Football: Bernaburned

[Iskaral Pust]

Imagine how frustrated Pep must be after Liverpool's last two victories.  City has the most ridiculously loaded squad, and has been extremely fortunate with injuries this year (yes KDB missed a lot of games, but far fewer than Ox), but somehow Liverpool are keeping pace still, even when their level of play has dropped off and it looks like they only earned a draw.

Sooner or later Liverpool will drop points if they keep playing this poorly.  But in the meantime Pep must be muttering "what more can I do?".  As far as Pep knows, if his team has just one sloppy/unlucky game and drops points then they could actually still lose this title.  It seems impossible for them to even have to contemplate that.

[Iskaral Pust]

3 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

We don't have City's depth, but in fairness to them they have no depth at fullback either. All of our issues are in midfield, in my eyes, and all are down to Klopp's selections.

I won't argue with MF problems.  Klopp is too trusting/reliant on workhorses but we've also been unlucky that Coutinho left, Ox has been injured, Keita hasn't settled yet, and Fekir's knee was too risky for a big transfer fee.  All of our planned attacking creativity/drive in MF has been unavailable this season.  Shaqiri did OK for a while but doesn't seem to be trusted now (I don't know why).

Salah has been very poor for most of the season, but we don't really have an alternative.  And you cannot just drop him because he's got more than 20 goals even while playing poorly for most of the games.  Mane is erratic but also on 20 goals.  Sometimes you have to just stick with them and hope that at least one of them is firing on any given day.

[polishgenius]

23 minutes ago, Iskaral Pust said:

I won't argue with MF problems.  Klopp is too trusting/reliant on workhorses but we've also been unlucky that Coutinho left, Ox has been injured, Keita hasn't settled yet,

It's also worth remembering that Klopp's Dortmund's biggest flaw was a tendency to collapse caused in part because the midfield was too comitted to attacking and the gegenpress and it's clearly something he's been aware of and tried to work on. He's rather overcompensated, but I don't think it can really be argued that over a league season the approach which allows you to grind out wins even while playing badly is more successful than the other. It's also not entirely his fault- he can't have anticipated that the player who was supposed to fix that midfield balance, Keita, has been such a busted flush.

(still think the Fekir knee excuse was a load of codswallop and a failure on the club's part, though, though that won't have been Klopp)

You guys should have a go at getting Docoure and Ruben Neves in summer, both proven PL players now who have a decent shout each at being the best midfielder outside the top 6. Well, apart from currently Tielemans, but don't get him please.

[Spockydog]

1 hour ago, Soylent Brown said:

Klopp is utterly clueless. Perhaps we should consider getting Buvac.

Is this a joke? Klopp is the best thing to happen to Liverpool since King Kenny left Celtic.

1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said:

This is the best ever league campaign by Liverpool.  The best ever. 

Steady on there. You haven't won anything yet.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

I think a priority target for Liverpool should be Frankfurt's Haller this summer, as in somebody who can actually play Firmino's role.

Busted flush is a bit harsh for Keita. It's his first EPL season, and he is simply a player who needs to play games to get going.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Just now, Spockydog said:

Is this a joke? Klopp is the best thing to happen to Liverpool since King Kenny left Celtic.

Steady on there. You haven't won anything yet.

I think he is refering to the points Liverpool has collected, and their overall record. If you look at their number alone it is pretty impressive by itself. The problem simply is, City are rather difficult to impress. So this is more like, ok, Liverpool would win the league handidly in almost any given year, if it was not for Pep's 100 points team.

[Spockydog]

7 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

I think he is refering to the points Liverpool has collected, and their overall record. If you look at their number alone it is pretty impressive by itself. The problem simply is, City are rather difficult to impress. So this is more like, ok, Liverpool would win the league handidly in almost any given year, if it was not for Pep's 100 points team.

Ah, okay. But speaking as someone who grew up watching Liverpool Prime, hearing a fan say this is their best ever season is odd. I mean, pre-Heysel, they were pretty much unbeatable.

[Philokles]

On Keita, it is seems likely he has been suffering with some medical issue for the last year or so. He’s played well on the couple of occasions where he has been able to get a run of games together in central midfield - then suddenly disappeared from the team for a few weeks. Even when he technically looked up to speed his physical numbers were well down on where they had been. Then there was the time he collapsed on the pitch against Napoli, which was also quite similar to an incident at Leipzig the year before.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

18 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Ah, okay. But speaking as someone who grew up watching Liverpool Prime, hearing a fan say this is their best ever season is odd. I mean, pre-Heysel, they were pretty much unbeatable.

 

No, idea how their current team does compared to their ancestors.

But we are 33 games into the season and they have lost just once and conceded a mere 20 goals, while scoring 75 goals themselves, and collected 82 points.

Objectively, those are impressive numbers.

Just to add some perspective on it.

Your invincibles from 03-04 were after 33 games sitting on 81 points. Conceded 22 goals, and scored a mere 67 goals. And you were more or less ten points clear at this point.

 

[Spockydog]

4 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

No, idea how their current team does compared to their ancestors.

In terms of trophies, very badly indeed.

But yeah, the figures are impressive this season. If not for Pep and his half a billion pound squad, they'd probably win it. I really hope they do.

 

[Consigliere]

I find it strange that people here are talking like it's a foregone conclusion that City will win the title. City are only slight favourites at this point imo - they have more depth in their forward line and more creative options in midfield but Liverpool have the easier run-in and better defence. 

I wouldn't write Keita off so soon either. We've seen his quality at Leipzig and in glimpses at Liverpool too. If he struggles again next season then that would be cause for concern. Also think Buvac is being given a bit too much credit - if he was so good he'd have spent most of the last two decades as a manager rather than Klopp's assistant. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Even if City wins the league in the end, I am not sure how anybody could label Liverpool's EPL season anything short of great. They will (very likely) end it with more than 90 points. All they can do is (try to) win all their remaining matches and hope for the best (same goes for City btw.).

Either way, I think we are going to see for the first time a team with 90 or more points not winning the EPL (as both City and Liverpool will very likely pass that mark)

[Mark Antony]

Pretty hype for Dortmund vs Bayern 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

And 2-0 already.

And it's Bayern - Dortmund as they are playing in Munich. (yes, nitpicks).

[Philokles]

BVB losing Hakimi was big. Could have put Diallo in his natural position at CB, where he is well ahead of Zagadou.