Up until the 93rd minute at the emirates yesterday , I was still clinging on to a chance of the league. Not now though. Those fuckers are relentless and they’ve got two (covid free) first elevens to choose from. We are being decimated by injuries , covid and afcon. It’s no longer a fair fight.
Chances in both the cups. Can’t see us losing over two legs to Arsenal and if we get more favourable draws then it could be a first FA Cup final in ten years.
The Champions League is just so hard to win. Bookies currently have us as third favourites behind City and Bayern , but I wouldn’t say we were any more likely to win it than PSG , Madrid or Chelsea. Get past Inter and then let’s see who we’re up against.
I’d be happy with a domestic cup and CL qualification.
When we won the league by such a large margin it was because Jurgen probably knew it was the only way we could NOT be cheated from it along the road as the matches unfolded… This season he will not give it up as easily as some fans already have… we might have the odds against us at the moment… but aren’t the odds there to beat…!
If the shite refereeing decisions keep going against us… got a feeling LFC will begin to call the corrupt fuckers out…
We still in this until we are not… plenty of games to go, plenty of points to be won…!
Injuries happen. Covid is not new. AFCON is not a new competition. There’s nothing unfair about this. Perhaps unfortunate in part but that’s why you need to build a proper squad and there needs to be investment to match. There’s been little investment in the squad for seasons now.
City having two first elevens or not is by the by. Whatever one thinks about their owners.
Expectations are now low. I expect nothing special anymore. I would however be pleased with a cup title and getting to the semi finals in the Champions League. Above this, would be excellent, although losing the Champions League finals would hurt I suppose. But I don’t think, really, we will win two cups. If I could choose, the Champions League, then the FA cup. But the league cup is also a title to fight for even though it is not so mighty.
Well, it is time for a reality check. Last two seasons it is like watching the Groundhog day. Problem is that only few of us see what will happen /at the start of the new season/ and write, but the majority of the fans don’t see the whole picture and many of them are surprised why this happens once again.
We always start well, and in December the club has its usual injury problems and lack of enough cover, so we fail behind in the battle for the title and concentrate on the top 4.
Klopp clearly needs help from the owners, we are losing important players, other are getting older and people think that Connor Bradley, Morton, Coumetio, Gordon, Curtis Jones can compensate for the missing quality. Well, they are decent players, but not ready yet to play at the highest level and this season it was once again proved right.
Last season we started with only 3 center backs, this season the lack of quality and depth in midfield was obvious, but again the club decided to watch and not act. Ox and Keita are injury prone and sadly for us Chamberlain is not a player that is good enough for a club fighting for trophies. As a matter of fact, Ox started in 6 league games this season and in 2 of those matches we recorded our only two premier league losses. But the bigger problems are the draws where we fail to win and gain more points.
Keita is injury prone and the problem is that Tiago looks like a very similar version of Keita. Gifted midfielder who is on 200 000 pounds per week and for 2 consecutive seasons he misses practically 60-70% of the first half of the season. And the bigger problem is that something like that was very predictable, watching his former history with injuries.
Henderson will be 32 years old at the end of the season and Milner will be 36 after less then 24 hours. Fabinho is our only top quality midfielder at a good age, but he also misses around 10 league matches every season. Curtis Jones has a solid potential, but most of the time he is not avaliable because of injuries and at the moment he is not even close at the level of City’s midfielders for example. He won’t be a starter in Chelsea too - Jorginho, Kovacic and Kante are better players at this moment.
The situation with our attack is not much better - Minamino good enough to start only in cup games /inspite of all the praise he gets from the manager/. Firmino is 30 years old and injuries are starting to catch him more than ever. Origi will leave if the right offer arrives, while Salah and Mane are 29 years old and no sign of them signing long term contracts with LFC.
The squad is getting older and especially in midfield it costs us and will cost us even more. We don’t control matches well, we lose too many times the midfield battles and the players failed too many times this season having a lead and then wasting it. Twice against Brentford, twice against City, against Spurs /and in all thoss matches we conceded late equalizers/. Twice we lead 2-0 after 30 minutes and we lost the lead and almost lost the games /vs. BHA and Chelsea/.
The owners don’t care about trophies, they care only about top 4 /those are their trophies/ and acquiring other franchises in their portfolio. It is a pity that we have the best manager in the world and he doesn’t have the right tools to create a real dinasty - club winning trophies regularly.
And once again I say - the club must not spend for the sake of it, but because it is necessary. Just for example, if we had in midfield someone /only one of those/ like Bissouma, Barella, Fabian Ruiz or Tchouameni I am sure that the club would improve the number of points against /West Ham, Brentford, Chelsea, BHA, Spurs, Leicester/.
And now without Salah, Mane and Firmino for the first match with Arsenal we will be short of forwards /Origi hasn’t trained for a month. Only Jota and eventually Taki, but that is not enough.
I have total faith only in Klopp and while he is here he will steady the ship, but when the moment comes and Juergen leaves we will be in trouble.
