THE issue isn’t losing. The issue is acquiescing to being dreadful. To not seeing any way to stop it. To being so tame.
The issue isn’t even going 3-0 down. Well, it is a bit, but the issue is getting one back and never, ever, ever, ever, ever looking like bagging a second.
The issue isn’t being poor. It’s starting ever so poorly. Again, and again, and again starting poorly. This is a Liverpool side which has spent the season starting slowly in a division where they don’t stand for that but where they want you to express dominance. They want to see you outplay them early because it lets them off the hook. They can say to each other, we never had a chance, they swamped us, they dominated, they were just better. This is a Liverpool side which has spent far too long this season letting lads settle. This isn’t about one defeat, but a pattern that has been seen even when Liverpool win. That comes from the bench, from the training field. These Liverpool players have had so few big first 20s.
Liverpool are going to lose games. I am alright with that. And they haven’t lost many this campaign to their credit. But the nature of this season’s league defeats has been downright disgraceful. Only Bournemouth can be seen as anomalous, a storm Liverpool were caught up in that they should have been smart enough to skirt but weren’t. The rest are utterly limp displays, displays that rank among the very worst this club has put out this millennia barring the Roy Hodgson era. They’ve been as unimaginative as Gerard Houiller’s worst defeats, as naive as Brendan Rodgers’, as lacking in conviction as performances under Kenny Dalglish, as one-paced as Rafa Benitez’s losses. From none of them have Liverpool deserved the smallest crumb of comfort. When this Liverpool side is good, it is very, very good. But when it is bad it is horrid.
This was horrid.
Disjointed and lacking in belief. Letting a struggling side settle. Not carrying a clear threat. Name the charge and you can level it at these Reds tonight. It’s a performance from a ghost train except that these corners have been turned too often resulting in draws and defeats. Not a single player walks off the pitch with credit to his name. After the Hull game I wrote one of these where someone said to me afterwards something like “you said they were shit but you didn’t single out any player.” The same should apply again today. No one player deserves singling out because they were all as bad as each other despite scoring a lovely goal at 3-0. Not one deserves the specific criticism because that would suggest his mate next to him wasn’t that bad. Trust me, he was. He was that bad. As poor as Lucas Leiva was, Joel Matip was. As poor as Emre Can was, Georginio Wijnaldum was. As poor as Sadio Mane was, Philippe Coutinho was. I would love to say this was a side where 50 per cent are functioning and being let down. That would make the world easier, make a solution far more straightforward, understand the job the manager has to do. Ship 50 per cent of them out and find a new 50 per cent to replace them.
It isn’t that easy.
But nor should it be that easy for the manager. He has seen his side struggle without Jordan Henderson. He has seen his side need to be at their strongest to function. He has chosen the highest of high roads, the most spectacular of tightropes. He wants to be the ropewalker without the safety.
This is what falling off looks like. Tumbling and turmoil. The contusions, the broken bones, the twisted visage. You want to walk the high wire, expect to hit the deck.
The issue is the looking down. Wondering when it goes wrong, being sent out expecting the trick to go wrong and then doing nothing to stop it from doing so.
The issue is not believing. Eleven lads looking at one another and not one getting a grip, not one asking a question, not one seeing the way home, the way to the break. The high wire without belief is a man slipping and sliding.
The issue is that high wires, the pressure, the moment is where the yips come from. This is a Liverpool side which has the yips. More than any side I can remember, it has the yips.
What do you do about that? You need to find something new to believe in or reassert the old ways in a new way. This really isn’t easy.
Because Liverpool look like bending to reality, to being forced to accept the opposition’s sense of the world. Liverpool look like they can’t shrug a thing off, look like adversity is something which won’t be triumphed over, look like there is a Sisyphean reality to their every act, a boulder they can’t and won’t get up a hill that they have tried to push up before time and again.
Liverpool were shite tonight. Downright last. It isn’t good enough by these players’ own standards, by those the manager set when he first arrived and has spoken about since. Leicester City had it easy when everything has been so hard for them. It isn’t good enough. It needs to be soon.
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Too true
Excellent and true analysis
I am amazed by your ability to find new ways of describing a shite football team season after season. And by my ability to keep watching them. It’s a sickness I tell you.
