I remember Whiskey Nose talking about “the bunker mentality” when everyone hated Man Utd with a passion - now they are a mild irritant.
The bunker mentality - us against the rest of the world - would not be a bad thing for Klopp to cultivate - especially considering how bad the VAR decisions have been so far this season.
Could certainly work in our favour.
I thought at first that the ref was going to stamp his authority on the game, i.e. when he gave them a couple of yellows, but after that he pretty much let them get away with everything.
For example, cajuste immediately after flattening Origi (for the second time) goes on to tackle Hendo, from behind, both feet off the ground, late, and nowhere near the ball, in what appeared to be a deliberate attempt to injure our player. Worthy of more than a yellow, in my opinion.
Conversely, all they had to do was to fall over to earn a free kick e.g. sisto links arms with Millie and falls down - free kick and yellow to Millie.
Admittedly, we were poor, and I hope never to see Origi start for us again, but when you’re playing a bunch of thugs and a weak ref, it’s never going to be a classic.
I am so desperate to find a silver lining, beyond the 3 points that I am trying to convince myself Fab’s injury is a positive.
I have actually been a bit concerned over our response to Virgil’s injury. Yes it was shit. Yes it’s fucked up that it happens in an awful challenge that doesn’t get punished. But crying gets you no where. It has concerned me that so many different players, and even Klopp, have given so much airtime to continuing to talk about days after it happened. What we need is a “fuck it, we’ve got to go and win our next one anyway” sort of mentality. It has almost seemed like we needed a bit of a slap around the head to get us there. And now Fab is down as well, maybe that was that moment and in realizing we’ve got more issues that just Virgil to deal with maybe can now start putting that behind us.
Rhys Williams - he was excellent. Like a baby Virgil. Guess we find out in the coming weeks if he’s going to be able to step into some rather big shoes.
We got three points. Will be good to get qualification to knockouts done as early as possible. Win next week and we probably only need another point to confirm it.
I was pleased by the main back 5 starting together last night, only for Fab to pull up. Front 4 looked like they’d never played together before.
Not bothered. Bring on David Moyes.
Baby Virg 
Sharpen that pencil, John!!!
It’s time to spend spend SPEND!!!
Who doesn’t?
Deadshits, that’s who!!!
It is. Scouser me instead of my.
Example: I just put me trousers on.
You really think some of the performances are sub par because the players and Klopp are crying for VVD? It’s certainly an interesting theory (polite way of saying nonsense).
I just think it’s lots of games coming thick and fast, injuries, team changes etc. I don’t think it’s anymore than that to be honest.
Think this is spot on to be honest.
No, I didnt actually say that. I did say though that I have been troubled by our reaction to losing Virgil, both in terms of the public wallowing and how long on it has gone on for, and we need to shake ourselves out of that before it does become a problem.
I think Klopp talks about his injured players. When asked about VVD he name checked Ox. To me it seems his way of keeping team spirit together. All the senior players are quick to do it as well, plenty on social media praising Rhys Williams after the champions league game.
I don’t see any feeling sorry for themselves over it, lots came out and said when VVD is back they want to have something to play for still.
Definitely moments and periods of lackluster play during the match, but the schedule for these boys has been absolutely mental. I don’t think enough is being made of that. IMO it’s a really impressive win and with as competitive as our group is, it’s exceptional to have taken the first possible 6 points. Well done boys.
As The Boss said post match, losing Fab is the absolute last thing we wanted to have happen, so time will tell what comes next. Having said that, there is such a togetherness and solidarity with our players that they’ve almost come to thrive on adversity.
Jota is unbelievable. What a brilliant addition to our club.
EDIT: and nice to see the real Big Shaqs!! Been a long time, we been missing you.
I think where the idea of being poor since VVD got injured falls on its arse is. We have been poor since the comp last restarted.
Yes, Van Dijk did indeed play against Aston Villa…
Seriously though, I have said it before, but we gave the Danes a match they could have won with some luck. And that scared me, knowing how good we can be. West Ham is going to be tough, and I am not confident when it comes to the Manchester City game (thankfully their form is average as well). It is all well and good for fans to be positive, I am generally positive too. But we need to find form now, will be impossible to get many three pointers if we continue to give opponents games they can win. Winning ugly is good in a way, but it is a cliche, and everyone knows it. If you play ugly, you will eventually lose. That is just a fact. Doesn’t really help our team if fans are too positive and have blinders on either, because expectations can then be too high.
Currently, we are not good enough to win the league, though this can thankfully change. We need to rectify that, or we shall have to lower expectations if we don’t eventually find form.
However, when all is said and done, I think corona has wrecked the pre-season for many teams, so the hope is that we will play ourselves into form. And if we then manage to stumble through fixtures and get 3 pointers, we give ourselves a fine fundament. But we really can’t expect to win all our games with our current form.
I believe Jurgen, being the pragmatic manager he is, will revamp and reshape the team to cater for the absence of Virgil and our underperforming defending this season.
We do still have an excellent group of midfielders and forwards in our squad to juggle with. We just need to continue playing ourselves back into form, and by default, into confidence game by game.
We are playing poorly and there is a lot of room for improvement. And the injuries in central defence are a big concern, especially VVD. And yet… we are digging deep and winning points, top of the CL group and joint top on points in the Prem.
It’s easy to construct a glass half empty or glass half full scenario on the same data set.
For me, I’m optimistic because everyone else is struggling, to one degree or another, and out track record over the last couple of years fills me with hope. Along the way we have become known as the mentality monsters.
For various reasons this will be the hardest season of all. We have quality, as do a few others. But our mentality is going to see us through.
You will eventually lose. It is impossible to win every single game. What you saying is a self fullfilling prophecy. At one point in the future you will be able to say “see I was right” when the reality is a loss was always going to happen. The game against this Danish team is a silly game to use as an example. If our best 11 was out there against them you might have a point. It wasn’t. Klopp picked a team good enough to get the win and it did.
I wasn’t really talking about this game though but the start of the season. And I am not critical of the team selection. I am not critical of the subs either. I just think we have yet to find strong form,