I’d expect Fabinho to be playing, so when we go forward he drops and it’s something like…
Dipping in to gaps next to Thiago to win the ball back high up.
It wasn’t meant to be. Our squad has been decimated since October.
It was a huge ask for the lads. They are knackered and need a rest.
So it is Qatar, U.A.E, Russia clubs and snotty nosed Real Madrid in the semis.
I am torn for choice who i want to win 
The thing is, i really like Pochettino, he is a lovely personality and i want him to.win something big. Also, i did have a nice time living Qatar and the best years of my school life with my best school mates who i am still in contact with.
The general consensus was that that was the best we’ve played this year.
Just shows how low the bar is. Our finishing was shockingly bad, but not as bad as some of the passing. Real were happy just to sit back and let us feebly knock on the door of their defence. If we play like that against Leeds then i can see us losing three nil.
We seem devoid of energy and imagination. Having said that I think we’d be a damn sight better if Hendo had been able to play and if we’d started with Jota instead of Bobby.
Although disappointed with the result (although not surprised) , I thought there was plenty of positives about last night’s performance. Number one , for an hour at least , we played with the kind of intensity that was once the hallmark of this team. I was beginning to think it had gone forever.
Secondly the centre backs ; I’d be quite happy if we started next season with what we have now. I think Kabak has the makings of a very good player and Nat Phillips is never going to let anyone down. A returning Virgil and Gomez (and Matip) with those in reserve would do me. Spend the earmarked money on Gini’s repalcement.
The real enigma is the forward line. First half both Mané and Bobby were decent and gave reminders of what they were capable of. And then there’s Salah ; seems crazy to say it of our top scorer , but there are far too many times when he just can’t put away the easiest of chances. I don’t know what the answer is , but flogging a dead horse certainly isn’t it. It has to change next season. (I thought Jota was also poor when he came on , but he needs to be starting regularly.)
I still think we’ll get top four. I fancy us and Chelsea to swap places with Leicester and West Ham , but there certainly can’t be any more half-arsed performances if that is to happen.
Whatever , were gonna be an entirely different proposition next year with the returning players and a couple of additions.
Onwards and upwards.
We need a midfielder who can go round people - like a grealish or Foden.
I think I read that Foden has more goals and assists than our entire midfield and that’s a major issue.
2 of the front 3 have fallen off a cliff but wouldnt be so much of a problem if the midfield contributed to a goal but they dont.
I doubt that there is a single Liverpool fan who wants this team blown up and to start from scratch. But there is a case to be made that it might be necessary.
Currently, there are question marks over the 3 senior centre backs. Wijnaldum is in all probability gone, Henderson is getting injured more often and for longer periods, Milner is 35 and Keita can’t stay fit. Firmino has been pedestrian for more than a year and Mane is unrecognizable. Shaqiri, Chamberlain, Origi might all leave as well. That’s 12 players and there might be others I am forgetting. At what point does the evolution become a rebuild?
Its how teams carry on being successful - you have to know when to move players that were coming to the end of their peak on.
Its what Fergie was excellent at and why United dominated.
This team peaked last season but that peak is now starting to come down so Im all for changes but its whether we have the funds.
The performance was decent, the outcome was a shame, but when you miss chances like we did you can’t really complain.
Salah’s early miss was the most frustrating, world class players score goals from opportunities like that at key moments in big matches. Really frustrating to see Bobby freeze mentally when he had the chance to play TAA into acres of space too.
For me this tie (both legs) kind of summed up where we are and why we are where we are, injuries or not.
Since the winter break a year ago we have not been the same. We went out of the CL at a similar stage, and we limped over the line to take the title.
One thing is very clear to me, we won’t just bounce back to being title contenders and serious CL contenders without change and investment.
The way it looks, City, United and Chelsea are going to be the top three clubs next season, the latter are only in a top four scrap because they had so many signings to bed down, they didn’t have an experienced manager until recently, and because top clubs in Europe were affected by an intense schedule.
It should be clear to everyone now that clubs who spend are rising to the top of the pile and the likes of ourselves, Spurs and Arsenal are suffering from seeing less investment.
Yes we can’t spend like City, United and Chelsea, but we can do better than 13th highest in net terms and we’ll have to if we want to bounce back. No way can our better players stay motivated at a club that allows itself to go back to merely looking for CL qualification.
We need some fresh coaching thinking, personally I wonder whether Ljinders is an experienced enough (or good enough) number two for a club that’s in our position.
We have issues to sort out all over the squad.
For me we’re three main signings from bouncing back - a quality forward, a quality centre back, a quality midfielder, plus maybe a couple of lesser signings like a backup keeper and Kabak.
We have the core of the squad to build from, there should be a bounce next season from returning players and maybe crowds being back.
But from what I’m seeing in City, United and Chelsea, it won’t be enough without investment.
If we don’t do it this summer, by the year after there’ll be even more to do and we’ll find it difficult to attract anyone.
I don’t think we’re in need of a rebuild but we do need to replace,change and upgrade a number of players.
Gini is still a class player but at this point he’s pretty much out the door.
Milner was very good last night but he doesn’t have many of those performances left in him and we need someone to do that on a regular basis in the starting line up.
Salahs time with us is up and he needs to move on.I don’t see him as a team player anymore and i think it’s having an effect on the players around him.
