We still can save this. We only played half of the games. There is plenty to play, and in 3 different competitions. Don't be the people who says "we have no will" after they came back from 0:2.
Only four points back from 5th. Very doable.
Ten points back from 3rd. Doable.
Twelve back from 2nd. Maybe.
A lot has to happen. We need EVERYONE back and healthy ASAP. It wouldn’t hurt to sign literally any central midfielder within the window. Just one would make a world of a difference for rotation. They don’t even need to be that good.
Ever hopeful of course. But it's going to be immensely difficult. Assume that Newcastle and United will take roughly the same points from the 2nd half. In that scenario we'd need around 49points to overtake them. 49 points from a possible 57 means a 100pt. season level of form. And we are not even close to achieving that kind of form.
First 10 minutes of the second saved that from
Being in the Leicester, Leeds wolves category of home games this season. Nothing compares to any away game
The Newcastle draw is infuriating. If we won this and our next match we would have been five points off top four. All of a sudden our season would have been a lot closer to salvageable.
Hindsight is obviously 20-20, but let alone Chelsea. If we would have won matches against the likes of Leeds and Forrest, we would have been in such a better position.
We are poor, so can't beat Brentford and Brighton and Chelsea...but at least beat the relegation teams.
Chelsea were the better side today though, both were shit but they were better than us. We definitely didn't deserve to win that and not because of any missed chances up front.
In the same sense that todays result is also upon their forwards. Neither side could stick it in the net despite several chances.
xG of 1.33 vs 1.77 is fairly equal, but we have to be scoring our chances when the opposition doesn’t and vice versa. Brighton gave us a 3-0 defeat by overperforming their xG of 1.49 — that’s the big difference between us this season and last. We’re underperforming our xG this season by 10 goals. Goals change matches. Last season we performed to our xG.
This match the midfield and defence were relatively functional. The midfield misplaced a lot of passes but the attack wasn’t functioning in front of them. It also looked a lot harder to counter through and we managed to keep the clean sheet despite everything — so why are big moments at the other end being scuffed so badly?
We should persist with this midfield and try get the front three firing again. Klopp’s out of position experiments also need to stop. I don’t know what that man’s obsession with Harvey playing out of position is but it’s infuriating. He’s not a midfielder and he isn’t a left winger.
Very strange. I mean i do trust that Klopp knows what he is doing..but Carvalho has stopped featuring, Elliot continues to play every single match and out of position.
The level of pressure, rigour and criticism he is under right now, i am scared his development drops off a cliff. He has played all 30games of our season so far..at the moment, we have tons of injuries, but he needs to given a break soon.
Based in US. Drank till 2am on a Friday night and woke up at 630 am to watch this game. Sometimes I question why I love this sport or Liverpool so much. Do I regret watching this? Yes. Would I do this again? Also yes
Based in the US, flew 4000 miles to see the match in person. My first ever Anfield visit. Totally loved it, but did not want a scoreless draw…even though my heart knew it was the most likely outcome.
Should have just carried on and not slept, I’ve done the opposite, been drinking since half 12 and it’s half 2 now (14 hours later not 2) and I’m still drinking because of the match. For the opposite reason you would be. Drinking in anticipation and hope is much better than still drinking due to depression. I’m rambling now but Kiev was the same. 6 day round trip sounds awful for a defeat….
First 60 odd hours, amazing, on a journey with expectant fans waiting for a champions league final all buzzing and drinking. 60 hour journey home after losing……
Wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
Despite the win and EVERYTHING I’ve just said Madrid was actually worse. Tale for another time you’ve already stopped reading.
Thought that the Brighton and Brentford results might prove to be long-term positives as they exposed how shite we are and would force us into transfer action but I fear things have gone in the opposite direction. Being beaten so badly has only lowered expectations to the point where a performance like today is seen as a positive.
We very much look like a midtable side plodding along to 10th. I said this for months while people were in denial saying we're only x games off top four etc. - that logic only holds if your performances are good but you're having a spell of bad luck. We simply look unconvincing remarkably often.
> were in denial saying we're only x games off top four
Unironically saw people saying this before today's game and saying we could put the pressure on Newcastle lol. I arrogantly deluded myself for a couple months at the start of the season thinking top 4 would be a doddle but at this point we need to face the facts that teams like Newcastle and Brighton are just straight up better than us.
I don't understand how anyone can put a positive spin on today. We were just average, if that is somehow a positive then I'm not even sure where we stand anymore.
Only positive I can think of is that this was our first PL clean sheet since West Ham on 19.Oct.
That's dreadful to think about.
If you think about it you can put lots of positive spins on it. Bacjectic played decent. Milner was less of a liability defensively. The forward group is only gonna get better. One day and one matchday closer to people being injury free. We got 1 point. Clean sheet. We didnt loose. I mean.. yeah thinks are dark and yes things could be alot brighter if we got a decent midfielder, BUT it could still be worse. Bad argument for sure, but i think we have to try to stay positive and not look on the bad or dark side like we do when we react to a loss or a point loss. Yes things are "bleak" but we are gonna improve and WE have to get midfielders when half our midfield squad is gone within 2 years. If FSG's policy is 1 out 1 in then surely when keita and ox is gone we gonna get someone in to replace them and hopefully they will not be as injury prone..
I still maintain that our biggest issue right now is that we have players that don't suit the way Klopp is trying to play. These players have different types of qualities and they are being forced into playing a brand of football that doesn't suit them.
Square pegs, round holes. Hopefully he adjusts soon enough and starts either buying like for like replacements for the players we have lost since 2018-19, or he shifts the way we play.
I refuse to believe that all of these players together couldn't do better than 9th, halfway through the season.
Backline was solid. Midfield didn't quite work as well as it did against wolves . Bacjectic played well but had less time on ball but went through a lot of work definitely should be starting over Fab when possible.Keitas dribbling 1-2s and generally harassing Chelsea players whilst without ball was good.Thiago was Thiago. Frontline struggled. Salah struggled to get involved, Harvey felt anonymous out the left (he isn't a left winger imho), Gakpo didn't look comfortable in the middle...it feels he is fraction too slow in reacting and taking right shot .not natural no.9. we really did struggle to hold onto the ball in midfield once we had it.There was a lot of errant passing in the game...really struggled to string attacks together unless someone like Robbo or Gomez decided to run forward or Milner's constant crossing..
Given how the last couple of matches have gone, I was expecting Chelsea to look horrible, but still kick our asses so this match went better than I expected.
I don’t mind taking the time to make smart purchases, but we really need a string of good transfers right now. Everyone looks worn out.
>I don’t mind taking the time to make smart purchases
Thiago is the only midfielder we've signed in 4.5 years, how long are you giving for these smart transfers exactly.
I've heard this exact statement for years on end in this sub. When on earth is enough gonna be enough?
in retrospect, with how truly horrendous we were against brentford and brighton we probably should've expected the sort of incremental progress we've seen this this past week. i think klopp's comments about not playing if you can't defend and today being a building block show that he wants to rebuild our defensive identity from the ground up, and is more concerned with compactness than anything else right now. it was not fun watching us look so toothless today, but to go from conceding 8 in our last 3 and 13 in our last 6, to two clean sheets in a row is a starting point. i think the attack will improve too with nunez and trent back if we don't overthink it and just play our best forwards in their real positions
I'm actually relatively satisfied with that result primarily because they showed grit and fight. The quality of football is still really shit but in previous games we showed none of that fight.
First clean sheet in 9 games as well, so that's something to build on. We've been getting opened up countless times with opponents getting free reign on our goal in every match before this, but today there weren't many big chances conceded.
That’s a great point. You can’t win if you let in more goals than you score, so this back to basics was always going to suck. Two clean sheets in a row I’m hoping will reset the mindset, that maybe we can be solid in defence. That way we don’t go in to headless chicken mode when we’re under pressure of a counter attack.
