A visit to Anfield in the Big Integrity Cup, otherwise known as the Carabao Cup. As we know from the way the draw was conducted, there is no integrity in this cup competition at all. The ever bloated European competitions meant that there was no space in the calendar for this round of games to be an open draw, so the European qualifying sides had to be kept apart so they could play on alternate midweek slots. Hence, seven other teams were insulated against playing Liverpool, a team that always does well in this competition, but of course, we weren’t one of them, and so we got fucked over.

The only way a smaller club can win this competition as if the big clubs knock each other out and you may get away with only playing one of them. There of course now is one less round for this to happen, not to mention the fact that the clubs that have qualified for Europe only come into this competition in this, the third round. They should be made to put an under 21 squad out for this round of the cup to make it an even and fair draw. Most of them will be playing a load of reserves anyway so why inconvenience anyone else. Arne Slot has already admitted that most of his big players won’t play in this game so we’re beding the cup out of shape to help those who don’t want need to be helped. Bullshit.

If this was a league game against Liverpool, then I would do some sort of analysis of their big players, but I really can’t be fucking bothered because I don’t know who’s going to play, any more than Will Still does. I mean, if Slot picks the players who didn’t play in their last league game then we’re going to see £125 million Alexander Isak , £116 million Wirtz, £30 million Frimpong and probably players like Federico Chiesa, Curtis Jones, Joe Gomez, Andy Robertson, Wataru Endo, Giorgi Mamardashvili and basically, we are probably going to get fucked anyway. He implied that we would have an advantage knowing that he wasn’t going to pick van Dijk and Salah etc. Piss off!

Because we have next to no chance, tonight is an opportunity to give a chance to some players to play themselves into the starting line-up for the game at home to Middlesbrough on Saturday. We should see starts for the likes of Leo Scienza and Ross Stewart, both of whom have a chance to stake a claim for places that have not been nailed down in the league starting 11. The centre of defence will be interesting as well and we might see Ronnie Edwards and I would say we’re almost certain to see Nathan Wood play tonight. I’m also expecting a first start for Elias Jelert and Alex McCarthy should get some practice in order to resume goalkeeping duties in the league at the weekend.  In another questionable ‘integrity of the competition’ thing, Tom Fellows is apparently not cup tonight because the rules have changed so you can play for two clubs in one cup competition. For the last 50 years, which is basically as far back as I can remember, you can only play for one club in a cup competition so why has that changed? I don’t know, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it was one of the big clubs bitching about not being able to play all their new signings or something like that.

Fair play if you are travelling to watch this. I am not and will be watching on the TV, probably with the sound off so I don’t have to listen to Liverpool client commentators whacking themselves off in eulogy to Isak scoring against a Championship club. No doubt some Liverpool youngster will be heralded as Mo Salah’s heir apparent. Whatever, it’s a guaranteed anger trigger.

Oh well, here goes nothing. Team news and we’ve gone with three at the back and have changed virtually the whole team. Macca in goal, all of the centre backs who are not Stephens and THB are in there, Jelert at right back, Flynn Downes and Caspar Jander in midfield and there’s a first start for Leo Scienza, up front with the A team of Archer and Armstrong. Do you remember the A team? Sprayed bullets everywhere and never killed anyone. There’s an analogy in there somewhere. Liverpool have changed their entire team but this one has Alexander Isak in it, who cost more than Dragan Solak bought our club for. Football is so fucked.

I’m really looking forward to this and it takes all of 30 seconds from the start and Saints are knocking the ball around at the back and Jelert is clearly yet to learn that you can’t play the ball up to Arma and expect him to look after it and he coughs up possession and Curtis Jones has it on the edge of our box and place it inside to Chiesa who tees up Isak, who spins into place and smashes it but McCarthy spreads himself well and it hits his shoulder and flies over the bar. Great save. Very dodgy start.

Saints begin to grow into the game though, and Liverpool seem to be having trouble with our press and intensity and when we build up, we play it quickly through midfield with Downes combining well with Armstrong to spin it wide to Manning and he pulls it back short to Armstrong, who smashes it left footed at the near post forcing Mamardashvili to push it away. Decent, it has to be said.

Liverpool break down our right with Frimpong putting the ball behind the defence for Isak to run onto and the hundred and whatever million man feeds the ball back to Chiesa, who smashes a shot at the new post and McCarthy again gets down really well to keep it out.

Saints are matching Liverpool chance for chance though and Archer does some uncharacteristic good work to hold the ball up before finding Jander and left it goes to Manning and his cross is perfect into the near post for Archer and we’re all waiting for the net to bulge as he throws his head at it…. and all he needs is a touch in the near post…. but he misses it and it hits Gomez and flops wide of the post. A golden chance

Gomez is an absolute pressing trigger for us. He’s always been like this but is clearly happy to be a never used reserve at a big club. Anyway, we win it back again off him as he gives it away and Scienza puts Adam Armstrong clean through on the left with his but his touch takes him wide on his left and he chips over the keeper and hits the bar and it bounces down to Scienza who has an open goal and has to score and what the fuckity-fuck shit header was that? Wide it goes. Fucking hell.

