I tend to see it like Aldridge. We can play much better than we did.
As I said you fight this war not the last and there are many factors that isn’t just the crowd. We’ve had issues on more expansive pitches. Something Anfield isn’t.
I don’t think it’s disrespectful but it does feel to me like they’ve probably learnt very little and think turning up will right everything even though they are playing in a very different setting with a club that somehow oddly plays better on a 3 day turnaround than one with a week off.
I also didn’t see anything wrong yet from PSG’s comments. Some people are too sensitive. They respect us, but are also confident. All good. Perhaps there’s less smoke/expectation around them than before, since it’s the first time in a while that they don’t have a single mega star. Naturally being top of the pile in England and Europe, having statistically so far the best player also, there was or is talk about us. And we didn’t show that in the first leg.
I don’t see any problem here either. I’m pretty sure that PSG will be one of the rare teams who come to Anfield looking to dominate and swarm all over Liverpool’s team.
The format needs work. We did not get what we deserved for our brilliant league stage showing. There were at least a dozen sides I’d have rather faced than that PSG side in the last 16.
I don’t understand the moaning about facing PSG. We could have ended up with them just as easily under the old system.
There are always some teams that end up with the short end of the stick when it comes to draws. We got unlucky, but we still could have made it past them.
As @RedArmada stated, we could have ended up with them in the old format as well. Fact is that they were abysmal during the league stage, and found top form at exactly the right time (being spared from any injury helps of course), while we went down from being literally invincible during the league stage to being still quite good, but not good enough to get past them, albeit there wasn’t missing that much to be fair.
In my opinion, this hasn’t anything to do with the new CL format, but with overexertion on our part. The winter has been a long one for us, and some players, especially those who never get any pause because of a lack of rotation (on top of my head Gravenberch, McAllister, Salah), are now at 95% of their physical capacities instead of 100%.
Small margins are key in these top-level meetings.
Can only speak as a fan and I couldn’t care less who we face at which stage. In fact, I’d like it to be totally random from the start of the competition, but I know that’s impossible.
It’s the CL and to win it you have to beat some of the best teams, to prove that you are the best.
Whether it’s Real in the first game or Brugge in the final. I’m excited for every step and every game.
If PSG face Real Madrid or Athletico Madrid, do you think they can win against these two? I am not so sure. Athleti are quite wily old opponents and very tough to beat and Real are so experienced that they know what to do in a Champions league final even when they are not playing well.