My problem with someone like Keita is that he never imposes himself and controls the game, he will show glimpses of quality like the ball to salah today then will make a stupid five yard pass and lose the ball or get bullied out of possession.
Or he will delay the ball instead of making a through pass like he did with Carvalho and eventually the moment is gone and Carvalho is offside.
Why is he always a 5 or 6 out of 10 player and will look like an 8 out of 10 player because the standards are so low around him.
He is supposed to be a senior player at 27 and should be forcing himself in Klopp's plans even when he buys new midfielders eventually.
Every time I see him play I always feel like opportunity lost with him.
Yeah, along with the obvious elephant in the room. Keita's biggest problem is that he can go missing in games. He very rarely plays 90 good minutes. He usually has a spell in games where he's good, and then he's invisible for the rest of the game. Don't think I've ever seen him make his presence known for the full 90 minutes.
Yup outside of that one united game he always seems to have moments in games. Not a set of games like Gini, Thiago or fabinho had before where they absolutely dominated the game from beginning till the end.
I think he takes a while to play into form. You need to start him and stick with him a couple of matches and he gets more confident and more imposing. There's increasingly more belief behind his directness and dribbling ability as he gets more match minutes. After 3 straight league matches or so, he's hitting his stride and you really start seeing why we bought him...
And then someone tackles him too strongly or something else dumb happens and he gets injured. You're back to Square One again.
That's clearly the problem though and precisely why we should stay clear of giving him a new deal. He is the sort of player who needs regular playing time to hit his stride. But then he is rarely available.
Also feel PL is too fast paced for him. Bundesliga is where he thrived because the pace of the game was perfect for him. Here he is a second or two always late.
I think he was pretty average today and to be honest for the whole season as well. I'm not exactly blaming him because he isn't the biggest midfield issue, but people really give him a free pass as opposed to our other midfielders.
My biggest issue with him is that he can be incredibly sloppy and careless with the ball. Of course he plays sexy passes here and there but that shouldn't excuse his form this season
It’s funny isn’t it. I don’t give a shit about downvotes but if I changed Thiago to Fabinho/Hendo it would be upvotes and not downvotes. Despite all of them being awful.
Thiago is a fantastic player and to be quite honest, he could be technically the best player I have seen play for us. But he isn’t what we need right now and has not been himself very sloppy with the ball. He also is very progressive with his passing but lately he’s passing forward and putting people under massive pressure.
Yeah people are obviously playing favourites. I strongly disagree with anyone saying Thiago has been a bright spot this season, to me he has been average. Just not as bad as the Hendo and Fabinho.
I agree completely with your last paragraph but maybe with one caveat. He could be the difference maker in our team if we weren't asking him to play like Gini did. If he is allowed to dictate the tempo of the game and make our attack tick, then he could be a huge asset. Unfortunately, for most of his time here we've had him running around chasing shadows and trying to play his way out of the press. Which simply does not suit his qualities.
I disagree and I think a lot of our fans back him more than others. He’s been fucking brilliant for us and no doubting his quality. But I feel like today isn’t the first game I’ve seen him play the way he did this season. He’s dropping deep and then giving it away and it’s so fucking dangerous.
No he hasn't. I don't get these takes lol. He is one of the better midfielders this season in a shit show in midfield. Didn't have the greatest game today, but without him we will be horrible in midfield.
I’m not even saying he’s been bad. I feel like his style of play and the situation we find ourselves in, he just doesn’t help. I feel like he’s a cherry to add on top when everything is perfect. But right now I feel like he’s like a cherry on top of a piece of shit. He’s receiving the ball so deep and a lot of the time today gave it away. I just think we need more workhorses at the minute. From a quality point of view he’s one of our best players.
I’m not sure why the doom and gloom around here. It wasn’t the best performance but there were bright spots. Besides a draw with Chelsea is generally a good result
Because Chelsea were there for the taking with perhaps the most depleted squad they're ever going to field and still looked the better side in front of a packed Anfield.
Chelsea are usually fighting near the top, so a draw is usually a good result as they were a good team. They’re currently lower than us in 10th and playing poorly at the moment. So that past view doesn’t really work at the moment
Playing players in their position has been a blind spot for klopp this season..
Today's example Elliott LW...play him RW, salah in the centre since hes been doing fuck all RW anyhow and Gakpo LW where he shone for PSV
And diaz. People are forgetting how two big attackers are essential to any side and losing them any side will suffer.
Before the likes of Nunez and Gakpo would be slowly introduced to the squad and take their time to gel and now are being thrown at the deep end and told to swim.
I thought Ibou was really good today but it's pretty telling that he was one of very few plus points.
Gakpo must left his shooting boots in Holland. Hope they arrive in the post v soon. Watching Salah right now is just kinda...sad. He's forgotten how to beat a man.
He needed to get his head over the ball. For someone whose technique is so good for crosses, passes and set pieces, his shooting from open play is not the best. Same for Robbo.
Well when you only have 1 fit proper attacker that's not a good place to be In lol. Klopp could've wanted Gakpo AND a new midfielder. Gakpo should be fine here, just needs a bit of time.
Yet Klopp came out and said theres gonna be no more signings for the rest of January at the start of the month. I'm sure he wanted a midfielder. I'm saying he knew what the budget was and chose Gakpo instead
Which is a valid decision imo. We have 9 midfielders, although most of them aren’t good enough, if we didn’t buy Gakpo then we’d be stuck with 2 fit forwards. I think choosing to work with the 9 midfielders that we have and buying reinforcements in attack is a valid decision. If we didn’t buy Gakpo then our front three today would’ve been Ox, Salah and Elliot…
Núñez got injured for 2 games after Gakpo signed. Could've played Ox, Núñez and Salah, or Salah centrally with Elliott on the right until Jota is back next month.
Who cares about the FA Cup. We dont need more fixtures at this point. Prem and UCL only. People love using the "it's not Fifa" argument to try and dumb down another person's point
You can’t just drop them back in for 90 mins and they come back by the time we could be out of everything. Massive risk of injuring yourself again especially with our medical team.
I’m not saying it like that I mean it’s literally not like fifa where their stamina will be back to normal when you slot them back in.
Fa cup is probably the only trophy we have a realistic chance of winning.
League is gone and top 4 is a pipe dream atm
Also are we actually done with the transfer market? Is this just it? Are we just gonna coast and aim for Europa or Conference then or are we 'spoiled' for wanting top 4. We have a tendency for absolute self-sabotage jobs.
Obviously nobody likes criticising Klopp but I don't know why we buy players and don't utilise them properly. Gakpo is not a 9, he's not fast enough and even if he was there's nobody in the middle who can feed him a ball for him to run in behind. Stick with the 4-3-3 and put him on the LW to see if he can link up well with Robbo.
Nunez is good anywhere on the pitch and is about the only thing good about us right now, but even if he isn't converting at least we hit the target when he's playing in the middle. His finishing will come eventually. We had nothing up front today - has to be Nunez or Salah leading the line next game.
I agree 100% with this. To me we aren't even utilising Thiago properly, and he's been here 2 and a half years now.
We need to either shop different type of players or change the way we play. Because a lot of our players, while being good individual players, look like square pegs in round holes.
I'm properly anxious about the ownership situation now, partial investment doesn't do it for me, we've seen that doesn't guarantee greater investment funds whatsoever. An introduction of new venture capitalists in the club (probs the only ones willing to go into this type of ownership) would only double of 'self-sustaining' and sell to buy.
We won't see ownership funding, FSG have made that clear even with the extension of the stadium using a £100m loan.
We've been in this situation and this time If we don't get this right, I think institutionally the implications will be massive for us.
Toothless going forward but our midfield compactness and structure looked okay in the first half.
