‘We’ bring you and Michael Owen?
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Benitez, Houllier, Gerrard, Carra, Suarez, Torres, Alonso etc etc, didn’t win a PL.
One in 35 years.
Slot does it in his first season and people are ‘underwhelmed’ 
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Hes just a moaning womble.
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Great Uncle Bellyacher.
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Pleased for Ryan Sessegnon that he seems to be playing well again at long last. 3 goals and an assist in his last 5 games.
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Watched a recording. We looked flat. Fulham are a tidy team and this was always going to be a tough one. What was disappointing was to go 3-1 down, and then not come out after the break with much more intensity and impetus. I expected us to score by 60, then go after a leveller and hopefully a winner. But it wasn’t to be. It did not look like we upped it to get something from the game until it was too late. Strange.
I haven’t seen what anyone else has said and I will go back and read. But Salah had another ineffective game and it left me wondering if he knows he is moving on in summer. Are we witnessing a dip in form, or are we witnessing the level of the player dropping from the highs we have seen? I would imagine a bit of both, and the conclusion, for me anyway… is that I would not offer Salah a bumper new deal on terms that stretch us too much.
My best guess is things are going to end with Salah in a few weeks. Not acrimoniously, as the fella has been so incredibly good for us. He will ride out of here as a Premier League Champion and, probably, on to an easier league and a king’s ransom somewhere else.
There will be a fair few fans who will be sad, and they will fill the forums here and everywhere with that, and how they wanted more. But there will also be a lot of fans who will see that we got the timing about right. I would be among that number. Let’s see what happens.
The next player I want to mention is VVD. He has been utterly imperious for so long, but today he had a stinker (so did Konate, but I’m focusing on Van Dijk). Virg wasn’t very good against Everton either.
My take is that Van Dijk has been so good, and so dominant, that the opposition have barely even tried to challenge him, as they know it is futile. He’s just too good. However, I’m seeing signs that that is changing. Everton got stuck in on Virg, and so did Fulham today. They both got plenty out of him.
It’s making me wonder whether the same level, the same aura, the same strength and the same dominance is there. We might be witnessing the end of VVD at Liverpool too. I am getting a sense that the opposition are smelling blood, and the way forward for Virg in the Prem will now be a game to game fight against all comers. They are going to try because the old dominant lion is not quite the same as before. It doesn’t mean he is a busted flush, as he still has plenty to give, but my take is that things do not look the same.
I’m wondering if Virg might bow out as Premier League Champion, and go to play in a slightly easier league, again for a king’s ransom. If he does, he’s earned it. And again, if he does, I’m just wondering if we are going to get the timing about right?
We will be Premier League Champions. A couple of easier games are coming up and I expect some sort of response.
But I think we are also witnessing the last weeks of Salah and Virg as Liverpool players. My take could be way off, and I haven’t seen any news, so I easily could have egg on my face if news is coming out that one, or both, are extending with us.
It doesn’t look like that to me. It looks like a chapter is coming to a close for them, and they probably know it, and things have gone a bit flat. Let’s see.
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Haven’t seen this yet,but reading through the comments it concerns me that Slot insists on using a smaller group of players that he needs to,he has a decent lot to use and the number of games we have this season,and most seasons,players are going t tire,not usual!.Accept the manager knows the players,but it does look that some are tired.
He hasn’t used a smaller group though. 22 players have made 20 or more appearances the exact same number as last season.
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An appearance can mean between 2 and 10 minutes at the end of the game which is what the likes of Endo and Elliott have had all season.
Slot has relied on a core group of 11 players with Tsimikas, Jota and Nunez being rotated in at times. Jota, Gomez and Bradley may have played more without their injuries.
I think our troubles now are a mixture of fatigue and not being as good a team as people were making out in the first half of the season. We were being touted as the best team in Europe but those teams don’t turn in performances like PSG away, Southampton at home (1st half), Newcastle at Wembley and that fucking garbage today. There have been many more games this season where we could barely string 2 passes together at times.
We play every Sunday between now and the end of the season with no midweek games so hopefully we can play with more energy although it’s starting to look like what we have been seeing is the actual game-plan.
We need Bradley to stay fit for the run-in and Szoboslai needs binning off. If Salah doesn’t improve v West Ham he needs subbing off early followed by a spell on the bench but that’s not likely to happen.
Really fucking disappointed about that yesterday, I felt if we won it was as good as over but the door is still open and unless we improve we are not beyond fucking it up.
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That is an absurd take! Chiesa is clearly not a Salah replacement in Slot (or anyone else’s) mind. You’ve left off that we really need another CB - Gomez and Konate are too injury prone to be 2 of the first 3 CBs; Grav needs cover; and we have to replace Nunez too at a minimum.
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Yeah I remember not that long ago (oh probably was, I’m just getting old) I remember thinking I wish we could have got him when he went to spurs.
Is he a right winger now?
Very hard game to watch and it feels like we have been worked out and teams are pressing us and stifling what we are trying to do and we aren’t controlling games like we should.
Since the start of the New Year how often have we seen Grav or Macca receive the ball from our CBs on the half turn, or play a quick pass off it appears that we have stopped playing any vertical balls into their feet to develop any play centrally.
The pattern of feels of late is the CBs receiving the ball from the keeper, who then maybe plays it to the FB who then plays it back to the CB or keeper who then plays a long hopeful ball to our small forwards up against Groks or worse panic and give it away.
It seems we are getting through games against teams when they tire and our quality comes to the fore, which WAS Mo who would come up with a goal or assist or both to win us the game, unfortunately teams are scoring during their 1st half pressure and then we have a mountain to climb.
I really want us to control games more and not just by passing it aimlessly at the back, we seem to have lost the structure of play that worked better in the 1st half of the season.
Maybe it is fatigue that is leading to poor decisions, but for me and I stress ME, we have to play better in the first halves, I would hate to see us balls this up.
Sorry I am feeling nervous, even though we have a great lead and Arsenal are poor but it has happened to us before and and and
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Agreed, opposition teams have been pressing us more, but the difference is that the refs are letting other teams get away with a much more physical type of pressing (aka. kick the crap out of LFC players and get free Nando’s).
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Don’t bring them anywhere near me…
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Or double standards on calls no call on Virgil but 2 minutes later Diaz gets blown for the exact same thing. Even Twatagher mentioned it as double standards.
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In that sense no one is ever going to be Salah’s replacement. Chiesa is quite clearly a really good player at a minimum.
We’ve effectively had 3 title challenges with them as 2 of the first 3 centre-backs. Gomez had one serious injury that recurred this season, I’m not sure how he’s injury-prone otherwise?
We have Bajčetić coming back, and it seems as though he’s been doing really well in Spain. We already have a natural replacement in that sense.
Do we? it’s not as though Jota has been stellar during this time either in people’s minds. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is going to be what happens to any centre-forward under Arne.
He looks like he tweaked something having the photo taken.
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That reminded me that we’re really Hamstring FC this season…
Anyway, I’m not sure why everyone’s so concerned and kneejerking because of this weekend’s fixtures.
Believe it or not, the probability of us winning the title should have increased. Before the game, Arsenal needed to outperform us by 1.5 points per game. Now they need 1.57 points per game, with fewer games to do so at that.
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