Not sure where to post this:
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Yes, the answer is staring us in the face. And yes, it is something the media doesn’t address.
It is corrupt officiating.
Even Jürgen knows it.
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The injury issue is of course the main reason why we have had problems this season, but I don’t quite agree with the following:
“Perhaps that is because nobody wishes to admit that the Reds’ title hopes effectively went up in smoke the moment Joe Gomez joined Virgil van Dijk in sustaining a serious knee injury.”
IF Matip and Fabinho could have stayed fit throughout the season, then we would have a chance to maintain consistency at the back, and to have a shot at the title. What fucked us over completely is that on top of those two injuries, Matip had a nightmare season in terms of injuries, his worst since arriving at the club I think, AND Fabinho, who was until last term very reliable in terms of fitness, has gone from niggle to niggle.
But the general point of the article is spot on of course. On top of what precedes, if you count in the usual off-times of Hendo, the permanent absence of Keita, the absence of Ox and Tsimikas over the four initial months of the season, Thiago being butchered during the derby and then out for three months and Jota, who was in top form, injuring himself too for months, then it can only go one way.
No squad can cope with all this and stay fully competitive. No squad.
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I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment but even dressing rooms have their cliques and hierarchies.
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In this cold??? 
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Are you sure? Here are @cynicaloldgit, @petergriffin2020, @Noo_Noo, @peterroberts, and @Scott.Jones at our latest catch up.
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This needs quoting this morning…
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Or get the Tequila and salt out and make a night of it. 
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It has got some surreal, celestial, hue 
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Sorry Jurgen, but this is a steaming pile of dogshit excuse for poor play. professional footballers getting paid more in a week than 99.99% of folks do in a year when you’re a the top tier… Mental fatigue is no excuse. and if that’s what you’re going to use, rotate your fucking squad (Trent).
Can we collectively move past this delusion that getting paid a lot of money inoculates you from becoming physically and mentally drained by repeated demanding activities?
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I never quite understand this kind of critic to be honest. ‘Yeah but they are highly paid professionals…’
Yeah and so what? It doesn’t make them less human, you know. They are just lucky chaps who happen to earn a lot of money. But it doesn’t mean that they haven’t the same issues all of us have: mental fatigue, loss of form, sleep, happiness, whatever.
Klopp isn’t immune to it either. He too can lose sleep (I bet he does after a string of defeats), form, and be mentally fatigued. Who wouldn’t be with the ongoing shit all around us?
My take is that while criticising player performances or decisions from the coach is perfectly fine, that argument is unrealistic and void.
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it’s their job, Hope. They have all of the resources in the world supporting them, pampering them. daily massages. psychologists, training centers, prepared meals. they’re treated like royalty for the most part. I just don’t understand about making excuses like “mental exhaustion”.
It’s football FFS. nobody is dying. Mental exhaustion I would defer to an air traffic controller or a surgeon, where lives are at risk from a mistake. not losing a football match.
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And yet, kings make terrible mistakes at times, and can be mentally exhausted.
Footballers too. Don’t forget that they have a private life too, and that it is bound to interfere with their performance level. I know that the top clubs try to keep their players within a bubble as much as possible, in order to minimize this kind of interferences, but they are no robots.
I don’t think that Klopp’s admission is a weak excuse. It’s just a honest statement about the current state of his players, that’s all. And indeed, they looked tired against Brighton: physically, mentally, whatever. The freshness was lacking, and it showed.
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Do you think you could do your job under the gaze of millions of people around the world who can see, criticise, ridicule, and direct personal abuse at you, for every mistake they perceive you have made, without suffering mental exhaustion? Simply if you were paid enough that would make all that disappear? Not to mention the pressure put on you by your team mates, your own competitive nature, your family relying on your success? Where the prospect of you continuing to earn your livelihood is so dependent upon not only your continued performance but also your ability to avoid some unfortunate event that could stop your career at any time through no fault of your own?
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oh no question, they’re playing like they’ve run a marathon. Trent had the body language of someone who was trying to heave the ball into the box. I was thinking this morning I haven’t seen Robbo hit a hard low ball in the gap between CB and keeper in about a month.
These were our bread and butter.
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@Hope.in.your.heart Hope
I agree with you. The players are not robots. You hear about so many players who suffer from depression. In extreme cases, it has led to suicide.
We have been hit hard with major injuries to key players, missing many matches.
I think we have done rather well to get this far in the season. Jurgen has tried his best with the fit players he has, coupled with this awful pandemic which has put a cloud over the whole world, that everyone is trying to do their job in a restricted bubble. It is suffocating.
We have to give Jurgen credit that he has had to built the team from scratch and has delivered the most coated prize we yearned for 30 years. It is mentally and physically exhausting! Jurgen deserves some leeway this season. We can be such ungrateful supporters sometimes.
We should thank our gods our club is NOT Newcastle FC.
Typo error corrected.
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Looks like I’m on the wrong forum…
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About time someone made you realise it
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