Second Captains Part II

the patreon comment section is spicy on yesterday's NFL pod with David Zirin. I didn't actually listen to the pod and won't BUT I'll give my opinion anyway….. I watch NFL and have for about 17 years (since the Helmetcatch) and never really thought about the political or moral implications of that, and don't think I will.

The Dubai to Yerevan hipster emailer was the most disturbing thing on the Monday podcast and Dour Dion was a guest on that one

Why are they still booking the Anfild PR rep?

Ken is so self-aware and probably self-critical that I’d imagine he would think his stories aren’t good enough for a book.

Whereas Murph clearly thinks he is hilarious and fascinating and consequently has no difficulty waffling on about himself.

I complain about him being on as he's biased but also because the contributors from club specific pods/websites are typically the worst contributors they have.

Atkinson is by far the worst of them, but the others aren't good either.

Atkinson is an awful dose.

I think there's an element of banter between Ken and Atkinson to by honest and we all know Ken loves a wind up but Atkinson can come across as smug in responses.

I'm a Liverpool supporter but in general I don't think it's a good idea having fervent "journalists" on to speak about their own clubs - it's like having a fan on, they are inherently going to be biased. I mean what do we get out of it? Same with the arsenal guy they have on occasionally.

Ps Rory Smith is a brilliant contributor he's up there with Wilson for me.

Not sure if Mark Critchley supports Man Utd but he's excellent anytime he's on about Utd.

There is that other fella who covers Utd who sounds about 16 and for the life of me can'trememberhus name. He's not bad to be fair either

Atkinson sounds like he hasn’t listened to an episode of Second Captains because he’s completely off-piste in tone, he’s so defensive that he reams off excuses for something before someone else can even vocalise the counterpoint.

If he does actually understand the tone of the show they’ve managed to find the only Liverpool person with zero percent Irish craic in them, which is an achievement but not great for listeners. Ken is clearly enjoying the wind-up at least.

As I said last season, if they’re going to have fan journalists on they should have the balls to go full duck or no dinner and get ArsenalFanTV on, at least it might be funny.

Laurie Whitwell? Himself and Critchley both cover United and sound young enough.

The thing with Atkinson is you just know he spent every season between Liverpool winning their last division one league title and their first PL title telling everyone Liverpool were the best team in the league and had the best players. Extremely thin skinned and constantly on the defensive whenever a question even hints at being critical of player/club.

If I want to listen to a biased fan podcast, I'll listen to a biased fan podcast. Can't understand why he would be asked on to SC.

Bit strange today Ken mentioning Nick Woltemade scored the goal for Newcastle a few times last night, when it was Anthony Gordon who scored. Can easily get mixed up but said it more than once and mentioned he came off the bench to do it. He did come off the bench and Gordon started.

I mean what you’re describing him doing here is being a stereotypical and often-parodied Stats Man, which if reaming off xG is your thing are a dime a dozen on Twitter and elsewhere.

It’s not impressive in the least, particularly when the result of analysing those stats is saying something like Bournemouth have the only good attack in the EPL outside your own beloved Liverpool.

He’s been subtly ridiculed by the lads every time he’s been on, they absolutely see a lot of his value being in the unintended comedy he produces when prodded.