Iskaral Pust

I don’t think clubs can escape this risk. We discussed it after Mbappe. Probably most players should buy their own injury insurance and always run down their contract. Then they can force the best possible deal to either renew or move. RM can use their appeal to become a super-club, hoovering up the best players on free transfers. It doesn’t guarantee them success (their spending already gave them a similar advantage for a long time) but it does mean that “aura” becomes a persistent advantage for the biggest clubs. And, unfortunately, the city of Liverpool will never have that level of appeal even if we think the club should. Longer contracts for young players who don’t yet have confidence that they’ll reach the top is a possible defense for clubs. And it helps with wage inflation too. But it will make squads illiquid, reducing the ability to change direction if recruitment and/or style were bad and need to change. The easiest solution is to be RM or Barca, or a London-, Paris- or Milan-based very successful club who markets their global brand very aggressively. Other clubs will just have a headwind.

Better that RM sign him now than Liverpool pay for him, see RM tap up Konate for a Bosman move next summer, and then RM get Huijsen on a Bosman too after his contract term.

I wish the fans at Anfield had not booed TAA today. I think the Scouse fans feel more betrayed than the global fanbase — typical of the Scouse chip on the shoulder and siege mentality. (Not uniquely Scouse; I think other rust belt towns and cities are like this). I’d guess that if this game had anything at stake then it wouldn’t have happened as they focused on supporting the team but the same end-of-term attitude that had them singing happily while losing to Chelsea let them vent their spleen at TAA today. It’s the wrong thing to do to one of our players while he is our player, and it will unsettle the rest of the players and damage their bond with the fans.

It felt like the players roused themselves for the first half to prove a point, but then reverted to flip-flops for the second half.

PL clubs look really over-powered now in the lesser European competitions. (Although TBF I believe Bilbao have had a solid season overall and have just been unfortunate with absences lately).

Liverpool players are very much on the beach* and ready to donate points to all opponents. *Literally. They were given a few days off again this week, and posted photos at beaches.

A second great game to finish an incredible tie. Some close margins and clutch play from tired legs. Raphinha scored in both legs while being largely anonymous otherwise.

The success of Antony and McTominay in other leagues makes for a challenging attribution of their PL struggles between the individual player, their team/manager/tactics/role, and the strength & style of opposition. They were both quite limited players, in different ways, across a large sample of PL games in a poor team with tactical problems. But watching them play so much better elsewhere makes me scratch my head that any players are willing to go to United now.

Lucky Chelsea to face Liverpool on the best possible day. I’m torn on whether the hangover (literal and figurative) or the rotation was the greater detractor — it’s hard to separate. Gakpo was pretty good throughout, Endo got sharper and more assured after a rocky start (but still offers far too little in ball progression overall), and Bradley made a strong impact as a sub (but worryingly was dribbled past a couple of times again). Jones, Elliott, Jota and Nunez showed why they don’t start. Salah miscontrolled almost every touch. Quansah was unlucky that VVD blasted the OG off him, but conceding the penalty was his own combo of rash & mistimed that we’ve seen from him before. Liverpool, amazingly, should have had an equalizer and possibly more when they created a string of chances in the second half. Chelsea were surprisingly passive for most of the match against a disjointed opposition but eventually started to play some football and attack for 10-15 minutes late on. While it’s unsurprising that the hangover + rotation took all wind out of Liverpool’s sails, it’s also a reminder of just how well they did to cruise to a title with such a weak bench. We don’t know yet whether Slot stubbornly overplays his preferred starters or just really distrusts these squad players but there’s a lot of work to be done in evolving this squad.

That was a great match. I hate Ray Hudson as a commentator though. He really detracts from the experience. Even dour Lee Dixon is better than that.

Seriously, though. I forgot to avoid the scoreline/result but I’m still planning to watch the game later this evening.

A joyful, celebratory victory where Liverpool finally took off the handbrake and played like they had back before February. TBF it was assisted by Spurs treating it like a pre-season match. It was nice to see Gakpo finally play like he had until that injury at Everton back in early Feb. He hadn’t looked match sharp after that long absence until today. Lots of great performances out there today. And Gakpo and Nunez both spurned easy goals as they tried to instead set up Salah to pad his numbers. Really hard on Bradley personally to pick up an injury and not be able to play. And I felt bad for Chiesa’s sheepish, bittersweet expression during the celebrations. It’s great to see the players and coaches enjoy their reward today.

Unfortunately Cunha could be a very good addition for Utd. He represents one of the best combinations of ability, availability, PL proven, and improving on what they have. I was hoping Liverpool would look at him for the Firmino false 9 role, although the jury is very much out on whether he can/will press enough and whether he can succeed as one player among many rather than be the star of the show (the Grealish-effect redux). I don’t know what to make of his disciplinary record. The few times I’ve seen him play, his attitude seemed fine. I don’t know if those recent red cards are an aberration, or does he have a wider pattern of conflicts and indiscipline. Liverpool have avoided problem personalities since Sakho. We haven’t bitten anyone in ages. I think the club feels like it no longer needs to take a risk on turning around volatile characters. We couldn’t be that choosy when signing Suarez.

CL teams no longer dropping into the EL mid-season really changes that competition. It gives a big benefit to the PL entrants who’ll generally have a big spending advantage now. There’s still room for clubs like Emery’s Sevilla to win but the odds definitely improved for the PL clubs. Which could help the PL maintain a strong UEFA coefficient and hang on to the extra CL spot more often than not.

