28 May 2024 20:14:13
MK Scouser! Brilliant review of the squad and exellent use of paragraphs ha. What realistic expectations do we have for the new season? My worry is the International tournaments, new management team from top to bottom, all needs time.
We have the increase in Champions league games, our best players in the last 12 months of their contracts, new tactics, new players etc all to adjust to.
On the otherhand we have some brilliant players, great stadium, great fans, European nights to inspire us.
Basically, I have absolutely no idea how we'll perform next season and i don't think any of us can say with any confidence, how we'll do. Either way, I'm excited and ready to move on from the legend that is Klopp.
28 May 2024 22:17:15
That was a hell of a review mk. Really great as well. Now- I’ve asked ed1 for this review like 9 times and never come up with it. Can you put up a review of the greatest player of all time zidane. Cheers mate.
28 May 2024 22:46:35
Cheers Leelad.
Aoe, I’ll be honest mate, Ed001 will do a far better job than me of a player review of Zidane! For one I only caught the back end of his career, but also Ed001 is much better at researching cool little back/ side stories. Have patience mate!
28 May 2024 22:56:43
Also Leelad, I will wait until I see who leaves and comes in but I am really hopeful we can win the title next season. Or at least take it right to the wire this time ??.
28 May 2024 23:05:16
If we can sign Ederson and a top class left centre half, I'll start to feel confident. Slot has a massive job on his hand, with simply so many players to check out. Anything close to a title run we'll be awesome!
28 May 2024 23:14:10
I reckon next season is Guardiola's last in the Prem and City are destined to win it again.
28 May 2024 23:43:07
Aoe you did the review yourself. Greatest player of all time. I'm with you there. Ooozed class that guy. Elegance, poise, grace, technique. Always in space always wanted the ball. Hardly ever lost it. Controlled games from start to finish, not just any games but the biggest games. He played in teams full of world class players but he was the one that always stood out. Amazing player.
29 May 2024 00:30:16
I think we’re top four but nowhere near good enough or consistent enough to win the title with our current squad. We concede too many soft goals, we’re too soft in the middle of the park and we miss too many chances, to be blunt, we don’t have the personnel in the squad fix those problems and I’m doubtful we’ll do the business in the transfer market to solve them judging by our apparent transfer targets and unwillingness to deal with issues that we have such as Salah being at the end of his career.
29 May 2024 04:50:48
Viktor, personnel is only one piece of the puzzle to winning titles. If good personnel guarantees winning the title, then City would be winning all the trophies on offer. And yet, they came away with only the League this season.
I for one am quite excited to see what kind of system Slot employs to get the best out of our players. In my opinion, the system that Klopp played last season and this season seemed to hinder rather than benefit the team and I feel that they are better than they have shown. Of course, personnel makes a difference but buying new players is not the only way we can go about fixing the problems that are apparent in our play.
Besides, Slot has yet to come in and the transfer window is yet to open so things may yet change with our apparent transfer targets. No one expected us to sign Endo and Szobo last season, and no one foresaw the bid we made for Caicedo. So don't get too doubtful yet just because our apparent targets are not up to your standards and expectations. Things may yet still change.
29 May 2024 06:06:30
I’d take a champions league spot and a decent cup run next season. There’s going to be a lot of change and I think consolidating CL would put the club on a good footing to move forward under what is a completely new coaching structure (as well as club hierarchy stuff as well) .
29 May 2024 07:04:52
Spine of the team isn’t good enough to snatch that premier league away from City.
29 May 2024 07:20:16
We were 9 points off the League title, all thrown away in the last lot of games. That tells me that we aren’t a million miles away . Sure a bit of tweaking in a few areas but I don’t see it being major. Then it comes down to our setup and how Arne sees us playing but I think the players are definitely good enough to adapt so it shouldn’t be used as an excuse. The idea that a top club like Liverpool can use a season (or two) for some sort of transition is pure nonsense in my opinion.
Our forwards do need to work on putting the ball in the back of the net. The chances made last season and not put away was criminal, easily your nine points right there.
