Liverpool banter 2

26 Apr 2024 07:39:02
{Ed's Note - Ork has posted a new article entitled, Options For Manchester United's Next Manager

25 Apr 2024 22:48:39
Obviously an interesting and anxiety filled time for fans.

Klopp was a real difference maker so I’m not making a direct comparison between Slot and Klopp. But my thinking is that before Klopp came in, the vast majority of fan opinion on the squad at that time would have been that they couldn’t win this or that or even be competitive.

Enter Klopp and a European final that first half season.

Again not a direct comparison but my encouragement to everyone is to see the potential in the players we have and how a new environment can help them to improve.

It may be u popular to say this, but we’re not a useless team. Anyone coming in has a fantastic squad to build upon.

26 Apr 2024 06:13:22
The ability is definitely there. It’s just been the lack of application this last month.

26 Apr 2024 07:47:19
I think it’s a bit more complicated than that. How many of them do you truly trust in the most important games? If you can’t up for a title run in against your biggest rivals then you clearly have problems. The first rule of football is win you duels, we look actually scared like young kids. Some of the clips of Sob, Jones and Trent trying to defend set pieces are cowardly. Lots of work to do.

26 Apr 2024 08:36:22
I've never had Szob, Jones and TAA down as defensively minded; especially on set pieces.
In fact, we over rely on VVD to deal with set pieces and Everton did their homework. They targetted him and we were in trouble.
More generally I believe that we have been more focused on attacking than defending this season. Our midfield leaves and we bring in Mac, Szob, Grav and Endo and only the latter is a defensively minded player and we all know he was a cheap option.
Not only that, but we also tell one of the defenders to drift into midfield and leave the right sided and inferior centre back covering a larger area.
It's not my thing and it's intended to get us on the front foot but how often have we conceded the first goal this season? It has the opposite effect, we end up chasing games and it was always going to catch up with us.

26 Apr 2024 09:18:05
You don’t need to be defensively minded to give one. Effort, desire, application. At least give 100%. You actually jump and put a challenge in, don’t cower down, it looked like they were praying the ball didn’t come near their area. I don’t see how you’re going to give certain players a set of balls.

26 Apr 2024 09:40:54
You do have to be defensively minded to defend. If your mind is not telling you to defend or sensing danger you're not going to do it as well as someone that is defensively minded. It's easy or lazy for a corner to come in and let VVD deal with it.
I agree though that every player should defend and put the effort in. Some are more natural than others though and Trent, Szob and Jones have never struck me as defensively minded types.
Trent has some brilliant attributes but they are usually going the other way.

26 Apr 2024 11:03:15
Trent is an amazing player I agree. But I fear if we don’t add a couple of leaders then these kind of defeats when it really matters will continue to happen. Mac, Jones, Sob will never ever be a good enough midfield to win the PL.

26 Apr 2024 11:21:33
The problem stems from a one formation for every game for me, it’s worked for klopp for sure but there’s always been teams who we couldn’t get past and who defended deep, usually he’d throw another 2 forward attackers on and we’d manage to get through it. However against Everton 2 nil down we put kostas and Gomez on…. that is giving up. (and both should be out the door now) Agree they need a rocket up their arses all of them. But why can’t we change formation 3-5-2 for instance, pack the midfield would have destroyed all Everton attacks and 2 front players closer together with crosses into box. Kloppo given up and rubbed off on players, should remember they are playing for the club and more importantly the fans not the manager.

26 Apr 2024 11:24:27
Mark - I don’t think this was a title worthy team to start with. And I think most reasonable fans would agree. But we’re building towards that. What has changed the narrative is Klopp announced his departure which turned this season into All or nothing. And contextually, we performed so well for much of the season so we’ve fallen from a winning position.

In reality we are about where I think we should be.

So, now it depends on what you believe we have to build on. Sounds like you’re in the camp that believes this squad is full of useless and unreliable players o we need to clean house. Or thereabouts, yea? I’m of the kind that we have more than enough to build on and we should do just that. A major clean out would set us back years imo.

26 Apr 2024 11:49:30
So City on 76 points are a title worthy team and arsenal on 77 points are a title worthy team but us on 74 points aren't quite a title worthy team.

2 weeks ago when we were top with the title in our hands not 1 sinlge LFC fan said we aren't ready for the title or top 4 is the aim.

There's nothing wrong with aiming for the moon and coming up short. But let's not just make excuses and pretend like we knew all along that we weren't going to win the title.

There's actually still a chance we might still win it but just not a very good one.

26 Apr 2024 12:08:26
JK - to re-phrase, my pre-season prediction after the midfield overhaul was a top 4 finish and anything else a bonus. I agree, it's not over and if you follow my responses you'll know I am one of the more pragmatic and optimistic on here.

