focus, each one run by a different member of the TTT motley crew (none of whom are/were members of Mötley Crüe; or at least, not that they’re admitting to).

The TTT suite is:

• The Main Hub (main site)
• This Red Planet
• Dynasty
• The Zen Den
• The Transfer Hub

You really must read this article for the full explanation, and with links to subscribe to the different areas of the new TTT.

What is Substack?

For those who don’t know, Substack is just a publishing platform, with – crucially – a built-in subscriber payment system. Essentially, it does what we’ve been doing since 2009, only it does it much better, because it’s all organic, whereas this old site was constructed, and faults fixed, like a Heath Robinson contraption. 

Articles on Substack arrive as newsletter emails, but the website allows for commenting and a community, much like this one.  

People publish all kids of stuff on Substack, on almost every topic imaginable. Some people take it out on Substack if they don’t like the topic or the writer, but that’s daft. 

We will be using a network of different Substacks, albeit one central hub (the TTT Main Hub). 

Again, see this link for the full details of what will be on offer.

Why Are We Moving, and Why Substack (Brief Recap)

If you’ve missed the news – and as much as people get annoyed at being told things over and over, there will always be loads who say “hey, why didn’t you mention this before?” – this explains why we’ve moved. 

I published some the following few paragraphs last week, but obviously not everyone is reading everything:

Due to spiralling technical issues beyond our repair, we can no longer stay on WordPress, and so, we’re moving to somewhere that will work out cheaper, far easier to maintain, and more reliable in terms of site stability. 

After years of battling with WordPress, the insane and necessary 51 different plug-ins (many costly) to make things function (some of the plug-ins to fix other plug-ins), the various payment systems that don’t work with one another, and a whole host of pain-in-the-arse stuff, it felt like trying to maintain a beautiful, bustling house on a cliff edge, as whole sections fell away onto the sand each year, and then trying to find people who could put a few buttresses up before the whole thing slid into the sea; as, at the same time, we discovered dry rot, an insect infestation, and that every pipe springs a new leak as soon as one is plugged.

Instead of maintaining 51 plug-ins, we will now have to maintain zero. (For instance, the Recent Comments sidebar – a very popular feature – frequently crashed TTT due to the strain on the server. A plug-in, it had to be hosted externally, at a cost, to stop it crashing TTT.) 

We had to pay to have images compressed, in addition to the various subscription plug-ins that no longer worked properly, including still allowing subscribers with no active payment to use the site as normal, but also with no way of allowing them to pay again. 

Instead of paying for server space and bandwidth, for the site and for various plug-ins, it’s all taken care of.

Instead of having subscriptions that continue to allow people to read subscriber-only content after they should have expired (and don’t let those people pay to renew), we won’t lose money in that way anymore.

Instead of worrying about the site crashing during a game or breaking big news, and paying for technical help to be on standby and to try and fix all the clashing technologies, it’s all included.

Instead of paying fortunes for all kinds of plug-ins and server space and other things, the 10% cut Substack take (plus the few percent Stripe take) is still significantly less than the combined costs of running the WordPress site (which at times worked out at over 20%).

Then there’s the bonus of Substack being faster to load and faster to publish with; sending articles to all subscribers via email; the ability to easily gift subscriptions to others; an excellent app, albeit only on iOS for now, until the Android app follows; the chance to offer built-in podcasts to subscribers (which we probably won’t use, but is an option); and much more, as well various innovations that Substack continue to add.

Substack also allows you to retain ownership of your mailing list and customer base, so should we ever need to leave, we can take our customers with us.

Helpful Resources

https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/360059542452-How-do-I-log-into-my-Substack-account-

https://tomkinstimes.com/2022/09/how-to-subscribe-to-access-use-the-tomkins-times-substack/

Forgotten/Overlooked?

Anything I’ve forgotten or overlooked, let me/us know. We can then update this document to make it up to date, and this will remain as the top article on the site until the site disappears into the ether (albeit we do want to keep it available as an archive). 

Ways To Contact Us

The old help email address for Issues cancelling old subscription relating to WordPress/PayPal, etc.

Help for issues accessing Substack

And…

See you on the other side!

Paul Tomkins, Andrew Beasley, Daniel Rhodes, Chris Rowland and other TTT regulars will give their thoughts on the match for 24 hours after the game, and there’s post-match statistics and videos too.

Post-Match Thoughts

Paul Tomkins

I still find it absolutely insane that you can think you’ll defend set-pieces in England with a defence about as tall as your average 12-year-old boy from the Middle Ages.

Liverpool’s two centre-backs alone must have wasted six great headed chances between them (four for the no.4) before Joël Matip finally put an end to the pantomime, and the Reds got a deserved, if stuttering, win.

Ajax, time-wasting, play-acting*, and basically being shithouses that belie both their age and their history of slick football, were like boys against men when the Reds threw the kitchen sink at them at set-pieces. The Dutch broke up play, aided by a quite awful referee who added about a quarter of the time he should have, but the tidal wave of corners had to blow them down.

(* The fact that any defender or keeper can now just go down in the six-yard box and the game has to stop is farcical, given that everyone knows a serious injury when one occurs. Use this for a drinking game during Liverpool’s matches this season, and you’d have been paralytic each week.)

It’s all very well in Holland (where, bizarrely, people are so tall), but I find it an insult to think you can see off 6’4″ and 6’5″ players with guys shorter than Ken Dodd’s old friends from Knotty Ash.

