PL gap is going to be tricky to surmount and will require City to stop getting so lucky with decisions. But even then our form would need to vastly improve, as other have said above.
For me it’s not a personnel problem but a mentality issue. We are some ways away from being the ‘mentality monsters’ of old, some of the self belief seems to have faded and with it the concentration required to play Klopps style.
Not sure how we regain it, I hope they are having some frank conversations behind closed doors, it’s all very well saying we are entertaining and happy with a point when talking to the media, but second place isn’t good enough for these players or this club, and they need to find a way to close the performance gap.
That has literally happened in one season. The other two recent seasons we won the league in one, and we missed out in the other only due to some genuinely absurd point totals. Any normal season and we’d have won that easily.
The former few have made their actual competitive debuts with us this season or last season, while Jones was a midfield mainstay for a while in a team that achieved top 4. Not sure what you’re trying to say here.
Not to mention, we’re barely halfway through the season, get a grip. Half a season is a lot of time for a young player.
Yet good enough to be a player who won the Champions League and the Premier League, being an integral part of both teams. And as for Keïta… He was essentially fit for much of the first bit of the season, until being taken out by a dirty foul. He then seemed well enough to play for about 20 minutes the next match, which might lead one to suspect that it’s possibly a consequence of that dick move. Since recovering from that he’s been fit. Much of the reason why he hadn’t really been fit and available before was because of mismanagement by his national team as well.
Are you taking the piss? He missed out to injury last season only because of the same shit as Keïta so far this season. Apart from that, he was available for nearly every single game apart from a couple he missed because of COVID. Other than that, he’s only missed anywhere close to 50% of a season just once.
Just like with Origi’s situation, I think the manager has made it more than clear it’s mainly because of the quality we have in the other options that they haven’t had more minutes. He’s also made it more than clear that it’s no shame on them because of that.
Then why the hell would they have sanctioned moves for Alisson, Virgil, and Keïta? they could have just saved that money since we were already getting top 4 without those players. You’re also ignoring the fact that many of the moves that haven’t gone through were also with agreement by Jürgen. It’s not like Konaté was available last summer, for example. We have targets and we stick to the targets.
We have 5 forwards out to AFCON, injury and COVID. I’m not sure which team can survive that. Not even City whom so many people are wanking over.
My only expectation is that we fight hard for everything, and that we don’t give up. If we win, we win. If we don’t, at least we didn’t give up and miss out on the opportunity of winning.
Some of the negativity in this thread is absolutely ridiculous. If City keeps up their record (which they don’t exactly have the best track record of doing, especially when other competitions come back in), they are on target to reach 96 points. It took us 2 frankly incredible seasons to reach that kind of point total, and to lose to that is nothing surprising.
We also tend to do well in stretches, so don’t be surprised to see us string together a long winning run soon. We’ve not been that terrible recently, except Leicester perhaps. If not for the dodgy refereeing, and frankly some absolutely shit luck, we’d still be within a point or two of City. 538 had us rated as battering Leicester in every way, apart from our absolutely appalling finishing, which is the only consistent theme in the last 3 matches. Had we won all of those, as we could well have, especially if Origi had been available as an option to come in and finish those chances, we would not be having any of this absolute drivel pouring around these parts at the moment.
The only people who aren’t mentality monsters at the moment aren’t the players, they’re you lot.
Agreed. The difference between the top 3 isn’t as big as the gap in the standings suggests. Shitty have been incredibly lucky/shifty with covid, injuries and decisions in their favour. 3 weeks ago we fancied our chances against them whereas now we apparently need to retrofit the entire squad. The league is almost out of reach but it’s not gone yet and we do have the personnel to make it happen.
We absolutely have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot though. We have 6 draws and we led in 5 of them. Had we kept the lead in just half of these games, we would have been 5 points behind with a game in hand.
Ederson is a red waiting to happen every week… Game changer there and then
We need to build a head of steam up…
No better way to put pressure on Fraudiola than with a red juggernaut up his arse…
We’re frail, we still have one of the best attacks in the world, largely due to Salah but Jota and Mane would still start for most sides too. But we can be got at now. We can’t hold onto leads and we aren’t a fortress anymore. If our attack was at the same standard as our midfield and defence we’d be battling for top 4. It’s easy to see Warning signs and start to get nervous when there are warning signs there.
