Football: Liverpool You Stupid Bastards

[Soylent Brown]

1 minute ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

What are you smoking.Ox is done.Should have sold him, Lallana and Origi after Champions League win.Klopp's loyalty was his undoing at Dortmund too.Same will happen here too.Just watch.

There are a dozen worse players in our squad than Ox, and on current form half our first team is worse, but you don't like him so he needs to go?

Klopp does him no favours by playing him for ten minutes at a time, but when he's in form, he has great vision, he's quick, and he's the best striker of the ball we've had since Gerrard left.

Fuck me, it would be nice if we could get some players who can actually kick a ball like a grown up.

[Iskaral Pust]

Perhaps it’s time for Liverpool to just play the youth players in the PL for the rest of the season.  They have enough points to avoid relegation.  At this stage every game is making things worse: more fatigue, more injuries, less confidence, less belief.  Just give them all a break and focus on the CL games.  They’d be better off with rest and some chance to train together, instead grinding deeper into this rut.

[polishgenius]

Slowly coming to acknowledge a world in which Fred is a vastly better player than Thiago Alcantara.

[Soylent Brown]

3 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Perhaps it’s time for Liverpool to just play the youth players in the PL for the rest of the season.  They have enough points to avoid relegation.  At this stage every game is making things worse: more fatigue, more injuries, less confidence, less belief.  Just give them all a break and focus on the CL games.  They’d be better off with rest and some chance to train together, instead grinding deeper into this rut.

We don't need to use the youth players, we just need to use anyone else but the same fucking IX (plus whichever centre backs) that Klopp keeps stupidly picking.

[Consigliere]

7 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Perhaps it’s time for Liverpool to just play the youth players in the PL for the rest of the season.

This would be a terrible idea. What exactly would it achieve throwing in a bunch of inexperienced youth players into a team devoid of confidence? They would just be on a hiding to nothing and much more likely to have their own confidence shattered while the club ends up playing in the third tier Europa Conference League next season or out of European competition all together both of which would really hurt the transfer budget. Klopp simply cannot (and will not) write off the league. The title is long gone but CL qualification is a must.

 

I think Klopp needs to take a chance and start playing his actual CBs while Fabinho is moved back into midfield. Wijnaldum needs to be dropped - it looks like he's leaving on a free at the end of the season so he needs to be phased out of the starting XI. The starting XI needs some freshening up - Ox, Keita and Shaqiri need to start (Salah needs a rest anyway). Firmino dropped and replaced by Jota - iirc, he did score a hattrick against Atalanta playing as a false 9. Then refuse to release as many players as possible for the international break and most of the squad should be well rested for the final stretch of the season.

[ljkeane]

2 hours ago, Consigliere said:

I think Klopp needs to take a chance and start playing his actual CBs while Fabinho is moved back into midfield.

I agree we should do this but apparently Phillips was injured for the Chelsea game and Kabak's now injured too so it'll probably have to wait.

It's been a bit of a weird season. Obviously the injuries are a big problem and the defensive issues are largely down to that I'd say. Chelsea had clearly decided just knocking it in behind the high line was the way to go, if Gomez and Van Dijk were there it'd probably be far less of a problem. There's probably a bit of a knock on effect of that in attack with players being more worried about what's happening behind them so being a bit cautious but the way the attack's completely fallen off a cliff is bizarre. We've had a leaky defence under Klopp before and still been fine going forward, there are obviously other issues this year but, still, it's baffling how bad it's got.

[Corvinus85]

Is is not feasible for Klopp to change formation? Must he rely on the same 4-3-3? Look at Tuchel reintroducing Marcos Alonso in Chelsea's lineup a few times, without relying on him to be a defender.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Well, Klopp's main formation at Mainz was 4-3-2-1, he switched to 4-3-3 because of the players he had and build around it. So it's not like he really only knows 4-3-3

Otherwise.

5 hours ago, Consigliere said:

This would be a terrible idea. What exactly would it achieve throwing in a bunch of inexperienced youth players into a team devoid of confidence? They would just be on a hiding to nothing and much more likely to have their own confidence shattered while the club ends up playing in the third tier Europa Conference League next season or out of European competition all together both of which would really hurt the transfer budget. Klopp simply cannot (and will not) write off the league. The title is long gone but CL qualification is a must.