The last time we played here in a cup game, we missed chances and were made to pay for it just before half-time and whilst that memory is stirring in my head, guess what fucking happens? Thirty seconds have elapsed and we have the ball and are in control and we are knocking it around with no danger and back it goes to McCarthy and with Manning pointing up field for him to send the ball into the night sky, the cogs in his brain tell him that he’s Ederson and that Josh Q really wants this ball played short to him and Chiesa reads it, first time to Isak in front of goal and he’s really not gonna fucking miss from there and he doesn’t. Fucking ridiculous. Commentator orgasm. Get fucked.

Half time and more Isak-gasms in the studio because a £125 million pound striker has scored an open goal. They are amazed by the fact he’s doing shuttles on thepitch at half time and most of the half time analysis is spent talking about that. I feel sorry for Will Still. He’s set us up well and we’ve played well and we should be ahead but he’s been let down by two strikers missing sitters and a keeper having brain rot.

No changes for us but Isak is of and replaced with Ekitike, who used to play for Will Still in France. The first real action of the second half is Ekitike getting involved in a running battle with Wood and they’re both pulling each other but the referee surprisingly gives the free kick our way. Ekitike clearly expects to get given all the decisions now he’s a Liverpool player and punches the ball in the air in a clear show of dissent that earns a yellow card. Twat. There are more twats among the Liverpool fans then celebrate when Chiesa rifles the ball into the roof of the net few minutes later, but he is about 5 yards off side and anyone with half a brain knew that that goal was going to get disallowed.

By the hour mark we have replaced the excellent (sitter aside) Scienza, Jander and Archer, with J-Rob, Shea Charles and Damion Downs. Downs’ frst touch is to give the ball away and his next touch is to do the same. Johannes Spors must be rolling his eyes somewhere.

Another Gomez error gifts the ball to Flynn Downes, who drives forward and wins a corner on the right. In it comes from Manning and it’s one of those high floaty ones that goes too far and we have no man there but Endo and Danns have some sort of communication error and for some reason, Endo heads it back towards the danger zone where Josh Q takes a swing and manages to nudge it past the defender and incomes Shea Charles to slam it into the net. There is no VAR and the flag has stayed down so fucking hell, we are level. 10 minutes to get to penalties.

Liverpool are very clearly not going to want to go to penalties and come forward with renewed purpose with Chiesa swinging over a cross from the left and after Josh Q has missed the ball. Ekitike is behind him and plants are free header wide.

Four minutes of normal time to go and it’s looking like we might actually get to penalties (before we lose) and then Robertson picks up the ball and flights a brilliant chip over the top of our defence to the clearly on side Chiesa, who takes an absolute dream of a first touch before squaring it for Ekitike to run it into the net. Bollocks. It’s mildly amusing that Ekitike’s shirt comes off in celebration and it’s obvious he’s going to get given a second yellow and therefore a red card. Punching the ball away and taking your shirt off. Quality red card that.

Four minutes plus extras to get back into this and I can’t see it seeing as our attack has died somewhat with the substitutions and Still tries to repair this by bringing on Fellows and Stewart, but it’s too little too late and Liverpool play at the game relatively comfortably without us getting another site of Mamadashvili’s goal.

Well that was a relatively decent night but for our habit of taking the gun, aiming it at ourselves and blowing our own balls off, it could’ve been a great one. After a really good 40 minutes after we survived the opening 30 seconds with McCarthy save from Isak, Armstrong has to score and then Scienza has to score and 30 seconds later, McCarthy just has to smash the fucking ball up the pitch but no, another stupid fucking giveaway. It was absolutely mortifying because we’d been so good but there you have it. What was that thing from the weekend about both penalty areas?

Anyway, we finally and deservedly equalised as Liverpool had a bit of a defensive calamity of their own and Charles scored hist first Saints goal and it really did look like we were gonna make it to a penalty shootout, where we would undoubtedly have lost, but a bit of quality with a long ball by Robertson, a wonderful touch from Chiesa and a perfect pass to put it on a plate for Ekitike who couldn’t miss. Post-dickhead red card, we couldn’t make our numerical advantage pay in the ten minutes remaining, partly because we took off our brightest attacking players and replace them with players that made us immeasurably worse. More on that later.

On the positive side, we looked much sharper, both in our closing down and in our breaking out of defence. We looked to use the ball whenever possible and be positive and we had options with runners finding space to enable us to progress the ball. Will Still will have to earn his money and he has some very difficult choices to make because the number of players put their hands up today, which is what you want from a game like this.