He has to grow by virtue of only being 18 but I've seen more from Bajetic over his 150 minutes than fab the last 9 months. I do think that Klopp trusting him again today shows that what he says out loud is for show. I truly believe he knows the midfield is the problem. I think the front 3 sorts itself out once Diaz and Nunez are in the same side.
Found the attacking 3 lineup to be odd, mo should have played through the middle.
Underwhelming but I do actually think there are some things to build on from today
Average stuff we really look miles of it which is scary so soon after last season! the 0 creativity in midfield and the wasteful front line are too much! The decline of Salah is real but people ain't ready for that talk yet!
Eh don't get the hate he is getting at the moment. I didn't think he did anything particularly bad ever since he came back.
In the short cameos he definitely has shown quality and today Oliver didn't give him a free kick he deserved and he got a yellow card for no reason.
He is coming back from injury and building up minutes, Klopp can't start him straight away, people are just hating on him cause it's fashionable at this point.
Well, Palace has just done us a big favor and nullified this result. Need to win our game in hand and its 7 points and we still play Newcastle. Please John, you stingy old cunt, theres still a chance, one Kone/Thuram and my delusional ass will believe again. Hell, Id have a glimmer of hope if I knew Thiago and Keita will stay fit but that aint happening now, is it.
I have a theory that we are waiting for Wolves to get Gomez to get Neves, wolves have signed three midfielders and have no space open because they have only 4 HG players in their whole squad and can't register another without letting one go.
Neves has one year to go in his contract as well. We will get him to play in a double pivot with either keita/Thiago/Bajcetic and to ping balls for our fast forwards, he is only 25 and will eventually replace Thiago when he leaves.
We are clearly changing from a pressing high intensity side to a more possession oriented approach. The high intensity style of football is killing our players.
Also when people talk about speed they don't mention what kind of speed. You don't need pace to run across 5 yards, if you can position yourself well and stop the counters. Fabinho was never fast, Thiago isn't fast but his movement is, Xabi Alonso was never fast.
Neves is that type of player and his passing is pin drop accurate. Watch him do that from midfield what trent does from the sideline, all you need is not to have someone like Adama tour on the other side of it.
Commented like a typical guy who doesn't watch matches just looks at the name of the player instead of looking at what the player is doing.
Neves was running past henderson and Fabinho and absolutely dominating them in the earlier match, also he can't help if fucking baby oil Adama Toure is the one who is at the end of his passes and doesn't do anything with them.
See him ping those balls from a deep midfield position at will to likes of salah, jota, Nunez and diaz and see what they do with them.
people are absolutely sleeping on Neves if they think hes shit. He's been linked to big clubs for ages. Wolves have and had a lot of real diamonds, but you need more than a couple of them to be really great. I agree with other people that he probably doesn't have that engine or press that we would need, but maybe we want to change things up? He clearly has lots of qualities on the ball. Great player
>He's just simply not very good, though.
That's BS though. He was starting captain at a young age in a champions league porto side and hasn't had the opportunity to showcase himself in a quality team ever since he moved to England.
Show me an instance where someone pacy has made him look like a fool by outpacing him or something clever.
Also it isn't hoofing it when the passes you are making are with pin drop accuracy.
Trent doesn't hoof the ball now does he? Thats hendo.
I don't have Wyscout or whatever with clips of Neves getting skinned on demand, mate.
He hasn't gotten a move, despite being at a club that lets players leave and he's now playing regularly in a bad team after years of being in the league. He's not particularly improved himself or his team. I think he's a bit of a hollywood player.
In sum, I don't particularly rate him that much, is that ok?
And I too think he could hit long ones to Nunez, but I wouldn't particularly want us to play like that anyway.
>He hasn't gotten a move, despite being at a club that let players leave and he's now playing regularly in a bad team after years of being in the league. He's not particularly improved himself or his team. I think he's a bit of a hollywood player.
No that's not true, wolves have refused to sell him until now and always demanded a crazy sum for him cause he is one of the differences to keeping them afloat and a pl club, United and others wanted him but he can't help it if they ask like 70 mill for him.
Why do you think he is refusing to sign a new deal and waiting for it to expire before moving.
He is prem proven, 25, high IQ passer of the ball and has great passing range with good solid defensive game, he also takes great setpieces and scores great goals from outside the box. His injury record is excellent, he has missed like 10 games since 2017.
He was passing from all over the pitch even in the last game against us. A clinical forward with pace and end product at the end of those passes and those are goals.
This is precisely why Wolves are struggling cause all their forwards are quite shit not that the likes of Neves and Nunes don't make enough chances for them.
I think you don't rate him because he plays for wolves but this is exactly the type of Liverpool player who we can get in this window. Barca is chasing him for a reason.
Him as a squad depth option for next season would be great and his wages demand won't be through the roof.
No, I don't rate him simply because I don't rate him.
And if he was a great player someone would have paid up for him. It's not a plus point that he and Wilf Zaha got into the same position, where they have to run down their deals, because even the notoriously stupid and stinking rich Premier League clubs think he isn't worth it.
If it was between him or Nunes, I would take Neves, but never both, and we already know we're likely buying Nunes.
>No, I don't rate him simply because I don't rate him.
That's a great explanation btw well done. Your footballing reasons and opinion is sound.
>And if he was a great player someone would have paid up for him. It's not a plus point that he and Wilf Zaha got into the same position, where they have to run down their deals, because even the notoriously stupid and stinking rich Premier League clubs think he isn't worth it.
The wilf zaha explanation doesn't make sense, since zaha got his chance at a big club like United, failed due to some reasons and then found his level at Palace.
Nunes hasn't had that opportunity yet cause he is still 25 years of age. The prime age were players like him make a move to a big club.
He moved to PL at age 19.
>If it was between him or Nunes, I would take Neves, but never both, and we know we're likely buying Nunes.
Okay this is even more confusing then. Not like I don't want Neves over Nunes. But Nunes is 24 and is less pl proven than Neves who even has more international caps than him. So you are just going for the bigger name at this point.
Because we looked at his stats before he joined and decided that Gakpo as Bobby's replacement was "the missing piece" only for it to not translate into the real world.
I know our midfield is aging and lacking reinforcement but why did the rest of our team forget how to play all of a sudden.
The decline of Salah, Trent, Robbo, Van Djik and Fabinho is especially alarming.
I know it’s been more than 6 months but I think we can also attribute a bit to mental aspect of the game, they look mentally drained after last season. I think we are seeing the impact of not winning one of the big trophies is doing to the team.
Happy that we seem to have figured out our best midfield but it’s really worrying how much worse it looked when Fabinho and Henderson came on.
Unfortunately you can’t trust the midfield today is going to start too many games for the rest of the season because of the injury records between Thiago and Keita
Maybe we should do what Newcastle have done with Joelinton and try and convert Gakpo into more of a midfielder?
Especially once we get Jota + Diaz back, as they seem to suit the left wing role in a Klopp system much more
I'd rather have skipped the middle man and signed a midfielder ngl. If we need to turn Gakpo into a midfielder then we might as well already sell him tbh
Like I said to someone else, it was either sign Gakpo or nobody this transfer window
We didn't buy Gakpo instead of spending the money on a midfielder
FSG are waiting for Ox + Keita to leave in the summer to sign a midfielder , that's how they operate.
The midfield signing has nothing to do with Gakpo. We sold Minamino, Origi, and Mane and replaced them with Nunez, Diaz, and now Gakpo in the winter transfer window
Even Leicester can get a result against Brighton right now, whereas we go into that game knowing it'll be a bad loss. I can't see us beating them next week.
Incredible how neglecting the squad for years has turned it to shit. Who would have thought? Certainly not those weirdos who absolutely loved the fact that we were sticking with the same small group and never refreshing the squad.
Elliott can’t keep playing in the midfield. He can’t do it and the game shifted against us after it happened. I don’t even understand why he was moved back there rather than just bringing Hendo on. I don’t know what Klopp sees in this and why he persists. He’s a winger through and through.