A sign of Liverpool’s snatching at chances all night long could be seen in Virgil van Dijk and Matip heading chance after chance over, or straight at the keeper. Confidence wasn’t there, from front to back. Indeed, “straight at the keeper” almost summed up the night.

I expected Liverpool to really go at Ajax, but the mojo really wasn’t there to mount significant pressure, even if the game was pretty much all in one direction. It just wasn’t consistently good attacking. Still, it proved enough.

The Reds were clearly improved on the whole after the shitshow in Italy, but Fabinho seemed to watch the first half pass him by, including Ajax’s runners. He at least joined the proceedings after the break. The Reds’ short-game was poor, with not much build-up play, and lots of long balls that were mostly overhit.

That said, one long Alisson ball allowed the modestly-sized Luis Díaz to out-jump one of those tiny Ajax defenders, and Diogo Jota – lively on his first start of the season – took the nod-down to set up Mo Salah for the opening goal.

The rest of my thoughts and those of the elite TTT crew follow below for subscribers only.  

This site is in the process of relocating to Substack. Keep an eye out for updates on the move. 

But for the next week or so (at least), this is still the place to be.

(Even if there won’t be any Liverpool games for a while!)

[ttt-subscribe-article]

First of all, don’t be stupid! Go wash your brain out for thinking that I’d even suggest that.

And so, I jest with the title, of course, given that Jürgen Klopp is a sensational manager at the peak of his powers and Jose Mourinho an old-hat whinge-bag, but there are some comparisons with how managers age, along with some contrasts that separate the two by a country mile.

Klopp has turned around so many mini-crises at Liverpool, in a way that the Portuguese never does; the latter tending to add petrol to any sparks of fire, and disappearing into the night with the orange flames reflecting on his latest trendy jacket.

Indeed, in a weird parallel in 2015, when Klopp joined Liverpool and put Mourinho’s Chelsea out of its misery, the London club had started the season “undercooked”. Which feels like the Reds in 2022/23.

They got into a downward spiral, but rather than keep calm, Mourinho ordered more and more people to drive busses around Stamford Bridge to throw players under, and then set those busses on fire. That Chelsea team wasn’t finished; it won the title two years later, just with a fresher manager. 

If Klopp was “washed up” at Dortmund in 2015, then it’s interesting that Mourinho lost the Chelsea job in 2015, too. 

Since when, Klopp has reached three Champions League finals (none for Mourinho), posted three 90-99 points totals (none for Mourinho), and also won the lower-value cups (FA Cup, League Cup, Community Shield) that are now Mourinho’s occasional stock-in-trade. 

Klopp has been a Premier League and European Champion since Mourinho joined him in that 2015 washout. Liverpool have been ranked the best team in Europe in 2020 and 2022 on the Club Elo Index.

What made me think of the comparison, however, was that Mourinho’s Chelsea in 2004/05 (his best team in the Premier League) were a young side: average age of 25. 

(They averaged out at 25.21 over the course of the season, which I think remains the youngest champions of the Premier League era, albeit with inflation, also the most expensive.) 

He was a young, dynamic manager. The older Mourinho got, the older the players got. 

The other day I noted that it just feels like Liverpool are caught between the past and the future, with the past possibly “past it” (certainly as a collective when too many are in the team together) and the future not quite ready. 

I have almost no questions about anything Klopp ever does, given that he’s up there with the very best Liverpool managers, Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley. To me, those three have shaped the club most drastically. (Also periods when I believe the club was being run the best, and had exceptional scouting.) 

But while a mini-crisis is not new, the dynamic perhaps is, given the possible need to oust some established stars in a way he hasn’t yet had to at Liverpool, or indeed, make that choice at Dortmund either. 

Klopp wanted Gini Wijnaldum to say. He wanted Sadio Mané to stay. Both top players.

Neither did, of course, but what would the average age be now if they remained? 

Would Harvey Elliott be getting as much game-time? Would Fabio Carvalho have two goals in just a few minutes’ football had Mané still been around? Mané is better than Carvalho at this moment in time, of course, but in the next two years, if both play regular football, the younger will overtake the older, injuries notwithstanding.

Klopp seemed to push for long-term deals for Jordan Henderson, Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah that would take them well into their thirties, which went against the club’s previously held ideals. He’s kept James Milner every single summer, and I can picture the year 2056, with Milner still leading the rondos at the AXA.

Even with Wijnaldum and Mané gone, the team has been too old at times this season – nearing 30. A lot of that has been beyond Klopp’s control, but not all of it.   

Older players are only ever really leaving against Klopp’s wishes; he’s not really cut the cord with any of them, albeit it’s not like all the decisions are solely his. (Adam Lallana was moved on, but he was never a key part of the team once it really hit top gear. Ditto Dejan Lovren, with these types easier to offload as they weren’t regular starters when everyone was fit.)  

Is Klopp being dispassionate enough? Is he being too loyal? 

Or is he right to stick with the guys who scaled such heights, and did so again last season – at least in terms of becoming the top-ranked team in the world again, and essentially losing both the Premier League and Champions League by a single goal each time. (One scored or not conceded by Aston Villa; and one to equalise in Paris.)

He lost too many of his best players in their prime at Dortmund, but that was also such a young, fast, dynamic team. 

But they were an outlier. A team generally needs experience, and for that team to gain that experience together; more time together is generally very good, as I often note (including again in my latest book). 

But there is a sweet spot. Cleary.

Liverpool have looked past their physical peak as a team in pretty much every game this season, even if it may be in part down to giving every last drop of energy last season.

