The Run In Thread

Klopp woulda done the same, so he definitely won’t…

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I’m pretty sure it’s only on tournament earnings only. The TV rights etc wouldn’t be affected - and CL TV money will be better than EL money.

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Even ignoring the issue of respecting the integrity of the competition, there is absolutely no chance that Klopp would have fielded such a weakened team when still in with a mathematical shot of winning the title.

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Yes, can’t disagree with that - but if medically speaking Klopp were to be told that certain players shouldn’t play within 48 hrs of their previous game, I think he takes on their advice too?

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There it is…

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Oh yes, but Solskjaer made some extremely questionable decisions when it comes to game time.

This is the team he played against Aston Villa:

Henderson, Wan Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw, McTominay, Fred, Greenwood, Fernandes, Pogba, Rashford.

Against Leicester he played:

De Gea, Williams, Bailly, Tuanzebe, Telles, van de Beek, Matic, Diallo, Mata, Elanga, Greenwood.

Elanga and Diallo weren’t even on the bench against Villa and he played Greenwood for 65 minutes against Villa but again started him against Leicester. Why not any of the others? Cavani only played for 25 minutes against Villa (he came on for Greenwood), surely he could have started against Leicester?

I don’t really have an issue with their back four and goalkeeper, it was the midfield and forwards that were a piss take of a selection.

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Jurgen’s just a class act. The ultimate diplomat. Would he have rested players? Sure. Would he have gone that far? No chance, imo.

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Yes he’s a class act. No he’s not a diplomat as he doesn’t know when to say nothing and in this case there was no need to call it a ‘crime’ to play 3 times in such a short period as ManU has brought that upon themselves and caused us to also suffer a truncated schedule. By talking as he has done he makes it harder for us to establish the rhetoric that we have been hard done by and that the FA and officials need to make it up to us. If things had been reversed I’m confident this would be a clear message coming out.

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Man U is going to field their strongest lineup possible to ensure that we don’t make top 4.
Add the fact that we haven’t risen to the challenge all season. Our chances are slim to none of even getting a point.

Furthermore we are pinning our hopes on teams above us dropping points. And our rivals doing a job for us. Look at what United did against Leicester. They basically gave Leicester the 3 pts.

Lastly we have to win our last 4 games. I don’t think that is possible. We had must win games against Leeds and Newcastle and bottled it…

The team threw away this season. And has no one to blame.

It’s over.

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Man Utd are entitled to deploy their players as they see fit. Their argument is we couldn’t win the league anyway, and we weren’t finishing outside the CL spots, so we juggle the pack because of a few games in quick succession, and try to keep our big players fresh to damage a rival (Liverpool) and hopefully win a trophy (Europa).

That’s how they will see it.

The flip side of that is they brought the condensed schedule on themselves, with the bad behavior of their fans, and they also gave up on a remote chance of the title and threw in the towel - how the mighty have fallen. They also undermined the integrity of the Premier League competition, boosting a wobbling Leicester team in the process.

Had we managed to hold on to the result against Newcastle and Leeds, and heck, let’s imagine we beat Leicester too while we are at it, not to mention numerous other bad results… then what Man Utd do is irrelevant.

Sport is sport. Everyone tries to gain an edge. While I don’t like Man Utd and don’t like what they did, if we had done our job, or close, even with all the adverse circumstances of the season we would be very comfortable in the top four.

So what now?

Win our games and see what happens. We are doing quite well in the form table at the moment, although it has been 6-7 years since we won at Old Trafford.

Four wins and we have a chance. I feel Chelsea will beat Leicester and we might pip them on goal difference, provided a failing Spurs side don’t completely roll over for Leicester.

A draw against Man Utd and it is that much harder.
A loss against Man Utd and it has all but gone, though two Leicester losses still gives us a chance.

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Exactly we would have done the same if the shoe where on the other foot

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I’m not sure why so many Liverpool fans are so eager for the club to act like Everton.

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Only within certain limits. There is still a consideration that is given for not undermining the integrity of the sporting competition. There is fairly wide latitude given these days with the growing understanding of the need for players to recover between games, but there is still recent precedent for punishments for making changes that undermine the competition. playing a kid’s team in a cup doesn’t do that because it doesn’t impact anyone but yourself. Doing it in the league impacts other teams and so has a higher threshold for being reasonable.

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So presumably, if deemed unreasonable by the governing body that upholds the threshold, they will be censured or punished?

Yeah, there is precedent, but it’s a trivial penalty. There have been a couple of fines for it and Im pretty sure part of the reason of bringing in the 25 man squad was a way to try to give more latitude for managers to rotate without risk of censure. So I dont think anyone would argue Utd’s side was at risk of being formally censured as I imagine only 2 of the players are outside f their formal 25 man squad (and one of those is Greenwood). But I can still call them weak cunts/.

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If United weren’t playing 3 games (Sun - Tues - Thurs) then it would be easier to push for them undermining the sport. But the PL have put them in that position (albeit caused by the protests) and they’ve taken advantage and gone for wholesale changes.

If it were say Thurs, Sunday, Thurs and they rested as many as they did, then yes, there may be more chance to seek a penalty, but in this instance, it’s just easier to accept it and move on - it’ll be filed under the “dark arts” section and be forgotten.

Again, if the shoe was on the other foot, I’d want Liverpool to do it too. Can’t have it both ways.

I do agree with @Kopstar, the amount of changes that Jurgen might woulda rand would not be have been so wholesale. But if they were, I’d not really be fussed.

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It is really simple - if Chelsea don’t win tonight it is in our hands.

At the moment Chelsea are 7 points ahead of us, but we have one game in hand and if they don’t win tonight they could extend their lead to maximum of 8 points, but with two more games played.

So if we win our last 4 games /which looks absolutely incredible with the current condition of the squad/, Cheslea and Leicester will have direct match to decide who will finish in top 4 and LFC will only benefit from that.

P.S. we were really unlucky that Cheslea won vs. City. If they did not win we wolud not need to watch and care about the other teams.

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Yeah, Arsenal picking up any points today would be huge, because it then puts more pressure on Chelsea to get a result against Leicester.

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I expect Arsenal to be slaughtered tonight, bunch of pussies. :rage:

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I expect them putting at least a fight, not that parody display of Smeagol’s orks.
And Arteta is trying to prove that he is the right man for Arsenal.
Still you will probably be right, I also expect Chelsea winning.

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