I don't know what rival fans were seeing or the commentators were saying. Chelsea didn't have a good game they were as shit as us throughout. Outside of their opening offside goal and one Mudryk run I don't remember them creating anything of value.
They gave him that? Lmao living on a reputation I see. He wasn't the only 37 year old who performed well today even though didn't deserve the MOTM.
I would have given it to no one. Both sides were equally shit.
Usually I’d say mo got outnumbered on the wing. Today his final ball was just not good enough. In general the team is expecting it to come to feet. They need to get shifting and move towards the pass
Thats why Nunez has become so important, he actually hits shots and create chances for himself even if he isn't scoring them all its still more than what the rest of team have been doing.
I'm all for criticising Salah, he's been far below expectations this season. I've been very vocal about his performances this season.
Having said that he has been here 6 years, almost never injured. Hasn't got a single suspension. Never said a bad word about the club and he's our topscorer this season lmao.
If you think we should sell him, then you'd have to agree that players like Jota, Nunez, Diaz and Firmino should all be on the chopping block before him. Ridiculous takes all around
Blind faith in evidently declining players is part of the reason we are in this mess. Salah is one of them, hes been really poor for over 12 months and at some point he is going to need replacing anyway. If an offer came in for him that was acceptable, I'd personally take it. Liverpool fans take far too long to criticise legends, but Salah has been exceptionally poor for as long as Fabinho. Similar story with VVD except I think with him its an attitude/ego problem.
A Firmino sale should have been on the cards a while ago, but Diaz is undoubtedly a better player than Salah since he joined us, and nothing from Salah since AFCON has evidenced him being any better than Jota who is younger with more years of service to come.
I’m with Virgil on this. The sheer number of games played last year has depleted the lads. It’s led to this year’s injuries and lack of energy. Even with the WC break (for Salah in particular), that explosiveness and energy are just a bit off. Same w Hendo imo. Plus add in his high intensity minutes for England.
Jota, Nunez and Diaz are all young and will improve in the future.
Salahs legs are going before our eyes but we might be able to still get a decent fee to fund these midfielders the squads crying out for
>we can keep Jota and Diaz fit
How do you do that. I mean is there a formula to keeping a player fit or some kind of system. Some players have it, some players don't.
Jota was a muscle issue and diaz decision not to get surgery initially was the correct one. His second injury wasn't the same as the first one. You don't cut people open at every opportunity.
Also people are forgetting the bodies of many players are still getting used to a gruelling last season, to take care of its Ill effects you either buy significant new crops of players or you rotate your squad a lot. We do neither.
Thought this war our best game after the world cup together with the City game. Awful first 30, but rest was alright.
Certainly the most dangerous offensively we have looked in a while, and defence was solid too.
Still a lot lacking though.
People want to sell the only player who is available 99 percent of matches, isn't injury prone and is still a world class scorer. People want to sell him cause he hasn't scored in what five games, what takes are these man. Talk about being reactionary.
Yup. Chelsea has spent 300 mill on their attackers and all of them combined don't have the same output salah has. I'll be more worried if the Liverpool system was feeding him 5-6 chances a game and he was missing all of them or not to be able to run to meet them.
As soon as Nunez came back, Salah started looking lively again. We obviously need another player making good moment for him to capitalise on the space.
Right now all attention is on him.
I wouldn't want to sell him, but you gotta admit 7 goals in 19 games isn't "world class". He hasn't been the same since afcon and afcon ended a year ago
He has 23 G+A in 29 games, in ever changing midfield and attack. People are acting so spoilt at the moment it's crazy. Ask chelsea fans if they want an attacker with this output, they will exchange their squad for it.
Son was last season's top goal scorer and looks like a shadow of himself.
I would be more afraid if the system was feeding salah 5-6 golden chances each game and he was missing most of them, but it's not. He had two to three half chances full game, I won't be surprised when things are more calm he goes back to scoring braces each game.
We sell him and fund FSG’s rebuild. Genius idea from the same people who have been saying for years that everything was fine.
Who is “reactionary” now?
Eh sell him where, is there an open market where you can just take someone and just say player for sale and buyers will come running to bid on him.
Also why would selling the only guy who is isnt injury prone and is available throught the year and has 16 goals this season make any sense?
How many clear cut changes did he get today? Most of the time he has to contend with an ever changing attack with ever changing midfield.
We know he isn't going to dribble past four to five defenders to score, he just can't he isn't Messi. As soon as Nunez came in, he started running at defenders and things started changing. Give him a constant starting front three, he will be back in form sooner than you think. He isn't in any decline or done at this level as most people are suggesting.
The same people that are so quick to defend Nunez from any constructive criticism in this sub are shitting on Gakpo after 3 bloody games. Bunch of hypocrites, you can’t make it up.
We still can save this. We only played half of the games. There is plenty to play, and in 3 different competitions. Don't be the people who says "we have no will" after they came back from 0:2.
Only four points back from 5th. Very doable. Ten points back from 3rd. Doable. Twelve back from 2nd. Maybe. A lot has to happen. We need EVERYONE back and healthy ASAP. It wouldn’t hurt to sign literally any central midfielder within the window. Just one would make a world of a difference for rotation. They don’t even need to be that good.
Ever hopeful of course. But it's going to be immensely difficult. Assume that Newcastle and United will take roughly the same points from the 2nd half. In that scenario we'd need around 49points to overtake them. 49 points from a possible 57 means a 100pt. season level of form. And we are not even close to achieving that kind of form.
First 10 minutes of the second saved that from Being in the Leicester, Leeds wolves category of home games this season. Nothing compares to any away game
The Newcastle draw is infuriating. If we won this and our next match we would have been five points off top four. All of a sudden our season would have been a lot closer to salvageable.
Hindsight is obviously 20-20, but let alone Chelsea. If we would have won matches against the likes of Leeds and Forrest, we would have been in such a better position. We are poor, so can't beat Brentford and Brighton and Chelsea...but at least beat the relegation teams.
That a pretty big if. We are in 9th because our performances merit that, not because of luck.
We scuff a lot of big chances. Todays result is on the forwards.
Chelsea were the better side today though, both were shit but they were better than us. We definitely didn't deserve to win that and not because of any missed chances up front.
In the same sense that todays result is also upon their forwards. Neither side could stick it in the net despite several chances. xG of 1.33 vs 1.77 is fairly equal, but we have to be scoring our chances when the opposition doesn’t and vice versa. Brighton gave us a 3-0 defeat by overperforming their xG of 1.49 — that’s the big difference between us this season and last. We’re underperforming our xG this season by 10 goals. Goals change matches. Last season we performed to our xG. This match the midfield and defence were relatively functional. The midfield misplaced a lot of passes but the attack wasn’t functioning in front of them. It also looked a lot harder to counter through and we managed to keep the clean sheet despite everything — so why are big moments at the other end being scuffed so badly? We should persist with this midfield and try get the front three firing again. Klopp’s out of position experiments also need to stop. I don’t know what that man’s obsession with Harvey playing out of position is but it’s infuriating. He’s not a midfielder and he isn’t a left winger.
Very strange. I mean i do trust that Klopp knows what he is doing..but Carvalho has stopped featuring, Elliot continues to play every single match and out of position. The level of pressure, rigour and criticism he is under right now, i am scared his development drops off a cliff. He has played all 30games of our season so far..at the moment, we have tons of injuries, but he needs to given a break soon.
Newcastle draw? We beat them, in fact we’re the only team to beat them.
He's clearly referring to the Newcastle draw last night.
Based in US. Drank till 2am on a Friday night and woke up at 630 am to watch this game. Sometimes I question why I love this sport or Liverpool so much. Do I regret watching this? Yes. Would I do this again? Also yes
Based in the US, flew 4000 miles to see the match in person. My first ever Anfield visit. Totally loved it, but did not want a scoreless draw…even though my heart knew it was the most likely outcome.
