The Midweek Maxi #3 - Tremendous Trent, Trigger Happy Taylor, The True God & The Transfer Price Index

Our new Liverpool FC weekly compendium. News. Stats. Views. Debate. Links. Data. Insights. Delights.

New feature!

To read about why we’ve replaced Free Friday with The Midweek Maxi, see the intro to the first edition.

This week:

• Excerpts and links to the different pieces we've published across the TTT Substack network, prior to the paywall kicking in;

• Then, some of the best comments from the site this past week;

• Next, Daniel Zambartas’ bumper LFC News, Media & Transfer Round-Up;

• A bit of Midweek Moby (the TTT stalwart, not the beautiful bald middle-aged man);

• And then finally, a blast from the TTT archives.

Job done! (Oh, and it’s also a discussion thread for the issues raised.)

Note: the Maxi may exceed the email size limit on Substack, but the whole piece can be read online by paying subscribers.

TTT Network Roundup

Links and excerpts to articles on the various TTT sites, which are run by different people and require separate subscriptions to this, the TTT Main Hub.

TTT Main Hub

As the Reds secured their fifth successive victory by one goal, and sixth win on the bounce against Brentford much of the post-match discussion centred around the disruption caused by Anthony Taylor awarding the visitors so many fouls - and the constant time-wasting leading to nearly a full hour of ‘dead time’ in the match (this is discussed more below).

Liverpool vs. Brentford: *Bumper* Post-Match Analysis

Add time-wasting at every throw, and Anthony Taylor ruined the first half by allowing Brentford to use every spoiling tactic imaginable. Of course, the only player booked for time-wasting was Alisson, who was simply trying to take a goal-kick. Liverpool are officially the least-time-wasting team in the Premier League, yet every week we see teams come and ruin games with underhand tactics. Brentford were green-lit as we were gaslit. It felt like the Greater Manchester PGMOL mafia were really at it today.

I've no idea if they dislike Liverpool, but they loathe Jürgen Klopp, and any hint of fairness has flown. I get why they wouldn’t like him, but they still need to be professional and honest.

This was a game of football that was utterly killed by a referee on a mission, but at least he couldn't stop the Reds.

Supposedly more is required for a free-kick now – to let the game flow (as we’re told every time Mo Salah is hoiked up into the air by some hairy-arsed 16-stone lummox) – but Taylor was quick to blow his whistle to waste another minute as Brentford mucked about.

The only chance of giving Brentford a penalty was for an outrageous dive, but rather than punish it, Taylor immediately gave the Bees a free-kick outside the box because … well, because Fabinho was fouled.

The Zen Den

Paul’s Zen Den piece looked at - arguably - the most influential player in the Premier League during the last month, Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Trent Alexander-Arnold – From Moody to Simply Magnificent

Between April 9th and the start of the Brentford game, they stated, for ALL Premier League players, Alexander-Arnold ranked 1st for assists, chances created, passes in opposition half, penalty area entries, possession won and touches.

Now, unless Liverpool just happened to play more games than other teams, that seems remarkable.

Beyond remarkable.

How can one player do so many things?

Prior to the reinvention, his use of the ball got more predictable, and he seemed to stop reaching the byline, hitting some sensational passes as the ‘right-back quarterback’, but then getting frustrated as another speedster hared past him. You didn’t see a lot of skill or invention, clever dribbles, just jaw-dropping passes.

He can defend – read the game, intercept, cover behind.

But he can't stop wingers if he's already 'out of position' (and that includes someone else losing the ball while he goes on an overlap as expected), and his confidence looked battered.

But with a change of role, where he moves into midfield and beyond, a new player has been born.

And to be fair, his all-round game has looked even better than I ever expected; as if he finds it far easier to be in possession in the middle, as well as to tackle and intercept. There was talk of him not being a natural there, and that it’s different to right-back; but obviously he started off there, and he’s spent years doing rondos at Melwood.

Seeing him in the flesh in the role vs Fulham, it was clear he now looks bigger, stronger, and a bit faster. He's 24 now, and hitting the key stage: the male brain, when it comes decision-making, only fully matures at 25, and it’s the age when pace starts to peak; while strength and stamina peak beyond 25, and experience adds to the mix, until the early 30s, when the physical side starts to gradually fall away.

He looks exceptional in tight spaces, having for years been exposed to long chases on wide open flanks. His options to dribble on the wing are more limited, especially when the aim was to get a cross in.

Dynasty

The fourth instalment of this major new series on Dynasty looks at two very special young Liverpool strikers of the era.

Originally a series of articles covering the period 1992 to Klopp’s arrival in 2017, it was written by TTT Subscriber Anthony Stanley, serialised on The Tomkins Times and then published by TTT as a book called A BANQUET WITHOUT WINE - A Quarter-Century of Liverpool FC in the Premier League Era.

The book is available here. It remains a definitive matter of record of Liverpool FC during the period in question.

There are only two years between the two players but their career trajectory was always going to be radically different. Fowler was viewed by the Kop as one of our own, warts and all, a character carved from the streets of Toxteth, a working class scally who looked slightly bewildered by all the fuss. Owen was a different animal altogether, hailing from a comfortable middle class background, groomed for stardom from a young age. The clean cut and handsome youngster was a marketing man’s dream. It would not be exaggerating to claim that if a hypothetical Frankenstein sought to conjure the perfect modern footballer in a laboratory, then the chiselled and athletic visage of Owen would be the result. Robbie was different; Fowler was always different – less a modern Prometheus and more a Jabberwocky of outrageous goalscoring talent. And we absolutely adored him for it.

There was this shrewish and nagging feeling that we didn’t actually own Owen. Was he more England’s than Liverpool’s? Was he finally going to make the long mooted move to one of Europe’s giants? Everything about the young star smacked of transience in a red shirt. Given his exploits for Liverpool, there is no doubt that his subsequent tarnished reputation is slightly unfair but, well, the heart loves what the heart loves.

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