The most frustrating part of this season is we had numerous chances to solidify our contention for top 4 but couldn’t make them stick. After beating City (followed by West Ham) and United 7-0 we lost to Notts Forest (followed by Leeds) and Bournemouth, respectively. I really thought the 7-0 might be the rocket fuel we needed to get moving, particularly considering we were ahead of Newcastle at that point. The result against Bournemouth killed a lot of the momentum, which was exacerbated by losing at City. We’ve done well enough since then even considering a few draws, but we left ourselves with too much to do.
Injuries to Jota and Diaz for much of the season (and others at various times) likely cost us points, and quite frankly the only reason I had any belief we might get top 4 going into the spring was our great escape of 2021 — last season would have been markedly different without it. Ultimately, we had the chances but didn’t take them, and we have no one but ourselves to blame.
I too thought that the 7-0 would be the turning point, but no. We had some really rotten luck regarding injuries though, and the refs did their best to sink us in key moments.
Oh well, next year we’ll contend in the Thursday night cup. A very difficult handicap for the league games coming afterwards, as anyone who has had to go through the 2010 to 2015 years will remember…
Don’t think that we’ll need three new midfielders, but yup, our spending power will most likely be reduced.
I do wonder how much by, and when. Us making the CL final last year meant we got plenty of money in, when adding TV rights etc. If that forms part of the “war chest” for the upcoming summer window it may be that we are looking at quieter windows down the track.
No idea how it works, but it should be pretty clear to FSG that if they want to get Liverpool back to 90+ point season sooner rather than later, they need to dig deep into the vaults and spend a bit on a couple of top quality signings, along with a smattering of potential.
What a top quality signing is defined as is not as simple as the transfer fee either - dropping out of the Jude race (supposedly) could be the right thing for the club in terms of not being overly short sighted with other areas of the pitch that also need strengthening. Have a feeling we will see some good news early next week (MacAllister maybe).
Terrible season. Won nothing, Community Shield aside. Competed for nothing. Came nowhere close to winning anything. Not even once in the top four all season. 1/10.
I wouldn’t call it fun, but once it was clear we weren’t going to win anything, I could relax and just hope we sneaked though into 4th.
It wasn’t to be, but we had some good moments in the last couple of months. Don’t see the need for an enquiry into what went wrong. Injuries and with obvious hindsight the midfielder issue, but plenty of other things too.
Looking forward to see who we sign and how the team develops and hopefully we can give the Europa League a real go. I’m almost certain that we threw out league position just so we could add Europa to the wall
I’m probably going to not bother with the summer of speculation. These days 95% is bull shit and too many people are so knee jerk to it all that it quickly becomes tedious.
You are a better person than me, @Sweeting, because I failed to find any joy or fun in this season… There are a few lights in the dark but from my point of view, this is the worst season of football I’ve seen since Stevie’s last.
Finishing out of top four when, setting aside the prestige and ever-present desire to win CL, every penny counts in order to stay relevant and fight the richer clubs? Check.
Hugely important staff members leaving over the course of the season, when the team is in great need of a rebuild? Check.
Huge question marks over last summer’s signings? Check.
Huge question marks over the overall fitness of players? Check.
Decline of senior midfielders, Henderson and Fabinho? Check.
Gifting Man United and noveau riche Newcastle Champions League participation? Check.
Corrupt Man City winning the league and quite likely winning CL as well? Check.
Corrupt Man City looking like they are light years ahead of us in terms of squad strength and staff organisation? Check.
Everton staying up after a last day 1:0 win, when they really should have been relegated had Maddison not fluffed his penalty? Check.
There are positives, though: 7:0 against Man United who entered the game as favourites, Trent’s performances in his new role, the emergence of Bajčetić, Jones showing exactly what kind of player he can be, Alisson going from strength to strength to give us at least a long shot at the top four, Gakpo, Jota and Salah looking like they could form a nice attacking unit, Bradley, Quansah and Van den Berg looking like they could stake a claim for a place in Liverpool’s future.
The negatives seriously outweight the positives, though… I’m just glad that this season is over. Hopefully we can get the business done and emerge with a vastly stronger and fitter squad ahead of the next season.
