20 Feb 2025 07:50:01
I read Newcastle were the only team to not win the league from the position we were in a few days ago. Any truth in that?

1.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 09:26:02
Yeah. 95/ 96, they had a 12 point lead and blew it. They could attack for fun but were frail defensively and in midfield. Sounds familiar.

2.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 09:46:56
2nd best defence in the league, only let in 4 more than the miserly gunners having played a game more?.

3.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 09:49:27
@Victor, not wishing to burst your Jackanory scenario but we have the second best defensive record in the PL this season and the third best defensive record in the Champions League qualification table. To borrow a phrase Jim Royle might have used ‘Defensive frailty my ar$e’. Just another negative myth to have a cheap shot at the coach and squad.

4.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 10:42:41
So it was 12 points and in January so not comparable at all.

5.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 13:47:49
I think it was teams with a lead of so many points, Endo. I'm not sure of the number though.
When I read it I thought that our PL title winning season would have been included but I think games being cancelled because of Co-vid meant that it wasn't. We would have been well clear at that point.
From memory, Newcastle strengthened in January of that season buying Asprilla but they didn't win the League.

6.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 14:08:53
Conceding cheap goals against United, Everton, Plymouth, Wolves and Villa in as many games is very much evidence of defensive and midfield frailty, to say otherwise is being obtuse at best and dishonest at worst. Truth is, anything less than two wins against City and Newcastle is going to give Arsenal a boost and momentum is everything in these situations. Lose both of them and we could be in trouble as I feel if Arsenal get ahead, we won’t catch them. The hubris round here that they can’t or won’t catch us is off the scale and is borderline arrogance.

The comparison with Newcastle falling apart seems pretty reasonable as a quick check on the week by week stats for 23/ 2/ 96 shows that Newcastle were leading by 7 points, after having had a double digit lead some weeks before and they were going through a run of drawing games and conceding cheap goals.

This is without mentioning our own capitulation last season under fairly similar circumstances.

Failure to invest adequately in the squad will be our downfall again as it always is in these circumstances. We are plainly running on fumes and we lack quality in depth to be able to rotate. Gravenberch and Mac Allister are absolutely knackered as there’s no decent capable option to rotate them for. The Plymouth game exposed the myth that we have the “best squad in the league”.

7.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 14:12:44
Context and nuance required, as ever. To those challenging the defensive frailty comment, yes we have a good defensive record if you consider the whole of this season, so on the face of it, VV is a bit unreasonable. We're second only to Arsenal on goals against.

However, that is propped up somewhat by how tight we were defensively at the start of the season. Just two goals conceded in our first seven league matches. Five clean sheets in seven. However, since then, we've only managed five further clean sheets in the next nineteen matches. We've conceded two or more goals on eight occasions in those last nineteen league matches. That's two or more goals conceded in almost half of those nineteen matches. And five conceded in the last three matches.

So I don't think it's completely wide of the mark for VV to suggest we're currently showing a bit of defensive frailty.

8.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 15:32:50
but the league is over a 38 game span RR, your going to have ups and downs. At the moment were conceding but with Everton the form team in the league and Villa undefeated at home since October these are difficult games. Plymouth was a peno with a total back up team and for all the draws lately i think the only really poor performance was Utd at home. But even in a mini slump for us were still undefeated, these points could end up very important come May.

9.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 15:40:05
I heard on the radio this morning we haven’t kept two consecutive clean sheets since September. We were tight until December defensively, since then less so.

We can also say we have won the most points in the champions league this season. Problem is the trophy is won in May so it’s irrelevant, it’s about our form between now and then.

Fitness experts will know better than most of us, but if the team are knackered is there a realistic prospect we can recover our first team sharpness and fitness from this point on. Or given the games are piling up is there no chance of recovery short of resting more first choice players.

It’s not really injury or loss of form or confidence that’s killing us it’s fitness, and that’s just exposing our weaknesses and leading to more mistakes defensively but also causing a lack of sharpness in passing and transition which is where we’re best.

10.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 16:16:29
Why are we anymore tired than anyone else? Our game has changed since Klopp- we use less energy.
The fitness thing does not tell the story, at least not to my eyes.
I think our true level is emerging -we have been overperforming and everyone else underperforming. Tifo or the athletic did a video about this a while back using all of the available data.
Grav is being marked out of games and we lack grit at times.

11.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 17:16:54
We’re tired partly because we’ve gone deep in three competitions, main issue though is that we’ve basically done it with a core of about 13 players for the important games.

I’d agree we shouldn't be more tired than others, but it looks like we are. We are light in squad quality in midfield and defence, certainly if we want to compete through to May in the big competitions.

12.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 18:00:09
The Newcastle comparison is wildly off. They played like Ange’s Spurs, but as though our Darwin was in charge of tactics. We are still mighty difficult to beat - but we aren’t winning games because we don’t have a centre forward on goal-scoring form. Jota always takes a run of games to get his radar back, but Darwin is now terrified of scoring oportunities.
After West Ham, Arsenal have a nasty run of games.

13.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 18:57:30
We were never seven points clear last season and Newcastle strengthened in the January but didn't win the League.

