LOL…no one at Liverpool is asking for forgiveness.
it feels like the last eight years, the message hasnt got through… sounds like in a week of Klopp being gone we’ll be back to 2015…
for those not paying attention…
enjoy the journey, back the players (especially those putting in the effort), believe and try and be as positive as possible…
the team have lost thier way a bit…plenty of sages want to say they saw it months ago, some, not so long ago…its irrelevant…
we actually have people in here saying this is the worst theyve ever felt about the team and its pointless watching…
say it out aloud… theres liverpool fans who think its a drag watching Jurgen Norbet Klopps last 4 games as a manager of this club…
i say watch and enjoy…visit the forums and enjoy, because in about 4 months this site and our fandom will be inundated with people like ‘notasuperfan’, and if things go really pear…we could end up with our own version of goldbridge, and you know damn well that’ll be a stereotypical scouser etc etc etc
im hoping we all can hold onto the real lessons Klopp has tried to teach us…
That’s all nice, but we can also talk about the reality and the future.
I’m also taking nothing from granted. I celebrated the League Cup like it was our last trophy for a while. I feel sad with the shit atmosphere Anfield has created since Atalanta onto Palace. That’s not a way to end Klopp’s era here, it’s embarrassing even. I still might go to Liverpool for the days around the final league game only to give Klopp a proper goodbye (if there is an opportunity).
But we can put also emotions aside in moments and talk, share opinions about things we’re passionate about.
I’d like Anfield to be much more positive than it was in the last games. The Travelling Kop at Fulham sounded good. Forums are much less important. Voices here don’t count for much.
Think i saw it perfectly on youtube - saw a comment that said Nunez will win you mad games like Newcastle and Forest but will cost you titles.
I cant fault his effort but he needs to be moved on. Keep hearing people say hes young - hes 25 in June and age has nothing to do with missing so many chances.
the future…no worries, but lets be positive about it, its a rebuilt squad needing time…
the reality…well, see my above point. thats the true reality… instead of suggesting we are at some all time low and arent worth watching anymore, why not recognise the reality of the situation, and see what Klopp HAS achieved, over eight years, but alos over the last few months…look at the kids hes played to extract results from…
thats reality…
reality isnt whats been served up for the last few games, reality is that these lads have even come as close as they have…
I can be positive, but to be positive at all times means also to be a bit blind. Reality depends on the period you’re looking at. It’s been a wondeful time with Klopp, but we can also talk about other things at the moment. Some uncertainity, it’s all normal. It won’t affect the team, that we can be sure of.
I don’t know what it is. Maybe social media compels people to create these ‘hot take’ responses to issues that in reality are always in flux.
You don’t have to go back very far to find the general consensus that this is a team reborn. Quality all over the pitch, set for years with most of the players best days ahead of them. And look at the quality coming through the academy!
A little slump (which we are no stranger to under Klopp) and it’s the end of the road. The squad needs rebuilding, all the older lads have nothing left, and the younger ones aren’t good enough.
I can’t do with this wild swinging from one end of the spectrum to the other. Why can’t we see it for what it really is?
This is a brilliant football team with a great balance of experience and youth. They’ve pulled out a title challenge in late April that nobody expected. It’s sad they have run out of gas but that’s not something to kick them for. Arsenal did exactly the same thing last year, and they have come back stronger.
Do I think we need a new manager? Yes - but the only reason I think that is because Klopp says we do. I’d follow that man into war, so if he says he is done, then he is done. He can go put his feet up in Mallorca and enjoy himself. He owes us nothing.
We will have a new manager next year and whether it’s Amorim, Slot or Tony fucking Pullis, let’s be clear that they are being given the best inheritance of any new manager since probably Joe Fagan.
I’m pretty sure if a big offer came in for him from Saudi or elsewhere and Edwards wanted rid then the new manager might easily be convinced to suggest to him that he’s no longer a guaranteed starter and should seriously consider it. All totally hypothetical of course but not totally improbable.
I know it’s ifs and buts, on another day he gets a goal and an assist (knock on to Diaz for the side foot volley). Some of the touches were insert Roy face rub gif worthy but despite that he offered very good movement and carried a threat 1st half…completely disappeared in the 2nd, not sure where he went…must’ve started a fight with Mo in the dressing room at HT seeing as neither were seen.
The Gods have always sided against him when they see him play, I’m seeing Mateta shoot straight at Duvravka last night and it goes through his legs…they won’t give him a goal as such.
I can really see both sides of the argument with Darwin.
I love that he’s a bundle of energy and makes defenders lives a misery. I love his spirit and enthusiasm. I love his continual running and what a nuisance he is.
But he has to take the chances he is given. There have been about ten chances this season where he absolutely should be scoring. No excuses, no arguments. That could be the difference between winning the league and not winning it. There are always ugly games in any season, and in those games when the one chance drops to your number nine he needs to take it.
I’ve been back and forth with him this year, and he’s properly wrecked my head. I genuinely don’t know what I think about him.
The closest parallels I can draw are Collymore and Carroll. They are the two players that come to mind most when I think about Nunez. Those players came to Anfield and they had absolutely everything going for them. I remember thinking about them both my god, when they click they are going to be unbelievable. Neither worked out - Collymore had his off field issues and Mental Health problems, Carroll was a piss head who never wanted to be at Liverpool. I now look at Nunez and think my god, when he clicks he’s going to be unbelievable, and then wonder if I’m an idiot who’s been here before.
I’m so rooting for him. I’m desperate for him to do well. For it to click. But as these awful misses clock up it gets harder and harder.
