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Football - Leicester's Shakespearean Tragedy


Philokles

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Can's collapse this season is well beyond funny.  Klavan was hailed around here as better than Lovren only a couple of months ago, but his true level has been revealed since -- still better than Lucas though. 

That bench really highlights why we'll get nothing this year.  

It has to be mentioned too that Coutinho has been anonymous and ineffective since his return.  And he'll be further fatigued after the international break this month. 

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Was wondering about this gegenpress thingy .. for the Burnley goal, the passer had more or less half a half between himself and the nearest 'pool player. 

Does gegenpress only limit itself to pressing the defense, or do you just do it against the top six? Cause that part was awful.

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I've started watching the match and pretty soon decided to go back to coding some side project of mine.

Honestly, how bad must your team suck that you'd rather be working than watching them play? :( :lol: 

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20 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

I assume you're agreeing with me then.  

Oh yes,definitely.:)

Well we got the 3 points but i'm not sure these will help in any meaningful way towards top 4.Arsenal and United with games in hand.Plus,our next 2 games are against City and Everton,injuries to first team players etc.

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Liverpool definitely need investment in the off season. The team has benefited from not having any European football to contend with. Next season though this squad will struggle to cope when they will be playing more than one game per week on a regular basis. Don't know what the situation is at Liverpool; whether Klopp will be given a war chest to bring in 6-8 players or if he needs to sell before be can sign. Some dead wood needs to be cleared out as well.

 

3 minutes ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Oh yes,definitely.:)

Well we got the 3 points but i'm not sure these will help in any meaningful way towards top 4.Arsenal and United with games in hand.Plus,our next 2 games are against City and Everton.

City away is tricky but given how your lot have approached certain games this season, it's a good bet they will get at least a point. Everton at home, I see 'Pool trouncing them by three or four.

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1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Can's collapse this season is well beyond funny.  Klavan was hailed around here as better than Lovren only a couple of months ago, but his true level has been revealed since -- still better than Lucas though. 

That bench really highlights why we'll get nothing this year.  

Yes. Can has hit a real stinker of a season. Then I never understood the scousers who thought Klavan was ever anything more than a depth signing on the centreback position. And that was written all over that signing from the beginning. I mean nobody in their right mind could have expected a top class defender from the bench of Augsburg.

Klopp wanted a smaller squad for two reasons. It's easier to keep the first team players happy with playing time (especially without European football) and he did not want to clog the way for academy players into the squad. So you got Woodburn, Wilson and Arnold on the bench instead of Benteke. 

 

On a seperate note I hate Bobby Wood. 

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41 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

 Everton at home, I see 'Pool trouncing them by three or four.


I wouldn't want to predict that fixture in the slightest. On the one hand we could assume Liverpool see that as a big game and will therefore play better and Everton are still prone to the occasional headlight-freeze, but on the other hand if I was to pick players in the league useful to counter-attacking a gegenpress, Romelu Lukaku up front would be right near the top of the list, in his current form he could savage them.

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34 minutes ago, polishgenius said:


I wouldn't want to predict that fixture in the slightest. On the one hand we could assume Liverpool see that as a big game and will therefore play better and Everton are still prone to the occasional headlight-freeze, but on the other hand if I was to pick players in the league useful to counter-attacking a gegenpress, Romelu Lukaku up front would be right near the top of the list, in his current form he could savage them.

In theory Lukaku could be a handful for the Liverpool defence, however, Everton have not fared well in this fixture. It must be what, 5 or 6 years since they last beat Liverpool in the league? This game tends to be a heated affair so I'm sure the Liverpool players will approach it with the same mindset they would a 'big game'.

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14 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Liverpool definitely need investment in the off season. The team has benefited from not having any European football to contend with. Next season though this squad will struggle to cope when they will be playing more than one game per week on a regular basis. Don't know what the situation is at Liverpool; whether Klopp will be given a war chest to bring in 6-8 players or if he needs to sell before be can sign. Some dead wood needs to be cleared out as well.

You are being rather optimistic with your "6-8 players needed" assessment. I see it as probably 10 - a goalkeeper, a left back, at least one centre back (I'm not convinced Sakho is the one, even if he makes up with Klopp), a defensive midfielder and one striker who can, you know, actually score, plus a bunch of squad players to improve the competition for starting eleven.

15 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

That bench really highlights why we'll get nothing this year. 

Exactly this. Trophies haven't been won by your starting eleven for quite a while now. In a good season, you have well over 50 matches, not counting international matches. You need to have 20-25 players in regular rotation, maybe even more if you get into significant injury problems and/or your squad has a lot of African players leaving for ACN in January.

14 hours ago, Notone said:

Klopp wanted a smaller squad for two reasons. It's easier to keep the first team players happy with playing time (especially without European football) and he did not want to clog the way for academy players into the squad. So you got Woodburn, Wilson and Arnold on the bench instead of Benteke. 

The thing is that Benteke could offer a new option when coming off the bench, and he's scored a few goals last season as a substitute. Youngsters might do the same in a year or two but it's a question whether Klopp has a year or two.

