Post Match: Liverpool v Real Madrid (UCL 21/07/23 8pm)

He’s really the one who has Klopp’s number in world football. Obviously, it helps when you manage the currently best team worldwide, but also when he was at Everton, he was a constant thorn in Klopp’s side.

That sums up how far our expectations of this group of players have fallen.

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As I said in pre match thread the game turned on Alisson’s error. All the confidence of the last 2 games (albeit a shit Everton and out of sorts Newcastle) left them immediately and they got the 3s conceded v Brighton, Brentford and Wolves overtake their mind.
This team cannot handle pressure anymore and the moment we go a goal down its effectively game over as our legs turn to jelly and our minds go.
I also think the manager has a shocker in regard to the subs. Putting a very rusty Jota on and Bobby on was a poor decision as the midfield were shot and fab and Stefan were running on empty from about 55 mins. No idea how putting forwards on was helping the midfield.
The teams cycle is over and we have got caught standing still. Gonna take a few years to rebuild this.

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I’d say you’re grasping at straws with that post but even the straws are baulking at being grasped at after last night’s shit show. We were embarrassed.

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In Aussie rules vernacular they call it the messiah complex.

My club had it for decades…coaches, players, administrators…‘that one big fish will fix everything’…

It’s fucking nonsense. Agree with you 100%.

Jude will help, no doubt, but we need three or four new faces who start, not one.

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They are not even the best team in Spain at the moment.

One month ago, I was asking for this team to not get twatted. Turns out this team is only granting wishes to Madristas, not us!

Very humbling. Can’t really get my head round it. Mentality monsters we are not, and it’s going to be hard for these guys to pick themselves up for the next game.

Still, just another glorious 4-0 victory needed. Par for course. we go again.

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I don’t feel embarrassed. I feel a bit embarrassed at some of the reaction on here, but the five goals are entirely understandable in context.

The problem we have, and it’s been the same all season, is we are shit in moments. We’re not uniformly poor. We don’t get overrun. We just cough up extremely cheap goals. The biggest culprits last night are Alisson and Fabinho. But their have been others this season. When we concede it is usually because someone - Matip, Van Dijk, Gomez, Trent, Fabinho etc - has done something, just for a moment, fucking stupid. They’ve switched off.

Stuff like that speaks to me of mental fatigue more than anything else. God, last season was fun but we are certainly paying for it now.

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Where’s the hero gonna come from? There is no more Gini, no more Origi, no more Mane.

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I certainly wouldn’t have picked Origi and Wijnaldum to have bee the heroes that night, it was completely unexpected, that’s what made it so great. When Salah ad Bobby were injured it felt like we had no chance, but we did it.

Not saying it’s likely, but fuck it, we can dream.

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Well if the last 60 minutes could be described as a moment

It wasn’t just embarrassing, it was humiliating. You can contextualize the goals all you like, the fact of the matter is that we conceded 5 after taking a 2 goal advantage. Until yesterday, we hadn’t conceded more than three at home in Europe.

Watching them fall apart again at the first sign of trouble was excruciating and whatever the reason it shouldn’t be tolerated. Grateful for everything they’ve given but either they perform or they make way.

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Now, with that definition, I can proudly proclaim it takes me a moment to wank myself off!

Yes, completely. And it all starts with Alisson throwing in an absolute howler. They have goals in them anyway, and phenomenal attacking power. Don’t fucking gift them an equaliser. They are well capable of scoring two or three on the night without any help from us. It’s the gifts make it messy.

And like you say, we’ve already done the hard work going two up.

It’s been like this all season. We play well or at least decent, and then someone does something fucking brainless. They lose focus and make a basic error.

And then as soon as that happens, heads go. Panic sets in. They stop playing their football and start trying to force it. Which makes it worse. What was so impressive about Madrid last night was that they didn’t panic at 2-0. They just trusted themselves and kept doing their thing.

Leeds. Forest. Utd. Wolves. Brighton. Fulham. Palace. These are all games defined by cheap goals and the impact on the team of those cheap goals. It’s the biggest difference between the Liverpool of last season and the Liverpool of this one.

Stop giving teams fucking gifts, and the results will follow.

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Constant thorn?

He only was there a year.

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It was 100% humiliating. I can’t remember many games down the years where we’ve been 3 goals down and my main concern has been that we don’t concede any more. Worst thing about it was it wasn’t completely unexpected. I hoped we might win, expected we wouldn’t, feared there was a reasonable chance we’d get battered. Almost every time we’ve played a team that’s been technically good and had some attacking ambition this season we’ve been carved open. Alisson has saved us from several thrashings. He was even man of the match at the weekend when we were 2-0 up against 10 men for 70 minutes. It’s not just the ease with which we get caught in transition or the constant brain dead errors. We can’t even defend a set piece any more.

Clutching at straws I would say that the Mo/Gakpo/Nunez front line shows promise and we might still be able to out score teams but everything behind them, bar the goalkeeper, isn’t working and hasn’t worked all season. Doesn’t matter who’s been playing. It’s been the same story and painful to watch.

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Gomez was awful but VVD was nearly as bad but gets away with it.
For one of the goals - might have been 4th or 5th - he just stands there.

Nowhere near the player he was before the injury. If we are having a clear out then unless he performs between now and end of season then VVD could be part of the clear out conversation.

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Against a spanish side? It’s on!!! :smiley: :rofl:

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That just isn’t true. Van Dijk is far from his best but he’s absolutely nowhere near Gomez’ level.

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