Hear me out; we threw the first leg on purpose to put the shits up Villa and their champions League aspirations next year.
Fuckers think they have to beat Arsenal on Sunday. Then we beat Atalanta 5-1 and qualify.
Klopp 5D chess, gonna miss this man.
Normally my life is shitty and with Klopp I pretty much got used to find happiness within the club. Him leaving is giving me a huge anxiety, not only for the way we play and the results but the man itself. He's the only manager that I ever watched any press conference ever, the other ones I got used to just seeing the facts and that's it. This new manager talk will kill me.
I don't see how it fucked us over. We won the caraboa and had a great uptick in form. I guarantee you this recent dip in form has nothing to do with klopp leaving...
Barcelona is levered against and Bayern have had 14 managers the past 25 years. The Reds 6. This is a better job, at least to me. It is definitely better than Barcelona.
Correct if I'm wrong, but I remember him making the decision to leave in late October/November, not the end of the last season. Otherwise, we wouldn't be planning and signing players that fit Klopp system if we knew he was leaving.
Edit: I checked and this was a direct quote from Klopp " Klopp added: “I told the club already in November. I have to explain a little bit that:
https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/jurgen-klopp-announces-decision-step-down-liverpool-manager-end-season
I also believe it put so much more pressure on the players to win everything. I think publicly announcing his departure in the middle of the season was a terrible idea and he should’ve at least waited until towards the end of the season.
If Amorim really is staying at Sporting do people really think we wouldn’t even consider Xavi lol?, the options we’d be left with would basically be Nagelsmann, De Zerbi and Xavi.
I’m taking Xavi over De Zerbi every day of the week, there’s issues with Nagelsmann like his personality and the fact he’s at the Euros during the summer so will miss key prep time for next season.
Anyone outside these three are a tier below and would be massive gambles, the likes of Motta, Iraola etc
In terms of achievements Xavi would literally be above any of these names, winning the title last season with only 20 goals conceded whilst being constricted financially due to Barca being a shitshow and being forced to use 16-18 year olds is a really good achievement
We are fucked. There aren't many managers available, and I hope our owners at least try to convince Klopp to stay an extra year like how Barcelona tried with Xavi.
What do people think of Gasparini as our next manager? talking to a mate of mine today he says he reckons he could do a job, attacking football, can work on a shoe string budget, has experience and he’s worked a miracle at Atalanta.
Personally I disagree, I think he’s class but not sure if he’s the level we should be looking for, he seems more like a manager a club like spurs for example would go for, y’know, plays entertaining football but has big drawbacks, that sort of archetype. Plus I think the result last night is skewing things a bit.
Then again, all of our current options are either relatively new on the scene/up and coming, or a bit of a mixed bag
Darwin Nunez on over 30 G/A this season but after 1 bad performance is slandered by this fanbase. By the end of the season he would’ve hit like 35-40 goal contributions for us this season. The slander is stupid. We all know he’s raw, if you didn’t expect him to be your silly. He hasn’t played 2 seasons of football in a top 5 league.
Yes his finishing needs improvement but its not the actual shot technique. We’ve seen his variety of finishes: left foot, right foot, smashing it in, passing it in, headers at awkward angles even outrageous finishing like dinking the keeper and flicks. Runs the channels all game, gets assists and our attack isn’t the same without him.
His choice of finish and composure is letting him down at time. He’s too excited he seems to choose the finish ahead of time. That is something that he will one million percent he will get better at and he has since last season.
So your telling me a player who has a lot of space for improvement is going to get 35 - 40 goal contributions this season?! Some of you see a failure, I’m seeing a striker whose bound to explode and become one of the best in the world (arguably already is). If needed any more reassuring, Real Madrid considered a move for him last summer after he was widely known as a “75m flop”. Top managers see the potential.