Sure, Liverpool didn't have another 10 matches in Champions League this season to rotate the squad for but that's still no excuse for Milner at left back or no striker to speak of as a replacement for Sturridge when he gets injured. Coutinho, Firmino and Mane, as good as they are offensively, are just not suited to that role.

12 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Yeah, but I feel Koeman changes the equation somewhat. He's starting to get the best out of several of their players, seems to play a way that suits the team. Upped their fitness too, by all accounts. I think it could go either way.

Even though Liverpool has had an upper hand in recent years, I don't remember anyone thinking "oh, this one's going to be easy".

It's a derby for a reason, and in such matches things can go either way even when one team is clearly superior to the other, which we can all agree hasn't been the case this season.

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9 hours ago, baxus said:

The thing is that Benteke could offer a new option when coming off the bench, and he's scored a few goals last season as a substitute. Youngsters might do the same in a year or two but it's a question whether Klopp has a year or two.

Benteke wasn't particularly happy with his role on the bench. I don't know for sure whether Woodburn and the others aren't ready to play EPL minutes. And matches in the reserve do not bring them closer to that level. If they have the talent to play at the mens' level, then there's no way around but to take that leap of faith. And then it's either sink or swim for them. 

9 hours ago, baxus said:

Sure, Liverpool didn't have another 10 matches in Champions League this season to rotate the squad for but that's still no excuse for Milner at left back or no striker to speak of as a replacement for Sturridge when he gets injured. Coutinho, Firmino and Mane, as good as they are offensively, are just not suited to that role.

Milner has played that left back role rather well. So that criticism is a bit odd. As for the replacement striker, yes. But strikers with a certain quality are not cheap to come by. And Liverpool has no European football to make a part time role more attractive. And with a the lower quality striker, you are back at Klopp not wanting to clog the way for academy players. Remember what he said, Liverpool will only buy to improve the squad (in other words upgrades). With Sturridge injuries and rather mediocre showings, I can very well see Liverpool being on the market for a replacement for Sturridge and him being on his way out. Celtic's Dembele might indeed be on Liverpool's shortlist. Let's see how this summer transfer window develops. E.g. Aubameyang has repeated that he would like to leave Dortmund, preferably for Spain. So he might be the first domino to fall. So let's wait and see what's on the market then.

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Was just about to say we're focussing too much on Hazard when that happens. Jokes.

Bit harsh that Herrera is the one who gets two yellows for two scrappy but unremarkable fouls when Jones has been giving him the full Neville all evening, but ah well. So it goes.

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1 hour ago, Notone said:

Benteke wasn't particularly happy with his role on the bench. I don't know for sure whether Woodburn and the others aren't ready to play EPL minutes. And matches in the reserve do not bring them closer to that level. If they have the talent to play at the mens' level, then there's no way around but to take that leap of faith. And then it's either sink or swim for them. 

Milner has played that left back role rather well. So that criticism is a bit odd. As for the replacement striker, yes. But strikers with a certain quality are not cheap to come by. And Liverpool has no European football to make a part time role more attractive. And with a the lower quality striker, you are back at Klopp not wanting to clog the way for academy players. Remember what he said, Liverpool will only buy to improve the squad (in other words upgrades). With Sturridge injuries and rather mediocre showings, I can very well see Liverpool being on the market for a replacement for Sturridge and him being on his way out. Celtic's Dembele might indeed be on Liverpool's shortlist. Let's see how this summer transfer window develops. E.g. Aubameyang has repeated that he would like to leave Dortmund, preferably for Spain. So he might be the first domino to fall. So let's wait and see what's on the market then.

Benteke wasn't happy and Liverpool did great business selling him. That is not the problem here. The problem is that no suitable replacement was signed.

Youngsters should be given a chance but you can't expect them to get on the pitch and turn the match around, can you? Sure, sometimes it will happen, but it's far from the norm.

No one in Liverpool's back line has played remotely well this season and Milner is no exception. I'm definitely not faulting Milner for not playing at his top level out of position.

Liverpool should definitely not buy worse players than are in its squad just to say they've bought someone. Still, the bar for improving the squad is not that high, is it? Half its squad are goalies, defenders and untested youngsters. No one would love to see these youngsters emerge as Liverpool's equivalent to Xavi, Iniesta and Messi, but let's not be delusional.

Aubameyang, Dembele... they're just the tip of the iceberg. I'm certain there will be a very long list of players linked to Liverpool in the summer transfer window, just as there's been in every single transfer window I can remember.

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Ten seconds after United were warned to stop tactically fouling Hazard, a player on a booking tactically fouls Hazard. Herrera and Mourinho can have no complaints. The only stupid thing there was not swapping Herrera out of the fouling crew as he could not get away with many more.

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Just now, Horse of Kent said:

The only stupid thing there was not swapping Herrera out of the fouling crew as he could not get away with many more.


In fairness I don't think Herrera was in the fouling crew, it's just that the way he plays he's gonna scrap for everything and sometimes, that'll result in moments like that. Don't think either of them were deliberate rough-ups the way Jones has been doing.

It was just a shade unlucky that, essentially, twice the ref decided that the next player to foul Hazard was going to get a yellow and twice it just happened to be Herrera.

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