Richarlison baits Van Dijk in prematch talk

All very well having pre-match banter but I'm more concerned that Mike Dean will be refereeing again and Kavanagh likewise in the VAR chair, having not covered himself in glory when he fulfilled that role in the game vs Man Utd.

Dean now “qualifies” as he lives in North Wales but surely a less contentious choice was available. He's poor under pressure and issues cards like confetti.

Forget the ref; if we score more goals, we win.

Richarlison, you need to step up Sunday and do the business; walk the walk, as they say.

Having noted the comments, and also having watched many of Liverpool's games (pre-Covid-19) they have ridden their luck a lot, and got away with many fouls, free kicks and decisions, that they shouldn't have.

Liverpool try to intimidate the opposition, and I'm afraid to say it works in the main, and they are given far too much space and an undeserved respect. Without running round like whirling Dervishers, we should hopefully try to play them at their own game, and beat the bastards!

That's it, Richie lad.

Give them nothing.

Just when I thought I couldn’t like our boy from Brazil 🇧🇷 any more than I already did.

Did you watch the All or Nothing: Brazil? I thought Richarlison came across well in that. He seems a character and has feet on the ground.

I'm with Bobby (2), fuck talking off the field. I don't mind in the tunnel before the game, but do it on the pitch where it matters, letting them know you are there to have go and win if possible.

No hiding, fight for every ball and back your mates up. Then, win, lose or draw, you'll get my backing and those of most supporters. Don’t give in again like in the second half in the cup game at Anfield.

In fairness, Dave, he wasn't shouting the odds like we've seen so many times in the past.

He was asked a question. then pressed on it again.

Re Dean and Kavanagh, we may see a lot of them at home.

I'm led to believe the Referee appointments under Covid-19 will be ‘localized' within reason to prevent excessive travel for officials.

Integrity.

Mentioning Sergio Ramos as one of the three best defenders will really wind the gobshites up. 👍👍

I see it's been announced that FFP has been dropped this coming season. This could change everything if Carlo is given all the resources he wants. If we don't do it now, we'll never do it.

I think what Richarlison said is great Dave, and already the red media are coming out with a load of bollocks because everyone is entitled to their opinion, and he actually said that Van Dijk was a very good player.

Don't upset them, or don't be scared to upset them, I know which one I prefer.

Ramos comfortably dealt with Salah at arm's length.

Darren (9), fair enough. I never saw the interview, just going on what I read on this thread. I hope he does the business on Sunday. I will be really impressed with that.

Steve @ 6. All or Nothing: Brazil. Is that only available on Amazon Prime?

I haven't seen it yet.

Richarlison has appeared on a number of different Brazilian channels during the suspension of the Premier League in video calls from his UK home. He always, always, always comes across as very humble, very grateful, yet with burning ambition to succeed.

Brazilian TV has also reported how he supports low-income families with food parcels every week with so many out of work and not earning.

He is tremendously liked and respected in his homeland, not least because he is 'one of them' from extremely humble background and continually puts his hand in his pocket to help worthy causes.

He told the story of the sacrifices his family made to scrape together the money for a one-way bus ticket to Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minais Gerais, for the then 15-year-old Richarlison to attend a trial for his first professional club, America Mineiro. His father earned pennies selling homemade popsicles on the street.

That was just eight short years ago.

He has come a long way and his life has been totally transformed in a short space of time.

He is an absolute credit to himself, his family, his community, and yes, his football club.

Shut up Richie. VVD will probably have you in his pocket.

Paul @ 17,

Don't be fooled by the media propaganda.

Richarlison is being very courageous by saying this, and you have to have courage if you want to be successful. My worry is that if we lose it will all be for nothing. I hope we start with Bernard at left-midfield and Sidibé at right-midfield, we look much defensively and attacking in this set-up as opposed to Iwobi in the team.

Keep giving your opinion Richie and if the LFC loving media don't like what you have to say - Tough! They call Evertonians bitters but from what I can make out, the fans of the other lot are obsessed by Everton FC and Evertonians. The piece below is written by Tony Evans who I assume isn't an Evertonian.

Seething Everton Fans?

When Howard Kendall first arrived at Goodison as Manager he said that he wanted to see Everton back at the summit, he had no right to expect that given the doldrums we were in at the time and the superiority of the neighbours compared to our club, when he arrived, but he managed to fulfil his ambition.

I don't want loudmouths spouting off about all and sundry without providing evidence out on the park where it matters, but I also don't want our staff and players to have so much respect for our opponents that they believe it's ok just to take part in big games and not to worry about getting beat.

Richarlison so far has provided enough to suggest that he can be a very good player for Everton, therefore he is entitled to an opinion, shrinking violets are no use to Everton as they are unlikely to achieve anything at Goodison.

Love it! C'mon Richie let's smash them up!

And if they come looking for him, then the rest of our team better back Richie up.

I would LOVE to see VVD get injured in this game.