29 May 2024 08:12:47
Totally agree Willis. Was a genius on the ball and I feel bad for anyone who never saw him play the beautiful game. At least you saw some of him mk. I’ve never seen anyone close in the years since. A player that excited me just by receiving the ball. Such a shame the fact that he’s a bit of a nutter is the only thing people remember.
29 May 2024 08:52:39
Irish Rover is correct. We were top of the league at 8 games left with the title fully in our hands and all games against Arsenal and City out of the way. The way we lost it was absolutely shocking and nothing o do with squad quality or we wouldn't have found ourselves in that position in the first place.
In my opninion we're within 3 players to being capable of winning the league. We need someone replace Diaz who looks destined to leave, and given we have several options for the left we should replace him with a player who can also play on the right. Also we need a midfielder to replace Thiago so that we're not so totally reliant on Endo for a bit of bite in midfield. Lastly we need a versatile left sided defender so that Virgil has a legitimate rotation option and we don't have to play a right footer like Gomez at left back. That is literally it. Other than that we might need a new keeper if Kelleher goes. LW/ RW, CM/ DM, CB/ LB and maybe a GK. Cover that and I am optimistic we can win the league.
29 May 2024 09:53:44
Klopp was the X factor for me alongside what was an excellent 11 or squad over the years that he was here.
We still have that Excellent squad but we are banking on the new manager being better than Klopp.
I for one am giving Slot 100% support but i also don't believe he will just come in and take us to the next level where Klopp who we argue was the best manager in the world couldn't.
29 May 2024 10:08:58
Zidane was great but he was no Maradona. Maradona was the closest to a ‘one man team’ there’s ever been.
He transformed an average Argentina into world champions. He transformed Napoli into title winners.
Many of the skills you see today, Maradona pioneered them on pitches which were like ploughed fields with defenders who used to tackle properly.
There was no-one before or since who has had such an effect on the game.
29 May 2024 10:19:09
aoe, I was late getting into football 10 years old. However the first game I ever watched was Franc vs England in the 2004 Euros. England were 1-0 and cruising after a Lampard header, then Zidane happened. Heskey came on and clattered someone, and Zidane stepped up and planted a free kick straight into the top corner to make it 1-1. Then in the dying moments France got a penalty and who stepped up calm as you like? Zidane. 2-1, game over, England crash out. Lampard squatted down crying is imprinted in my brain. My Dad leaving the room cursing Heskey with my mum telling him to calm down because "it's just a game". But it isn't just a game. Zidane and Lampard made me fall in love with Football that day. The all or nothing aspect of it. The brilliance from Zidane. The passion from Lampard. I was hooked.
Next time I saw Zidane play was at the 2006 World Cup finals and he was absolutely majestic. In his mid-30's he had everyone on strings. Unplayable. In the end the only thing that stopped him carrying France to victory was his own blind rage that got him sent off. I agree with you though, despite only seeing Zidane in a handful of international games my dream team of players I've seen would be:
Alisson
Alves, Puyol, Lucio, Cole
Seedorf, Modric
Messi, Zidane, Ronaldo
Suarez.
29 May 2024 10:45:42
Jk23, I go another way with your thoughts though. Klopp came in to a bang average squad (Mignolet, Clyne, Toure, Sakho, Allen, Markovic, Benteke, Moreno, Borini, Ings etc) and had to build up the club on a budget so that it could invest in infrastructure. The club had forgotten how to behave like winners as it had been 30 odd year since a league title and 10 years since a European Cup.
Klopp leaves us with an elite infrastructure, better sponsorship deals earned, a far better squad and a winning mentality. Slot doesn’t have to be better than Klopp because the foundations have been laid for him to compete. He also is coming in to a different structure, where Hughes will take a huge load off him in terms of the higher level decision making. All Slot has to do is coach a very good squad, with more investment likely to filter down to him than Klopp ever had.
Klopp was a modern day Shankly to us. Let’s hope Slot can take us to the next level on the pitch like Paisley did after all the leg work off the pitch was done for him.
29 May 2024 10:50:58
Agreed Aoe, he was incredible mate. Wait, why am I talking to myself again? I think I need help damnit, don't reply Ed1, it'll confuse me too much ;) .