I don’t need to state the obvious here about this performance tonight so I won’t. What I will remind though is that Klopp has allowed his Hissy-fit with Sahko to affect his team. And when you need to play Lucas at CB because of that then do not be surprised at the results. The Hissy is all the more galling because it was avoidable-no matter the reasons the player was more than willing to move forward with the team. Right there is a worry. Oh and BTW Well done Neil and the rest of the lads for reporting after this …
Up the Reds
This isn’t an issue about Sakho. Klopp’s hands are tied with the Sakho incident – if a player is ill disciplined but let off the hook because he is more talented than a few others, then that sets a bad precedence for the rest of the squad.
This match wasn’t about Sakho not being available. Indeed, we’ve seen this argument before – when Klaven was making a hash of things in defence, people were crying out Lucas. And now its the other way around. Likewise with Moreno who some were calling for to be reinstated tonight – Klopp can’t win, despite the fact Moreno has proven time and time again to be irresponsible.
The fact of the matter is that we have to look at the long term, and the long term view is that this is a squad which has largely been built by the FSG transfer committee. They say that a camel is a horse designed by committee, well this Liverpool team play like camels because it was designed by committee.
Klopp or no Klopp, we are still reaping what we’ve sowed with FSG’s incompetency in the transfer market.
Do you mean the sad precedent whereby Firmino can be convicted of drink driving and it appears the Club and Manager are happy enough to keep him around? And he’s not even playing that well.
It was awful tonight. But we’ve seen many of these nights under FSG despite various managers being in charge and different squads of players.
FSG are to Liverpool what Wenger is to Arsenal. Not terrible, but we will not be breaking through the ceiling with their recruitment policies. Our hopes are always dashed in the end because the quality of players is never high enough to fulfill our expectations.
Klopp has made mistakes. He isn’t without blame. Tactically he shows too much naivete. But in the end it will be the same under FSG whether it is Klopp or someone else.
Spot on Mate..
I think you are letting Klopp off too lightly. During the last transfer window Klopp made it clear that he didn’t want to spend silly money to buy average players and that very few game changers were available.
Klopp takes the side for a 2 week break and they come back heavy legged and knackered.
I really do hope he gets it right soon, but the lack of defensive stability, and not being able to grind out a 0-1 in these and other circumstances doesn’t fill me with any more optimism that I had under Rodgers.
Maybe the players didn’t need a
mini pre season but a proper rest. Maybe the training methods of the Bundesliga don’t quite translate to the Premier League. These questions and more.
You conveniently didn’t mention FSG’s lack of investment, Chow. Klopp has a negative net spend on a team that finished 6th the year before he came.
Whether it’s Klopp or another manager, we aren’t spending enough on players or salaries to demand top 4, let alone a title challenge.
‘Twisted Visage’ is an ace name for a band.
Far too passive tonight. They wanted the game to come to them rather than going to war to earn the right to play.
Didn’t help playing Lucas in a high line against Vardy. Actually had some sympathy for him.
The attitude and mindset of the whole team stunk the place out.
Lots of worrying signs to be honest.
You’d be surprised just how good ITV BE was after that first half.
We need to sign that bloke who walked the high wire between the twin towers……except, he’s dead now, and the twin towers only exist in our memories…..
I feel numb.
Sign some winners, not great players but guys who won’t accept defeat. Oh for Tommy Smith, Rowdy Yeats and St John in that team of nancies.
Reruns of the same shit show.
Only comfort is Klopp (hopefully) realizes how shit most of the players are for half the season and knows who to bring in the summer. I hope he realizes he needs to spend much much more to perform consistently in the BPL and takes up the opportunity and uses FSG’s funds.
Said it before and say it again this team has no strength of character
Just been bullied again
Every team knows this
The top teams make the mistake of just playing football against us
If they put their foot in we would lose to them too
Fucking pampered pricks with their holidays in the sun, days off left, right and centre.
Get Ronnie Moran in on these overindulged playboys. Even at 80 odd he’d frighten the fucking life out of these.
Mate, not being funny, and I know you’re not being completely serious, but Ronnie’s in no fit state to help anyone.