I think you will find plenty of posters on here who made predictions that we would fall in the title challenge because our performances were starting to fade. That wasn't my position, but it's not correct to say that not 1 single LFC fan said we aren't ready because there were plenty and they were on here.

My point is that this team is being unfairly criticized against the standard of a title contender team. yes, we have been chasing the title but my view of it is that we have been over-achieving
relative to the development phase of the current group of players.

I'd like to think that people would appreciate where this team is actually at and see that there is a fantastic foundation for the new manager to build upon.

26 Apr 2024 13:02:55
Faith sorry mate. My reply wasn’t all aimed at you and I do enjoy reading your posts.

I seem a part of your post and thought it would be a good discussion point and jumped in and then went off on my own tangent.

I’m certainly one of the fans who believed we could win it all but that was because of results over performances.

So much so I’ve paid over the odds for my Wolves tickets and was researching flights and hotels in Dublin the morning of our Atalanta hammering.

26 Apr 2024 13:51:08
I am not in the camp of a full clear out and I am not in the same camp as you Faith. Somewhere in between the 2 and feel we need min 5 additions. We lack in all areas. We concede too many, we don’t score enough and the midfield can’t control a game and we lack leaders. So some work to do in each department.

25 Apr 2024 22:13:21
We thank Klopp for 9 years of excellent service. Many trophies. Unsure of Arne Slot if he becomes Manager. Not sure if he is good enough. Are we settling for Champions League qualification and the odd cup. I hope not.

26 Apr 2024 00:56:49
Settling? Settling for this over what alternative? Dying to know.

26 Apr 2024 07:00:55
The Premier League title.

26 Apr 2024 08:16:17
There's only one PL title winner each season. If it's not us, do we change the players, manager and owners every season until we do?
I've said this before but had we not won it in 2020 City would be going for seven in a row. That is staggering. We are the side that prevented that and have challenged them the most often.
City are on another level but we have still managed to take the title and give them a run for all their money.

25 Apr 2024 21:55:58
Edd001 will you be doing a match review for the Derby?

{Ed001's Note - yes.}

26 Apr 2024 07:42:25
If u have to watch that game again ed1 its not a review u will be doing its a weeks therapy somewhere!

{Ed001's Note - the issue is calming down enough to write it without it just being a string of swear words!}

26 Apr 2024 09:08:28
Looking forward to that Ed1. Assuming you’ll be majoring on persistence in poor tactics (inverted nonsense/ no width) and a general malaise building in the squad? Just my opinion, but the team have either become a reflection of Klopp’s loss of energy (stepping down announcement), or have just checked out after the FA cup loss and are now waiting for the next man at the helm?

{Ed001's Note - it will mostly be majoring on trying not to swear!}

26 Apr 2024 09:31:57
Don’t envy you Ed. Reliving nightmares is not fun.

25 Apr 2024
New image uploaded to the
Liverpool Player Sightings page entitled, Mo Salah stats, Klopps a legend but so is this guy, one of the best players we've had in the Premier League Error.

Click picture for larger image

25 Apr 2024 22:30:55
Not many matches missed there.
He turns up and he scores and creates goals year after year.
It's no wonder he's knackered 😂.
Wonderful servant to the club, as is Klopp, and nothing that happens this season will tarnish that.

25 Apr 2024 22:47:42
He is a legend but unfortunately time waits for no man, replacing him will be near impossible but when he weren't there this season we were better more of a team, no one likes change but we are going to see more players leave than expected.

26 Apr 2024 07:07:49
Who is going to unexpectedly leave, hailstones?
Salah is still contracted for next season, isn't he?

26 Apr 2024 10:05:02
Even in the season that he’s clearly showing signs of decline he’s still likely to finish the season with 20 goals. He’s one of the greatest wingers to grace the game in this country and the best winger ever to play in the premier league, without question. Absolutely a club legend and deserves to be discussed in the same breathe as Dalglish, Keegan, Rush, Barnes, Hunt, Liddell etc.

26 Apr 2024 11:28:26
Even though when I seen him play for Basel I knew he would be special. I did not expect the goal scoring machine he became. My dream then was that he would play for Liverpool one day, well he only went and did that and exceeded all expectations. It is sad when players lose their mojo his decline reminds me of Torres. Thanks for everything Mo you have been class. Now could you please leave and get us some money in the coughers so we can buy a player that has not forgotten how to play football.

25 Apr 2024 19:21:24
Klopp has allowed the poor form to happen. He is the manager, he takes the stick. We have been poor for a few weeks. Nothing has been done about it. Why?
I got hammered the other week after the man utd cup game when i posted i hope klopp has them in the next morning for shooting and finishing practice as they missed so many chances and since then we have been just the same very poor finishing.