Goalkeepers. Fucking hell. Alex McCarthy made two brilliant saves, plucked a few crosses out of the air and was looking nailed on for a start on Saturday and then he does that. I can’t get my head around how a player as experienced as him, thinks it’s a good idea to play that pass when we are 0-0 at Anfield with just two minutes to go until halftime. 0-0 would’ve been absolutely fine at half-time so what the fuck were we going to gain from it. Personally, I would still pick him for Saturday but with the strict instructions that if the opposition have a player anywhere within 50 yards, you just kick it long.

All three of the central defenders had positive games with Josh Q having his best performance in a Saints shirt. He seems to have speeded everything up a bit with his passing though I would still like to see him be more dominant in the air and not be afraid to really impose himself physically on smaller opponents in particular. Nathan Wood is an absolute must for the team on Saturday with his willingness to get stuck in and his reading of defensive situations. Also, he’s big and he wins headers. Ronnie Edwards showed the calmness on the ball and the ability to bring it forward and the slaloming runs into midfield can be a real asset to put a team on a back foot. It’s about partnerships though and Edwards can only really be considered if he has Wood alongside him.

Considering he was playing against Andy Robertson and the latest overhyped wonder kid Rio Ngumoha, Elias Jelert had an excellent game. Really energetic and always looking to drive forward and be an option. He looked much more lively and confident than Roerslev has done so far and it’s hard to imagine that Elias has not played himself into the team for Saturday.

Casper Jander had a much better game than he had against Hull on Saturday and it was unfortunate. he had to go off with an injury but that reunited the central midfield pairing of Flynn Downes and Shea Charles. Flynn showed everything that’s good about his game with an energy and willingness to get stuck in and he was prepared to drive forward and Charles of course got his goal.

Up front we were better than of late but without the goals of course. Adam Armstrong looked dangerous but of course, he really has to score when he’s clean through against the goalkeeper. Cameron Archer had a good game in terms of battling, tracking and retaining possession but he has to score when Ryan Manning puts a perfect cross into the near post and all he needs to do is get a touch and the goalkeeper’s got no chance but as seems to be the thing with our strikers, he completely missed the ball. Leo Scienza was the most interesting of the three. The guy clearly has something about him and his ability on the ball and to supply the right pass is something that is going to be very useful but how you get him in the team on Saturday with the likes of Wee Man, Finn Azaz and Tom Fellows to come back into contention is anyone’s guess but as I said, that’s the managers job. Scienza of course missed an absolute sitter that would’ve sent us in the lead at halftime and that will probably be what leaves him on the bench for Saturday, but there is a player in there for sure.

As for the substitutes apart from Shea Charles, well Tom Fellows and Ross Stewart didn’t have enough time to make an impact, only thrown onto the pitch after the second goal in the 88th minute. I am left wondering how shit Ross Stewart must be in training if Damion Downs is the preferred option to come on a substitute. There have been some unkind comparisons between Downs and Sekou Mara because they are both forwards and they have basically the same hairstyle, but based on what we’ve seen so far, Damien Downs is a downgrade and quite a significant one because the guy doesn’t look like he has any idea whatsoever. He honestly looks like a park player who has been told to go and play against Liverpool. For starters, he just stands there and doesn’t make any anticipatory movement at all and he can’t control the ball. You can already tell from Ryan Fraser‘s comments on Saturday regarding wanting a proper player to aim at and from various incident in the game yesterday that the other players have worked it out I can only think that he is being given minutes ahead of Ross Stewart because he was Johannes Spors’ marquee signing and that the manager feels some sort of pressure to give him a chance but fucking hell, we may of well have kept Ben Brereton-Diaz and played him up front. Jay Robinson also really struggled when he came on and our attacking threat very much dipped later in the game.

Having watched this game on Sky, I was reminded of the shitshow that we are not involved in this season, namely the Premier League and the horrific sycophantic coverage. I reckon we took up 5% of the post-match coverage and most of that was Will Still talking about Ekitike. I hear that Matterface was worse on ITV, not knowing who our manager was when we beat them here last and all that non-negotiable stuff.

As for the game as a whole, well, it was one of those where we turned up, gave a good account of ourselves but ultimately lost so I guess that’s considerably better than it could’ve been. I enjoyed the performance and the positivity and bearing in mind where we’ve been in the last couple of league games, that can only be a good thing to try and take into the upcoming league fixtures . It’s baby steps for sure but it definitely was a step in the right direction and Will Still has a challenge on his hands not just to pick any favourite players but to pick the best team based on performances. It’s tough and I reckon everyone will have a different idea about how we should set up against Boro.

For me, I would go for a 523 shape, populated by McCarthy, Jelert, Edwards, Would, Stephens, Manning, Downes, Charles, Armstrong, Archer, Scienza

That would be incredibly harsh on Wee Man and slightly less harsh on Tom Fellows and Finn Azaz but it’s about the team, not the individual.

All will become clear in time, of course, but the one thing that is certain is that we can go into the Middlesbrough game with a bit more optimism.

Up the fucking Saints