Sad thing is he and us could have been creating a Shankley style dynasty. Possibly even Paisley level. We built up to a point with self funding that brought us to the very pinnacle of the sport and then stagnated. If we had simply spent our profits, not repaid our loans so fast (its quite normal to operate with debt, especially infrastructure debt) and/or the other £200m we’ve invested into infrastructure and academy that isn’t taken into account under FFP (which improvement of the valuation of LFC has led to FSG recouping hundreds of millions in investment) we could have created something truly special.
many of our midfield/attack approaching or in their 30s
not enough cover/depth
and I will add that our midfield doesn’t offer us enough options against different teams. I said this in the match thread against Chelsea that Fab and Hendo are too similar, Fab slightly better at tackling/winning the second balls and Hendo at passing but both offer nothing against a low block and also struggle when teams with better players press us (we were absolutely schooled by City in our past few encounters). This has been a problem for 2 seasons now and is certainly not a knee jerk reaction to one game. Our technical players (Keita/Thiago) as you said are injured too often while AOC/Milner/Jones are not good enough.
And I hate to bring City up as we all know they are a team assembled with unlimited funds, but reality dictates that if we have aspirations to win the title again, then we have to bridge the gap to them player for player to at least give us a shot. Fabinho / hendo / thiago / AOC/ Keita / Milner / Jones vs Fernandinho / Rodri / Gundogan / FOden/ De Bruyne / Grealish / Bernardo SIlva - you can see the difference in quality in the 2 lists is obvious other than maybe Thiago.
The real danger to LFC… is that Jurgen may not have any agenda, nor obligation to leave a winning/young squad in place after his contract ends… surely that is down to FSG to ensure for continuity… Not exactly sure how that works if Jurgen wants to keep his tried and trusted old guard in place until the day he moves on… That is why recruiting from in-house may become vital… hence that would Pep in a stronger position than Stevie G or anyone else…!!!
We really do need to enjoy this ride while we are on it… and the quicker Fraudiola does one and F**** Off for good to manage in another country, the better for everyone
For a number of years, the title was unrealistic for a couple of reasons: we had nowhere near the resources/structure and — while the players are professionals, they’re human at the end of it — the weight of not winning it for so long inevitably weighed on the club.
With the 30 years bullshit over, I felt optimistic that our squad would push on. Last year obviously wasn’t how any of us would have wanted, but with an unprecedented injury crisis and no fans we salvaged some pride in CL qualification. That said, I really thought this year would be when we would be “back” to our level. Things started off relatively well and even the early draw against Chelsea wasn’t a terrible point — worth noting that they did not beat us in either game this season — but there have been several alarm bells since:
Brentford: This was arguably the most excusable of the dropped points on the road for me: a new team that had already beaten Arsenal at home and were still somewhat of a surprise package. Worth noting that they’ve dropped off a bit in the last couple of months, perhaps the novelty has worn off. Led three times; dropped points.
City: We were outplayed for long stretches so not a horrific point overall. That said, we have to do better when leading twice.
Brighton: They got fortunate with the disallowed goal for 3-0 and the strike for 2-1, but still should not have been able to come back from 2-0 down, and we were fortunate for the offside flag scratching off 3-2. Particularly with the performance at Old Trafford less than a week earlier, this game annoyed me the most this season — even more than the defeats. This was a performance I hoped I wouldn’t see again for the rest of the year, but it was really the canary in the coal mine.
West Ham: Cresswell should have been sent off and the first goal probably shouldn’t have stood. Either way, we should have done way better for all three goals.
Spurs: Kane controVARsy/Tierney + Kavanaugh incompetence aside, should have seen the game out at 2-1.
Leicester: Again, a penalty miss should not lead to us completely losing our heads. Even prior to Chelsea, this was the game where I thought the League was getting away from us.
Chelsea: Second two-goal lead in the PL thrown away. The Kovacic strike gave them some belief but still a stupid, stupid foul from Milner (remember he was a yard from giving away one in the CL final) and we switched off for the second. Schoolboy defending.
COVID and injury has undoubtedly wreaked havoc with a number of important players being out at times. Still, the common theme is that we seem to lose our shit when a moment goes against us, and it often results in dropped points. Of course, these moments can have an impact on the game from time to time — whatever the level of desire the players show — but I feel like there have been too many of them for us to be able to say all are “unlucky.”
Previously, in 19/20, our resiliency is what enabled us to build an insurmountable lead in the fall — think of:
Going 1-0 down against Newcastle
Getting pegged back by Leicester with 10 minutes to go
Being 1-0 down at Old Trafford for a half
Being 1-0 down to Spurs for a half after conceding in the first minute
Being 1-0 down at Villa through the 85th minute.
The League is done, but we still have a lot to play for in the CL — we haven’t lost by more than a goal this season — so we’re right there in terms of competitiveness. Still — and understanding we were fortunate at times in 19/20 — a sense of regret over the number of advantageous positions we’ve thrown away this year.