I also said Trent is never a full back while he has a hole in his hoop the second goals was very much like Madrid's winner in the Champions League where Trent never attacked the ball. I am convinced Bradley is a far better full back than Trent will ever be. As for the three forwards, Diaz tried the other two Mo and Nunez should never have been on the pitch.

i don't care how many goals Mo has scored, you don't put on the red shirt of Liverpool and go through the motions. We can see this so why can't klopp? I would rather throw Danns on even though he is a kid. He would put more effort into the game. This is not after the fact this is what i have posted over the season.

25 Apr 2024 19:33:23
By saying Klopp has allowed our poor form to happen, do you think he could have prevented it and didn't?
If so, why would he do that?

25 Apr 2024 19:46:03
Rigsby

I reckon he should have played the kids more often

Our poor performances have built since senior players returned
Which is why I think they have tapped out of listening to Klopp.

25 Apr 2024 20:51:18
In fairness he’s looked at the business end of the season and gone with experience, I think a combination of poor tactics and players letting the club down are the issue. Consecutive stupid mistakes almost every game, sloppiness, no one taking responsibility, lack of quality in depth in key positions and players who are at the end of their careers in very visible decline. A toxic mixture to have at the end of the season.

25 Apr 2024 21:00:37
Apart from Quansah / Bradley the kids haven’t really played much premier league football this season.

Even in the 3 cups the kids were accompanied with quite a few senior players for the majority of games.

25 Apr 2024 20:03:59
Paisley79 respectfully, nonoe of us were advocating for playing the kids a the time when we emerged as title contenders so let's not start with the hindsight stuff. If anything, we were all looking forward to the senior players comong back to give the squad the bodies it needed and give us a boost. Alas, it did not happen and we got worse. If many were and he wasn't then, fair. Nobody did that so let's leave the past where it is.

As for Klopp "allowing it to happen", that would mean he knew better and chose to do nothing which I don't believe for a second. Now do I believe that he has either not recognised our issues which have existed from jump? Absolutely and that's on him. Now these issues have come back to bite and and we can't get out of the rutt we are in. It's that simple, IMO.

25 Apr 2024 20:31:16
We'll never know what the kids would have done. Klopp works with them everyday and will have a better idea than us about them.
It's a cliché often rolled out when things are not going well: play the kids. Klopp and the players deserve criticism but it's hard to criticise someone that isn't playing.
Does anyone really think that Danns, McConnell and Clarke would win us the League? It's a genuine question because I know very little about them. Please don't use 'they couldn't have done worse' because they could when we are second in the League.

25 Apr 2024 20:35:55
I seen mo huffing at his team mates last night because when the pass was on or he running to make space they wasn’t picking him out I’ve seen Nunez over the last few weeks do the same make runs and by the time someone does pass it forward he would be offside. To slow.

25 Apr 2024 21:30:33
I do think the players who played v fulham deserved to start. They showed a lot of bite that the current starting lot (who were benched Sunday) hadn’t shown the last few games.

25 Apr 2024 21:42:33
Whomever he picked, the result determines the reaction.

If he’d gone with kids and we’d lost, there would be hell to pay. If we lose, he gets pelters either way.

His subs though, well that’s another matter.

25 Apr 2024 22:04:05
I’m trying to imagine the world you’re describing. I guess it looks like Klopp sitting in a dark closet the morning after the manU game and doing nothing. Which is obviously bollocks, like your premise

You are confusing outcome with performance and effort. It’s ok, it’s a classic mistake that people make. The worse thing is to allow that confusion to get conflated by your own speculation and then pass it off as fact. That’s when we start to worry that there won’t be enough tinfoil for the rest of us.

25 Apr 2024 22:35:23
We can’t handle a run in. The only way we win the league is by winning almost every game from the beginning until it’s almost impossible for anyone to catch us.

25 Apr 2024 22:49:21
Exactly, Faith. More hindsight "genius after the fact" stuff, IMO.

25 Apr 2024 23:58:19
Look, anyone saying we’ve ’checked out’ or are not trying is completely wrong in my view.

Anyone saying Klopp allowed it to happen just has no idea about anything.

Klopp has sent a team out for each game that is good enough to win the game. I think we can all agree on that given the season we’ve had.

The players have just frozen under the pressure of a quad challenge and that has now taken over the entire squad it would seem. You can see the exasperated look on his face as he watches the game, they are obviously not doing what he’s asked them to do.

I do agree that he’s the gaffer so he has to take responsibility if the players aren’t mentally right but to say he allowed it to happen is just silly. We are not the first team that’s choked under the pressure of trying to win major trophies and we won’t be the last.

It really doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that.

26 Apr 2024 07:13:47
LiverpoolFC8, isn't this the first run in that you could say we haven't handled a run in under Klopp?
The other two seasons when we were contenders we missed out by one point and City had to post ridiculous points totals to win it.
How did we not handle it?