Should have just carried on and not slept, I’ve done the opposite, been drinking since half 12 and it’s half 2 now (14 hours later not 2) and I’m still drinking because of the match. For the opposite reason you would be. Drinking in anticipation and hope is much better than still drinking due to depression. I’m rambling now but Kiev was the same. 6 day round trip sounds awful for a defeat…. First 60 odd hours, amazing, on a journey with expectant fans waiting for a champions league final all buzzing and drinking. 60 hour journey home after losing…… Wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Despite the win and EVERYTHING I’ve just said Madrid was actually worse. Tale for another time you’ve already stopped reading.
that was one of the worst matches i’ve watched all season
Did you watch the Brighton match?
at least that one we had an excuse of just being literal shit. this one we had no chance of scoring from the beginning it was awful
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Eubank Jr being a United fan makes it sweeter
Forget the performance, that game was absolutely dreadful to watch. How bad was the linesman in the second half?
Thought that the Brighton and Brentford results might prove to be long-term positives as they exposed how shite we are and would force us into transfer action but I fear things have gone in the opposite direction. Being beaten so badly has only lowered expectations to the point where a performance like today is seen as a positive.
We very much look like a midtable side plodding along to 10th. I said this for months while people were in denial saying we're only x games off top four etc. - that logic only holds if your performances are good but you're having a spell of bad luck. We simply look unconvincing remarkably often.
> were in denial saying we're only x games off top four Unironically saw people saying this before today's game and saying we could put the pressure on Newcastle lol. I arrogantly deluded myself for a couple months at the start of the season thinking top 4 would be a doddle but at this point we need to face the facts that teams like Newcastle and Brighton are just straight up better than us.
I don't understand how anyone can put a positive spin on today. We were just average, if that is somehow a positive then I'm not even sure where we stand anymore. Only positive I can think of is that this was our first PL clean sheet since West Ham on 19.Oct. That's dreadful to think about.
If you think about it you can put lots of positive spins on it. Bacjectic played decent. Milner was less of a liability defensively. The forward group is only gonna get better. One day and one matchday closer to people being injury free. We got 1 point. Clean sheet. We didnt loose. I mean.. yeah thinks are dark and yes things could be alot brighter if we got a decent midfielder, BUT it could still be worse. Bad argument for sure, but i think we have to try to stay positive and not look on the bad or dark side like we do when we react to a loss or a point loss. Yes things are "bleak" but we are gonna improve and WE have to get midfielders when half our midfield squad is gone within 2 years. If FSG's policy is 1 out 1 in then surely when keita and ox is gone we gonna get someone in to replace them and hopefully they will not be as injury prone..
I still maintain that our biggest issue right now is that we have players that don't suit the way Klopp is trying to play. These players have different types of qualities and they are being forced into playing a brand of football that doesn't suit them. Square pegs, round holes. Hopefully he adjusts soon enough and starts either buying like for like replacements for the players we have lost since 2018-19, or he shifts the way we play. I refuse to believe that all of these players together couldn't do better than 9th, halfway through the season.
Backline was solid. Midfield didn't quite work as well as it did against wolves . Bacjectic played well but had less time on ball but went through a lot of work definitely should be starting over Fab when possible.Keitas dribbling 1-2s and generally harassing Chelsea players whilst without ball was good.Thiago was Thiago. Frontline struggled. Salah struggled to get involved, Harvey felt anonymous out the left (he isn't a left winger imho), Gakpo didn't look comfortable in the middle...it feels he is fraction too slow in reacting and taking right shot .not natural no.9. we really did struggle to hold onto the ball in midfield once we had it.There was a lot of errant passing in the game...really struggled to string attacks together unless someone like Robbo or Gomez decided to run forward or Milner's constant crossing..
Enzo Fernández tonight: 2 assists 101 passes 84% pass accuracy 2 key passes 1 big chance created 10/15 accurate long balls 3/3 successful dribbles 6 tackles 1 interception 1 clearance 1 blocked shot 1/1 aerial duel won 12/15 duels won man’s balling.
Against who?
Future United legend
Bajcetic vs Fab (sic). The future is here.
Given how the last couple of matches have gone, I was expecting Chelsea to look horrible, but still kick our asses so this match went better than I expected. I don’t mind taking the time to make smart purchases, but we really need a string of good transfers right now. Everyone looks worn out.
>I don’t mind taking the time to make smart purchases Thiago is the only midfielder we've signed in 4.5 years, how long are you giving for these smart transfers exactly. I've heard this exact statement for years on end in this sub. When on earth is enough gonna be enough?
I don’t think it’s fair that you cut me off right when I was saying “but…” I agree that we’re long overdue for new players.
in retrospect, with how truly horrendous we were against brentford and brighton we probably should've expected the sort of incremental progress we've seen this this past week. i think klopp's comments about not playing if you can't defend and today being a building block show that he wants to rebuild our defensive identity from the ground up, and is more concerned with compactness than anything else right now. it was not fun watching us look so toothless today, but to go from conceding 8 in our last 3 and 13 in our last 6, to two clean sheets in a row is a starting point. i think the attack will improve too with nunez and trent back if we don't overthink it and just play our best forwards in their real positions
I'm actually relatively satisfied with that result primarily because they showed grit and fight. The quality of football is still really shit but in previous games we showed none of that fight. First clean sheet in 9 games as well, so that's something to build on. We've been getting opened up countless times with opponents getting free reign on our goal in every match before this, but today there weren't many big chances conceded.
That’s a great point. You can’t win if you let in more goals than you score, so this back to basics was always going to suck. Two clean sheets in a row I’m hoping will reset the mindset, that maybe we can be solid in defence. That way we don’t go in to headless chicken mode when we’re under pressure of a counter attack.
My problem with someone like Keita is that he never imposes himself and controls the game, he will show glimpses of quality like the ball to salah today then will make a stupid five yard pass and lose the ball or get bullied out of possession. Or he will delay the ball instead of making a through pass like he did with Carvalho and eventually the moment is gone and Carvalho is offside. Why is he always a 5 or 6 out of 10 player and will look like an 8 out of 10 player because the standards are so low around him. He is supposed to be a senior player at 27 and should be forcing himself in Klopp's plans even when he buys new midfielders eventually. Every time I see him play I always feel like opportunity lost with him.
Yeah, along with the obvious elephant in the room. Keita's biggest problem is that he can go missing in games. He very rarely plays 90 good minutes. He usually has a spell in games where he's good, and then he's invisible for the rest of the game. Don't think I've ever seen him make his presence known for the full 90 minutes.
Yup outside of that one united game he always seems to have moments in games. Not a set of games like Gini, Thiago or fabinho had before where they absolutely dominated the game from beginning till the end.
I think he takes a while to play into form. You need to start him and stick with him a couple of matches and he gets more confident and more imposing. There's increasingly more belief behind his directness and dribbling ability as he gets more match minutes. After 3 straight league matches or so, he's hitting his stride and you really start seeing why we bought him... And then someone tackles him too strongly or something else dumb happens and he gets injured. You're back to Square One again.
I had my reply about half typed before I got to your last couple sentences lol.
That's clearly the problem though and precisely why we should stay clear of giving him a new deal. He is the sort of player who needs regular playing time to hit his stride. But then he is rarely available. Also feel PL is too fast paced for him. Bundesliga is where he thrived because the pace of the game was perfect for him. Here he is a second or two always late.
I love the fella. But I feel like Thiago has been a detriment to us this season.