It feels like Leicester already practiced this match against City when they beat them 4-2. We didn’t stand a chance playing our style. But remember when we matched Leicester’s 442 last season and were the first or second team to beat them or something and everyone thought that was so clever? I wish we’d do more of that, adapt to the opposition’s form and style of play. The system we want to play seems redundant against these teams and the weird thing is I feel we’d be beating all these if we played a more simple system against them.
That’s it. The arrogance is breathtaking. Why wouldn’t you take lessons from the City game? Why would you play to the opposition’s limited strengths? Mind-boggling.
I’m impressed by TAW writers who manage to get the job despite the difficult task ahead. Much less than what I can say about this LFC football team at this moment. Thanks Neil.
Equal to the writers are the away fans.
Nothing to say about the players or Jurgen. Too much time and energy for me to waste.
Positives, hardly any, but we are still 5th and have to face Arsenal. City vs United still needs to happen.
Jurgen seems to have lost his way with this team and vice versa. Still I think he will be ruthless in the summer. He really has got no choice with pussyfooting.
Anyways I am still looking forward to Arsenal at Anfield.
Up the Reds!!!
Christ, isn’t this supposed to be enjoyable?
Oh, yeah, I forgot- life is a long sequence of disappointments ending in death. YNWA
what can i say,look that been said,look at the players.white flag,from the off again,need an enforcer in the middle of the park,lfc without hendo,crap.sad night fans need more.
I can’t understand how we could start the game with Lucas at centre back playing a high line against Vardy. It was just inviting the ball to be knocked into the acres of space behind our defence for Vardy to run onto. The mismatch in pace between our defence and their attack was so obvious I can’t quite work out how Klopp could justify playing such a high line. Perhaps people will now start to appreciate the protection Henderson gives to our back four, it’s no coincidence they look horribly exposed when he’s not there. If we go into each game playing nearly the same first team, in the same formation, playing the same general tactics opponents are going to identify weaknesses and exploit them because we’re too predictable. There’s no shame in tactical variation once in a while.
Spot on. At least Lucas can say that he performed to the full extent of his ability. He was left hopelessly exposed by the tactics employed.
Completely right!
How are we playing a high defensive line against very quick strikers?
Especially when at least 2 of our defenders are slow midfielders.
It beggars belief!
What’s worse is that it’s not the first time we’ve played the same tactics against similar opposition.
You have to play to your players strengths or get new players that suit your template.
This is fucking infuriating!
too many times this season we have failed to stand up and be counted and we look at 1 player being out as a reason. No backbone and no appetite for a fight plain and simple. Sakho was punished rightly but should have been retained to play when needed.
Listened to first half on way home from work. Walked in and my 11 year old (a Liverpool fan) said ‘don’t talk to me’ just as I said ‘don’t talk to me’. We were both speechless and angry. I’m not from Liverpool but I’ve been supporting them since 81. My son supports them because he loves me. However he says to me on his way up to bed ‘can I support someone else – like Man Utd?’ Obviously the answer was no but but it got me thinking. Is he going to be subjected to a life of disappointments. Very few highs. Man United aren’t. They will spend money and win things. It’s as simple as that. They will spend money and continually win things. We will be forever 6th with a few highlights every now and then. Oh well he can suffer like me.
6 the biggest stadium in the land and likely finish 6th, possibly above Bitters. That’s it. All we can achieve besides profit. All FSG think we deserve. We would do as well, probably better without FSG.
My worry is that klopp puts as much stock in defensive solidity as Rogers did.
It’s not a coincidence that the 2 best defences in the league occupy the top 2 spots in the league. I know our personnel isn’t great at the back but I would have said the same about Chelsea before the season kicked off.
Klopp talks about defending from the front and everyone shares defensive responsibility but we need to be solid when teams bypass our forwards and midfield as Leicester did time after time last night, with straight route one balls splitting us wide open as well as any corners or free kicks that cause us to have seizures!
It seems like we have to work our bollocks off to open teams up but they don’t really have to do that much to do the same to us
100%!
If you’ve got a great defence then you’re half way to victory. As you pointed out it’s no coincidence that Chelsea and Spurs have the best defences and sit top 2.
It’s the foundation the rest of the teams solidity is built upon. It gives the midfielders and forwards the confidence to go win the game.
We’re on course to concede 50 goals for the 3rd season running.
We NEED a solid first choice keeper, centreback, left back and defensive midfielder to sort out our defence in order to compete in the league, forget about Europe.