Matip,Kieta,Ox,Shaqiri,Origi all need upgrading as squad players either due to quality and/or lack of availability due to injury.
[quote=“legalalien, post:127, topic:1830”]
Real were happy just to sit back and let us feebly knock on the door of their defence. [/quote]
If that was Real’s plan then they were the ones who deserved to lose because it didnt stop us creating chances. Despite the frequent sloppiness in our build up we still had the chances last night to win this tie multiple times over and so Real only got by because we were terrible in front of goal. Real did not keep us at bay at all.
So while we can fairly concern ourselves with how tepid as we’ve been since Christmas at trying to break down sides who are content to just defend against us, this game is not an example of that. It is something that is in many ways far more concerning because it falls at the feet of the 3 players who have as much as anyone to get us to the heights we’ve previously reached.
Interesting. What makes you think that? 
Limped over the line? We won the league by twenty odd points. We ended up with 99 points for Christ’s sake.
You really need to change the record once in a while.
Had we not been decimated by injury we’d be right up there. We were top at Christmas and managing to look good. We couldn’t maintain that as injury piled on injury.
If you want to look at the model for what we need to do, look at City. They suffered last year. They didn’t piss the bed, like many of you are doing. They accepted that it’s really hard to maintain the intensity they’d been going at, and a tough year was understandable. They added a couple of quality signings in key positions and got their mojo back.
That’s exactly what we need to do. There is plenty in this team and loads of years left.
@RedForever ,
I don’t think we limped over the line to get the EPL title, we were miles ahead with 20 plus points. If it wasn’t for the interuption of the pandemic, we would have been officially declared winners in April not June.
We’re looking at the 3 players up front, 2 of whom have seen a significant drop in form and the 3rd seems to be hogging more and more of those chances. More often than not Salah doesn’t look to play Mane and Firmino in and while he’s always been a bit greedy with giving up those chances it looks, imo, that it has gotten to those players. It’s one thing when he was putting them away, other players will always think “he’s lucky he scored, I was in a better position” but when he doesn’t score it now looks to me that the other 2 have just accepted the situation and imo that affects their general play. They’re not expecting the pass so don’t get themselves into positions where they might even pick up a miss hit shot or rebound.That could be put down to them but all players who put in the dirty work which makes someone else look great will only accept that if those chances and workrate are either scored or reciprocated when not in scoring form.We have seen a couple of very obvious times this year when Mane was clearly annoyed to the point it bacame a talking point amongst fans and commentators.You would think they would then discuss this but Salah still keeps those chances to himself when others could make more use of them.I think unless he starts scoring more,the 3 upfront will no longer work as well with each other as they have previously.
It’s a fair point, it’s why Jota coming in gave all 3 of them a huge lift… The problem is since Jota came back from injury we’ve continued back with Bobby, Mane, Salah… With Bobby/Mane so badly out of form they look like shadows of their former selves, and Salah is as you say becoming more and more selfish.
Irrespective of anything Bobby for example his entire season was encapsulated when he was in acres of space, had Trent in even more space he did one of the worst passes possible, he wasn’t even pressured. It’s inexcusable at this level to not make that pass.
The worst part of the front line is the fact they were so fucking good, for so long… That’s what makes it so heartbreaking to watch them go through the motions but just fluff their lines.
Making the call that with a summer off, fans back in the stadium they find that level again… Or they don’t find it again… Tough one.
Generally I thought we played well, created a lot of chances but fluffed too many.
A bit like Athletico Madrid last season, we dominated the home leg, should have won, but for a couple of errors (Adrian last year, poor finishing this), we are out. The performances of some players really stood out (I have Phillips MoTM, but plenty of others played well too). The big difference to last year is Covid, major injuries, and we aren’t about to win the league - all of which makes this feel worst.
It’s frustrating, but I always try to look at things on the bright side. We now only have the Top 4 to go for, and we are better placed that we are out, to make it happen. Meanwhile Chelsea will have the major distraction of their Semi Final, and the other teams in Top 4 race have harder fixtures than us.
But for the Real Madrid performance last week (which was a combination of poor tactics from us, and ZZ nailing it), we have seen an upturn in the quality of football we are playing of late - not up to the standard we’ve been used to the last two seasons, but enough to make me confident we can get that Top 4 place. If we do that, we can forget about this season and focus on next, by which we will have key members of the team back in and fit, and hopefully some new blood in the squad for another go next season.
I’ve read most of the posts here. I do think our front three are badly out of synchronization and our shooting is horrible. When we have had good crosses in front of the goal I very seldom see anyone there to take advantage of the opportunities to score. Additionally I see very few fast breaks from our players moving forward. We seem to crawl forward allowing the opponents to get in place and counter our forwards or swarm Salah or Mane. Personally I think we have the talent to win and be champions again but Klopp needs to make some drastic changes as our opponents have figured out very well and consistently how to counter any attacks we make. No team can play the same and expect to keep winning. You have to develop and use new plays and tactics. JMHO!
Why don’t we have the Leeds game thread yet 
Buy another forward, midfielder and defender, plus returning players from injury, and the team evolves and can challenge for the top prizes next season, no problem. Buy no one and just get injury returning players on the pitch, and we are a solid top four outfit, easily.
Obviously we want better than that, so it’s time for some astute signings, but let’s not overreact. We will regroup and strengthen, and in the meantime, we still have top four to play for.