14.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 19:18:05
Cody may be back in light training tomorrow, so could make the bench at the weekend. Looks like we’ll have to go with Diaz, Mo and Jota again.

15.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 19:55:18
If you had to bet your life on it, do we win or loose the league this season?

16.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 20:12:34
We’ve gone deep in 3 competitions?

We’ve only gone deeper than other teams in the league cup and that’s where we didn’t use just the 13 core players.

As far as league and CL go we’ve gone as deep as 19 and 16 other teams.

17.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 20:18:02
What is becoming concerning is how often we allow the opposition to score with their first shot on target or via avoidable situations, it then only piles the pressure on the forwards to respond.

We have kept three clean sheets in our last 13 league matches and in that run have drawn six times, conceding at least two in five of them.

It requires more work and effort at a time when players are becoming increasingly tired, it is creating some tension and Liverpool are becoming their own worst enemy as a result.

18.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 20:59:53
Getting ahead of myself JK, you’re right. Let’s see who we land in the CL as well, but not confident we’ll get past the next round tbh.

19.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 21:38:25
Jordan no worries mate. I enjoy reading your comments bud.

I’m just glad we avoided that last round as it came during our drop off but then I suppose if we did play in it then the Everton and Villa games wouldn’t have happened.

20.) 20 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 23:08:22
If we win comfortably at City this week, do the above arguments about fitness, form and 90’s Newcastle become redundant?

21.) 21 Feb 2025
20 Feb 2025 23:54:59
@Victor, you are talking about 5 or 6 mistakes leading to goals by a defence that has played approaching 36 games this season.

Our first two choice goal keepers are full internationals playing regularly for their country, our two first choices for right back are full internationals. Our two first choice CBs are full choice internationals and our two first choice left back are also full internationals. Becker, Konate, Van Dijk and Robertson (and maybe even Bradley - though I stand to be corrected) have or do captain their country.

Taking the last two transfer windows who would you have brought in to replace the defence we have? Are you talking about spending £60m on two or three defenders who would be a back-up or are you talking about £100m on two starters.

It’s easy to say “we” need to invest but it gets a teeny bit trickier when you try to identify realistic targets who can not only play, but can play the way the club / coach wants to play and 2ho also have the right character to fit in with, and improve the squad.

It also doesn’t help much that every time the club is linked with a player (regardless of the link being real or not) there is an immediate outburst of moronic statements about each and every players’ perceived failings with the critic generally having the benefit of about 3 minutes of clips - without any context to any game - of YouTube.

22.) 21 Feb 2025
21 Feb 2025 04:21:11
I have to agree with Viktor on this. We have been defensively frail of late and our midfield has been overrun more often than not. The only thing I disagree with is the part about running on fumes. Physically, I think our players are alright. They have had rest during the cup games, like against Plymouth and PSV. So I think the main problem is psychological.

I do agree that we need players though since Slot clearly doesn't trust players outside the 14 or 15 he has selected so far. The squad players, like Chiesa, Elliott, and Endo, have so little minutes and are lacking in match fitness so they can't be relied on to come in and change a game.

23.) 21 Feb 2025
21 Feb 2025 05:29:03
I really think it's about time that victor and wdw just booked a room.

24.) 21 Feb 2025
21 Feb 2025 06:12:16
If Liverpool do win a league title this year, it will be bizarre to look back on a year of doom and gloom and double negative posts on here about a team (should they win the league) that sat at the top for pretty much the whole campaign.

25.) 21 Feb 2025
21 Feb 2025 12:02:19
Were the best team by some distance in England, were in the middle of a hard run but will still win the league comfortably. Arsenal will drop more points than us.

26.) 21 Feb 2025
21 Feb 2025 21:16:07
In the words of the fiddler on the roof, Kevin Keegan, I'd lovvvv it if we beat them.

27.) 21 Feb 2025
21 Feb 2025 21:38:55
@Walkon, we did but as soon as we got there @Victor started complaining about the carpet and the curtains and the room being too small and the windows facing north and how the room looked a bit tired in general and how we needed a new room for next season, so it just didn’t work out.

28.) 22 Feb 2025
22 Feb 2025 06:29:54
For me Arsenal have the slightly easier run in but we have the advantage of playing them at home. We win that it destroys their belief (on the basis we still have a slight lead on them at the time of the game) . Yes we’ve got city and Newcastle next but I think they will struggle away to Forest so if we match their next 2 results I will be more than happy. CL will be tough, but league is priority. Then hopefully we get the contracts sorted and get some additional players in.

29.) 22 Feb 2025
22 Feb 2025 17:13:59
LFC should have the best defence in the league, not the second best.

Up the Hammers, just done Arteta whose wife has also phoned him just now to say he's not having boiled ham for his tea, but "West Ham" instead.

Anything less than a point tomorrow will be an absolute disaster, about time LFC started playing like Premier League Champions again.

30.) 23 Feb 2025
23 Feb 2025 06:42:48
“An absolute disaster” eh?

31.) 24 Feb 2025
24 Feb 2025 15:13:45
Disaster averted.