“Depending on who you talk to, Raheem Sterling is either a naïve puppet, an avaricious sell-sword or a plain old traitor. It’s been several years since a player’s desire to leave a Premier League club has become so acrid. All departing players can expect to be booed on their return. Sterling can expect the bilious depths of a football fan’s considerable ire, nothing less. But, however distasteful the whole affair has been, Sterling has perhaps been cast too lightly as the villain. By any measurement of decency and professionalism (even by the Premier League’s own stunted morality) Sterling has not behaved well. ‘Phoning in sick’ for training is grubby and juvenile but not, I expect, uncommon.” Football Pink

“Liverpool is a romantic club. There’s no two ways about it. Its history needs no introduction. The club’s honours are almost beyond counting. Some of the greatest managers, players and teams to have graced the English game have done so sporting the Liver bird crest. To this day, there is not a set of fans beyond Merseyside who do not feel a little pang of inadequacy as they hear the choruses of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ rise up at Anfield, or as they watch the Kop stand in fiery red as one. The club is a beautiful bastion of football folklore, a fierce and loyal community too. True romantic seeks football club, must pride itself on multiple European titles? Liverpool’s the one for you.” Football Pink

“You can see it in his first goal. He’s 19, wearing no. 28, a number reserved for fringe midfielders. The ball gets cycled back toward the midfield line from the right wing, and standing 50 yards from goal, he starts asking for it. He’s calling for it not because he’s open — he is — he’s calling for it because he knows he’s about to score.” Grantland (Video)

“Raheem Sterling’s agent, Aidy Ward, is doing his level best to take the spotlight off the performance of anyone else connected to the club, bar his client. So in some ways a few people at Liverpool might welcome the distraction, even if it is in many ways somewhat unpalatable. I have some sympathy with Sterling’s plight. Or rather, I did. Not any more.” Tomkins Times

“Raheem Sterling’s fragile relationship with Liverpool may be broken beyond repair when he tells manager Brendan Rodgers he wants to leave Anfield when they meet later this week. Liverpool have always been steadfast in their determination to keep Sterling despite the 20-year-old’s obvious and public reluctance to sign a new deal worth £100,000-a-week. Sterling, it seems, is equally determined to leave in a development which will come as another bitter blow to Liverpool as they recover from the impending departure of captain Steven Gerrard to LA Galaxy and the collapse of a season that saw them lose to Aston Villa in an FA Cup semi-final and fail to reach the Champions League.” BBC

“A lot has been written about Liverpool in the aftermath of their meek cup exit to a Sherwood-charged Aston Villa, and a nil-nil draw, thwarted by the full Pulis has done little to ameliorate the prevailing fan mood. The reasons given for this season’s “failure” have been extensive and variable with transfers, a lack of Suarez and Sturridge, too much tinkering with formations and even the fact that the 5th biggest club in the league is likely to finish 5th all being cited. The Liverpool fan base is huge and vocal and many thinkers and writers from the same generation have been brought up on a diet of success and quality throughout the 1970s and 1980s.” Stats Bomb

“Based on the law of averages, you will find that certain things happen more or less every summer, both in terms of transfers and squad evolution. And not all of them are good. While certain elements remain unpredictable, this very unpredictability is, in many ways, totally predictable. Mass clear-outs always seem like a necessity at times like these, but you then usually need to make mass purchases to compensate. And while that can sometimes work, it often doesn’t. The whole summer process is complicated, as I will now show, in what is a fairly long piece (think of it as a book chapter, if you’re allergic to long internet articles).” Tomkins Times

“Last night’s piece, “We’re All Gonna Die!” provoked a lot of debate, much of which took place on Twitter. There were a lot of interesting comments, plus the usual complaints. (And of course, the usual excellent discussions in the comments on this site.) I figured it’d be easier to write a (fairly) short addendum on here, rather than reply to various queries in a medium not suited to getting across complex ideas. Obviously the original piece was fairly long, but it deals with a pretty big issue; it wasn’t 4,500 words on why Alberto Moreno chooses to have a stubbly beard.” Tomkins Times

“Brendan Rodgers is very good. We all thought we saw a miserable Liverpool performance; a terrified defence somehow supporting an attack as threatening as a sleepy hamster. We were wrong. What we actually saw was a battalion of tired heroes, the conquerors of Manchester City, the pacifiers of insurgent Burnley, those few, those happy few, that band of brothers.” The Set Pieces

“It is no secret that early in the Premier League season, Liverpool were struggling. They were sitting in 12th place in the Premier League standings, and didn’t have a clue as to which way was up. Somehow, Brendan Rodgers has righted the ship, and Liverpool are making a strong push for a Champions League spot. Liverpool had one of the busiest offseasons in all of world football. The club decided to offload controversial striker Luis Suarez after his World Cup debacle, selling the player for 75 million pounds to Barcelona. This allowed them to go out and buy multiple top notch players. Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Emre Can, Lazar Markovic, Dejan Lovren, Divock Origi, Alberto Moreno, and Mario Balotelli were all byproducts of the Suarez sale.” Soccer Pro

“Given that the role of momentum in sport may be overplayed, it’s difficult to know whether cup runs are important. It’s always nice to win silverware, but if that silverware has no great meaning – if it has been devalued (or never was of value) – then it becomes a question of resource management. That is why so many clubs who don’t have big squads are choosing to play it safe. Let’s be clear: Liverpool FC doesn’t exist to win trophies; it exists to win meaningful trophies. (There are plenty of lower league trophies if the club wants to drop down the divisions.) And it also exists to be part of the big occasions. Indeed, it exists to make people happy.” Tomkins Times

“This article on the This Is Anfield website was brought to my attention (by, amongst other people, its author, Mark Pearson, via Twitter), and I wanted to respond, as I took exception to some of the points raised. I told Mark that I’d respond via an article, and he may respond in turn. (This may lead to an infinite loop, until one of us dies.) My problem with transfer articles like this is that they exist in the vacuum of a Liverpool’s fan’s perspectives on transfers, and come from a position of someone who seems to be a fine writer but who isn’t an expert on the subject of transfers. (See: Dunning-Kruger. Much of the work I do now is based on knowledge that other people don’t have, as they haven’t studied these things. Unless you also study transfers, I find it hard to accept that you’re not just guessing.)” Tomkins Times

“I am a fan of Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers and rate him highly as a coach, but he has spent £206.5m since taking over at Anfield and does not have much to show for it. Rodgers signs a lot of young players and keeps talking about improving them for the future. He has done that since he took charge in 2012 and he deserves credit for having that approach. Unfortunately for him, with Liverpool struggling for form, the bottom line is that he needs players for today, not tomorrow.” BBC