With Salah and VVD extended (to slightly surprising wage increases considering their ages), now Liverpool fans are on the horns of a dilemma over TAA: the natural thing is to start making some emotional distance from the player, but not yet completely move on in case there’s an 11th hour surprise. There’s a lot of Schrödinger’s support for him just at the moment. Robinson and Kerkez have been the standout FBs this season (perhaps Livramento in that category too) with their skillful, direct, high-energy ball-carrying and immense engines to attack and defend for 90 minutes — and Bradley is actually very much in their mould already at only 21 and with only limited opportunities so far behind TAA — provided Bradley’s body can stand up the intensity of all that running as a regular starter. Perhaps the trend of inverted FBs is ending now and the next trend will be super-athletic two-way FBs who can dominate their wing. More Cafu than late-career Lahm. Liverpool may need to replace TAA’s passing creativity and accuracy, especially early long passes for quick counterattacks by Salah, at CB or DM instead. It certainly would help to be less defensively vulnerable on our right since Salah still won’t be tracking back. It could improve the balance of our team.

Well done to Arsenal. As much as I might focus first on RM being humbled, Arsenal just thrashed RM over two legs in a high stakes tie. And they’ve given themselves a good chance of winning the CL. All four semi-finalists have a good chance from here, though Inter and Barca need to stay focused on their domestic leagues too.

I think we also played into their hands and let them dictate the flow of the game, even without the ball. We didn’t have enough quality in any of those matches to outplay them in the 1:1 moments (when our MF couldn’t get close to Kroos + Modric, or when Robertson was caught upfield or TAA asleep at the back post) and spoil their game plan.

Ange looks like a dead man walking but is only a point behind United (and significantly better goal difference).

Liverpool are sleepwalking to the title. At least we were able to regain some intensity to chase the winning goal but we had been dreadfully passive since scoring the opener. It’s understandable that Bradley cannot be risked for a full 90 yet after injury but he adds a lot of sharpness and energy both attacking and defending. The rest of the defense has lost focus, so thankfully we have Alisson. Tsimikas probably isn’t ready for a full 90 either after riding the bench for so long but Robertson looked like a liability as a sub. The MF is exhausted and so open. MacAllister is the only one who has maintained his level. Grav, after being a revelation in the first half of the season, has become less and less impactful in the last few months. Some of that is fatigue, some of that is opponents adapting to negate him. His best work is with those silky turns + carries but his creative passing, duels and shielding against transitions aren’t doing enough. One positive today was Mac in the #10 role. I think he has better vision and anticipation there than Szoboszlai, especially in the split seconds. We have three great #8s but due to lack of balance we’ve forced two of them into #6 and #10 this season. I think we need more MF depth this summer and then reconsider the balance of roles ahead. Jota was very poor again.

Leinster have been really dominant in their last two matches against Harlequins and Glasgow. Although playing well up to finals hasn’t been a problem before. Prendergast does seem to be growing in his role in their attack. Hopefully that will eventually carry over to Ireland.

Two beautiful free kicks. Liverpool have really lacked that since Coutinho left (TAA averages maybe one per season on target). So nice to see Real Madrid humbled.

Rain before the race took away all the chaos. No grass fires, cooler track temps meant 1-stop for everyone, but the track was dry enough for no spin-offs. Suzuka was like Monaco this year. Great drive by Verstappen in qualifying and in the race to hold off the McLarens.

Today actually reminded me of how Watford destroyed us 3-0 in the 2019-20 title-winning season and broke our incredible run of form to that point (I think at that point we had 20+ wins and two draws).

I don’t want to over-react. Fulham have been difficult opponents for us these past few years with their aggressive pressing all over the pitch. We handed them three goals with stupid errors in defense (assisted by Muniz making unpunished pushes on Konate and VVD for the first and third), and they converted them quite clinically. We at least improved in the second half and came close to an equalizer. Slot made some mistakes today. Jones at RB was the obvious selection error against a different type of attack. But it’s not just his ability to defend a winger, it’s also his frequent over-casual passing after taking slow touches which allows the opposition to anticipate the press on the next man, e.g. he put Konate under stupid pressure for Konate’s early mistake (lucky not to concede a goal). Slot’s second mistake was his second round of subs while we were on top and chasing an equalizer. It completely ruined our shape. He has tried that before and it failed badly then too. There’s no point having 5-6 forwards with no way to break lines or create space. Those were the big two. On the margin, I’d say it was an error to continue with Jota (invisible and ineffective again), and I’m not sure why Gakpo was the first forward withdrawn: he was the only one of the three who was using the ball well in the first half, although he does provide a quieter and more passive presence than Diaz. It was great to see Bradley back though — his assist showed what he can offer from RB, and we really missed his impact in attack after the last round of subs forced him back into a solely defensive role. Nunez was abysmal as a sub, never recognizing where he should move for passes. The biggest problem from Slot is that we’re experiencing the accumulated effect of fatigue. Legs were gone everywhere and minds looked tired too. Fulham players outworked us all over the pitch and looked full of energy despite coming off two losses this week. Slot needs to learn from this next season. He might argue away from the cameras that he needs a better squad who can play his football. Our defensive mistakes conceding three goals were obvious. But a big factor in those goals is that we couldn’t play through or around the press at all, so the ball kept going backward and was exposed to a high press. Jota, Szoboszlai and Salah were atrocious at offering themselves for forward passes in the first half. The first two were justifiably substituted early, while Salah stayed in Robinson’s pocket for the full match — yet another game when Salah was comfortably contained by a LB. In fairness, that was true too earlier in the season when he would still pop up to score or assist at some point in most matches but he makes so little contribution to most games that we’re often playing with ten men and hoping he’ll have a decisive flash of impact. When those moments disappear it really looks like we’re carrying him. Form, fitness and morale all look very poor right now. Liverpool need to regroup over the next week.

Liverpool’s defense have imploded ridiculously.