Allez Les Rouges: Who must replace James Milner and the biggest achievement of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool reign

Peter Hooton returns with the Allez Les Rouges podcast and so do three of his regular guests, Ste Monaghan, Kieth Culvin and John Nicolson, to look back on the final two matches of a testing and stamina-sapping run of seven games in 23 days for Liverpool The quartet start by examining the Champions League encounter with Napoli, and explain why there were elements of the trip, like the match itself, that were a disappointment, before talk turns to Sunday’s top-of-the-table Premier League stalemate with Manchester City The game has been described as an ‘anti-climax’ in some quarters but the lads disagree and Peter reasons why it showed just how far the Reds have come in the last year. Jurgen Klopp’s decision to bench Trent-Alexander Arnold is debated, and while there is an acceptance that the right-back dipped below his high standards four nights earlier in Naples, the panel wonder whether it was the wrong match for him to be rested. Rest is what James Milner is going to get after coming off injured against City and Peter and Co talk about who should replace the key man. New boys Fabinho or Naby Keita? Xherdan Shaqiri? Or a player who was once key to Klopp’s style of football? The fixtures after the international break are then pored over, including a first Champions League clash with Red Star Belgrade since 1973, a game which that proved pivotal for Bill Shankly and for the club. Kevin Keegan told the ECHO recently that the current Reds boss was cut from the same cloth as Shankly. The lads discuss the comparisons and also spell out what could be Klopp’s greatest achievement of his three-year reign. The first part of the show then ends before Peter and Ste are joined by Joe Blott, a Spirit of Shankly committee member, to talk about World Mental Health Day, the role the supporters’ group are playing with Liverpool Mental Heath Consortium and the club, and the new documentary, Jason McAteer: Through the Storm. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices