Expectations for the season

Yeah of course!
But I’m sure Guardiola, for instance, would have claimed it as another ‘tittle’

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It’s the more the fact we can’t carve anything out, I think bar WBA if we had scored we probably would score again, each result is impacting on the last and up to Burnley the chances we were creating weren’t much to write home about.

That’s the one positive I would take from the last game, we made Pope work for his clean sheet, though he should be saving them.

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I thought you have to play fair for that trophy :wink: :stuck_out_tongue:

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Agreed here, @RedOpium. And I’m not a huge proponent of advanced (“fancy”) stats but Honigstein’s piece on The Boss got me thinking about looking past just the obvious and further into what’s going on. I realize I’d get pasted by opposing supporters for saying this, but I concur with Rapha’s assessment, we’ve been REALLY unlucky.

For instance, the chances of us not scoring a goal in the last 4 league games is .16%.

https://twitter.com/graceonfootball/status/1352557260543819777?s=21

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Oh I bet he is already planning their Fair Play Trophy parade :rofl:

But with the brown paper bags they give to the refs, they are guaranteed to be competing for it

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Great article.

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Bloody hell. Now I have to be satisfied with just this

and this

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We all know many things went against us this season

  • injuries
  • 3 subs instead of 5
  • Ref / Var decisions
  • fixtures

But Klopp (and the Club) made two huge mistakes which might cost us trophies in the end

  1. Starting a strong team and especially Jota in Denmark

  2. Not being able to present a new CB on January 1st.

Now here we are 3 months after Joe Gomez got injured and 2 months after Jota disappeared - two days before the transfer window closes Klopp admits that we are trying to find a fitting solution for our defensive injury crisis.

Amateurish :man_facepalming:t4:

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Rolls eyes at @GermanRed whilst swearing under my breath.

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I have some sympathy with what you are saying @GermanRed but you are maybe slightly overstating it, to risk aggravation with your fellow reds!

Ideally Jota wouldn’t be injured, and ideally we would have found the central defender we needed at the start of January, and like everyone else I’m watching to see if we can pull something out of the bag late in the window.

However…

Klopp, Edwards, everyone working at the club have been so damn good, for so long, that they deserve any benefit of the doubt if things don’t go as we think they should. Just my tuppence!

Expectations for the season?
League runner up… Man City have tightened up at the back and pile the goals on, which is not a bad combination to have. The cheats. Still, a depleted Liverpool side to finish second will be a decent achievement. That’s my expectation, but nothing is conceded at the half way stage!

Champions League… anything can happen. We have a mystique in this competition and it is not out of the question that we win the bugger again, maybe even with Big Virg popping up for the final?

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How the rest of the season goes depends on the next couple of days and what we do/don’t do about the CB debacle. I agree with @GermanRed that it is amateurish that we’ve allowed this situation to deterioate to the point where we have no CBs at all other than 2 lads who wouldn’t have dreamt of being anywhere near the first team at the start of the season. We’ve been unlucky to an extent but much of what we are now seeing was completely predictable.

JK is now in an almost impossible position given the knock on effect this is having across the squad. The way it limits his options to rotate as well as simply finding 2 fit players who can do the job from game to game. The frustrating thing is that there is still an opportunity there for us if we can get back on track. City look strong favourites but we are capable of putting a run together. I haven’t given up yet and I just hope those with the power at the club haven’t given up either.

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Jota could have been injured in any of the subsequent games.

It could be a Carrollesque signing
He could become injured as well
He could become another Takumi

Our real problem is we have become loaded with too many non-performing players
Origi (13 mil)
Shaqiri (15 mil)
Takumi (9 mil)
Oxlade-Chamberlain (38 mil)
Keïta (60 mil)

We would have been a different proposition if just half of these players performed.

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With Hendo fit? There is no limit…

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Immense!!!

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This is why we love hendo.

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Strange that you drum this up so often. Jota had been played in rotation with other players. He wasn’t overplayed at that moment. Had he not been played that day, he could have been injured during the next PL match. It’s just plain bad luck, and certainly not Klopp’s or anyone else’s fault.

For your second point, I somewhat agree, but again, there is some perspective needed. Was there a CB available for the right price, and with the right attributes for our team? Obviously not. So, Klopp decided to plug on with what he had at disposal, rather than spend good money on an inadequate player. Fair enough for me.

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When you watch that it’s not surprising to see why when he misses we generally have poorer results.

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Title still possible but not probable, the next five matches will determine that.

Personally I think the seven points gap, plus refs helping City whilst inevitably taking 4 to 6 points off us before the end of the season, will see to that.

They took the title off us the season before we won it, some of those winter draws, which should have been wins if it were not for poor decisions, plus the non sending off of Kompany, was the difference.

Atkinson did us in the Chelsea match in 2014. Not a booking in sight for over the top time wasting from the first whistle.

Two titles lost due to refs. This would be the third.

Top four hopefully very likely unless Fabinho and Hendo spend a bit of time out.

Champions League is very possible if we keep lads fit and get Jota back. It’d be great to go further and up our coefficient, if we win it that helps with the pot for next season even if we do finish 4th.

If we get to the latter stages, main issue will be the refs. I think City’s owners are up to stuff, its how they got out of the CL ban, and tampering with refs wouldn’t surprise me.

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And I will continue to drum this up - but that doesn’t mean that I am writing us off for this season.

The reason why I am so angry with both points is because of Klopps talking and the way the club presents itself.

  1. Klopp was ‘complaining’ and talking about fixtures and players welfare so often during that time - should have totally disrespected that game in Denmark and left most first teamers at home.

  2. Three months ago we found out that we will be without VvD and Gomez for the rest of the season. We knew already that Matip is injury prone and it was clear that Fabinho won’t be able to play every game.

Enough time to get something done in early January. What were they waiting for?

Now, three days before the window closes Klopp suddenly starts talking to the media that we are trying to sign a CB. He never did it like that before. Seems desperate or as if the owners were not convinced that we need a CB until this week.

Like I said - I don’t like the way the club presented itself in this case.

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