Good on the lad. I know we tend to have things backfire, however, things have got to change at some point.

A win would be a good start.

I was absurdly pretending a week ago that I wouldn’t watch the game because of the restrictions. Now I can’t wait, and this excellent young man’s comments about Blessed Virgil have whetted my appetite even more.

Yes, it’s about what Richarlison does on the pitch but it’s also about attitude off it. For far, far too long we’ve granted them psychological rights. This little raid by our boy shows the way to go.

.

Jay (16), nice to hear from you.

Hearing the news from Brazil this morning, it seems there is no let-up in Brazil from this scourge of a virus.

How is your wife and her fellow nursing staff coping with this never-ending nightmare for all of you in Brazil?

As always, Jay, thinking of you and your family at this terrible time, fervently hope things improve as quickly as possible. Very best wishes.

Oofff! Where to start Dave?

Remember the Brian Rix farces of the 1960s and 70s? I and 210 million Brazilians are living through one.

Only it's not funny. It's lethal. If you scripted a Brian Rix-like farce based on the actual events of Brazil, you would be laughed at and escorted from the premises for producing such an implausible storyline.

Denial. Corruption. Incompetence. Indifference. Deceit. Conceit.

It's not that long ago the world was horrified at the death rates in the likes of Italy, Spain and France. Two weeks ago, Brazil lagged behind all of them.

So rapidly has the mortality rate climbed that Brazil is now 2nd only to USA. I will be amazed if, by the end of all this, that Brazil doesn't take the top spot from Trumpland.

In those short two weeks, Brazil already has 20k more deaths than both Spain and France, 15k more deaths than Italy.

Just last weekend, the UK was ahead of Brazil. One week later, Brazil has 7k more deaths than the UK.

On a personal level, I've taken to calling my wife Kryptonite, the only known element that can defeat Superman.

She is only one of 3 people in her hospital sector of 28 that hasn't got Covid-19. And that includes having a husband who caught it.

Yep! Just over 2 weeks ago, in spite of strict self-isolation for 7 weeks now, I got the bastard.

I've long been saying my experience and reality here in Brazil differs from TWers in other parts of the world.

When my Covid-19 test returned positive, I asked friends and family around the globe how many people they knew had caught it, or worse, died from it.

I was amazed that many personally knew none, or just 1-2. None of them knew anyone who died from it. No wonder so many question the need for lockdown.

Me and the missus? We did a wee exercise last week, loosely based on a metric many know, LinkedIn.

Now LinkedIn has 3 tiers of contact. The 1st tier is people you personally know. Who you are on 1st name terms with. Who you work, study or socialise with.

The 2nd tier are people you don't necessarily know personally, but your 1st tier people do. The 3rd tier could be pretty much everyone else.

The wife and I gave up the exercise after just 5 minutes as it was too depressing. Without completing all our 1st tier contacts, we got to 30+ confirmed cases and 8 deaths.

There are not words, nor any limit, to the utter contempt I hold for Jair Messias Bolsonaro and his government.

Jay #25,

Good luck and keep safe, mate.

Fair play to Ricky, I so prefer the attitude of downplaying their quality and lack of fear even if it is kidology. I certainly prefer than the 'we have to be perfect' 'be better than 100% to beat them' and them being 'world class' defeatist sounding stuff coming the manager even if all are true.

Jay # 25 - are you over the worst of it? I hope so – it is good to hear from you.

As for your wife, well, permit me to say you are married to a very good woman. I am sure you are very proud of her.

Last but not least – Richarlison: he obviously hasn't forgotten where he came from. Good lad, we need people like him.

EXCEEDINGLY proud, Laurie, of my wife and many more like her.

Throw into the mix that in some states they are two months behind in paying their health care workers.

Brazil is totally, totally screwed.

I stopped reading that Tony Evans article, Patrick, because I was fuming with the arrogance and the spin. And then I read that the people on the front line in presently the most dangerous country in the world haven't been paid for two months because of a bastard who was more interested in the economy rather than human-life, and I realise why I wasn't really interested in the Premier League restarting again.

I hope you all stay safe, Jay, especially a lady I've never even spoken to, because she's got the heart of a lion and is doing such great things right now in amongst all the misery. So I'm going to put that Aretha Franklyn anthem on my iPad right now, and say a little prayer for your wife, mate. 🙏

Jay, I didn't know you had contracted the virus, so really glad that you now appear to be okay. I would just like to echo Laurie's sentiments and say your wife is doing a fantastic job. It must be really difficult for the people who live in the favelas in Brazil, who really are literally on top of each other. Just as a matter of interest, Jay, where about in Brazil are you? Apologies if you have already mentioned this.

Regarding people I know who have contracted the virus, I am only aware of one mate who got it. He was really ill for over a week, said he lost nearly two stone in weight, and was really petrified of the possible consequences. Thankfully he's over it now.