We also need a 20+ goal a season striker and another wide option but if we only sorted out our defence this summer I’d be relatively happy.
However I’m not confident we’ll do anywhere near that!!
Scary thing is we have problems in almost every position, a weak mentality and a manager who is making bad decisions. In the TAW preamble to the Spurs game they said this Leicester game was a better indicator of where we realistically are as a team. Worrying. £150M to add 5-6 players in the summer of the requisite calibre. True test of FSGs commitment.
Clyne’s a great defensive full-back, a wing-back he is not. If one positive can be take from tonight (I know, I know) it was the switch to a back three. Can looked good there again (apart from their goal, of course…..)
Credit to you for not just copy & pasting the Hull review. I have nothing to say about the match that hasn’t already been addressed 135 times. Will try and find some enthusiasm before Saturday, but until then, these only-boss-when-I-fancy-it dickheads in red can all fuck off.
Maybe Jurgen will forget about how beneficial mid season breaks can be now. Maybe he will realise that giving CLyne so much of the ball high up either reaults in us coming back inside or Clyne playing it off the left back for a throw in. Then coming back inside again. Maybe he will realise that HUth and Morgan can defemd so well because their fullbavks stop crosses from coming in. Their third goal too easy to get the ball in. Did we not see how Leicester were going to get the ball foward quickly? We always look so shocked when a bottom half team score against us. Professional embarrassment letting a team that hadnt scored in 600 minites score 3 times. Like swansea did. Like bournouth did. In the autumn we said “you score three we will score four”. We didnt look like getting a second. It felt like newcastle away under brendan when livren and skrtl had 95% of our possession. The first goal was always going to be important. Look at VArdy after the goal goes in and he gestures for concentration. They were never going to lay down and let us tiptoe through them
I listened to the pre match podcast and Huth & Morgan were described as league 1 standard at best…..awful/horrible arrogance
No attitude problem to see here. Now move along
I’m going to go deeper than this and say this is who we are now, we’re a top 8 team and have been since Rafa, where one 5th place in his tenure got him the sack.
The owners have openly admitted not extending the Anny Road is purely commercial so they’ll get their money back on the main either through revenues over the next 5 years or through a sale. The infrastructure program of the new training ground, at least some of it will be covered by the sale of Melwood and they’ll probably get that back on the overall book value of the club.
So owners short term financial model is secure (on the original purchase price of the club.) Basically they make a killing anyway. We’ve been openly public about not having to finish in the top 4 to make the club run, the players get paid a small fortune each week, we hit zero in net spend in the summer and zero in January, this is the Liverpool Way now. a fuckin malaise every year upon year in the league (bar 1)
What Mourinho completely understands is the importance of that early season Cup win. Yes it’s a minor cup but it’s a day out for the fans and with players bouncing round Wembley after a win they go into the last 1/4 of the season on an upward trajectory.
We gambled on 2 cups last season and came up short. We then said no Euro footy…. bonus we’ll have legs for the league. There is something much deeper wrong at the club to continually repeating this malaise year after every fucking year.
It wasn’t rocket science that they were going to have a go last night. We we’re way too short in midfield in the first half and got over ran and half of them looked like they were still on the beach. 2 weeks in Spain and a new bonza contract for Lallana, should be 2 weeks up and down Southport dunes and a pay cut if you don’t get top 4.
Footballers sit alongside bankers, doesn’t matter if the shit hits the fan they just keep getting paid more.
The scary thing is that……. if we can’t do it with Klopp, it feels like we just won’t ever be able to do it.
And will remain a club with a history paired with a grim future.
Yep, that’s it. Last roll of the dice.
I think, Paul, that this summer’s transfer window IS the last roll of the dice.
It is absolutely time for FSG to shit … or get off the pot.
Ok, everyone was bad.
But I could not get over how bad our fullbacks are. So poor going forward.
I’m not one for knee jerk reactions and believe the KloppOut brigade are morons.
However I do believe questions need to be asked about the manager. And I don’t mean questions like ‘is he good enough?’
I mean specific questions about things he is getting wrong (in my eyes) at the moment:
Why are his teams constantly kicking off at walking pace?
Why is he not able to motivate his players against teams below them in the league?