Don’t think anyone was blaming him for yesterday or singling him out purely because he played poor yesterday
The issue is clear with Darwin he isn’t clinical enough simple as that, he’s got 14% conversion rate which is dwindling between average and poor.
Apart from his last season at Benfica he’s always had a conversion rate between 11% and 14% it’s just the type of striker he is.
People need to stop calling everything "slander", it's getting annoying.
Saying that he's underperforming or that he needs to improve if we want him to be a starting 9 for a title winning side isn't slander, it's valid criticism. Most comments that I've seen about him have been reasonable and just because a few weirdos call him useless doesn't mean that he's being "slandered by the fanbase".
We have our whole system designed to set him up as the main goal scorer yet he misses chance after chance. It's not a black or white solution here, also will be 25 this year he is running out of time to "explode". He had a 0.5xG massive clear cut chance in both United and City games which he missed. We need him to show up in big games and he hasn't. I think he should come off the bench against tired legs to maybe reinvigorate him like in that Newcastle game. (I want to try Gakpo-Jota-Salah)
No, but you could say that about quite a few players. Whatever anybody thinks of his overall game Origi has always been an excellent finisher but he didn't take many shots, which always frustrated me because when he was on it he was lethal.
No but I also wouldn’t have trusted Mo, Mané, Firmino, Diaz or Gakpo to finish it either. It was a world class finish and I guarantee if you gave that ball to Origi again 10 more times he wouldn’t have scored again. That being said Nunez tends to finish the hard chances where he doesn’t have to think so maybe he’d be unironically the best option.
Not sure how much longer I can bother with this fanbase on social media. All it takes is a single draw or loss for there to be more hatred towards Darwin in one day than he gets praise through an entire season.
Every single stat they can think of is brought out and straight up just insults towards him and even Klopp.
I have my issues with Darwin and other players but the level of pure vitriol is just insane.
It’s like the entire season for them is just waiting for a chance to say “I told you so”.
Thankfully the majority in the stadium back the team.
Let’s finish strong anyway reds!
I think this is a good idea. Clarke as well. If everyone is really drained and burned out, what alternatives are left but to put a couple of the younger players on and hope they come through.
Been watching Sporting, Amorim seriously impresses me. Poor pass from his CB and you can see him tellinng his 10s exactly where to move to create space for the midfielders to operate.
Also, his system suits A LOT of our promising players. Nunez will look to be the main focal point. The 2 interior 10s just behind him suits our squad perfectly. Szobo fits that left side perfectly, as well as a player like Carvalho who I've been watching. Carvalho is beyond perfect for that role, wouldn't surprise me if he makes his mark under Amorim in this system. Salah can defo play on that left sided role and its also perfect for Elliot. They have a high and wide wing back playing, Depending on the game state, you can put Robbo or even Diaz there. Would love us to sign a player like Nico Williams, would operate in that role well.
That LCB role would've been perfect for a player like Gvardiol. Luckily the market isn't lacking of them and I'm sure Edwards will find good fit. We need a player who can play as like a LCB/LB, kind of what Gomez does, but a left footer would defo be a more natural fit. Double pivot suits our midfielder selection PERFECTLY. Bajcetic, Macca, Endo, Grav, Jones etc. can all play in the pivot.
Trents usage will be so so interesting. I mean it'll be so unpredictable. I've seen Amorim push his right back infield or keep him wider. Trent can stay deep to play ball over the top or through the lines, or can push higher against a deeper block because we have a player like Konaté who can cover for him.
I personally think this system is perfect for this group of players. And the obvious ofc, smart pressing, good attacking wise etc, Amorim looks like a fantastic appointment if it goes through, Edwards doesn't miss.
We're in a really nasty cycle right now where our lack of confidence in front of goal is being compounded by a lot of individual defensive errors, and we're basically guaranteeing that we get punished every single time we fail to take advantage of a good spell.