Was that the last hurrah? Or just an imbalanced team, due to injuries, lacking a good preseason, and maybe a couple of players who just need a bit of a wake-up call? 

Being outrun in every game this season felt seismic to me, until seeing that the Reds were outrun in two-thirds of their league games last season. 

But they weren’t always a goal down early on, and needing to chase, in every sense of the word. I didn’t often see players not bothering to run last season when the need to run was there; or looking so off the pace. 

Klopp’s final season at Dortmund came not at the hands of a team that was past his best and in decline due to age, but one which had been deprived of its best players, often to their closest rivals, which just widened the gap. Of the 19 most-used outfield players, the average age was just 25.5. Only Sebastian Kehl was in his 30s (and he featured in just over half the league games), and then there was Łukasz Piszczek, at 29. Otherwise everyone was aged 20-28, many aged 20-23. 

The season did involve a costly striker who failed to replace what was lost, but it would be wrong to say the same about Liverpool’s summer acquisition after just 175 minutes of league playing time, in which his

“npxG+xA Per 90 minutes” (non-penalty expected goals plus expected assists) is 1.42, which would extrapolate as something crazily good, at twice the next-best figures in the team; but also, you can’t extrapolate too much – good or bad – from 175 minutes. 

(You can still note the good, and note the bad. After all, it’s not like Darwin Núñez is going to pick up 12 red cards this season, if we’re going on pro rata tallies. The touch is loose at times, but the pace, power, height and to add to that, the leap, are all impressive. He’s clearly a talented finisher, too, but it can take a younger striker a while to relax into his game, especially after a big-money move.)

Yes, it’s the seven-year thing again for Klopp, but Liverpool have had some lower points: the 4-1 away at Spurs that saw people noting that, at that point in 2017, he was no better statistically, two years in, than Brendan Rodgers (a comparison I mocked for the varying contexts, and after which point, Klopp’s win percentage rocketed); the six home defeats on the spin in 2021, a few months after the same defence as against Napoli conceded seven at Aston Villa; the 11-point deficit to Man City in January 2022 after a terribly flat display at Leicester, narrowed to just a point. The way the 2020/21 season was turned around with essentially two rookie second-tier centre-backs with zero top-level experience, and one of them aged 19/20, was remarkable.

Klopp lost a couple of key men in their prime early on at Liverpool, most notably Philippe Coutinho. But that proved a blessing, allowing for two more important players to arrive. Once the team settled, it didn’t need churn.  

But is there a stagnation, a lack of evolution at Liverpool? 

Part of this is Covid-related, when the club slowed transfer plans in the face of £100m losses and ongoing financial uncertainty (would the next TV deal have to be paid back, too? would crowds be banned again?), and halted most contract renegotiations. 

However, it does feel like Real Madrid – trying to think smarter these days – have moved out a few 30-somethings to refresh their squad, and one of the downsides of success is that you may feel like everyone is still doing a job, but they may age-out together; perhaps all at once. Yet, bar so many injuries, some of Liverpool’s older players could – should – now largely be squad players. At the very least, James Milner was not meant to be starting almost every game, and playing as an attacking midfielder and a right-back, aged 36.

Despite some reports, there was apparently money for a midfielder this summer, from what I’ve heard, but no one could agree on who it should be, once €100m Aurélien Tchouaméni chose Real Madrid, as one of the few remaining clubs above Liverpool in the food chain. Indeed, Liverpool had €100m for Tchouaméni, and could still have afforded Núñez. 

(My choice, as someone who admittedly hasn’t seen 99% of the players across Europe, was Ibrahim Sangaré, of PSV. Someone with technique, pace, power, and a few goals in them – and preferably, height too, for both boxes. He’s been linked to the Reds again, but I just felt a bit more physicality was required, to help out the little technical magicians. There may be others like him. As Henderson’s physical powers fade, a big, strong midfielder who can also play good football seemed a vital option, to me at least.)

You can always argue about whether it’s best to wait for the elite, must-have, transformative player (Virgil van Dijk) or accept a compromise (Mo Salah). Both worked out to insanely good degrees.

The counterfactuals are that Liverpool imploded before van Dijk could be signed and he chose to go elsewhere (or Southampton still wouldn’t sell him); or the compromises, rather than be like Salah, are more like Ozan Kabak.

Oliver Kay made a really good point in an excellent article on The Athletic:

“If this team doesn’t have a few things, like pressing and pace, it loses 50 per cent of its potential. The teams I’ve coached have always fought to win, or they’ve won when they’ve had anger and character.”

“We’re suffering from a clear drop in determination. We’re doing too many things carelessly. We’re soft in just about every aspect: pressing, marking, speed. Please don’t think it’s just a case of getting a few injured players back. We need to rediscover our game and our mentality.”

“We’re soft and floppy and only become more decisive when we go behind. We’re full of fear. At the moment, we’re loose cannons. Only a few players are trying to move in tandem with the others. And the chaos overwhelms them.”

His twist was that he was quoting not Jürgen Klopp, but Arrigo Sacchi, the late-‘80s boss of one of histories greatest sides, his AC Milan.

Keep Them All?

On an individual level you can make a case to keep all the players that Klopp has. Without doubt. 

But even Bill Shankly famously struggled to break up his prized team when it got too old (as did Kenny Dalglish, in the wake of Hillsborough), with only Bob Paisley ruthless enough to cut players before anyone realised they needed cutting – which was also a talent of Arsène Wenger at times, and Alex Ferguson at times. 