26 Apr 2024 09:11:20
@OP. Your first sentence is ridiculous. I’m not sure about the rest as I stopped reading after the first sentence. How did Klopp”let” the poor form happen?

25 Apr 2024 19:16:54
All the moaning on here by grown adults is nothing short of embarrassing. The league title maybe out of reach, but calling for players heads to roll, and saying we need a complete rebuild or blaming player recruitment is plain stupid and a major over reaction.

Klopp leaves us in much better shape than he found us, but for me, Klopp has nothing left in the tank and should have probably called it quits at the end of last season.

Announcing it like he did mid season, has had a detrimental effect, the players are not focused, the tactics are horrible we have reverted back to the tactics that cost us last season, and there was no reason too.

A few tweaks, a few new players coming in and a new manager with new ideas is exactly what we need.

The season maybe over but we have a trophy in the bag none the less. Klopp will get a heroes goodbye and a well deserved one too at his final game but to claim there is nothing to be positive about going forward is stupid.

25 Apr 2024 20:08:14
Andyjh83, I think people are just really frustrated and disappointed as this season promised so much more than it did in preseason so the come-down is very hard to accept right now.

I love and share your positivity and optimism at the end of the day BUT, the reality is hard to take. For me, we went for the title and we have fallen short and we got to deal with that. Klopp may get a lot of the blame BUT I never forget that he is the reason we were able to challenge for these trophies (and win one in the most legendary of circumstances at Wembley) so I take the good with the bad cos at the ned of the day, you win some and you lose some. This is the absolute essence of sport, if not life itself.

25 Apr 2024 20:44:20
I think if we would have got top 4 last year he probably would have left, he looked tired then. He looks mentally fatigued now imo. This is where his coaches should be helping out. He looked happy and fresh earlier in the season but now I’m thinking it’s probably because he told FSG he was off and knowing he was going was a big release of stress.

25 Apr 2024 21:44:00
@ the op I couldn't disagree anymore. Obviously I appreciate your opinion but for me to be challenging for the title we need Salah Diaz Nunez replacements. Not to mention at least 2 decent central defenders. I'd personally try and replace Jones also.
I know this will annoy a few but for me Trent needs to go too.
I've no idea how long these replacements would take but we won't be challenging anytime soon in my opinion without new players.

25 Apr 2024 22:06:29
My position pre-season after w overhauled the midfield, was that top 4 would be expectation and anything else a bonus.

The added variable that Klopp announced his departure and the over-performance of the team shouldn’t detract from where the team is at.

And the way people talk about the team, it’s amazing anyone here thought these guys could win the title anyways.

People are obsessed with winning trophies so much. I think that ruins the game more than VAR does.

25 Apr 2024 22:54:41
Negative IMO, none of what you say has anything to do with the actual conversation on this thread esp. since we were NOT supposed to challenge for the title to begin with?

Hhence, all the players you wanted gone would NOT have been sold to fund a title challenge since like we all knew we were in a rebuild from the off and a title challenge was NEVR on the cards esp. after the preseason and recruitment drama we had. I propose you read the thread again and try to keep up cos you sound more like a "genius" ONLY after all the facts have been known than anything else. Just my take.

26 Apr 2024 00:02:28
We won’t be challenging anytime soon Negative? We have been challenging all season with the players you want rid of.

You really need to think before you type because that is one of the most idiotic statements I’ve ever heard.

26 Apr 2024 01:00:19
Ehhhhhh kinda. I am very glad Klopp stayed on to somewhat rectify the mess he had created. 3rd place and a cup is fine to be honest, despondent as we all are right now. We can build on that with a new manager.

Time for him to go but i think this is the perfect time, neither a season too early nor too late.

26 Apr 2024 07:10:38
Who said we were not supposed to challenge for the title? Klopp certainly didn’t.

26 Apr 2024 07:33:13
You're right, Faith.
When Klopp rebuilt the midfield at the start of the season with Mac, Endo, Szob and Grav I didn't think that they would turn us into title challengers. I'd never even heard of Endo and Szob and Grav couldn't get a game at Bayern. I also felt the front three was nowhere near the quality of the one that won the title and challenged for it more than once. I remember Newcastle away very early in the season, they were all over us and I thought it was going to be a very long season. Nunez, of course, scored two late goals to win us the game but we looked miles away from being title winners.
The fact that we did challenge for so long this season is down to Klopp. It doesn't end as we all wanted but it only started because of him.

26 Apr 2024 07:38:37
Oli stop proposing anyone do anything.

I’ve been to the moon the same amounts of times you’ve been to Anfield so I’m just as much an astronaut as you are this super fan you come across as.

26 Apr 2024 12:47:06
At Oli and pecker I am sorry If you didn't understand my post. I never said we would win the league. if you recall I predicted a top ten finish this season.
That's why I believe the players mentioned by me to be sold can help us towards funding a team that can challenge for the league.