I’ll always remember something my manager insisted on when I was playing youth football, maybe 30 years ago, that I disagreed with then and has aged even worse.

Never play a throw in backwards.

The game back then was very much modelled around gaining territory. Working the space, playing the ball back to find new paths and switching the play we’re not really in the agenda, it was all about keeping the ball up the other end.

Admittedly I played for the worst team in the league and it was on recreational pitches, both of which undoubtedly contributed to that approach, but it was something you’d see from professional teams too.

I think the standard of pitches have played a huge part in the evolution of the game. Even in the early days of the PL, pitches were boggy marshes throughout winter. A neat, tidy passing game would be nigh on impossible to play because of all the bobbles and inconsistencies in the pitch. A ball hoofed from defence up to attack takes those variables out of the equation.

Now pitches are smooth all year round, there’s less need to go route one because that sorter passing game is easier to play and isn’t going to be interrupted by divots & puddles and the like. This is also probably a reason why Spain became the birthplace of Tiki-Taka, because it’s got an ideal climate where it rains just enough for pitches not to dry out, but not too much that they become sodden.

The problem with Alexander-Arnold isn’t so much in games like today’s where he can get himself fired up and he knows that if he doesn’t do his job his side will be punished, it’s in the games against mid/lower-table opposition where he shifts too much of his focus onto the attack and neglects the defensive part of his job.

I’ve said for a long time, it’s not that he can’t defend it’s that he often doesn’t fancy doing it. It’s the dawdling back over the halfway line while an attack is breaking down his flank, it’s the standing still while triangles are played around him, it’s the shirking out of tackles & headers. He knows if he does that against City he’ll be putting his team in trouble, especially with Doku playing as well as he has been.

The broadcast rights in the UK are split across Sky, Amazon & TNT (previously known as BT Sport). TNT show one game a week - 12:30 on Saturdays.

My guess would be that TNT have decided they’re going to get more subscribers if they focus on one particular team rather than spread their broadcasts around. You’re probably going to get a lot more subscribers from one team if they’ve got a game on that station every month then you would across the board if everyone was on that channel twice over the course of the season.

Obviously the two most suitable candidates for this were always going to be Liverpool & United. They’re the two clubs with the most fans dotted around the country. The further away the fans are, the more likely they’re going to watch their team on TV regularly. This probably applies more to United than Liverpool, but as far as I’m aware, Sky get to pick the first game of the weekend, TNT get the second and then Sky pick from the rest, so it could be a case that Sky are using their first pick to choose United games for the same reason.

Where do you play Ward-Prowse though?

Obviously Bellingham & Rice are the two starters in the middle. If you put someone like Ward-Prowse in there with them, Bellingham can’t take up the advanced positions he does, Rice doesn’t have the freedom to make the surging runs that he does, or both.

I know people don’t like seeing Henderson & Phillips in the squad, but honestly they’re the only two midfielders with the defensive mentality to allow Bellingham & Rice to play to their strengths.

We’ve got set piece takers in the team, Ward-Prowse doesn’t offer us anything that we don’t already have. He’s not going to offer as much going forward as either Bellingham or Rice, and he’s not going to offer as much defensively as Phillips or Henderson. Even Gallagher offers more defensively.

Surely it makes more sense to have Henderson or Phillips doing Bellingham & Rice’s dirty work than Bellingham & Rice doing Ward-Prowse’s.

I remember a mate coming round to my old house and him & my housemate wanted to watch the Plan B movie - Ill Manors. I was watching Reading v Arsenal in the League Cup and at that point Reading were 3-0 up.

I’d heard the movie was pretty bad, but offered them the TV and carried on watching the football on my laptop. Reading got another not long after, but Arsenal pulled one back just before half time. They pulled another two back in the second half and equalised just before the 90 minutes was up. Arsenal took the lead just before half time in extra time but Reading equalised with not long left on the clock before Arsenal sealed the tie with two more injury time goals.

It finished 7-5 to Arsenal after them being 4-0 down. I had a feeling my decision would pay off and it did, especially when I asked my mates about the movie and they said it was “okay”.

Also, Euro 2016 final, France v Portugal. Not a particularly exciting match in itself, but it was enjoyable for me. Ronaldo went off injured early on and France had pretty much all of the game but couldn’t find a breakthrough, partly because Portugal had everyone but Eder behind the ball. After 90 minutes out of sheer curiosity I checked the first goalscorer odds and saw that Eder was 33/1. If Portugal were going to get anything, it was going to be through him because he was the only one getting anywhere near the France box.

I thought it was worth a punt and stuck a fiver on it and told my mates in a group chat that they should do the same, but nobody else was convinced. I was watching on iPlayer through my laptop (maybe I should watch more games on my laptop) so there was a delay. In the first half of extra time Eder had a point blank header, but directed it straight at Lloris. I thought that the chance was gone.

At half time of extra time I checked again, 66/1 for Eder to score first. Oh well, I’d already put a fiver on it, might as well make it a tenner. As I say, I was watching on a delay and there was not really much going on and then suddenly my phone started going mad. About 30 seconds later Eder hit a daisy cutter from about 25 yards out that squirmed past Lloris into the bottom corner and I was suddenly £495 richer.

These are the same pundits who spent years sat in studios using slow motion replays, multiple angles and freeze frames to dissect refereeing decisions and often wouldn’t come to a consensus between them on what the correct decision should be. Now they are pundits who say VAR using slow motion replays, multiple angles and freeze frames is too precise and can’t fathom why every decision doesn’t match their assessment of it.

I don’t know if it’s a change in approach from pundits over the years, or me becoming more cynical as I get older, but as time goes on I’m much more strongly of the opinion that pundits aren’t there to provide insight, but to add sensationalism.

It was around the time they signed Downing and I think Dalglish got that potential partnership all wrong. He had Carrol who was absolutely dominant in the air and Downing who had one of the best left feet in the country in terms of whipping crosses in, but was far from lethal when it came to finishing. So what did he do? Played Downing on the right, cutting in. The pair of them could have been deadly.

Sidwell to Chelsea, Parker to Chelsea, Barkley to Chelsea, Wright-Phillips to Chelsea…

I know the homegrown player quota is vital for some teams to actually have any homegrown players at all in their squad, but Chelsea (and City with Rodwell & Phillips) have stagnated a fair few careers with it.