Both of those latter managers admitted also let players go a bit too early (Jaap Stam for Ferguson, Patrick Vieira for Wenger), but is that worse than keeping them for too long?  

Shankly took his time, but he got there in the end, to form a second great team, distinct from the first. 

It should not be the end of Klopp’s tenure if he needs time to rebuild. Instead, you say: go ahead, rebuild. 

Equally, we have to trust him, trust the recruitment process, and believe that, actually, the owners were prepared to back him, it was just a disagreement on which players to sign. We should also realise that a lot (if not quite all) of what Klopp needs he already has – he just needs the leeway to try new things (and to have a fitter squad to choose from).

Several of the younger players are part of the solution.  

Youth, oh Youth

It can take 2-3 years for a young player to become a regular; and at that, a regular who doesn’t just do a very good job, but can become the best version of himself. 

Klopp trusted the 18-year-old Elliott at the start of last season, but otherwise, no kids have become regulars during his seven years, aside from Trent Alexander-Arnold in the pre-glory days of 2017. Curtis Jones has done very well too, but not quite pulled up any trees, in part due to injuries in the last year or so. 

There have been a lot of League Cup games for the kids, but that’s been the case for most managers at most clubs. Clubs like Man City and Chelsea were too regularly competitive to throw in kids; then, when it went wrong at Chelsea, Frank Lampard had a period to throw in the kids – and it’s happened at United too, in a way that’s harder if you’re top of the league and you can’t afford to drop a single point.

I also don’t think Liverpool have produced enough outstanding kids from the Academy in a long time, albeit the current crop looks very impressive. Too often it seems to be full of decent, likeable, hard-working home-grown midfielders who are 5’8”, with nice but not world-class technical skills, and who are generally unremarkable in any single way. They all appear set for careers in the second tier or up in Scotland. 

(I loved Ben Woodburn, but he wasn’t tall enough, strong enough, fast enough, and not technically elite enough. A good player who I wanted to succeed, but lacked that little extra in each department. I also loved Mike Marsh in the same way: he was the best in training in the early ’90s, but training pitches are smaller, and more about touch. Big pitches are different.)

Some exciting young strikers have fallen, year after year, to bad knee injuries, which hasn’t helped. 

Caoimhin Kelleher is certainly outstanding, but behind the best keeper in the world.

The club has traded several good “kids” for c.£20m (Rhian Brewster, Dominic Solanke, Neco Williams, Jordon Ibe, Harry Wilson, et al), which has helped buy other, often better players; but a few more who can take the next step from the youth teams would be nice. 

Buying in Elliott and Carvalho for less than half what the Reds got for Ibe is exceptional business. (I do feel like the Reds should send Fulham an additional solidarity payment, or give them 25% off the next Liverpool player they buy. A move for Celtic’s Matt O’Riley seems essentially, just to reunite three players from the same Fulham U21 side.) 

It also reduces the pressure on the Academy, even if the latter should have its own options.

It feels to me that Kaide Gordon, Ben Doak and Stefan Bajcetic can all make the grade (as can one or two others), but it also needs luck, and humility on the part of the kids, who must stay grounded in a world where there are more ways to have smoke blown up your arse; as well as the global online culture to have your confidence destroyed. 

(Incidentally, all of this trio were bought from other clubs in the past 18 months.) 

Brewster was right on track at 18, along with his England U17 World Cup-winning peers, but was then very seriously injured. The others were playing regular football while he was laid up. It felt like Brewster, once he finally recovered and was back on track aged 20 with a successful spell at Swansea (10 goals in 20 games), was then too impatient for game-time as soon as he got back to Liverpool, and, well … 

Yet at 22, had things gone differently, he could be in the team right now. Alas, we’ll never know, as he’s not the player he could have been, due to lost time, and lack of top-level experience. You can’t blame Klopp for not backing Brewster, as he did. Nor for other kids who wanted out too quickly, like Rafael Camacho, who jumped ship and is now on loan at the mighty, er, Aris Thessaloniki. Ki-Jana Hoever was interesting at 16, but recently chided at Wolves for not being dedicated enough. He had the talent, but not the hunger.

Equally, as noted, it’s harder for managers to integrate kids these days, as kids make mistakes and need time, and you get increasingly less leeway to ride out their growing pains (in addition to those who stop trying as hard when they think they’ve ‘made it’). A young defender on their debut can make one slight error and be written off after ten minutes, to howls of derision on social media – that they really shouldn’t be reading (but will be, and will feel destroyed, as reading anything on social media will mess with your head before too long).

Whether or not they should be starting regularly, players like Milner and Henderson set the tone at the club. They bridge the gap between what the coaches can do themselves on a training ground (not much beyond instruct), and what the other players lack in leadership and comportment. 

I still think Roberto Firmino and Joël Matip have lots to offer. But both probably need moving to the bench, when everyone is fit, in order to stop the team, as a whole, getting too old – even if they’re not ageing badly.

Firmino, while maybe not as all-action as before, has been in good form of late, and since 2020 Matip has been better than ever; but neither has fresh legs. The team needs some fresh legs, even if the older guys are kept.

Virgil van Dijk was superb last season after a slow start (following a year out), but he may be starting to slow down a bit, and need some pace and unbridled enthusiasm and desire alongside him; while the same seems true of Salah. Konaté’s extra recovery pace seemed to suit the high line last season, which is why I was confused that he didn’t start the final ‘first team’ preseason game and Matip did. Maybe Núñez’s pace and movement will free up space for Salah. 

