15 May 2018 09:00:07
Hi Fellow reds. So the 17/ 18 premier league season is over and I want to discuss with everyone what they thought was key matches during the season.

In my view the 2-1 against burnely in January was an extremely important result that set us up for the remainder of the season. Also the game management by Klopp during that period was spot on and helped us get results in 2018.

What was it for you guys?

1.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 09:11:22
Liverpool 4 - 0 Brighton. Why? we finally got CL for next season secured lol but I think every game is important in any season, I just hope next season we can turn more draws into wins and go for the title.

2.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 09:12:58
i agree that and the 2-1 win over Leicester should not be underestimated.

i am going to also be controversial but i think the 4-1 loss to Tottenham was our biggest game of the season (domestically) as it was a kick up the backside to make every player look at themselves.

the humiliation of that drove us to become a better team and have better focus on what our season goals were.

3.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 09:19:49
I agree Southern Red. The 2-1 against leiceter was us just powering through the match to get the win. Never gave up.

And the 4-1 was probably important in terms of what we produced after that.

4.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 09:21:09
The 2-1 win against palace
We were losing and pulled it around
The next day chelsea got beat by spurs
Those results gave us a gap which chelsea couldn't close
And let us rest players for the champions league matches.

5.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 09:28:51
Totally agree with all of the above but also think the 4-3 against City. That helped us massively for the Champions League games as it showed us that we didn’t nead to fear them and that if we took the game to them we had the beating of them.

6.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 09:58:20
Quite a few for me and I've bottled this up all season so I apologise in advance!

Watford 3-3. We needed to hit the ground running and a marginal offside goal which was primarily poor keeping from Mignolet, cost us the points on the opening day.

Chelsea 1-1. A game we utterly dominated, and Mignolet threw away by flapping at a cross.

Burnley 1-1. We were in complete control and then Mignolet threw it away with utterly shocking positioning, and made us chase the game.

Arsenal 3-3. We were set for victory until Mignolet let a Xhaka shot from Australia, go straight through him.

Potentially up to 8 points lost from Mignolet being pub league level at best, in half a season! He should've conceded a penalty and been booked for taking out Diouf in our 3-0 win over Stoke as well. The scoreline was so emphatic that I'd argue we could've won anyway, but that would've been more points cost by Mignolet if we hadn't.

He also single handedly got us knocked out of the FA cup with the worst goal keeping display at Anfield, in history.

Hopefully Mignolet never plays for the club again.

7.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 10:02:08
Great question. I genuinely think whatever match convinced klopp to drop Mignolet was a game changer.

8.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 10:03:26
You would have to say that 4th place was the bare minimum as an achievement for this squad.
Our results head-to-head against the other top 6 were a disappointment compared to last season, particularly away from home.
I still feel that the sale of Coutinho has affected the team and, if the Summer transfer information is to be believed, the fact that we are seeking a replacement is testament to that.

However, having said this, the re-invention of the playing style to a quicker, more direct model, proved to be key and for this reason I will cite the 4-3 home win over Man City.
Achieved sans Coutinho and it marked a blue print for much of what was to follow.

9.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 10:04:37
Might be a controversial opinion but I think the defeats to Leicester and West Brom in the League and FA cups were important.

Getting knocked out early in the cups enabled us to focus on the league and Champions League. We've had a thin squad with not that much quality off the bench. A long run in the cups could have stretched our injury-hit squad even more.

10.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 11:10:01
4-3 vs City - think it gave players the belief that they could beat anyone - they have taken that belief into the CL, as well as most league games in the second half of this season.

11.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 12:53:12
Think you have a soft spot for Mignolet MK, haha.

12.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 13:38:45
I do actually Lancaster 😂 he's a lovely bloke and I follow him on social media because he's so nice. If I didn't like him so much as a bloke, I wouldn't have bottled that in all season!

He is a good cheerleader to be fair. It's just a shame that a Cheerleader would make a better keeper.

13.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 15:17:46
One thing in Mingolet's favour - thank god he bottled the FA Cup game for us. If we had stayed in we'd have been in the quarters and quite likely the semi's, and had that happened I can easily imagine our squad collapsing with another basically two weeks of mad fixture rush. If we had gone for the FA cup and stayed in, I'd be happy betting that we'd have finished this season without even CL football to look forward to next year. So all's well that ends well etc.

14.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 18:32:10
Like SR said, it was the 4-1 loss to Spurs that did it for us, IMO. You cannot imagine how disappointed, angry, frustrated I was after the game. It was a collective meltdown from coaches all the way to the players. The media had a feeding frenzy ans so did the fans on SM and on these boards. It was this time where some where calling for Klopp's head (I know, ridiculous) . I did not read the sports pages online for a week, it was that bad. I also remember Klopp defending Lovs and the whole world wanted him sacked for that alone. I did love the way the fans supported Lovs during the worst time of his life prolly and voted him player of the month after his house was smashed and burgled.

However, the way Klopp managed that situation was brilliant. he was calm, cool and never lost his nerve during pressers after the game and before the next game (where we thumped Saints 3-0) and that was the beginning of our 18 game unbeaten run in all comps (12 unbeaten in the PL) . We would only lose 3 more PL games after that loss and then well, here we are. Up Da Pool! #TakeThe6th!

15.) 15 May 2018
15 May 2018 23:01:30
I agree with nearly all of the above, so many games could be picked, but i’ll choose 4-3 against city. As said above it gave the team belief they could beat anybody on their day which is very important for the champions league. And other teams in the league started to have a go. Albeit it didn’t go as well for most of them


The main thing I don’t agree with from the OP is Klopp game management in 2018 being good. IMO it wasn’t. He kept reverting to 3 CB's which invited so much pressure and we had nobody to go forward and it was always very nervy to watch. I’d rather we took a page out of City's book and kept attacking for the full 90+. Obviously we don’t have the squad to maintain that so hopefully next season with some of the proposed signings we will be able to keep the intensity high for longer and have subs to continue it without overexerting the team.