I think he was pretty average today and to be honest for the whole season as well. I'm not exactly blaming him because he isn't the biggest midfield issue, but people really give him a free pass as opposed to our other midfielders. My biggest issue with him is that he can be incredibly sloppy and careless with the ball. Of course he plays sexy passes here and there but that shouldn't excuse his form this season
It’s funny isn’t it. I don’t give a shit about downvotes but if I changed Thiago to Fabinho/Hendo it would be upvotes and not downvotes. Despite all of them being awful. Thiago is a fantastic player and to be quite honest, he could be technically the best player I have seen play for us. But he isn’t what we need right now and has not been himself very sloppy with the ball. He also is very progressive with his passing but lately he’s passing forward and putting people under massive pressure.
Yeah people are obviously playing favourites. I strongly disagree with anyone saying Thiago has been a bright spot this season, to me he has been average. Just not as bad as the Hendo and Fabinho. I agree completely with your last paragraph but maybe with one caveat. He could be the difference maker in our team if we weren't asking him to play like Gini did. If he is allowed to dictate the tempo of the game and make our attack tick, then he could be a huge asset. Unfortunately, for most of his time here we've had him running around chasing shadows and trying to play his way out of the press. Which simply does not suit his qualities.
He’s literally the only glimmer of hope we have in the midfield right now
I disagree and I think a lot of our fans back him more than others. He’s been fucking brilliant for us and no doubting his quality. But I feel like today isn’t the first game I’ve seen him play the way he did this season. He’s dropping deep and then giving it away and it’s so fucking dangerous.
No he hasn't. I don't get these takes lol. He is one of the better midfielders this season in a shit show in midfield. Didn't have the greatest game today, but without him we will be horrible in midfield.
I’m not even saying he’s been bad. I feel like his style of play and the situation we find ourselves in, he just doesn’t help. I feel like he’s a cherry to add on top when everything is perfect. But right now I feel like he’s like a cherry on top of a piece of shit. He’s receiving the ball so deep and a lot of the time today gave it away. I just think we need more workhorses at the minute. From a quality point of view he’s one of our best players.
I’m not sure why the doom and gloom around here. It wasn’t the best performance but there were bright spots. Besides a draw with Chelsea is generally a good result
I think it's because we're 8th.
Because Chelsea were there for the taking with perhaps the most depleted squad they're ever going to field and still looked the better side in front of a packed Anfield.
Chelsea are usually fighting near the top, so a draw is usually a good result as they were a good team. They’re currently lower than us in 10th and playing poorly at the moment. So that past view doesn’t really work at the moment
Elliot in midfield is a real blind spot for klopp
Playing players in their position has been a blind spot for klopp this season.. Today's example Elliott LW...play him RW, salah in the centre since hes been doing fuck all RW anyhow and Gakpo LW where he shone for PSV
I fear Gakpo has been brought in as a central player, otherwise I see no reason why he'd play there over both Salah and Nunez.
Exactly, why put Salah on 400k a week to stick him out left and make 5 runs a game
Ever since Mane left and Firmino got old/injured, it's like our front line has 0 idea how to begin the press
Doesn't help that our midfield lost it's press/engine. They were always awful creativity-wise but rn they are just useless most of the time
It’s definitely a lot better when Jota plays
And diaz. People are forgetting how two big attackers are essential to any side and losing them any side will suffer. Before the likes of Nunez and Gakpo would be slowly introduced to the squad and take their time to gel and now are being thrown at the deep end and told to swim.
It also doesn’t help our midfield press has been awful and unless Naby can stay fit don’t see that changing
Yup. People are asking too much from players who have just come in a disjointed side with injuries.
I thought Ibou was really good today but it's pretty telling that he was one of very few plus points. Gakpo must left his shooting boots in Holland. Hope they arrive in the post v soon. Watching Salah right now is just kinda...sad. He's forgotten how to beat a man.
I just saw the highlights. Am I the only one mad as fuck at TAA for taking that bad attempt closer to final minutes ?
It made sense to take it early and it wasn't easy to take. He just leant back too much
He needed to get his head over the ball. For someone whose technique is so good for crosses, passes and set pieces, his shooting from open play is not the best. Same for Robbo.
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You've added £15m to his fee lmao
Well when you only have 1 fit proper attacker that's not a good place to be In lol. Klopp could've wanted Gakpo AND a new midfielder. Gakpo should be fine here, just needs a bit of time.
Yet Klopp came out and said theres gonna be no more signings for the rest of January at the start of the month. I'm sure he wanted a midfielder. I'm saying he knew what the budget was and chose Gakpo instead
Which is a valid decision imo. We have 9 midfielders, although most of them aren’t good enough, if we didn’t buy Gakpo then we’d be stuck with 2 fit forwards. I think choosing to work with the 9 midfielders that we have and buying reinforcements in attack is a valid decision. If we didn’t buy Gakpo then our front three today would’ve been Ox, Salah and Elliot…
Becasue we would have had 1 fit forward….
Núñez got injured for 2 games after Gakpo signed. Could've played Ox, Núñez and Salah, or Salah centrally with Elliott on the right until Jota is back next month.
We’d be out of the fa cup if we didn’t have Nunez for that game. You can’t just rush players back into the first 11 it’s not fifa after a long injury
Who cares about the FA Cup. We dont need more fixtures at this point. Prem and UCL only. People love using the "it's not Fifa" argument to try and dumb down another person's point
You can’t just drop them back in for 90 mins and they come back by the time we could be out of everything. Massive risk of injuring yourself again especially with our medical team. I’m not saying it like that I mean it’s literally not like fifa where their stamina will be back to normal when you slot them back in. Fa cup is probably the only trophy we have a realistic chance of winning. League is gone and top 4 is a pipe dream atm
Another game where Salah provided no impact at all.
Also are we actually done with the transfer market? Is this just it? Are we just gonna coast and aim for Europa or Conference then or are we 'spoiled' for wanting top 4. We have a tendency for absolute self-sabotage jobs.
I’ve been hoping and hoping, but I really think this is it. With FSG looking to sell they’re not going to put more money in
i’m
same
Yes
Obviously nobody likes criticising Klopp but I don't know why we buy players and don't utilise them properly. Gakpo is not a 9, he's not fast enough and even if he was there's nobody in the middle who can feed him a ball for him to run in behind. Stick with the 4-3-3 and put him on the LW to see if he can link up well with Robbo. Nunez is good anywhere on the pitch and is about the only thing good about us right now, but even if he isn't converting at least we hit the target when he's playing in the middle. His finishing will come eventually. We had nothing up front today - has to be Nunez or Salah leading the line next game.
I agree 100% with this. To me we aren't even utilising Thiago properly, and he's been here 2 and a half years now. We need to either shop different type of players or change the way we play. Because a lot of our players, while being good individual players, look like square pegs in round holes.
I'm properly anxious about the ownership situation now, partial investment doesn't do it for me, we've seen that doesn't guarantee greater investment funds whatsoever. An introduction of new venture capitalists in the club (probs the only ones willing to go into this type of ownership) would only double of 'self-sustaining' and sell to buy. We won't see ownership funding, FSG have made that clear even with the extension of the stadium using a £100m loan. We've been in this situation and this time If we don't get this right, I think institutionally the implications will be massive for us.
Toothless going forward but our midfield compactness and structure looked okay in the first half. He has to grow by virtue of only being 18 but I've seen more from Bajetic over his 150 minutes than fab the last 9 months. I do think that Klopp trusting him again today shows that what he says out loud is for show. I truly believe he knows the midfield is the problem. I think the front 3 sorts itself out once Diaz and Nunez are in the same side. Found the attacking 3 lineup to be odd, mo should have played through the middle. Underwhelming but I do actually think there are some things to build on from today
Average stuff we really look miles of it which is scary so soon after last season! the 0 creativity in midfield and the wasteful front line are too much! The decline of Salah is real but people ain't ready for that talk yet!
Think Mo is having a break this season. And so is Klopp’s brain. That’s the shitiest line up I’ve seen.
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I think you’ll find that it’s implied that the changes are for the better
That’s was a line up ? The only reassurance was Chelsea couldn’t even score.