In addition to the ageing issue, Klopp also bought Thiago, to add to the older pros. 

Again, it’s a shrewd move in isolation, but the team remains too old; partly due to injuries. Even so, right now, you’d play Thiago until he drops, given his intelligence. Thiago is a transformative player. If he only plays 25 games, you make the most of him.

As I noted the other day, Andy Robertson and Fabinho are nearly 29, and playing right now as if they’re 37. Either they need a break, or they’re burning out. 

I’m attached to all of these players, but the club is caught between the two stools of half-a-dozen superb 16-19-year-olds (and Fabio Carvalho, who just turned 20) and a raft of 30-somethings followed by a few more closing in on 30. 

Calvin Ramsay has been a big miss. Growing pains may be good in some ways in that, even without playing his body is physically developing. (He’ll still be growing, and filling out, even if not playing.) He played all his Scottish Premiership football aged 17-18, then turned 19 after joining Liverpool. Like Elliott and Carvalho, he’s used to a physically demanding level of football across at least one full season. 

While not yet integrated into team shape, and on the same wavelength, to have a 19-year-old right-back prepared to both run forwards and backwards could be the shock Alexander-Arnold needs (if he’s felt as self-important as his body language seems to suggest), or the break, if the no.66 is actually just frazzled and fatigued, as could also be the case. 

I’ve noted before that, as I see it, Liverpool’s full-backs do full-pitch running. The whole damn wing. The midfield – a position where he would only ever convert to (or back to) if a better right-back to come along – as it tends to be set up, at least involves lots of shorter sprints, literally from box to box without ever needing to go into either. 

An attacking full-back has to get to one byline to cross, if possible (or at least to play in triangles), and get back to his own byline to challenge at the corner flag. Alexander-Arnold has lost the desire (or ability) to chase back often enough, as well as grabbing the shoulders or shirt of any attacker who has the temerity to run past him. It’s lazy, but it may be down to a mix of exhaustion and not enough match fitness (so that when unfit players play they reach exhaustion points quicker, then play again before their muscles and their mind have recovered). 

Ramsey, close to 6ft and still growing and filling out, looks like he could be a powerful winger-type full-back, and certainly seems to have more tricks to go by players than Alexander-Arnold, with the latter more of a sublime crosser who beats the man with his delivery (albeit Ramsay can cross well, too). Ramsay may not be any better than his English counterpart at defending, but all he has to do right now is at least try to defend. 

Ramsay can solve the temporary right-back problem, until Alexander-Arnold rediscovers his mojo or redefines his role in the team. 

The main issue Ramsay would be coming into a side when he’s not had matches to get sharp, and getting up to speed in a faster league. But at the bare minimum, he can provide rest periods for TAA, and hopefully, much more as the season unfolds.

The Awkward Mid-Section

The mid-section of the squad has been improved by the signings of Luis Díaz (a big hit) and Darwin Núñez (too early to tell, but full of pace and potential), following the arrival of Konaté. But Trent Alexander-Arnold, as noted, is currently going backwards, with a quite shocking lack of effort during periods of games, if not necessarily overall. 

Diogo Jota, the club’s best goalscorer per-90 minutes (excluding the penalties that take Salah ahead) has had a stop-start career at Liverpool. He’s slow to look sharp after injury, but can then score in big bursts.

I’m not sure Jota is injury-prone, as the knee injury in his first season was a collision, like Konaté’s this summer (and van Dijk’s in 2020), and Portugal caused his hamstring issue this summer. But he could do with being fit more often.

Núñez’s first touch can be a worry, but you feel he can improve on that as part of an elite training regimen at the AXA, as he has everything else. He’ll never be Thierry Henry in terms of skill but has a lot of his other qualities.

Kostas Tsimikas, 26, has a better cross than Robertson, and a bit more skill, but not the Scot’s insane energy. Then again, Robertson doesn’t even have Robertson’s energy right now. Also 26, Arthur Melo hasn’t played in months, and has to adjust to the speed of the game here. He looked like another small, slow player in Naples, but will need time.

You could maybe put any of the 21-to-26-year-olds into the team right now at the expense of the bigger names, but Jota and Arthur are not match-fit, Konaté and Jones are injured, and Núñez is adapting having denied himself almost three and half Premier League games due to a silly red card, which is over half of the season so far. 

(While Alexander-Arnold seems to need removing from the team, if anything, until he finds his old desire; or a midfield rejuvenation.)

Yet maybe some of these players have to come in, whenever possible, to oust the established older players; or at least to get them to up their games, in the final stages of their careers. 

At least Díaz is going from strength-to-strength, with the kind of energy that Mané would surely have struggled to maintain aged 30. 

Then there’s Joe Gomez, 25 – a brilliant defender up to 2020, but who has had at least three serious knee injuries. His insane pace appears to be almost back, but not quite back. He had a truly terrible 15 minutes in Naples, and was part of the same back four that conceded seven at Villa. But he was also part of the same back four that barely conceded a goal for months on end, on various occasions. 

Gomez needs time and patience. He’s not even at a peak centre-back’s age yet, albeit he’s just entering the start of that zone (26-31). Like van Dijk, he’s been a bit all at sea, but the midfield has left the defence exposed. He needs patience, even if it will be hard for him to get back to the levels of 2019/20.

Final Section – For Paying Subscribers Only

Before the final section that will be for subscribers only (after 4,000 words for free), a reminder that TTT is moving fully to Substack this month. This article will appear both on the WordPress site that is causing so many issues (before we turn the lights out later in September), and on Substack, which will be a more technically reliable home for us.