(This at the owners as well) Why have we been through two transfer windows in profit when it is clear that doesn’t get you top 4?
Why send Sakho on loan when it is clear Lucas is not a long term solution as back up CB (will do well the odd game).
And WHY OH WHY OH WHY does he not realise that he is allowed to make substitutions before the 65th minute?! We were out of the game before he changed anything last night and that isn’t new!
How are 2 midfielders in there 30’s that can’t get a game in our midfield playing in our defence that’s Sunday league shit when a few lads are still off there tits from the night before so you have to juggle the team around if last nights game hasn’t showed klopp that he needs to clear the decks and get in proper players that are men and winners then we will be floating around mid table for the forcesiable future
The moment of greatest despair: Milner, inexplicably in midfield, screaming at Matip for the ball, before passing it back to him. This seemed to go on forever, but did take up about two minutes.
Some great comments on here. Something odd about this team at the minute, that’s for sure. I really doubt any of them is not up for the fight for these kind of games, that’s too simplistic. I looked at Lallana failing to close down the cross for their last goal and he looked absolutely knackered. That’s not him at all. That’s what needs to be looked at. Something wrong with the training methods these past two weeks?
Also clearly the squad is thin, where we continue to fail to be be able to organise decent cover for Henderson when he is out injured. That only goes back to the 13/14 season so no rush guys to sort it out, take your time until the only 2-3 players in the whole wide world who you think would improve this squad a) become available, b) for the price and wages we want to pay and 3) who want to play for a team that year in year out fails to qualify for the Champions League. Past winner in Germany or not, for Klopp to attract top players to LFC without paying top wages and without being able to show them that the team is on the up is going to be an increasingly uphill struggle as these types of campaigns can only tarnish his reputation.
Lets be honest here we are already at least 4 class players short and take into account that several of the team that started last night are not good enough and need to be moved on (Mignolet, Lucas, Can) plus the likes of Moreno & Sturridge also likely to leave. That’s a lot of players to be bought. None of this takes into account us actually getting top 4 and requiring a bigger squad. FSG are not going to stump up circa £200m and Klopp isn’t likely to buy that many players. We will still be having these discussions next year
It’s the sheer predicability of it that kills me. After Vardy planted one on Mane and no one confronted him or asked for a free kick… Just nothing… I knew we were fucked. We’ve all seen it before. There’s no fight in this dog when sometimes that’s all you need. Let’s be shite and draw nil nil. I’d love that. I’d respect that. But no. Liverpool are soft without Henderson on the pitch. The real worry is no one is learning from this. The players, Klopp… I couldn’t manage a pub team but after 10 minutes last night I stopped watching because I’ve been a supporter for 40 years. I KNOW this Liverpool team. I love the manager but I was left happy when Vardy scored the third because I’m sick of hiding places. BUY SOME FUCKING PLAYERS JURGEN. WE ARE LIVERPOOL.
‘After Vardy planted one on Mane and no one confronted him or asked for a free kick…’
That’s right. Much can be read into these small moments. Why did nobody get in his face or tell the ref to send him off? Why did we meekly accept some skinny, Red Bull drinking, McKenzie tracksuit wearing, spikey-haired prick planting one on our most dangerous player without putting up a fight? Hendo would have.
We are so nice it is stomach-turning. ‘Sorry Jamie, hope you didn’t hurt yourself trying to break Mane’s ankle. Would you mind being a bit more gentle next time? Thanks mate.’
This. This – ALL FUCKING DAY LONG. Utter pathos – supine, passive, feeble, abject SH1TE. Forget the strange high line against the quickest striker in the league, or our perennial lack of quality – heard it time and time again and though the arguments of course have merit ffsakes look at Leicester last season and Greece at 2004 Euros. You can have utter mediocrity throughout your team but if the fight is there, if the belief, comradeship, togetherness and guts permeates from every player – the sky is the limit.
I didn’t get the ‘feels like with Spurs result we’ve turned a corner’ line from some of the lads on the podcasts recently.
My Arsenal-loving mate came to watch the game with me. He said pre-match “thoughts? 3-0 Liverpool”? When I told him we’d lose by two goals he looked at me incredulous, and asked me to explain myself.
