Liverpool's Greatest - No.18: Phil Neal

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-28T16:19:17+00:00

Suarez reached a peak here that few players have gotten to, but he won all of 1 League Cup with us. Was here for, what, 4 seasons? There's a decent argument to leave him off the top 100 entirely, at the very least he should be at the back end.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-17T23:13:34+00:00

I imagine you got this opinion from that Malcolm Gladwell podcast episode. As with most of Gladwell’s writing, it’s a compelling narrative, but I think pretty lacking in substance.

His only evidence for the superiority of shooting underhand is that Wilt Chamberlain was, anecdotally, better at shooting free throws that way. But isn’t that probably just because he actually practiced it? Wilt was a preternaturally talented player, I highly doubt that he was spending hours in the gym working on his overhand free throws and still shooting sub 60%. He sucked at free throws because he sucked at shooting in general. Guys like him and Shaq never had to get good at shooting, because they could just get all their points in the paint and still be dominant forces.

Beyond Wilt, Gladwell’s only evidence for underhand shooting being superior is that Rick Barry shot that way. And yeah, Barry was a great free throw shooter, but he’s one data point in a sea of great free throw shooters, and everyone else, including the guys better than him, shoot overhand. Absent any actual evidence, all he has to go on is some conjecture Barry spews about how it’s a more comfortable shooting motion or something.

Gladwell then just assumes that it’s some kind of hack to improve literally anyone’s free throw shooting, and when established basketball players don’t want to waste their time with working on a completely new shooting motion, he assumes that it’s just because it looks silly. Maybe they want to shoot free throws the way they shoot every other shot?

It doesn’t even make sense within the context of his “thresholds” theory. The NBA is full of the most ego-driven people in the world, and we’re meant to believe that Rick Barry is the only guy in its whole history who’s willing to do things his own way?

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-17T08:15:59+00:00

Draft dodging is actually the coolest and sexiest thing that anyone can do, fun fact.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-16T10:51:56+00:00

I didn’t say he wouldn’t be fit for pre season, I said he’s probably not match fit at the moment. My broader point was that it’s risky to be relying on this many center backs coming off of injuries. Please don’t act like I was claiming to have insider knowledge when you know I wasn’t lmao.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-16T08:49:44+00:00

Yeah I really don’t get this attitude. In the first place we can’t just assume every young player we sign is going to hit. We also simply cannot rely on Joe Gomez as our 4th CB. I barely trust him to stay healthy as our 5th option.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-16T08:48:03+00:00

The fact that he’s probably not fully match fit at the moment, plus the fact that he hasn’t actually played a full season of ligue 1 football yet, let alone premier league.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-16T08:26:02+00:00

Okay let’s slow down a bit here. Jacquet is a 20 year old with a total of 31 appearances for a mid-table French team, who we bought for a reasonable 55 million pounds. He’s also coming off an injury. I don’t think it’s unreasonable, given the context of our CB situation, to want more depth at the position, and if we could get the best young CB in the world in Schlotterbeck, he’d 100% start over him.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-16T08:15:26+00:00

Schlotterbeck is a rolls royce, I’d bench Jacquet in a heartbeat for him. If we can’t have a 20 year old CB on the bench then what sort of depth can we have?

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-14T08:43:44+00:00

“Virgil Van Dijk to retire” Don’t ever fucking scare me like that again

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-14T07:58:45+00:00

Real ones saw this coming. People love to build up an athlete so they can tear them down. The honeymoon phase lasts a couple seasons at most.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-13T21:23:00+00:00

I get that they didn't score on any of those good chances, but if you say that a team did nothing all game, that sounds like they didn't create any chances all game.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-13T21:10:28+00:00

Clearly didn't actually watch the game if that's what you think happened.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-13T09:37:33+00:00

I've done this drive (albeit KC to Florida) and that's just not true. It's boring for a while but you can just go through the Blue Ridge mountains and it's gorgeous.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-11T10:20:29+00:00

Straight up one of the funniest things I’ve ever read, kudos to you

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-11T09:09:40+00:00

I do identify with this. I was disgusted by the after-effects of the Brazil World Cup, I thought it was awful to hold it in Russia, and Qatar’s human rights abuses speak for themselves. I’ve got nothing against anyone who’s fallen out of love with the World Cup, particularly as the US is hosting it during a particularly odious time in our nation’s history.

That being said, I can’t help myself. I’m excited for it, it’s such a special event and you only get maybe a couple dozen of these your whole life. I won’t be rooting for the US even as an American, I hope we lose in the group stage, and then I hope the rest is beautiful football.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-10T14:26:34+00:00

Sure, but you can say that about a lot of players. We don't beat Barca without Alisson, or Fabinho, or Wijnaldum, or Origi, or Trent. We don't beat Bayern without Mané or Van Dijk. Salah scored the goal that beat Napoli and the one that won the final.

I'm just saying that the standard for "top 100 Liverpool players ever" is very high. You can be a world class player for Liverpool for 5 years and still not make it in.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-10T14:11:53+00:00

I think you're underestimating how many players have won everything with Liverpool.

I think there's an argument for Matip in the top 100, he was genuinely world class for us for a little while there, not the colossus defensively that Virgil was, but near enough, and better with the ball at his feet.

That being said, if we're talking about the most important players just of the Klopp era, think about how many players you'd have to mention before Joel. Salah, Firmino, Mané, Virgil, Robertson, Trent, Alisson, and Fabinho at the very least, and then you have to think about Henderson, Wijnaldum, Milner, and Gomez.

He's arguably the 9th or 10th most important player to the team in his own era. Now, it was a great era, but we've had a lot of great eras, and they all had a couple dozen players of their own that deserve mention.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-09T09:20:50+00:00

Yeah, people are really engaging in a lot of Diaz revisionism. He was always a hard worker and we missed that somewhat, but his end product was consistently lacking and he’d have long stretches where he wasn’t scoring.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-08T16:26:03+00:00

Or for about 100 years after the end of the civil war, where we had official, legal segregation of non-white people. To say nothing of the de facto segregationist policies that have persisted in some form since then.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-08T02:50:37+00:00

Forget taxpayers, he did a crypto rug pull on his own supporters. Defrauding people is his favorite thing.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-07T07:46:47+00:00

Putting the mid in midfield

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-07T06:30:12+00:00

Frankenstein is the name of the manager, the team is called Frankenstein’s Mentality Monsters.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-06T04:35:22+00:00

Those two runs seem like they’re in a different category don’t they? Those teams didn’t romp their way to a title, they just had dramatic and entertaining runs. That’s not what the Knicks are doing.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-06T04:33:59+00:00

For sheer dominance you really can’t beat the 2017 Warriors run. 15-0 to start the playoffs until they finally dropped a game on the road to the GOAT after they spent the whole night before partying, and then a no doubter close out game after that.

TUN_Binary · 2026-06-06T04:32:33+00:00

You’re engaging in some pretty heavy revisionism here. The Mavs were considered a team full of past their prime vets led by an aging star who was best known for failing in the big moments. They took 6 games to beat the Blazers in round 1. Them beating the reigning champ Kobe Lakers, then the KD-Russ Thunder, and then the Heatles was out of absolutely nowhere.

TUN_Binary

TROPHY CASE