Not an expert but I am sure lack of mentality can often be seen in body language. It’s not like those are two things that have nothing to do with each other.
I’ll let others decide.
The 4 draws. At some points during those games we were favorites to win them. Should have won at least 2 - could have been more. Had nothing to do with injuries or fatigue or whatever.
In 2019 we would have won all 4.
We can stay unbeaten during the season but at this rate we won’t be in a title race.
At the moment I am not very confident about our games against West Ham and Arsenal - two teams who are above us in the form table.
Right.
You keep going with the doom and gloom.
100% correct.
Lets look at the positives
5-0 win at Old Trafford
3 points off the league leaders with 28 games to play.
Potentially CL last 16 by this week.
CC cup quarter finalists with our second string.
But a draw on an off day and now the players lack the mentality of winners?
So nice to have the curmudgeonly genial old boy tut tut at the “youngsters”. Despite the fact that I am heading in your direction.
You have a need, and not so benign to throw in an opinion, so instead of getting splinters in your arse on the fence, would you consider this question?
Have Liverpool players lost their “mentality” as witnessed through body language?
Or was Saturday a bit of a poor day at the office that elicited more knee jerks than the can can?
I’m sure it’s been said many times before but West Ham are a proper sleeping giant. If they get this investment to go with the already strong team, massive stadium, huge fan base etc… they could be a real force to recon with in a short time. So I hope the deal falls through! But also rather them than City, Chelsea and Newcastle.
Potter is an excellent manager, in the game of chess v’s Klopp he won on Saturday. No problem accepting Klopp is mortal some days and gets bettered, it happens very rarely.
Every single sub and tactical tweak Potter made ingame countered everything Klopp did. From pushing Lallana onto Henderson, to bringing on Lamptey to run riot down the right when Salah moved to the left. They were wide open first 25mins and then shifted their shape, pressed us higher, released the ball on the counter quickly and we couldn’t cope.
I agree, Potter is obviously very tactically aware. I didn’t understand why JK delayed making a change in the 2nd half, when it was pretty obvious that things were going horribly wrong and we were in danger of losing the game. Firmino was having a mare and should’ve been hooked much earlier and a change of tactics was needed as Brighton threatened to score every time they hit us on the break. Also, I didn’t understand the introduction of Taki after 86 minutes, was it just to waste time? I don’t know.
Think it’s becoming more and more evident that Klopp will use one less than the number of subs available to him, so that we aren’t reduced to 10 men if there are any injuries later in the game. Keita injury meant he was going to make only that one change until late.
Even I felt that Jota could have been brought on earlier and we could get the third sub in around 80 mins, but I have stopped expecting those as that’s not how Klopp thinks and uses his subs.
Not sure this is the correct thread to continue this discussion but for what it is worth, my take would be that “mentality” is too emotive a word and certainly shouldn’t be used on the basis of one game and especially given our unbeaten run.
I do think though that maybe there was a measure of complacency when they established the 2-0 lead. Whether they relaxed a bit or Brighton upped their game (they were playing well anyway) or a mixture of both. It can be very hard, once you allow the opposition to gain the upper hand, to then regain the impetus.
Mentality or complacency? For me it’s maybe complacency on this occasion with too many players thinking it was done at 2-0.
It probably isn’t the correct thread.
And complacency or a hint of arrogance crept in at 2-0 on Saturday. I agree there.
I think to question a winning mentality (overall) and base it on body language during a poor performance is a bit excessive, which was my point in the original argument.
During the seventies and eighties we drew the odd match in title winning seasons.
Just as well the Internet wasn’t invented?
I’d say mentality is a fair word considering we styled ourself as the mentality monsters when we conquered the world. We won the league on the back of always finding a way to win, yet on Saturday we didn’t have a single shot after conceeding the 2nd, at home. I’d say that is a fair point for discussion around how and why that happened.
I’d also agree it was arrogance that crept in but for me arrogance is part of your mentality. Semantics fine but the topic is the same and I’d argue valid. Brentford, AC Milan, Atletico, Brighton all examples of the same 2-0 cruising to under the cosh swing.
I also believe it was complacency, after racing into a 2-0 lead, which was very nearly 3-0. Even resuming after half time at 2-1, I think the players believed they wouldn’t lose the game. Well, they very nearly did and this needs to change, as it’s not the first time it’s happened this season.
These two points we lost are on Klopp. From the first minute on one could see that Firmino had an extremely poor day, nothing worked for him not even the simplest of passes. If you have played the game yourself you know those days exist but Klopp should have brought Jota at halftime instead he let him on until almost the 80th minute and therefore we played with 10 men. Big mistake from Klopp that resulted in an unnecessary draw.
Can’t say I recall the days of West Ham being any kind of giant. And as for a ‘huge fan base’ , are you sure about that ? Growing up I don’t recall anyone supporting West Ham apart from those actually from the locality.
They are considered to have the 12th largest supporter base in English football, just behind Newcastle. But also with huge room for growth as the ‘local’ top tier side for a large percentage of London. Not sure I’d say sleeping giant (also true of Toon), however they have underperformed relative to ‘club size’ in the PL era.
I’m under the impression that pretty much every football supporter in Essex is a West Ham fan. (Source: The handful of people I’ve met from Essex)
I suspect they could attract more fans than City, Chelsea and Newcastle anyway.