See this article for some details about the move. It explains most things, but we’ll also go into more detail soon in how to navigate Substack, and so on, very soon.

Existing paying TTT subscribers should all now have access to behind the Substack paywall, but let us know if not. (It’s based on your email address, and if you used an old email address to subscribe you might not have seen it.)

Anyone who doesn’t have an active subscription can sign up to be a paid subscriber on Substack, or just sign up for the free newsletter instead.

[ttt-subscribe-article]

As you may have heard, last week all current TTT subscribers should now be able to access the new paid site on Substack, if you haven’t here’s the quote and a link to the article.

“All TTT Subscribers Can Now Access Our Paid Substack Ahead of Big Move

As of today, I have completed going through and transferring everyone’s paid subscription from www.tomkinstimes.com, be it monthly or annually, over to our new home (this site!)”

If you haven’t read it yet, it’s probably best to do so before reading this article!

This article is to help paying subscribers on this website (www.tomkinstimes.com) to move across to Substack.

Anyone who doesn’t have an active subscription on this (the old TTT) can sign up to be a paid (or free) subscriber below.

[ttt-subscribe-article]

Things are moving fast! (If you’re on the free Substack mailing list and getting this message, bear with me! There will still be free, football-only content, but I’m trying to manage a huge relocation this month.)

As of today, I have completed going through and transferring everyone’s paid subscription from www.tomkinstimes.com, be it monthly or annually, over to our new home:

https://tomkinstimes.substack.com

While we’re going explain more in a step-by-step guide soon, it’s now possible for paying subscribers on www.tomkinstimes.com to access the TTT Main Hub on Substack as well. Everyone should be able to see behind the paywall and make comments, albeit we’ve only just started adding paywalled content on there this past week.

People were added via the email address they used for Stripe or PayPal. If you had paid for a year and had six months left, you have been given six months’ access to our paid Substack.

We will keep both sites active for a few weeks, as people shuffle across, and then www.tomkinstimes.com (aka Legacy TTT, or WordPress TTT), will be kept purely for archives, with no paying customers and no commenting.

We will turn off all billing on www.tomkinstimes.com in just under a month’s time.

That means that whenever your Substack subscription access (that I’ve just granted) expires, you will be prompted to pay at the new rate, which is slightly cheaper than we had on here, but where will be added other paid TTT Substacks (run by different members of the team based on their specific interests, but with my concepts and some of my writing) for people to opt into if they would like.

(More on that in due course, if you haven’t already seen the plans discussed. Existing benefactors also have the chance to get a couple of months’ free access to all the other TTT Substacks, when they are launched, which will be shortly after the main switchover.)

As my dentist said to me has he donned a rubber glove and began drilling into my nipples, no-one is saying this will be easy or painless. At times it won’t make sense.

But the situation had become untenable, from a technical point of view. I’ve had some brilliant people helping me out along the way since 2009, but too much has changed since a reader of my old mailing list, Anu Gupta, proposed the idea of a paywalled website 13 years ago this month, and while I doubted how I’d get such a thing created, set it up for me within a week. I will always owe Anu a ton of gratitude, as well as to Jack and Rox, who have helped steer the technical ship since, in increasingly choppy waters.

(Rox, whom I’ve known for 22 years after meeting on a Liverpool forum I used to write for, and who I attended the Liverpool vs Charlton game on the day the Queen Mother died in 2002, will remain part of the furniture, having done the Helpdesk emails for a decade now. Chris Rowland, Daniel Rhodes, Andrew Beasley, Gary Fulcher and Abhimanyu Vinay Rajput are all still aboard over a dozen years on, as are some of our best posters, as we try to find ways to keep TTT going for as long as possible, in the face of numerous challenges. Daniel Marshall has once again knocked it out the park with the designs. I love these people!)

After years of battling with WordPress, the insane and necessary 51 different plug-ins (many costly) to make things function (some of the plug-ins to fix other plug-ins), the various payment systems that don’t work with one another, and a whole host of pain-in-the-arse stuff, it felt like trying to maintain a beautiful, bustling house on a cliff edge, as whole sections fell away onto the sand each year, and then trying to find people who could put a few buttresses up before the whole thing slid into the sea; as, at the same time, we discovered dry rot, an insect infestation, and that every pipe springs a new leak as soon as one is plugged.

Instead of maintaining 51 plug-ins, we will now have to maintain zero.

Instead of paying for server space and bandwidth, it’s all taken care of.

Instead of having subscriptions that continue to allow people to read subscriber-only content after they should have expired (and don’t let those people pay to renew), we won’t lose money in that way anymore.

Instead of worrying about the site crashing during a game or breaking big news, and paying for technical help to be on standby and to try and fix all the clashing technologies, it’s all included.

Instead of paying fortunes for all kinds of plug-ins and server space and other things, the 10% cut Substack take (plus the few percent Stripe take) is still significantly less than the combined costs of running the WordPress site (which at times worked out at over 20%).

Then there’s the bonus of Substack being faster to load and faster to publish with; sending articles to all subscribers via email; the ability to easily gift subscriptions to others; an excellent app, albeit only on iOS for now, until the Android app follows; the chance to offer built-in podcasts to subscribers (which we probably won’t use, but is an option); and much more, as well various innovations that Substack continue to add.

Substack also allows you to retain ownership of your mailing list and customer base, so should we ever need to leave, we can take our customers with us.

The layout will be different (see below for the homepage), but the comments work in much the same way, albeit without posts changing colour in the age-old TTT way upon reaching certain numbers of thumbs-up.