I told him – like one or two comments on here – it’s because we KNOW these lads. Like the fella you know is always 5-10 minutes late – or the fella who takes ages making up his mind when ordering food – or the bloke who talks about which girl at the bar he’d bang but you’ll never see him chat her up – we KNOW these characters, and they will never change.
Just like this shower of reds. Three or four are fit to wear the shirt from a sheer character perspective. The rest are fair-weather boys, they’ll be up for it if it’s all going ok.
Deeply worrying.
….After Vardy planted one on Mane and no one confronted him or asked for a free kick… Just nothing… I knew we were fucked….
Didn’t Poccetino say last week he could tell inside 50 seconds what kind of game his team were gonna play ? Same for us.
So true. So simple. Saw Roy Keane do that straight from the kick off when he played for Ireland against a far superior Dutch team in a WC qualifier in 2001. Smashed into Overmars. ROI won 1-0 after playing 60 mins with 10 men. Nver forgot it. Got everyone going. Took the Dutch out of their comfort zone and dragged them into a battle, not just with the team but the whole stadium.
We are (at times) too nice, too easy to bully, mentally and physically weak. Even so, it still took us giving a goal to Leicester to really get them going. I don’t think they could believe their luck. Another perfect storm of lack from the redmen.
ps Well done again Neil. Brilliant writing, shit topic.
‘Didn’t Poccetino say last week he could tell inside 50 seconds what kind of game his team were gonna play ? Same for us.’
I didn’t know Pochettino had said that, but indeed it is a perfectly accurate description of our side as well as his.
As soon as Leicester knocked it forward, won the first header, first throw and got the crowd geared up the game was over. You just knew it was. They won inside thirty fucking seconds.
We are the most predictably unpredictable side I have ever seen.
Carragher showed a stat last night that Liverpool have been conceding 1.3 goals per game since 2012.
Em. Buy some defenders, Jurgen. FFS.
I’m so angry. Two weeks ‘pre season’ in Spain and we see THAT?! And Klopp with that dumb fucking smile on his face in the press conference totting out the same clichéd shite. He doesn’t have control of his team. He said so himself. They are not listening to him. Or he’s bulshittng and they just don’t care. And then he says everyone is playing for their futures and he has 6 years …. Oh my God I can’t take six more years of the season being over by February and watch United lift trophies.
Thanks Neil.
I think the manager needs to have a re-think.
The problem isn’t that our way of playing is, in itself, a high-wire act. We consistently beat teams who come to attack us apart using this system – we don’t always play at our best to do that. It becomes a high-wire act only when teams set up to defend deep. At that point, we have to play near the top of our game to get a result and that just doesn’t happen often enough for any team to be a sensible way forward.
Plan B is a much used phrase. It is the idea that during a match, if plan A isn’t working, we throw out all our preparations and tell 11 players that we going to do something different. It seldom works. When Rafa purchased Crouch, he didn’t have a plan B in mind – he had two plan A’s. Against this team, we will prepare to play this way and against another team, I’ll put out a different set of players with a different skill-set and play a different way.
In my opinion, we have to have more than one way of playing and more than one team sheet as a plan A – something that we start with rather than revert to – for different types of opposition.
Probably stating the obvious but just wanted to get it off my chest.
Absolutely depressing watching us at the moment, you could see after the first 5 mins our intensity was no where near Leicesters!! why is that?!! we are more talented, the application should at least be the same?!! Playing through the middle again because we have no real width, tactics just looks the same week in week out. I listened to Gareths podcast last week with Graham Beecroft and he hit the nail right on the head, he said the Reds are at a cross roads and have to buy players who have experience at the highest level and not gamble on players from say Norwich. I hate to say this but look at Utd, their bench is strong and they have players with experience who step up in the big occasion..Ibrahimovic scores the winner at the weekend! Thats what we need, stop shopping in bargain basement stores, we are a great club, give the club what it needs and lets invest in quality this summer..even if it is just a couple of players!! Up the reds!!
These games against the low sitting teams that shut down space an let us play in front of them has been screaming for one thing all season, well two things actually, power and presence. Our so called front four is lightning quick and their interplay is up there with the best in the league when we play football matches. We do that against the so called better teams(United being excluded) because (pure speculation) they also got som desire to play football, to evolve their game, to become something more.