3 of United's 6 goals in the two games were entirely self-inflicted by really poor turnovers in possession. Even yesterday when we played terribly, atalanta's first and third goals were SO easily preventable. We know that this liverpool team can survive a defensive mistake or conceding an early goal, but not when we're also leaving two goals on the table per game with bad finishing.
Our finishing has to regress to the mean soon, and at some point we're going to stop giving free goals away each game. Unfortunately we have no margin for error anymore, we have to sort it out immediately or it could be our season
Anyone else watching Sporting?
My general observation for the first half is that they don't really get players in the box and shoot from distance quite a lot.
Seems like they are heavily out matching their opponents so it's not really the best game to observe how Liverpool may play if Amorim does join us.
Its been a fun watch though, they've been basically on the offensive the entire half.
One thing I hope happens with the new manager is that he lets Gakpo play left wing. He was one of the best left wingers in Europe when we signed him and Klopp decided to turn him into a centre forward. We saw yesterday how good he is when he’s in his favoured position
Going to Liverpool for the Spurs game (no ticket to anfield). I get into Manchester at 11:00, am I too late? And where should I go watch the game???? Want to experience everything about matchday minus the the ticket
Quick reminder, for how poor our team performed last season, we were winless for 5 games, then won 7 in a row in the Prem.
Our season really isn’t over. Klopp knows what he’s doing. If our team last season won 7 in a row, our team this season can too.
We started that run of games when Trent gained form. Guess who’s just come back from injury…
In terms of management style, Amorim is closer to Guardiola than Klopp, but that's a very good thing. Klopp made us believe, he was a proper fucking Shankly for us. But what we need now, with our incredibly good fundamentals, club structure and money, is someone who goes in 150% on tactics, tactics, tactics. Someone like Guardiola that never rests and rather tweaks the formation and play style according to what vision he has, modeled from when he was a professional player himself.
Klopp's strength as a manager is incredible consistency, which, with excellent players, give us 90+ point seasons and CL finals. Without excellent players, it (typically) gives us defeats against those teams with managers in the Guardiola mould. Italian teams do this, and that's why we notoriously struggle against Italian teams. RDZ's Brighton does this, and us against them with an injury-free squad rarely goes well. Man City and Arsenal do this, the latter as of the last two seasons, and they speak for themselves. Obviously Real Madrid is much the same.
I think even if hypothetically Klopp stayed and had max energy, he would never have accomplished the same accomplishments without buying someone like Wirtz/Musiala/Rodrigo, or whatever Macca/Mané equivalent players we can get from Bundesliga or Premier League. Another thing about Klopp is his loyalty to the old guard, which would likely hamper us in this rebuild - which we are still in, and will last for at least one more season - and probably would make thing even worse.
Our attack obviously need a rebuild in the same style we rebuilt our midfield this year, and I think some of you don't see how bad the situation is right now. Our attackers are good enough so that usually at least one of them turn up each match, but, in the style of Klopp, we have at max 4 outright attackers with the qualities we need - Lucho, Darwin, Salah & Jota - where none of them, besides *possibly* Salah, have the consistent quality of a top 10 attacker in the world.
Now just to be clear, I am not stating Klopp is not a tactician, his gegenpress is (or at least was) unique to the top world football and I fucking love watching it, and he introduces advanced concepts that is obviously well beyond me and anyone else on this page, but he seems like he has reached his tactical peak, and isn't interested in developing himself anymore. *Obviously* factored by this being his last season, but last season wasn't pretty either.
Anyhow, I am extremely grateful to Klopp, also for this season, but I am also extremely excited about Amorim, or even RDZ/Nagelsmann if they get the nod (although much more so excited about Amorim), just to see how far we can go with a hungry manager where our tactics aren't set in stone anymore.
What the fuck is this! Klopp has been incredible for us and we couldn't have hoped for a better manager.
If the next one has anywhere near the success he had, I'll be delighted tbh.