 

I think Klopp needs to take a chance and start playing his actual CBs while Fabinho is moved back into midfield. Wijnaldum needs to be dropped - it looks like he's leaving on a free at the end of the season so he needs to be phased out of the starting XI. The starting XI needs some freshening up - Ox, Keita and Shaqiri need to start (Salah needs a rest anyway). Firmino dropped and replaced by Jota - iirc, he did score a hattrick against Atalanta playing as a false 9. Then refuse to release as many players as possible for the international break and most of the squad should be well rested for the final stretch of the season.

Pretty much spot on.

Otherwise, I think a lot of it is fatigue like Nagelsmann said a while ago. From the outside it looks like the group has become a bit stale, and could do with some fresh blood. But then again, Klopp has added some players this season. Thiago and Jota were new arrivals this season, to freshen things up, Jones got raised to a more regular role. I've said it before, I don't think it was merely down to injuries, but the feeling that he was ready for it. I think Soylent is way too harsh on him. Young players benefit from a working team. When things fall apart, the youngsters tend to sink even faster. Then there was the injuries this season. Van Dijk is being missed. It disrupted Liverpool's entire set up. The backbone of the team was built around the axis of VvD - (Fabinho) - Henderson - Firmino. They have given that team stability and they're the ones that dictated their rhythm. Van Dijk went out injured, Klopp pushed back Fabinho and Henderson to address the injuries of VvD, Gomez and Matip. Esp. Henderson's energy was/is being missed in midfield as a result.

For Liverpool this is just a rotten season.

[Consigliere]

Okay that handball incident involving Pieters should've been a penalty, right? I can't even tell anymore.

[polishgenius]

3 minutes ago, Consigliere said:

Okay that handball incident involving Pieters should've been a penalty, right? I can't even tell anymore.

The first one should've yeah. Second one which was initially given obviously not.

[Consigliere]

Just now, polishgenius said:

The first one should've yeah. Second one which was initially given obviously not.

Yeah, should've clarified since there were two incidents involving Pieters. The second incident was not a handball (clearly hit his shoulder) so overturning the red card and penalty was the correct decision. The first incident, the ball made contact with his hand twice - the first time is debatable but the second time was a stonewall penalty. 

[polishgenius]

Nathan Tella is a talent.

[Rorshach]

2 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Okay that handball incident involving Pieters should've been a penalty, right? I can't even tell anymore.

I've given up on that rule. Clearly it's not meant to be followed consistently.

It should be a penalty about 12/10 times.

[polishgenius]

Fucking Haaland man.

[Daemon the Leaner]

You could feel that this 0-2 BVB lead isn't going to last long though.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

18 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

Fucking Haaland man.

He is a beast. If Man City get him in the summer, we're fucked.I also hope he doesn't go to Bayern.

[Daemon the Leaner]

Lmao what was I saying now it's 2-2. These Klassiker games are always entertaining. 

[Mexal]

3 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Okay that handball incident involving Pieters should've been a penalty, right? I can't even tell anymore.

Yes. Life of an Arsenal fan.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

22 minutes ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

He is a beast. If Man City get him in the summer, we're fucked.I also hope he doesn't go to Bayern.

It's gonna be Real. They have a massive boner for him, and see him as a centerpiece for their next gen galacticos. Sancho will very likely leave at the end of the season. Where he will end up is again a good question.

And Lewandowski has hit the 30 goals plateau already. Ok, if he doesn't get injured, he will definately break Gerd Müllers 40 goal record season. Must be frustrating for Haaland. He's already moaned that Lewandowski is insane. When I score one goal, I try to score a second to close the gap. Then he plays and scores hattrick.

So one more goal and Haaland gets that as an ingame experience.

[Consigliere]

If Haaland is sold at the end of this season then I think City will be his most likely destination. His release clause wouldn't be active yet so I expect Dortmund would be demanding a fee well over €100m + agent fees will have to be paid to both Raiola and Alf-Inge Haaland so the likely cost would be around €160m or more. There's also been reports that Abramovich wants Haaland and is prepared to pay whatever it takes. Real Madrid negotiated pay cuts with their first team so I'm not sure if they will be dropping that much money this year. Mbappe is also a player that Perez has been desperate to sign. If Haaland stays with Dortmund for another season until his release clause becomes active then there will be a whole host of clubs chasing him.