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Scotland stun England as Calum MacLeod hits 140 not out in Edinburgh Scotland secured the biggest win in their cricketing history with a thrilling six-run defeat of England. Callum MacLeod's brilliant 140 not out took the home side to 371-5 in glorious batting conditions in Edinburgh. Jonny Bairstow's 54-ball century looked to have England on course until they slipped from 220-2 to 276-7. Liam Plunkett (47 not out) and Moeen Ali (46) kept them in it, but last man Mark Wood was lbw to Safyaan Sharif from the fifth ball of the 49th over. It is a wonderful result for Scotland, who have been improving steadily since the 2015 World Cup and were only denied a place in the 2019 tournament when rain stopped their match against West Indies in the qualifying tournament in March. Here, against the number one ranked side in the world, the Scots gave the sort of performance that further questions the International Cricket Council's decision to cut the World Cup to only 10 teams. For England, so impressive in limited-overs cricket in recent years, this first defeat by Scotland can be mentioned in the same breath as the Twenty20 humblings by the Netherlands, and World Cup losses to Ireland and Bangladesh. They must regroup for the five-match series against Australia, which begins at The Oval on Wednesday, while Scotland move on to T20s against Pakistan on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ours is at the bottom of the garden... I often tell the kids to go and give it a shake when they need something, like when they make those off the cuff comments like "Dad let's get a new shed" quickly followed by "Let's get some decking and Artificial grass as well" Yea, don't worry kids, I will just poo the money out my bumhole and we can go and buy all them things no worries...

Karius's distribution for the 2nd half of the season has been fine. He wasn't demonstrating the kind of errors he made at the beginning of his LFC career until the final. I think the biggest criticism of Karius early on was more like their 3rd goal. Just incredibly poor shot stopping. But that first goal he let in was the worst error I've ever seen from him and one of, if not, the worst error I've ever seen from a LFC keeper. Worse than a schoolboy error. The only person to blame for the error is the person who made the error.

You can extrapolate the discussion more broadly pretty easily to be generally a discussion of when you think a manager deserves the sack. Does Mourinho deserve the sack? You've improved a bit, but the football is pretty dull and you don't look any closer to winning anything despite making a final and then being unable to break down the bus parked ahead of you. I don't think he deserves the sack this season. You've made improvement in the league, so results have improved even when performances have not. And you're a hard to beat side. But if next season goes similarly to this season, where you maybe make a cup final but can't break down the side ahead of you and make top 4 comfortably but don't win it. Maybe the performances have been much improved though or something to give some fans reason to believe some sort of improvement has happened... but it's again, another disappointing season. Do you sack him? Or do you keep him? But I guess it can be hard to compare the two, because the circumstances are different and like I said... this is all circumstantial. With United fans, I know there's already a group that thinks Mourinho should be sacked ASAP - I think right now Klopp's got 99% of fans onboard despite not having ultimate success in the CL final. Also Klopp's done a lot more building with the squad and the side - he's done a lot to not just bring in players to improve us (and he's done quite well in the transfer market) and improve the performances of those already here pretty substantially. I don't think many United players have had the same kind of role transitions and flourishment we've seen from either Firmino or Lallana, for example. Regardless of the fact that bringing in Matic was a great move (and probably his best move at United). I wouldn't sack a manager that's making any sort of upward trend though, whether in results, performances on the pitch, ideally both, or building a side that's got quality and depth and demonstrates it. I'd only sack a manager after a pattern of regression that demonstrates the rot cannot be stopped by the man in charge.

If a team is a point away from a title or one bad match away from winning the CL but then blow it in the final... I don't think sacking that manager is sacking a manager that's failed to build a team capable of winning something. And I don't think one bad season means you need to get rid of a manager after years of constant progression. Sure if we're looking like Arsenal did where things have gotten very stale and we've had no semblance of progression, then sure... sack him after years of no progression. But when you actually see the squad improve, the football improve, and the results improve (sure we came in the same league position, but we also went on a glorious cup run and added more matches to our season). I don't think it's a black and white situation. You have the look at the circumstances before making that decision.

You are very easily pleased. Any manager in charge of my club who failed to fix a goalkeeping problem after 3 years leading to contributing to losing a CL final (plus a major reason you don’t win anything) would get both barrels. To be fair we would have moved him on a long time ago, but I have to say I am most curious to see what happens with the guy who he refers to as the brains in their kushti set-up. If he is the brains, isnt it kinda worrying whats going to be steering your club as Klopp up to now is nothing more than a serial loser? Still, I hear he is good for a sing-song.

That's basically what I'm stating. You've just spent 200 million these past two windows. You've already injected 90 million with Fabinho and Keita, and potentially more if the rumors are true about Fekir, Allison, and a top GK and CB. The board are clearly showing ambition, and I think a fair reflection of that on Klopp's end is a title challenge and ending the season with a trophy. There are 4 trophies to fight for, in which you have made the final 3 times in the past 4 seasons alone. Whilst a genuine title challenge would definitely show more progress, another trophyless season should absolutely be criticised. It would then be 4 seasons with Liverpool that they haven't won a trophy. Just how much more time do you need to build a team that is capable of winning something? Then there is Klopps's cup record in consideration.

It's all circumstantial. If we lose in a cup final or 2 against a good side and miss out on the title by a point or 2... that's devestating and I will probably be raging. But calling for his head after that would be silly I think. Someone building a side strong enough to compete shouldn't be ousted if they compete and come close. It would be his work that's improved us. And he's done that each year, gradual improvement. I wouldn't want to end that just to punish him for coming very close. If we're out of the title race early and are shit in the cups only playing for top 4, or not competing for the top 4 and competing in a cup... that's more of a cause for concern. But sacking someone who's done a good job and had one bad setback is also risky. Sacking Rafa after Aquilani was too injured to really replace Alonso, who was probably our most important player the season prior, because Rafa had a bad year for the first year was something that never sat well with me. He was a man who took us from Ged's stagnation and made constant improvement season after season until his last season, where there were many issues not even in his control. I'd argue it's taken until Klopp's appointment to really steady the ship since that decision. We're not Chelsea, we can't afford to abandon our long term projects unless we really really have to - at least imo. I think any sort of rebuild means setting us back a few years.

Sickening.

This is very sad https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/motorsport/44439851