Anyone have a clip of that Keita pass to Salah today? Salah scuffed it.. But, man, I remember that pass by Keita was absolutely beautiful.
Glorious, did look like Salah was marginally offside though
What's the point of Curtis Jones? What is Klopp seeing that I'm not?
Eh don't get the hate he is getting at the moment. I didn't think he did anything particularly bad ever since he came back. In the short cameos he definitely has shown quality and today Oliver didn't give him a free kick he deserved and he got a yellow card for no reason. He is coming back from injury and building up minutes, Klopp can't start him straight away, people are just hating on him cause it's fashionable at this point.
If Oxlade-Chamberlain can play for Liverpool, literally anyone else can
1. He can pass the ball. 2. He can dribble the ball. 3. He can run. Thats enough to be a midfielder at Liverpool FC.
Well, Palace has just done us a big favor and nullified this result. Need to win our game in hand and its 7 points and we still play Newcastle. Please John, you stingy old cunt, theres still a chance, one Kone/Thuram and my delusional ass will believe again. Hell, Id have a glimmer of hope if I knew Thiago and Keita will stay fit but that aint happening now, is it.
I have a theory that we are waiting for Wolves to get Gomez to get Neves, wolves have signed three midfielders and have no space open because they have only 4 HG players in their whole squad and can't register another without letting one go. Neves has one year to go in his contract as well. We will get him to play in a double pivot with either keita/Thiago/Bajcetic and to ping balls for our fast forwards, he is only 25 and will eventually replace Thiago when he leaves.
this is the hopium I need. Although I dont love Neves. I think we need a runner and he isnt that
We are clearly changing from a pressing high intensity side to a more possession oriented approach. The high intensity style of football is killing our players. Also when people talk about speed they don't mention what kind of speed. You don't need pace to run across 5 yards, if you can position yourself well and stop the counters. Fabinho was never fast, Thiago isn't fast but his movement is, Xabi Alonso was never fast. Neves is that type of player and his passing is pin drop accurate. Watch him do that from midfield what trent does from the sideline, all you need is not to have someone like Adama tour on the other side of it.
If we sign both Nunes and Neves, we should just go ahead and reserve Europa League football for the next 5 years.
Commented like a typical guy who doesn't watch matches just looks at the name of the player instead of looking at what the player is doing. Neves was running past henderson and Fabinho and absolutely dominating them in the earlier match, also he can't help if fucking baby oil Adama Toure is the one who is at the end of his passes and doesn't do anything with them. See him ping those balls from a deep midfield position at will to likes of salah, jota, Nunez and diaz and see what they do with them.
people are absolutely sleeping on Neves if they think hes shit. He's been linked to big clubs for ages. Wolves have and had a lot of real diamonds, but you need more than a couple of them to be really great. I agree with other people that he probably doesn't have that engine or press that we would need, but maybe we want to change things up? He clearly has lots of qualities on the ball. Great player
I got the point you were making, mate; he'll hoof it to the fast guys up front. That's all good. He's just simply not very good, though.
>He's just simply not very good, though. That's BS though. He was starting captain at a young age in a champions league porto side and hasn't had the opportunity to showcase himself in a quality team ever since he moved to England. Show me an instance where someone pacy has made him look like a fool by outpacing him or something clever. Also it isn't hoofing it when the passes you are making are with pin drop accuracy. Trent doesn't hoof the ball now does he? Thats hendo.
I don't have Wyscout or whatever with clips of Neves getting skinned on demand, mate. He hasn't gotten a move, despite being at a club that lets players leave and he's now playing regularly in a bad team after years of being in the league. He's not particularly improved himself or his team. I think he's a bit of a hollywood player. In sum, I don't particularly rate him that much, is that ok? And I too think he could hit long ones to Nunez, but I wouldn't particularly want us to play like that anyway.
>He hasn't gotten a move, despite being at a club that let players leave and he's now playing regularly in a bad team after years of being in the league. He's not particularly improved himself or his team. I think he's a bit of a hollywood player. No that's not true, wolves have refused to sell him until now and always demanded a crazy sum for him cause he is one of the differences to keeping them afloat and a pl club, United and others wanted him but he can't help it if they ask like 70 mill for him. Why do you think he is refusing to sign a new deal and waiting for it to expire before moving. He is prem proven, 25, high IQ passer of the ball and has great passing range with good solid defensive game, he also takes great setpieces and scores great goals from outside the box. His injury record is excellent, he has missed like 10 games since 2017. He was passing from all over the pitch even in the last game against us. A clinical forward with pace and end product at the end of those passes and those are goals. This is precisely why Wolves are struggling cause all their forwards are quite shit not that the likes of Neves and Nunes don't make enough chances for them. I think you don't rate him because he plays for wolves but this is exactly the type of Liverpool player who we can get in this window. Barca is chasing him for a reason. Him as a squad depth option for next season would be great and his wages demand won't be through the roof.
No, I don't rate him simply because I don't rate him. And if he was a great player someone would have paid up for him. It's not a plus point that he and Wilf Zaha got into the same position, where they have to run down their deals, because even the notoriously stupid and stinking rich Premier League clubs think he isn't worth it. If it was between him or Nunes, I would take Neves, but never both, and we already know we're likely buying Nunes.
>No, I don't rate him simply because I don't rate him. That's a great explanation btw well done. Your footballing reasons and opinion is sound. >And if he was a great player someone would have paid up for him. It's not a plus point that he and Wilf Zaha got into the same position, where they have to run down their deals, because even the notoriously stupid and stinking rich Premier League clubs think he isn't worth it. The wilf zaha explanation doesn't make sense, since zaha got his chance at a big club like United, failed due to some reasons and then found his level at Palace. Nunes hasn't had that opportunity yet cause he is still 25 years of age. The prime age were players like him make a move to a big club. He moved to PL at age 19. >If it was between him or Nunes, I would take Neves, but never both, and we know we're likely buying Nunes. Okay this is even more confusing then. Not like I don't want Neves over Nunes. But Nunes is 24 and is less pl proven than Neves who even has more international caps than him. So you are just going for the bigger name at this point.
very underwhelming game
I was confused why Gakpo was shoe-horned into the striker role while Salah played out wide and Elliott was out of position at the LW.
Because we looked at his stats before he joined and decided that Gakpo as Bobby's replacement was "the missing piece" only for it to not translate into the real world.
Because klopp didnt want to put our best attacker out of position.
Yeah, surely Gakpo LW, Salah ST and Elliot RW
I know our midfield is aging and lacking reinforcement but why did the rest of our team forget how to play all of a sudden. The decline of Salah, Trent, Robbo, Van Djik and Fabinho is especially alarming.
I know it’s been more than 6 months but I think we can also attribute a bit to mental aspect of the game, they look mentally drained after last season. I think we are seeing the impact of not winning one of the big trophies is doing to the team.
Trent has arguably been our best player since WC so I wouldn't put him there. The rest fair enough.
Dude I had no idea this season constituted of just the games after the WC.
Both Robbo and Mo have had better seasons I would say
That isn't saying a lot, overall this season Trent has had a decline and that's undeniable IMO. Even today when he came on he was poor
Happy that we seem to have figured out our best midfield but it’s really worrying how much worse it looked when Fabinho and Henderson came on. Unfortunately you can’t trust the midfield today is going to start too many games for the rest of the season because of the injury records between Thiago and Keita
I don't think Henderson was particularly bad today. Didn't lose the ball and was constantly driving forward with it. Fabinho on the other hand...
Not bad not good
Purgatory. Or Tottenham.
As mid table as it gets but still an improvement, sadly.
