When coaching and doing phases of play, the other squad members will be around in meetings and hearing the same messages so I am at a loss with this, they all were around and in previous training sessions.
Look at Jota he has missed lots of games/sessions with injuries but still started so what is the difference with someone like Elliott?
Kelleher has been fantastic for us in multiple games, including finals. Maybe Ali would have saved the first one, maybe he wouldnāt, who knows?
Thereās a good chance that may have been his last game for the club, and I think itās pretty poor if weāre going to use him as the scapegoat for an all-around poor performance.
Ah fuck!!!
I thought it was a final cup!!
No wonder we were arse backwards!
And all the hand wringing about lack of business in the summer and winter windows is entirely influenced by those three contracts. People may well be glad we kept our powder dry if weāre lining up more of a revamp this summer.
Iām like you. None of these players are here forever so itās about enjoying them while they are and not overly worrying about when they wonāt be.
However, unlike last summer weāve now got the recruitment team in place in advance of the window opening and with a years worth of planning and analysing done. The fact Edwards is back is great, even if itās a different role. Hughes has shown heās astute at this with his work at Bournemouth. The fact weād probably all be happy enough giving them the thick end of Ā£100m for two players he recruited for them is testament to that.
And the manager will have been here a year. Heāll know better who he trusts and who he doesnāt. Players weāre after will know more about him, his abilities and how he likes to play. Theyāll know weāre somewhere theyāll still be competing for trophies rather than a place of uncertainty with Klopp leaving.
The team is going to look very different over the next couple of years. You can be excited by that or worry about the sky falling in. Neither will make an ounce of difference on the pitch though.
And what have they won?
Isnāt that because of all the injuries they incessantly bang on about rather than rotating more?
This is up there with greatest over reaction ever.
They donāt rotate.
Your posts are becoming more crack pot.
You add nothing to the discussions, just snipe, and I am right, they havenāt rotated and they have won fuck all.
Overall, not one of our better games, the better team on the day that wanted it more won, onto bigger and getter things 
I get the disappointment but it feels we treat every game as a referendum on the futures of all of our players.
Things will change next year but not because of this game/result. Itās clear there are areas Slot is less satisfied and some of those reasons were on display today. But Iām sure plan to address that are already well in motion.
Same old posters that talk about getting rid of a load of players, I think the more sensible posters have been more concerned with signs of fatigue
So we are saying that we decided Alisson needed rest today instead of playing in a cup final? That doesnāt make sense to me especially with an international break coming up that Alisson isnāt guaranteed to play every game in.
As a backup yes heās proved himself very good but he replaced the best GK arguably in the world today, who has recently played himself back into that form after a mid-season dip, in our only cup final of the season. He isnāt that good no.
Iām not blaming him, Iād have the same criticism if Jaros played, why are we rotating pur GK for a cup final? Imagine being a Newcastle player and seeing the teamsheet. Youād be absolutely buzzing to see Kelleher (or anyone) there instead of Alisson. Conversely it has to be in our heads, especially the defenders that they have to cover a bit more than usual because they donāt have a world class goalkeeper behind them.
I donāt want to start down this road because any tiny criticism of Kelleher is strongly attacked everytime and Iām not in the mood today but weāve seen Alisson concede soft goals a bunch of times because he plays almost every game and it happens from time to time. We see Kelleher let in soft goals regularly because he isnāt an elite shot-stopper and heās poor on crosses - heās an elite 1v1 stopper but struggles to react from range and has weak wrists (the flap on the disallowed goal, pushing it straight to Isakās feet is something does all the time and Iāve pointed it out so often I feel like Iām taking crazy pills when no one else acknowledges it).
I said above Iām not blaming Kelleher personally. Iām blaming the decision making process that led us to starting our backup GK in our only remaining KO game of the season. It sends completely the wrong message. In previous years we have had other trophies (except the league) left to go and win. This year it came down to the LC and the PL but weāve decided to not play our strongest XI when we are 90 minutes away from a probable league and cup double. It boggles my mind.
Put it this way, if this was the CL final and we started Kelleher leaving a fit Alisson on the bench would we all be happy enough just to say āah well heās a good lad he deserves the odd gameā? To me today was essentially our CL final. I donāt care that itās āonlyā the League Cup it was our only chance of cup success this season and we had a mid-table PL team to beat to win it. We didnāt approach the game like it was important to us and the first signal of that was rotating out our starting GK.
Salah should not be playing today especially with an empty stomach and no drinks
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxtxB8-0KuOxGNHe5Ak8JxqJoMHkXSoItH?si=epWajTkC1eO_jANY
Arne must have read my post lol
I dont think this is a big issue or really that surprising. We have 5 players over 30.one is the keeper who is āonlyā 32 (and for whom a potential replacement has been signed) one is a squad player (Endo) who would be expected to leave this summer and one is a starting lleft back expected to leave or take up the back up role in the summer.
That leaves the two oldest players who are also out of contract this summer but could probably justify a starting role next season if kept.
I do like Arneās honesty, also from his comments it seems like the players still lack the trust in trying to play his style and then play too many long balls.
Would you say, thatās a result of mental fatigue defaulting to long balls and not trusting the system?
I was just thinking, hard to believe, but it may come down to not having a player that settles us down and dictates the play, someone like Rodri.
Grav was doing that earlier in the season but doesnāt seem as involved in our build up and I have also thought that he has been off with his passing. I feel this is down to fatigue, whether that is mental or physical who knows, he is still working hard, covering the ground and getting past his marker but then giving a poor pass, whereas earlier in the season his passing was on point.
I do feel Virg should be the player that enforces how we play and he was the one that tried to 2nd half, but he also likes to play a long ball, normally to Mo. This is where Howe got his tactics right as that ball wasnāt on today.