He’s been unplayable and not in the good way. For a while he looked like he was finally getting where he needs to be but lately he’s been nothing more than a waste of space. Games pass him by, his touches are all over the place and his finishing… He might as well as shoot with his eyes closed because that’s essentially what’s he’s been doing. He doesn’t even look up to see where he is in relation to the goalkeeper and the goal.
Personally, I’d give him another season but I’m starting to believe that he’ll never fulfil his potential at Liverpool. He’ll probably go on to become a very good striker at a less demanding league. He doesn’t seem to have the mental makeup to succeed in the PL. Not as a pure No. 9 anyway.
I think the thing that bothers me most with Nunez is the number of times he still gets caught offside.
I remember when we played Benfica and Nunez was with them, he looked phenomenal. He had the ball in the net 3 times but two were offside. That should have been a warning.
Some players have the ability to think ahead and know exactly what else is happening on the pitch. I don’t think Darwin does. He obviously has great speed and agility, and can think on his feet, but he lacks that bit of football nous that the very best goalscorers have - just being in the right place at the right time.
I’m not sure if that is something that we can still train into him. He’s 25 in the summer and I suspect that what you see is what you get.
The other thing I’d say about Darwin is that there is always a psychological battle going on between striker and goalkeeper. @The-AllMightyReds raises the point of why Darwin can’t catch a bit of luck with these shots at the keeper.
The first obvious thing to ask is why he is blamming it straight at the keeper, rather than going either side? It’s a two foot wide keeper stood in a 24 foot wide goal. Why is it not going into the space where a keeper has to at least work? That to me suggests a confidence issue - a player so fixed on hitting the target, he is putting it exactly where the keeper wants him to put it. Yes, he could be luckier. But a good striker takes luck out of the equation and puts the ball where he isn’t relying on it going through the keepers legs.
The second thing, which is where the psychological battle comes in, is who has the upper hand. When Darwin is through on a keeper, the keeper knows that this lad misses chances. He stands a little taller, he is more confident, he is out quicker. And Darwin knows he misses chances.
If that’s Haaland running though, the psychology is in the strikers favour. He doesn’t miss, the keeper knows it, Haaland knows it, and both shrink or grow accordingly. More often than not the matter is settled before the shot is taken. And by the way Darwin is a much better footballer than that ape, but the ape just does one thing incredibly well
To be the spearhead of a quality pressing side it’s not enough to run around and react to everything like an absolute wild animal in the jungle.
To be the focal forward point of a quality side overall (that wants to be protagonists, regardless of style of play), you need to be technically good enough to link up play in many different areas and body positions against the goal, plus not be that much in offsides.
To be the main goalscorer of a side and club that wants to compete for and win the biggest prizes, you need to have a variety of finishes. Regardless of the odd worldie here and there, efficiency must be better.
“Núñez was very much a Klopp signing (Liverpool’s recruitment thinktank preferred Christopher Nkunku, then of RB Leipzig, who has spent this season injured at Chelsea) and the manager spoke about how it is his responsibility to provide the player with the confidence to perform.”
Look at a Shearer compilation. While he scored a good number of highlight reel goals, his textbook goal was facing down a keeper 1-1 and hitting it low, hard and just outside the keeper’s standing foot, almost blasting it through him. That was his go to finish because despite the conventional wisdom, from those positions where you’re close enough that the keeper doesnt have much time to react, it is harder for them to plug the gaps around their body than it is to reach out to the areas they’d have to get to if you’re trying to “pick a corner”. If you miss like this you are going to look a pillock and get criticism for “blaming it straight at the keeper and giving him an easy save”, but it is the higher percentage finish that over the long run will see you score more of your chances than you will by trying to put it outside of their reach and into the corners.
If you accept that, which I get a lot of people don’t, then there isnt too much to blame Darwin for over a lot of his misses in isolation (obviously, some where he misses the target are incomprehensible and a different issue). On most he hasn’t done a lot wrong where he has hit the ball cleanly and pretty close to where you’d want it to go, and in a lot of those situations even if the keeper can get something on it he’s hit it well enough that you’d still expect to still see it fly in off the keeper’s thigh or arm. The unfortunate reality though is that over the long haul, that has happened too few times so there is obviously is something problematic, but I think it’s wrong to say that the issue is that he should be picking his spots more. I think more variety in his finishes would help as I think it is possible keepers have sussed that he’s going to try this finish and so take a more compact ready position that makes it harder to blast it through them. But I think the bigger issue is he’s telegraphing his shots. If keepers have sussed out his choice then telegraphing the shot is going to compound that by giving them just fractionally more time to get set.
But there are searching questions now with regard to who to invest time in at Liverpool.
What to do with the £85million Darwin Núñez, for example? The lack of composure he again showed when handed the chance to equalise in the first half against Everton was another test to the patience of those supporters who have spent the past 18 months religiously chanting his name.
Jordan Pickford, the Everton goalkeeper, spread himself à la Peter Schmeichel in front of Núñez but instead of a clever, calm finish, the Uruguayan delivered a rushed effort that was thrashed on to the leg of his rival. It was the same against Crystal Palace’s Dean Henderson ten days earlier in another costly defeat. It has been the same too often since his arrival from Benfica.
Núñez was very much a Klopp signing (Liverpool’s recruitment thinktank preferred Christopher Nkunku, then of RB Leipzig, who has spent this season injured at Chelsea) and the manager spoke about how it is his responsibility to provide the player with the confidence to perform.
Still, in recent weeks, as points have been frittered away and cup exits became commonplace, the problems have extended beyond the pony-tailed forward.
The miss against Palace I can understand as he had no time to look up or in position to do so with where the ball was.
However, the miss against Everton pissed me off, he had a great first touch, plenty of time, looked up to check the keepers position and then just blasted it rather than passing it into the far post where there was a big gap.