Lets make it clear, these “lower” teams that shut up shop are in the bottom because they aren’t very good at football, their only objective is to stay up in the league and they’re competing with teams that go about their business more or less in the same manner to be honest. They are in the bottom for obvious reasons.
I think we drastically need to change the approach to these games, and it’s somewhat depressing to see us do absolutley nothing about it. These games don’t need flair, movement and pace. They need power, grit and probably some blood at some point.
I stayed away from all content post match. I was suffering from extreme Tourette’s, unable to process the sheer inevitability of that performance from -as mentioned- that Vardy tackle.
I confess here and now. I’m fucking wavering on the line between believing and doubting.
I’m becoming deathly afraid that we’re rapidly approaching the point of no return where LFC is dependent on a White Knight owner riding to our rescue is the ONLY way we’re going to lift the premier league.
This coming transfer window has, to my mind, become absolutely critical to the club’s future.
We need pace across the board, we need most of a new back four, we need depth across the board, and we need some gnarly, snide bastards. This won’t be cheap. This is the Real Litmus Test of FSG. Of what we have in store for our short to medium term future.
I want to believe but fuck me it’s getting harder.
Up the Reds.
Loads of comments, and I’m bored so I’ll summarise
1. Klopp needs to recognise deficiencies in the squad, go out and buy 4 or 5 nailed on first teamers with a winning mentality covering all areas of the pitch, offloading at least this number. Prominent names include Migs, Lucas, Can, Lovren, Moreno.
2. FSG need to back him and move focus back to strength of the first team squad ahead of anything else. Failing that sell up and make way for someone who will.
3. Manger needs to wise up and show more imagination/flexibility/ruthlessness in formation and selection including a viable Plan B (and C?)
4. Need to find a way to beat teams that set up to contain us and break (mainly the lesser teams) whilst continuing to beat those that come to play (mainly the better teams).
5. If it doesn’t happen under Klopp then it never will and we could end up like Everton.
Regarding low-line defensive teams, this is from Tacticus’ handy handbook:
“If the enemy has retreated to an impenetrable fortress, see that he stays there.”
The problem we have is that we don’t have the players to ensure that they stay there. We don’t have a Kante/Matic/Herrera to keep them boxed in and stop the annoying forays forward – we haven’t had this player since Lucas knackered his knee at Stamford Bridge, or arguably, selling Mascherano.
Occasionally this season we’ve been able to ‘maintain the siege’, with the Hendo/Lallana/Wijnaldum hive-mind symbiosis (like Hull and Watford at home), but you can’t expect this to work every week, not to mention you can forget it totally if one of them is out injured.
It’s the oldest tactic in the book and we fall for it every single time without fail. The aforementioned quote is very apt, but we lack any capacity to contain the teams trying to contain us.
I’d rather we settled for a 0-0 draw than continue with these blind, stumbles into counter-attacks that we display on an almost weekly basis. If they don’t want to come at us, fine, we won’t come at them. A draw will do.
When we say we need to buy (big) in the summer think we need to remember in football (or all sport) any Pro will tell you there is no Jam tomorrow. Take your chances now because things change.
Ergo who on earth is coming to Liverpool if we do not make Top Four?
Definitely players from Southampton, any of the relegated teams and some chap from Moldova will come.
Everything has been said. Deep flaws run through our club top to bottom, this squad is going nowhere and I’m pissed off.
Oh well Annie Road Again Saturday 80 mile drive each way leave at 11.00 home at 21.00 72 years old. Wife says you don’t have to do it but I have to buy tickets in advance in the perpetual hope we will achieve something or miss out if we ever do again in my lifetime, which I doubt.
All fans deserve better from players and the Manager in whom my faith diminishes a little with each performance like last night.
I can accept a defeat where there’s a fight but the manner of last night’s performance was very, very poor. They looked beaten before Leicester scored. Something majorly wrong i think. I put the Burnley performance down to a bad day at the office but this has gone on for too long now even before Klopp’s arrival. The Bournemouth debacle. I’m puzzled and surprised that the manager hasn’t got to the bottom of this. Until the second half last night, there’s been the same formation, tactics, personnel in wrong positions. Same old cycle. I am beginning to ask questions of Klopp. Please may we not have the ending to this season which we had in 14/15.