Jay, good to hear that you've come through it (and I hope there are no significant and / or lasting side-effects). Your wife is a star. There seems to be a common factor in the leadership of those countries hit worst by the virus.

So on to tomorrow's game. I'm one of those who don't mind our players talking up their own game and talking down the opposition. It hopefully means that, having been so brave in words, they'll have to be brave in deeds.

You did well to ditch Evans's piece, Tony

Card-carrying kopite and life-long wanker. Would always try to ingratiate himself with travelling Evertonians in London, always playing the all-scousers-together card, but his mask always slipped. He couldn't resist reverting to smug Gobshite mode.

I knew him as a kid, he thought he was Ian Callaghan... played more like Jim Callaghan.

Jay, hope you are recovering uneventfully.

And again, highest respects to your wife, who is one of the unsung heroes in this world. I hope some Brazilians adopt the nightly appreciation ritual we saw at the height of the crisis in New York, where people opened their windows every evening at 7pm and applauded and cheered the frontline healthcare workers who were staring the pandemic in the eye.

That's me singing Aretha Franklin for the rest of the day, Tony. Not a bad tune to have bouncing around my head. Thanks.

Belem, Para, Rob. At the mouth of the mighty Amazon river. 10 billion liters of fresh water flows past Belem city, not every day, not every hour but EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY. That's 1.5 liters of fresh water for every individual on the planet. Every minute.

Belem sits 150 km from the coast. We have a 4 metre high and low tide every day in the city centre and such is the volume of water from the Amazon it actually holds back the Atlantic Ocean. No mixing of the saline sea water until off the coastline.

I mention that because this is an example of the incompetence, corruption and lack of investment in infrastructure and basic services everywhere in Brazil.

What is key in combatting Covid-19? Simple hand-washing and basic sanitation. In Belem, a city 400 years old with 4 million inhabitants, 55% of houses do not have potable piped water. Including my own. We use a water filter system. A miserly 6.3% are linked to sewerage. Only 8% of the city's sewerage is treated and recycled. Where do you think the other 92% is going?

We are now into day 3 of a frequent occurence here, in a city where 10 billion liters of fresh water flows to the sea every minute of every day: we haven't had a drop of water from the taps for more than 48 hours.

It is for this reason every household, in the bathroom, the service area, have 100 liter barrels always filled with water as an emergency fallback in the event of the inevitable, going days on end without piped water.

No Ofwat equivalent here in Brazil. The water bills always arrive, with no adjustment for the frequent water interruptions.

Marvellous!

The fact that she is Mrs Jay Woods warrants some sort of an award. The rest...

Seriously; I said weeks ago that this girl had more courage than me. I knew it was true then and I still do. I also noticed it's the only thing I've ever posted that didn't start an argument.

If anything good has come from this curse, it's that people around the world have had a clear demonstration as to who the real superstars are... It would be nice to think we have been shaken from our apathy too and our minds will be a little more focused when it comes to deciding who we allow to run our countries.

The mismanagement of this pandemic has defied belief.

That article by Evans was a shocker on all levels. I'd love to meet some of the Blues he claims to know, or at least a toke on what he smoked before he wrote it.

The same Tony Evans that has admitted to being part of the hooligan element at Heysel and many other European away games where there was trouble around that time. Got no time at all for him. A good journalist would never write a piece like that. He resides in London now – best place for scum like that.

Sorry for anyone that lives in London by the way.

Jay (25), sorry you caught that evil virus, hope you got over it and are back to being the way you were. As others have said, your wife is a remarkable lady and you're right to be very, very proud of her. What a situation you and the people of Brazil are in with a president who just doesn't care. He mustn't have any feelings at all, except for himself. At least Johnson has the sense to pretend he cares.

Good luck and best wishes, Jay, to you, your angel wife and her parents.

Didn't realise you'd had Covid-19, Jay. Hope you're fully fit soon.

I've got 2 mates who had the non-hospitalised version, both flattened for two weeks. I had something like it for three days and rested it off for a week afterwards. Didn't half frighten me, I left the drink alone for the following two weeks. Made up for it since, mind!

Best wishes to you and Mrs Woods.

It looks like you've turned over a new leaf, Darren, because nobody is arguing with you over your opinion of that absolute gobshite Evans!

Tony, the best bet of the week is Darren arguing with someone tomorrow evening!

I'll have you a score bet that he's dancing round like a lunatic, Paul, forever the optimist I've become!

Richarlison has obviously recognised that the role Van Dijk plays – dropping a good few yards behind his fellow defenders, so providing the out ball for them and his midfield – means he is rarely pressed when on the ball. He is also recognising that, because of the attacking quality of the side he plays in Van Dijk is rarely put under sustained periods of pressure.

And maybe too he has noted that, in recent games, sides that have set up to press the Liverpool back four (and Van Dijk in particular, notably Watford and Atletico Madrid) have shown him to be far from the cool, calm, faultless centre-back the media have drooled about.

A very good centre-back? Yes. The world's best? No.