:) Hope all are well.
MK, I only just got to read it, an excellent read mate, please keep stuff like that coming. It appreciated by many, you're a great writer mate.
29 May 2024 11:45:02
MK cheers for the reply mate.
I get what you're saying but my point was Slot will need to be better than Klopp was in regards to managing and coaching the team. I didn't even take into account the stuff away from the pitch.
Yes Klopp came into mediocre but all those foundations squad wise that Slot is coming into were there for Klopp last season and we still fell short.
It was almost like Klopp could squeeze that little bit extra out of players but we have now lost that.
I'm excited to see what Slot does and whilst it might sound negative i don't think its a forgone conclusion that Slot will be the 2nd coming.
I've heard how great a coach he is and how well his teams play and are set up but the truth is his team came 8 points behind a PSV team in a pretty average Dutch league.
Around 6 weeks ago 99% of LFC fans didn't know who Slot was including me.
However the guy is in and I'm very much looking forward to a new era from next season. I just think its going to be a tough ask toppling Pep and City which Jurgen even proved was the case.
on this one mate "with more investment likely to filter down to him than Klopp ever had" its a bold claim, whcih i really hope is correct but i suppose only time will tell.
29 May 2024 11:57:35
JK23, klopp was the best manager in the world Because of his relentless obsessiveness towards little details, his drive to continually make little tweaks to engineer the closest approximation to his vision of football and the desire to develop ways to effectively communicate that to his players, like he said it was a 25 hour job, and that relentlessness gave shape to a team that was always ready to overperform and overwhelm everything in its path
It’s sad to admit it (hell, klopp admitted it in the plainest language possible) but once klopp ran out of gas the team was no longer really a klopp team, given that he could no longer muster the energy to attend to all the tiny details that constitute the giantslaying pile driver of a machine that our beloved team at its peak had become…maybe it was always unsustainable, klopp’s words suggest as much anyway, because somebody operating beyond capacity for years on end was always going to crack
Slot by all accounts is very much of the same mould as klopp, a coach obsessed with the minutiae that contribute to a successful football team, and he is full of energy, initiative and optimism, qualities that had been exhausted in klopp, however brilliant of an in-game manager and man manager Jurgen has always remained in spite of his fatigue…the fact that he doesn’t have to attend to a whole raft of other matters that klopp took it upon himself to tend to at Mainz, Dortmund and Liverpool means that he can simply spend all his time honing his vision for the team, with the structure to give him all the help that he needs, and the toll that the job takes on him will, we should expect, be somewhat lighter because responsibilities are more spread out
I know I’m simply paraphrasing mk here, and I feel sad for the fact that modern football has drained our jurgen and wrung him dry, as it will likely do to Arne in time, but there is every reason I think for us to be hopeful it will go well.
29 May 2024 12:40:42
Great post PatrikBurgher. You summed up my own thoughts better than I did!
29 May 2024 13:28:19
Firstly, Adam an amazing post - so many players on there that right now are only on the periphery but could come into prominence/ main stream in seasons to come - like Bradley and Quansah have do this year. Hopefully it's players like Bajcetic (v2.0), Clark and Danns next season.
PatrikBurgher - excellently put. All top level coaching/ managing jobs these days are so draining, especially if you put your heart and soul into it like Klopp does. I am excited for Slot and the lack of PL awareness that Klopp has developed over the years should hopefully be offset by Slot having a full tank!
29 May 2024 14:12:36
MK and Patrik cheers for the replies lads.
Its one of those discussions we could have in a pub over a pint. I'm just simply offering an alternative view.
I hope Slot is the man for the job but he has big shoes to fill. Yes he has a much better squad to work with but he's also now in a far more competitive league and will be expected to challenge at the top table in Europe.
Klopp admitted that he was burnt out but it was quite clear the players would run through a brick wall for him which we have now lost.
Bar a handful, Klopp raised the performance of more or less every player he has had at LFC so i struggle to see how Slot will raise that further or succeed with the players he failed on but i suppose only time will tell.
Maybe the change in training routine might assist with the injuries we seem to constantly suffer with and i find it a 180 how people seem to be excited with Slots inverted fullback when they wanted Pep burnt on the cross for his.