I have set up a Debate section already, with three subsections, and more will follow soon. We’ll continue to keep adding content and features. (Article continues below.)

If people don’t want to follow us on the ride, that’s cool. Tastes change, finances dwindle, and I am more than used to losing a few people along the way, with new ones coming along for the ride.

But we had reached the point where to stay on WordPress would either need a hugely expensive rebuild (and we’ve done that twice before already, only for it to go out of date when plug-ins or payment portal software soon changed), or to watch us slide into the sea.

(For all those who have told me to “get in the sea”, I’ll be there one day, I promise. Just not yet…)

I really appreciate every subscriber we’ve had, out of myriads over the years. (Okay, maybe 10-20 were douchebags, but hey, that’s not so bad really out of thousands and thousands since 2009!)

This also gives me a way to try and keep the TTT team together, with pretty much everyone still onboard since around 2010, if not 2009. A few months ago it looked like I’d have to let them all go.

We’ll never pander to what the new generation wants if it’s not what we’re good at – but we’ll try to keep producing high-quality content, and hope our audience stays with us, and that we pick up some younger members who “age into” what we’re doing. We have quite a few subscribers who first went to Anfield in the 1940s, 1950s (as kids!) and 1960s, as well as people from places like Singapore, America, Australia, Iceland and Leighton Buzzard.

The idea has always been to be a niche site that appeals to intelligent, discerning Reds, where the community and debate is (usually) so special because it’s not too big to manage, and we’ve never tolerated trolls. That community can do pretty much all the same things on Substack, behind the paywall.

Note: No one should be billed again via www.tomkinstimes.com after early October 2022 (maybe even earlier), and for us to bill you on the new Substack, you will have to pay anew via credit card via Substack’s payment portal (which is done via Stripe, which we’ve used on here, along with PayPal over the years).

Ask questions in the comments below, and we’ll finish putting together a “how to” guide for anyone who cannot work out the process for themselves.

I will post this on both www.tomkinstimes.com and Substack, and check for comments on both platforms.

A reminder: if you had an active paid subscription on www.tomkinstimes.com, then you won’t need to pay on Substack until that expires.

However, if you’ve not had a TTT subscription before (or were no longer an active subscriber) and would like to take one out on Substack now, that’s totally fine.

While we’re busy working on things behind the scenes, here’s a place to discuss the upcoming games.

I’ve also just published this, which includes some site news at the end:

An in-depth look at how adversity may become favourable to Klopp and his team in the longer term

The full article can be read for free on Substack:

https://tomkinstimes.substack.com/p/difficult-autumn-ahead-but-this-is

[ttt-subscribe-article]

(Image: Darwin Núñez scores a cracking header against a small Ajax defence)

Ajax Be Warned!

With the Wolves game postponed, and the Chelsea game in doubt due to the funeral arrangements for the Queen, it seems that the game against Ajax will be the Reds’ last until October.

An insane sequence of games is suddenly made sane, including the reduction of a mad, tough away game, with Man United and Everton already visited (and Napoli), and Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea (as it stood) due before match-week 15, with Man City at home before then, too.

There is no logical reason to postpone the visit of Ajax, as it falls easily between the initial period of mourning and the funeral, and no time to reschedule it. It surely goes ahead.

What Liverpool need now is training time. Regrouping time. Tactical tweaks time. Instead, it was going to be play/rest-day/play – or possibly, with all the injuries, play/rest-day/play/pray. Now, that’s been eased.

Wolves were due to face the Liverpool backlash, but the Reds may have lacked energy to go tooth-to-tooth after the short turnaround. Ajax, through no fault of their own, may now be in the firing line.

Anyway, I’ve written a few thoughts on the Ajax game, and the benefits of playing only this game now until October. Suddenly, the World Cup is likely to be just eight league games away, and the transfer window open in ten.

Note: keep abreast of developments about our impending lock, stock and barrel move to Substack. All annual subscribers should now be able to access the new site’s paywall, even if no unique content will go on there until the move is complete (but I will start duplicating all articles on there as of now). Monthly subscribers will be transferred on the eve of the move. More news about the move will appear on here in the coming week or so.

This article is for subscribers only. However, due to our move, it’s probably wise to not take out new subscriptions on this site. If you don’t have an existing subscription, then consider taking one out on our Substack ahead of the move later this month.

[ttt-subscribe-article]

Paul Tomkins, Andrew Beasley, Daniel Rhodes, Chris Rowland and other TTT regulars will give their thoughts on this dreadful match for 24 hours after the game, and there’s post-match statistics and videos too.

Post-Match Thoughts

Paul Tomkins

Big. Strong. Fast. Committed. All of the things Napoli were and Liverpool were not.

It felt like a replay of the performance at Old Trafford, with the slowing (but still clever) Roberto Firmino – so good of late on the smaller Anfield pitch, as now basically an expert in smaller spaces – unable to push back a defence on a big pitch (with Mo Salah no longer flying at breakneck speed outside him on the wing), and James Milner the last player you want as the supporting midfielder; with the lively (but not lightning and not physically imposing) teenager Harvey Elliott unable to go beyond the strikers, and a mid-paced midfielder sitting in front of what appears to be a struggling defence. (Plus, neither full-back going on the overlap.)

The lack of pressure on the ball in midfield was alarming, and such is the obviousness of Liverpool’s high line that if midfielders don’t press the ball, the pass will go, and the later runners will get in behind to break the offside trap, with no one in the midfield quick enough to offer a recovery run.

