It may just be “a matter of time”, but I think that time will be next season. Right now we are seeing what burn out looks like. Our players are knackered and have lost their edge. The physical and mental fatigue affects their decision making and then things just don’t happen as they’re supposed to.
Not that they’ll be getting much of a break in the summer, or at least the European players won’t be. What of South America and Africa? Do they have tournaments this summer?
Looks like we have a fight on our hands just to qualify for the CL. If we somehow won the CL and finished outside the the top four, would we qualify for it as we did last time?
Thanks for the summary. Could visualize the game. Didn’t watch the game and I was looking for a 3 or 4 goals victory which will kick start our season again. Looking at the result and it’s very frustrating.
Tbh, I am not worried. We have won all the major trophies so far. We are going through a war weary and difficult patch, the lads are coping with Covid pandemic. It is an uncertain period financially as well.
We have been through worse times. You remember September 2010, when our club was headline news at 10 pm? Our club was about to cease to exist in the courts because of two clown cowboys.
We drew some games, we lost a few games, I shrug my shoulders, it is not the end of the world. I am glad the pressure is off the lads. We have a depleted squad, Jurgen is not a miracle worker. The lads are tired as well. They have worked nonstop the last 3-4 years. Jurgen will sort it all out in the summer. For now, one match at a time. This season is difficult and more weird than last year.
As other posters have said, we need to get behind the lads and our manager. They need time to get back clicking together in sync and I am sure they will in time.
We have been through many storms and we will get over this one.
Couldn’t watch the match, just watched the highlights. That Origi miss is a key moment, obviously. Go up one there it draws them out. Pope also seemed to have a blinder, robbing Trent and others. Firmino’s quick heel was luckily turned away. Seems the rub of the green is against us. Has to be thus. No way we don’t score in four matches on form alone. Bad luck. Six points back at halfway, maybe seven if City win their next. Not insurmountable, but it’s one match at a time. No reason to look at the top of the table at the moment.
I’ve had a few hours to cool down, so now I will give my considered opinion:
Bag O Shite!
Their penalty very iffy. He went over in installments, making sure his trailing leg got contact on Alisson, who didn’t touch him.
We had a much better shout for a pen with the handball.
Besides that, Origi should have scored and it would have been a different game. Mo too. We huffed and we puffed, and we were just fine up to around their penalty box, when generally we didn’t have that final pass or bit of quality.
If we continue much longer like this, top four will be hard to come by.
I think we will turn it around, relatively speaking, but so much is going against us this season, that a strong title challenge will be a miracle. So I will reluctantly settle for number 7, if it comes to that!
It’s just not really happening for us at the moment.
Sadly, with this kind of run, it seems like we have lost the belief, the winning mentality to grind out wins and the fear amogst the opposition.
I find it hard to believe that a Champion team has been worked out by opposing teams so easily…and our team has no answers.
Smells like there’s something bigger here behind the scenes.
I agree where people have mentioned factors like:
Injuries
Boss has looked far too grumpy, getting more involved in debates with media with issues like Var, games times, number of subs .
Refreeing has been abysmal against us. Clearly, they wanted a good title race and they got one.
That extra loss of passion because of no fans.
Squad being under utilized
Unable to celebrate the title win and acknowledgment from fans as champions in games.
May be Melwood
We need to get back to basics. Start talking and focussing only about next game.Forget about the title for now and let’s look at the table with 5 games to go.
Boss said back in the beginning of this season. “We are not going to defend our title , we are going to attack it”
Let’s start that from the next game and stop all these people mocking our achievements over the past 2 years.
I’ve said this before. the arrogance, incompetence, and negligence of not improving this squad in the transfer window has come back to bite us in the ass. I don’t see us winning the league this season, too much dead wood, not enough CBs and not enough quality in the middle of the park to pick up the scoring /assist slack. We had an opportunity to properly strengthen the squad in the summer and did fuck all about it, Jota being the exception. This was the time to jettison a few and make the step to becoming a dynasty. Instead we became complacent.
The arrogance of fans repeating the bullshit about “the squad cannot be improved upon.” What manner of fuckery is that. Really, we cant improve on Firmino, Matip, Gomez, Milner, Gini, Shaq , etc…who the fuck were we kidding.
I’m thoroughly pissed off at the complacency, arrogance, negligence and incompetence of all involved.
Hate to use him as an example but SAF used to say that you had to rebuild every four years because things get stale. I know we have injuries etc but I just feel like we need to start adding a few new players to create competition in more positions. Origi is just not good enough - that has been obvious for about 2 years now. He’s not even good enough for our bench. It’s looking like being a tough season but after winning the CL and league title in the last two years, there was bound to be a blip sooner or later.
At the minimum we should have bought a new CB as a Dejan Lovren replacement. Should have kept Brewster as well - I can’t see him doing any worse than Origi.
We also lack a No.10 CAM because Ox and Keita are in complete shamble as well.
