0-0 against Fulham. At Anfield. Against a side sitting dead last with zero points. Four days after the emotional high of beating Atlético Madrid.

Last episode Vivek called that Atlético night the best Liverpool game since Klopp left. This week he spent an hour demanding two players be dropped to the under-21 bench. Welcome to supporting this team in 2026.

“It felt like a return to Slot ball”

JD’s opening blow, and nobody rushed to disagree. Sideways possession, no penetration, a low block untroubled for 90 minutes. Everything we spent last season complaining about, back inside a fortnight of deciding the new manager had fixed it.

The hangover Sheik called

Give him this: after Atlético, Sheik warned that a midweek emotional peak against elite opposition is exactly what gets followed by a flat Saturday. It came true almost to the letter, and it’s the least satisfying way to be right.

Frimpong for Araújo — the mismatch that broke the right side

The clearest tactical read of the game. Araújo out, Frimpong in, and the right side stopped functioning — not because Frimpong is useless, but because the two are completely different profiles and the shape around them didn’t change.

Two episodes ago Araújo was our cult hero for solving right-back by accident. Last week we were arguing Frimpong might actually be good — as a right winger. Put him back at full-back in a system built for a ball-carrying centre-half and you get this. The lesson isn’t about the player, it’s that the solution was never systemic.

The double pivot, again

And here we are. Szoboszlai and Gravenberch, back as the problem we’ve been naming since the Newcastle opener. Szobo has the engine and none of the discipline. Gravenberch’s attitude issue — flagged last episode, comparison drawn to Wijnaldum — is back, and the read on the call was blunt: he thinks he’s better than he is.

A double pivot needs one of the two to hold. Neither wants the job.

Vivek’s ultimatum

This is where it boiled over. “Drop Szobo and Gravenberch to the under-21 bench.” Not rotate. Not rest. Drop.

And when pushed on what you play instead: “Play with 10 men — I’ll play BETTER with 10.” He also had a verdict on the armband that we’ll leave as he said it — “Szobo is a s*** vice captain.”

Whether or not you agree, that’s a supporter who has run out of patience four games in, and he isn’t alone in the comments.

“Where’s the plan against a low block?”

Jins asked the question that actually matters, and it’s the sharpest thing said all episode: Iraola was signed knowing he struggles to break down low blocks. That was in the file. So where is the plan?

You can forgive a weakness you knew about. You can’t forgive not preparing for it.

The set-piece problem

Which leads to the thing nobody at the club seems to want to fix. If you can’t play through a low block, set pieces are how you win these games — and we don’t have that string to our bow. No set-piece coach, no set-piece threat, no conversation about it.

Meanwhile Jins on the pattern of clean sheets at both ends: “only chai is missing.” Four games, three draws, and a defence doing its job while the attack files a missing-persons report.

Why Iraola can’t just drop them

JD’s reality check, and it deflated the room. A new manager cannot bench his vice-captain and a £35m midfielder in September without picking a fight he can’t win — with the dressing room, the board, and the press in the same week. The politics are real even when the football argument is obvious.

The compromise floated: Szoboszlai at right-back, again, with Sheik reaching for a Matheus Nunes comparison — a midfielder repurposed because the profile fits better than the position suggests. We mocked this idea in August. It keeps coming back.

Wirtz, and a doom prediction

Vivek doubled down: Wirtz is “too slow for the Premier League.” Worth noting this is the same player who, two episodes ago, had the best game of his Liverpool career and whose turnover numbers we’d defended by comparing them to De Bruyne. Consistency is not the point of a podcast.

Then the forecast, delivered with total confidence: a heavy defeat to Man City when they come to Anfield after the international break.

Spurs, Bournemouth, and where you come in

Spurs in the EFL Cup next — the honest question being whether we should even bother — then Bournemouth away, which is where the season either steadies or properly wobbles.

Our calls go on the Predictions page before kickoff. So: drop Szobo and Gravenberch, or trust the process? Drop your verdict and your Bournemouth scoreline on YouTube or Instagram below — we tally the weekly leaderboard, and it’s currently a dead heat between Jins and Sheik on 26 points each.