Yes, before we got hit by covid, match postponements and shit refereeing decisions. I view the preceding months as more representative of this team’s quality than the last couple of weeks full of disruptions.
You’d better quote my full thought on the matter and read carefully:
''Well, it is time for a reality check. Last two seasons 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.
I was speaking exclusively about last two seasons.
I am not sure actually what you are trying to say. I said exactly what I meant and Jones was part of the squad ‘‘that achieved’’ /you speak like FSG member/ 4th place. After two seasons in which we won the league and the CL looks like 4th place is achievment for you… Last season Jones started exactly 13 games from 38 and I don’t know how that makes him a mainstay?
And how exactly OX influenced us winning the CL and the PL? Hendo, Gini, Fabinho, Milner played much more important roles than him. Or it was Alisson, TAA, Robbo, VvD, Salah, Mane, Firmino, Hendo, Fab, Gini, Milner. What was Ox’s role in our road to winning the champions league, remind me of 1 single game when he made the difference and was really integral for us?
And speaking about Keita, this is his 4th season in Liverpool and he never managed to play more than 6 consecutive games, that is a fact. In fact in 3 and half seasons he started 38 games from possible 134. Yeah, he is super fit, bar that dirty foul in his 1st season and the neational team. Gerat conclusion
Speaking about Thiago he has started 28 from possible 58 PL games. Shit or not, these are the facts. 200 000 pounds per week and we have him available for lesst then 50% of our league matches. Just compare his stats with Wijnaldum, Henderson or Fabinho and maybe you will see the difference.
Yeah, maybe ths was the reason for Klopp to use Ox as a forward instead of Minamino. Looks like Taki was even behind him. And Klopp says many things, but actions speak louder than words. Taki has not started a league game for a very long time and there are reasons for that, especially when the boss decides to use Chamberlain as a forward.
Those moves were sanctioned only after the sale of Coutinho. Remeber that? And for the last 3 seasons what big deals have they sanctioned? Anything close to VvD or Alisson’s transfer fees?
Yeah, everything is great, no problems for the club, we are going into the right direction, from a team which fought for titles, ‘‘top 4 is our achievment’’ as you said.
Small margins, all very similar to 2018/19 and 2019/20. Stones is 12mm shorter, Liverpool perhaps win the game and the title. Mane doesn’t bury that header at Aston Villa, we lose at home to Man City and the whole season disintegrates within a week.
That said, while there were moments of silliness and poor organisation that cost the team a fair few points (Brentford and Brighton more than any other game for me), there were games where refereeing decisions were clearly wrong and went against us, like against West Ham and Tottenham, while Man City’s penalty against Wolves was laughable. Perhaps Liverpool would have won those games and Wolves held on, we’ll never know, but that’s possibly seven points that we should have gained on Man City, keeping the title race alive.
We’ve only lost 2 games this season. We’ve been very good most of the time and brilliant on occasions. Only the West Ham and Leicester games were genuinely poor performances and we deserved to lose both. You can’t expect perfection. It’s the trends that concern me. Losing leads and generally not controlling games in the way that we did when we won the title. Even at 2 goals up I’m shitting it. It’s been a lot like the early days under JK but with much better players.
I never really believed we’d win the league this season although I hoped we might at least make it close. Maybe we still will but it’s looking unlikely. I expect us to do well in the CL. I’d back us over two legs against any team in the world including City so we have a great chance of at least making the final. Now we’ve made it to the semis of the Carabao I really want us to win it. I want Klopp at Wembley fist pumping away in front of our fans and he can go back there and do it again for the FA Cup in May.
You should consider us lucky to have such enlightened people on here. That minority of seers that understand football so much better than the great uneducated.
And this is the problem. Fans to easily shit the bed, which spreads from online to those match going fans which ends up spreading to the players. Fans need to get a fucking grip and believe
That was my point. Margins are extremely small as you say, and yet Cheaty are 12 points ahead this season already, and have won three of the last titles. How come?
My take is that this has nothing to do with bad luck or haphazard.
Didn’t we dip around this time last year as well? It was obviously brought on by an injury crisis but maybe something for Klopp and everyone to consider?
. It’s like the 16-17 season.