Agreed completely. The craziest thing is that we knew that Gomez and Matip are two walking sick notes, so it should come by no surprise that they are injured again and again and again. How the fuck you don’t sign a replacement in the summer after getting rid of Lovren. Another thing, we need to call time on Naby…he aint good enough, cant stay fit…we need to move on from players like these. In addition, we’ve all heard stories of Milner moving on when Leeds came up…well Leeds are up. His salary could pay two outstanding young midfielders. Move Origi, Shaq on as well and infuse this team with some new blood, ideas, skills. We are too fucking complacent.
Move Origi & Shaq and replace with a Zaha/Eze/ Maddison/ Barnes. Sign players that are hungry and ready to stake a claim to a position. It so pisses me off that we have been caught with our drawers around our ankles.
Excellent post! Although I don’t think moving from Melwood has been a factor.
I particularly agree with what you say about the boss. He’s allowing himself to get sidetracked on too many issues that are not directly related to the team’s performance. He rises to the bait every time whereas in the past he would brush it aside with a few whimsical words. He seems to have far too negative energy these days. Obviously the players aren’t the only ones who are burnt out and in need of a good rest.
I am willing to give Shaqiri benefit of doubt, especially if we are to change our attacking style. Origi and Keita should have been sent packing, together with Grujic and Wilson.
Ox, to be honest, without hindsight I would be reluctant to sell him off, since he played ok last season (as he was healthy for a sufficiently long period) and played really well during our last pre-Covid match (against Athletico, even though we lost). But now, he is lost.
I have been keeping floating young English players like Sancho, Barnes, Maddison, White, Tarkowski or Declan Rice, because we probably will have to replace Ox with a homegrown player. And, besides, United was favoured by FA under Ferguson possibly and partly because Alex was more willing to play English players than his contemporary rivals (e.g. Arsenal did not have a single homegrown player in Starting 11 under Wenger at many points in time).
So, my options would be: White, Barnes and/or Maddison (both of whom are currently better than Curtis Jones - stats say it all), Sancho if Salah leaves, Halland. We may even employ Bayern Munich playbook and buy Declan Rice as under study for Fabinho to deny our rivals (he is already much better than Henderson 2010/11).
Sell: Origi, Grujic, Wilson, Keita, Chamberlain.
Bayern Munich playbook: hoarding homegrown young talents from other domestic teams.
Crazy to think for a lot of players in that squad it was their first league loss at home.
Fact of the matter is our “drop off“ has been happening for ages. Since we won the league we have drop a gear (or 2 or 3 in some matches)
Games like Palace papered over the cracks however you just have to look at our form v the bottom 6 this year - pathetic.
I’m not sure what the fix is but getting Jota back and having an actual option and somebody who makes the front 3 think about their performances rather than giving Origi his normal 60 mins every 10 games just for laughs will go along way to sorting the issue.
But in all honesty they need to sort the basics… if I see Bobby scuff another shot wide of the post again it will be too soon… Mane not able to keep the ball down from 8 yards centre of goal… ridiculous for these calibre of player
Well I understand some players suffering from burn out… But starting Ox and Origi was wrong tactics from the start. Are they going to help break down a parked bus?. No!
Also there was no leaders on the pitch. Maybe Milner should of been out there. We had a talented team of chickens running around with no direction.
The team has become complacent. And arrogant. Putting little effort against bottom feeders like Fulham and West brom. Throwing away points. And then showing up for Tottenham. Even some posters here downplaying those dropped points by stating that we are still top of league… Well guess what. We aren’t anymore.
And those matches were first signs of what was to come. Now we are spiralling downward out of control with the added pressure to win every game. Because of the gap widening from the leaders.
Jota has been sorely missed. As he was able to find goals in tight spaces.
But imo we also need to bring in someone with goals in them for the midfield… Or give Gini and Jones more attacking responsibilities.
We now have half a season to go on a winning streak. And hope it’s enough to retain the title.
Man United - Ole is at the wheel, Ha Ha Ha Ha
Man City - Struggling to score without Aguero/Jesus. Not the same team as previous seasons.
Chelsea - Trying to buy the title…again and this time with highly over-rated new signings.
Spurs - The team will struggle under JM with his park the bus tactics and throwing couple of players under that same bus when results don’t go their way.
Leicester - Challenging for the title under Brenda? Oh please…
Arsenal - Trying to be…well… Arsenal after all.
Don’t you think also, Fabinho is sort of playing in Virgil’s position, so our midfield is weaker which has abit unbalanced the team?
I think we really miss Virgil too. I am not understanding our lack of goal scoring from our front 3 though. .
I think we have been really good defensively, considering we lost Virgil and Gomez.
The front 3 have lost all self-confidence especially Firmino. The moment he get’s a chance he is like “OMG, I better not miss this one”. Midfield, they could not score a goal important goal if their life depended on it and someone should tell TAA that not every pass should be the deciding pass and that he goes back to basics and give a simple but proper pass.
The next two matches are against United and Spurs away, let’s hope that they will not park a bus when they play at home and that we get a little more spaces to play in.
Perhaps then our lads start to score although I’m not optimistic.
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