I'm thinking top 4 next season with a good run in the CL and hopefully a domestic cup will be a good first season for Slot.
29 May 2024 15:31:17
I think you’re right to say that the power of klopp lies in his ability to coax the most from everybody around him, but would you rather have that than a soundly drilled defensive shape that doesn’t collapse every time we lose the ball?
Imo we were never really good enough to win the title this year because there were just too many glaring problems with the way we play, with so many moving pieces offensively and a haphazard approach to recovering some sort of shape after losing it in dangerous parts of the pitch, of course we will miss klopp’s personality and the love we all have for him, the players and staff most of all, but tactically I’m not sure that we could really have won anything big if we persisted in playing this way, it’s chaotic and creates lots of chances but we get played through by any team we play
From what I can tell (and you can be skeptical about the eredivisie) Slot has a real history of converting players and transforming neglected talent into real value, look at köcku (spelling? ) for example, or Jimenez, and there are players in our squad who look like they can go up a level playing in Slot’s system, like dom, Harvey, Conor…. so give it faith! I think it will turn out great, at the very least Slot has shown with feyenoord that he doesn’t give up easy chances and can coach a defence, I’m sure he has ideas towards plugging the gaping holes we have in transition.
29 May 2024 18:31:12
Well-put, PatrikBurgher. We simply could not win the title this season with the issues we had this season which and I have always said it, came back to bite us near the final quarter of the season. I mean, just watch the Villa game, a microcosm of our season, IMO.
If that was another team and tfans were frustratated complaining to me about how they should have won the title, I would be telling them that they had been living a dream filled with optimism (which is fine cos we did) the whole time. And then Villa arrived and woke them up.
The hope now is that Slot and his coaches can iron out our issues or hide them enuff for the time being while at the same time, bring the positives within the team (as there are many) to the fore.
29 May 2024 18:45:44
Crazy how no one told us on here we couldn’t win the league after 27 games played and we were sat top of the table with equal games played.
30 May 2024 02:32:17
JK, I would have loved for us to have somehow won the title, and yes, I too did believe it was a distinct possibility with the run-in that we had, but let’s be real, if we did manage to do it it would have been as fortuitous of an achievement as the year we almost won with Brendan (though of course our squad right now is light years ahead of that one in terms of balance and depth) …all season long we’ve conceded early, been cut through on the counter by every sort of opposition, allowed the opposition to get shots off in and around the box, and not been able to impose control and set the rhythm when we’re in the ascendancy, these aren’t the hallmarks of a title winning team, even if we came very close our vulnerabilities were there for all to see and for all to exploit
Could we have won it? Sure. Is it easy to come to terms with why it all came apart when things started to go into a tailspin and all our flaws conspired to undo our season at the same time? Also affirmative. As Klopp said, it’s better to lose and know why than to win and not know why, the good thing is we might not even need any change in personnel to fix the issues that we have.
30 May 2024 08:33:39
Patrik i get what you're saying and its good debate.
In my opinion though you can't win a 38 game Premier league by being fortuitous, maybe you can a 6 game cup competition but where you finish in the league is based on your season as a whole.
My point was aimed more at people who are saying in hindsight that we could never win the league but they sung a different tune when we were top with 11 games to go or when we were 1 point off the top with 7 games to go.
I tottaly agree with the issues we have had this season with being cut open and conceding first but the league table only reflects on points earned and until we fell apart in the Utd game we were very much in the running for the title.
All the issues we had last season I've seen has been put down to the inverted full back formation but we've just hired a manager who plays the same formation but then I've also seen that Slots inverted full back system is better than Klopps which I'm not sure how you can judge that looking at the levels of the league.
I'll get that someone will point out that Feyenoord only conceded 26 goals this season but Ten Haag's Ajax only conceded 19 in his final season and they also won the league.
For me slot has a clean slate and i really really hope he is the man for the job. I just don't understand how some are so certain he is the 2nd coming and will likely be the first to be on his back if it doesn't work.
Similar to how they were on the We're going to win the league train in March to then happily tell us we were never going to win the league in may.