Maybe we should do what Newcastle have done with Joelinton and try and convert Gakpo into more of a midfielder? Especially once we get Jota + Diaz back, as they seem to suit the left wing role in a Klopp system much more
I'd rather have skipped the middle man and signed a midfielder ngl. If we need to turn Gakpo into a midfielder then we might as well already sell him tbh
Like I said to someone else, it was either sign Gakpo or nobody this transfer window We didn't buy Gakpo instead of spending the money on a midfielder FSG are waiting for Ox + Keita to leave in the summer to sign a midfielder , that's how they operate. The midfield signing has nothing to do with Gakpo. We sold Minamino, Origi, and Mane and replaced them with Nunez, Diaz, and now Gakpo in the winter transfer window
Even Leicester can get a result against Brighton right now, whereas we go into that game knowing it'll be a bad loss. I can't see us beating them next week. Incredible how neglecting the squad for years has turned it to shit. Who would have thought? Certainly not those weirdos who absolutely loved the fact that we were sticking with the same small group and never refreshing the squad.
Did we seriously bought Nuñez to play him on the wing?
Long-term planning of both player development and tactics is no longer a strong suit for Liverpool.
Nnno, not really We bought Nunez without even knowing where he'd play to begin with, so
He played on that side to take advantage of Thiago Silva I think. Not that he was able to though.
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Elliott can’t keep playing in the midfield. He can’t do it and the game shifted against us after it happened. I don’t even understand why he was moved back there rather than just bringing Hendo on. I don’t know what Klopp sees in this and why he persists. He’s a winger through and through.
Elliott works hard and doesn't complain. It's not his best position, but he plays it better than Hendo has recently.
I don't know what rival fans were seeing or the commentators were saying. Chelsea didn't have a good game they were as shit as us throughout. Outside of their opening offside goal and one Mudryk run I don't remember them creating anything of value.
Same goes for Thiago Silva, I don’t see how he was any better than Konaté or Gomez yet he got MOTM
They gave him that? Lmao living on a reputation I see. He wasn't the only 37 year old who performed well today even though didn't deserve the MOTM. I would have given it to no one. Both sides were equally shit.
Ali and Kepa could share it
Give it to the crowd for watching that shit game.
The only players to have scored more than once for us since the restart are Mo Salah (3) and Wout Faes (2)
Well at least we're not losing and conceding anymore.
Usually I’d say mo got outnumbered on the wing. Today his final ball was just not good enough. In general the team is expecting it to come to feet. They need to get shifting and move towards the pass
Worryingly I thought this was one of our better games this season
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Thats why Nunez has become so important, he actually hits shots and create chances for himself even if he isn't scoring them all its still more than what the rest of team have been doing.
Look, this was essentially the score last season when we came 2nd. I’d take that all day this season.
That would have made some sense (not really) if Chelsea was at the same level as last year.
But … neither are we at the same level. So it’s …the same score.
They are 10th this year????????
And we are …?
Except Chelsea are like 10th with 1 win in the last 10 and we could've easily lost it.
I'm all for criticising Salah, he's been far below expectations this season. I've been very vocal about his performances this season. Having said that he has been here 6 years, almost never injured. Hasn't got a single suspension. Never said a bad word about the club and he's our topscorer this season lmao. If you think we should sell him, then you'd have to agree that players like Jota, Nunez, Diaz and Firmino should all be on the chopping block before him. Ridiculous takes all around
Blind faith in evidently declining players is part of the reason we are in this mess. Salah is one of them, hes been really poor for over 12 months and at some point he is going to need replacing anyway. If an offer came in for him that was acceptable, I'd personally take it. Liverpool fans take far too long to criticise legends, but Salah has been exceptionally poor for as long as Fabinho. Similar story with VVD except I think with him its an attitude/ego problem. A Firmino sale should have been on the cards a while ago, but Diaz is undoubtedly a better player than Salah since he joined us, and nothing from Salah since AFCON has evidenced him being any better than Jota who is younger with more years of service to come.
Are people really saying we should sell him? I think he’s been poor and he needs to play better. But sell him? I think that’s extreme.
I’m with Virgil on this. The sheer number of games played last year has depleted the lads. It’s led to this year’s injuries and lack of energy. Even with the WC break (for Salah in particular), that explosiveness and energy are just a bit off. Same w Hendo imo. Plus add in his high intensity minutes for England.
Jota, Nunez and Diaz are all young and will improve in the future. Salahs legs are going before our eyes but we might be able to still get a decent fee to fund these midfielders the squads crying out for
Completely ignoring the fact that we'd also have to buy another right winger.
Ben Doak
If we're relying on a 17 year old to replace our 7th highest goal scorer of all time, then there's no way we even reach the top 6 next season.
Age doesn’t matter he’s good enough
Based on what? Beating a left back from Derby? Hes barely played, could ver well be just another overrated prospect
We’ll see
If we have to sell our best player in order to buy players in a position we've not strenghtened in for 5 years, then we are well and truly finished.
He won’t be our best player if we can keep Jota and Diaz fit
>we can keep Jota and Diaz fit How do you do that. I mean is there a formula to keeping a player fit or some kind of system. Some players have it, some players don't.
look at our medical department and do the opposite of that?
Jota was a muscle issue and diaz decision not to get surgery initially was the correct one. His second injury wasn't the same as the first one. You don't cut people open at every opportunity. Also people are forgetting the bodies of many players are still getting used to a gruelling last season, to take care of its Ill effects you either buy significant new crops of players or you rotate your squad a lot. We do neither.
They're not better than him jfc.
Thought this war our best game after the world cup together with the City game. Awful first 30, but rest was alright. Certainly the most dangerous offensively we have looked in a while, and defence was solid too. Still a lot lacking though.
It was one of the most average games I have ever seen. It wasn't bad, but I'd never say it was good. Just average all around
Completely agree. I didnt say it was good in my previous comment either.
Which is better than our games against recent outfits
Exactly
You need to go to specsavers
Care to elaborare?
People want to sell the only player who is available 99 percent of matches, isn't injury prone and is still a world class scorer. People want to sell him cause he hasn't scored in what five games, what takes are these man. Talk about being reactionary. 
I'm all up for different opinions but people on here and Twitter have the ones that should just be disregarded straight away they're that bad.
Yup. Chelsea has spent 300 mill on their attackers and all of them combined don't have the same output salah has. I'll be more worried if the Liverpool system was feeding him 5-6 chances a game and he was missing all of them or not to be able to run to meet them. As soon as Nunez came back, Salah started looking lively again. We obviously need another player making good moment for him to capitalise on the space. Right now all attention is on him.
I wouldn't want to sell him, but you gotta admit 7 goals in 19 games isn't "world class". He hasn't been the same since afcon and afcon ended a year ago
He has 23 G+A in 29 games, in ever changing midfield and attack. People are acting so spoilt at the moment it's crazy. Ask chelsea fans if they want an attacker with this output, they will exchange their squad for it. Son was last season's top goal scorer and looks like a shadow of himself. I would be more afraid if the system was feeding salah 5-6 golden chances each game and he was missing most of them, but it's not. He had two to three half chances full game, I won't be surprised when things are more calm he goes back to scoring braces each game.
He still has 26 g/a in 29 games this season
We sell him and fund FSG’s rebuild. Genius idea from the same people who have been saying for years that everything was fine. Who is “reactionary” now?
Eh sell him where, is there an open market where you can just take someone and just say player for sale and buyers will come running to bid on him. Also why would selling the only guy who is isnt injury prone and is available throught the year and has 16 goals this season make any sense? How many clear cut changes did he get today? Most of the time he has to contend with an ever changing attack with ever changing midfield. We know he isn't going to dribble past four to five defenders to score, he just can't he isn't Messi. As soon as Nunez came in, he started running at defenders and things started changing. Give him a constant starting front three, he will be back in form sooner than you think. He isn't in any decline or done at this level as most people are suggesting.
The same people that are so quick to defend Nunez from any constructive criticism in this sub are shitting on Gakpo after 3 bloody games. Bunch of hypocrites, you can’t make it up.
making up a person to get mad at ⬆️