I said it before the season started, but I found it baffling that Ibrahima Konaté, so fast and so vital to the second half of last season with his recovery pace on the high line, was left out in favour of the excellent but ageing Joel Matip on the eve of the campaign (both then got injured, albeit Konaté’s was from an opponent kicking him).

Why was Klopp going for such an old team when it’s never been his way? If intensity is the identity, why so many old pros?

It’s alarming to see Virgil van Dijk look so sluggish; he got back to his best last season, but this season he’s been all over the place. Joe Gomez, lucky to still have a functioning knee after so many operations, was having a good game (and a good recent run) until he lost his composure in a chastening 15 minutes with three bad mistakes. I love his attitude, and was absolutely elite before his last injury (and he’s still only 25), but this was a bad night.

Liverpool look undercooked, under-strength, under-par and being both undertaken and overtaken.

Injuries have made it tougher, as has the shortened preseason. The challenges that I outlined in this piece this week still stand, and this game was obviously one of the warnings in a crazily tough schedule; albeit while I thought it might be a difficult night, I didn’t expect Liverpool to border on abject. But for Alisson it could have been six or seven, although at least this was Napoli and not Aston Villa or Stoke City.

The team is just so horribly unbalanced. It partly feels like Bill Shankly’s Liverpool against Watford in 1970 and the 1991 team that Kenny Dalglish bequeathed, in terms of passing a point where the old guard can be relied upon, and some serious surgery required. In this day and age, it can often come from the squad, and there are excellent younger/youngish players already at the club. Almost none of the long-established players have done anything this season, bar a cameo here and there. If they’re mentally exhausted, then rest them. Why is Jürgen Klopp retreating to the supposed safety of experience at the expensive of energy?

[EDIT: and just to add, having seen Klopp’s brutally honest press conference, it’s hard to argue with his stated need for some reinvention. To me, it’s not so much this defeat, as the nature of large portions of most games this season, even if there were good periods in most games, too, before this match. I’m just someone who can point things out, without having the talent to actually fix anything.]

For all the extenuating circumstances, it’s hard to fathom why only two players looked physically ready for this match; one, Luis Díaz, who scored one and could have had another, and the other, Thiago, who has barely trained. Everyone else was running in treacle.

Elliott is young and learning; still 19, and a big part of the future (but this felt like a game too far in this sequence, after his excellent displays of late). As is 25-year-old Díaz. Young Fabio Carvalho has been a big bright spark. These represent the future (as should Darwin Núñez, if he settles in).

Yet of the older players, only Thiago looked like he had any energy tonight, and Andy Robertson is reprising his dreadful start to last season (which he turned around, and which lots of players need to do now). Trent Alexander-Arnold is neither defending well nor attacking well, and is basically now just hitting a mixture of long passes.

Too many players look like they can’t be bothered to chase the ball, do the ugly stuff. Again, maybe more fitness work is needed, yet how could Thiago – of all players – look so sharp, having barely trained?

He looked like he wanted to make things happen, and fought for every ball, and was focused on every pass. Yes, he was on as a sub when the game had slowed, but almost everyone else looked like they were dosed up on Mogadon. Why can’t this team run anymore?

If you’re gonna release an interesting but also self-promoting book called “Intensity”, then don’t follow it up with “Comatose”. A dose of humility is required at the AXA, it seems. Also, if you have a mural, you’re still obliged to put in the effort. Release your books when you retire (when they can’t come back to bite you in the arse), and don’t buy into your own hype. Anything that seems vaguely self-congratulatory sets you up for a fall, even if you’re damn talented. This team is often best in adversity, but can also struggle after big wins, as a sign of potential complacency.

Again, I think the Reds can turn it around, as outlined in my Substack piece – the players are there (when fit), the manager and coaching staff are world-class – but it’s hard to see the sharpness returning before the World Cup, if there’s just the game/rest-day/game cycle and one international break thrown in. And if the team remains full of old guys and complacent regulars, it won’t change soon.

Liverpool get back from Italy tomorrow, and then it’s Wolves in almost no time at all. I hate the over-use of “must-win”, but it’s certainly a game where a performance is required, and then some.

There’s plenty to build with, but also, plenty to rebalance, as I will get onto below.

The rest of my thoughts and those of the elite TTT crew follow below for subscribers only.  See details below for how to sign up for £5 a month.

[ttt-subscribe-article]

An in-depth look at how adversity may become favourable to Klopp and his team in the longer term

The full article can be read for free on Substack:

https://tomkinstimes.substack.com/p/difficult-autumn-ahead-but-this-is

Site news follows below for TTT subscribers, as we look to move from WordPress to Substack for technical reasons.

[ttt-subscribe-article]

I’m legally obliged to say that the transfer window has ‘slammed shut’ so it’s time for a round up of what happened.

It hasn’t disappointed in terms of total spend. According to Deloitte, the gross spend is 67% higher than the previous summer transfer window’s £1.1bn and 34% higher than the previous record (summer 2017’s £1.4bn). “The 2022-23 season already has the highest transfer spend since the two-window season began, exceeding the previous record by 3% (2017-18’s £1.86bn),” the group said.

But before we delve into who has spent how much, let’s take a look at who’s done the most business in terms of ins and outs.

What’s surprising, is that despite signing more players in one summer than any other British club in history (21!), Nottingham Forest have only increased their squad size by four. Perhaps there was a method behind their perceived madness.

This article is for subscribers only.

[ttt-subscribe-article]