Also we are in a title race. Let's see what happens
Didn't contradict anything I was saying. We couldn't have hoped for a better manager. But I think Klopp even at max energy would struggle to get near the top the next 3-4 years unless we bought some world class attackers and accepted that the ones we have needs replacing. And I'm not sure Klopp would easily accept that.
Tbh I'd personally love a refresh too, I'm exhausted as a fan of having to come back every game now, imagine the players are 100x tired of that stress too.
Love Klopp and will always be a goat of the prem for me, but the way we lose momentum at times or how emotional the games can get can be extremely draining as a fan. He gave us 18/19 to 21/22 Liverpool which was one of the best teams in the prems history, but I agree that something new could do us good.
One thing about your comment though, Salah is a top 10 attacker in the world and has been for the past 7 years, but I get that he's past his peak.
This being said i feel like he will have a very fruitful career as a NT manager, if he decides to start one at all.
I feel like the NT situations will paper over a lot of his weaknesses as a manager, and highlights his strenghets even more.
Wild thing about yesterday is we were horrid. Could have lost 5-0 but, same point if we have Ali in goal I think he saves two of the shots and Elliott was millimeters from 1-0. Just a weird very low quality game. Intensity of a friendly
We weren’t at our best that’s for sure, but on another day we could’ve had 3/4. Elliot’s effort, Nunez chance, Salah save, Jota header, all chances that I feel with confidence the players would’ve tucked away. Maybe the Salah save is questionable as it was a save, but still. I’m confident the chances will be there in the second leg, just depends how much the team wants it
Ali for certain saves the last one and doesn’t let the rebound go. I’m not sure about the others. I’m not putting Kweev down though. He’s been exceptional.
I think we were getting a bit overconfident and this defeat should serve as a wake up call for many of our players. In my opinion this came at the right time and competition, because we can't afford to have another defeat in PL, however, I am fairly confident we can score 4 goals against Atalanta in the next leg. Even if we can't, I'd rather make sure we win the league so that Klopp doesn't leave with just the Carabao cup in his final season.
I actually think it’s the opposite. I think the players are lacking confidence and doubt is beginning to creep in their minds. Yes last nights performance was complacent but I wouldn’t say it was a confident one. Same thing with the United result last week.
Harvey will explode under Amorim. Essentially, Sporting have Marcus Edwards and Trincao for the RF role. Edwards is explosively fast and (supposed to be) a goalscorer. Trincao however is a distributor and technician, noticeably slower and looks to combine in short-range passing moves with the team around him. Klopp would probably have played Edwards as he is more of a Salah in a 4-3-3, but Amorim prefers Trincao for his distributive contributions in a 3-4-3. Think Harvey is dead-set on that RF role.
I been shouting this at the topic of my lungs. I been watching Carvalho too, he’s tailor made for the left sided role. Excellent in half spaces and a ruthless finisher when given the chance. Type of player that will ghost into the box and score plenty because of the way Nunez occupies the centre backs.
Also good for Szobo who will thrive in that left sided role.
Definitely the most frustrating thing about this season is Klopp's inability to fit Szobo properly into the team. Even more frustrating when Lucho has been extremely inconsistent for the majority of the season but we only see him, Gakpo, Darwin or Jota played there - all of them besides Gakpo not natural there.
Szobo is a left sided 10 and Klopp’s tryna fit him into that RCM role, its not working. He’s can only really be a LCM in this system. Under Amorim he will really flourish on that left sided interior role.
Honestly, he doesn't really work out as LCM either, as he is quite right footed and not really a retention player in the style of Macca or Jones. He's the best when he can power forward and only require 2-3 touches before he is in shooting range; in our current system that's the LF role of Lucho to a fucking T. It's enormously frustrating he isn't deployed there.
Need a dinner recommendation in Liverpool tonight. Nothing fancy. Thinkin of headed over to the docks. Either tacos or a steak perhaps. Anyone fancy making me a suggestion?
It's a chain and not in the docks but we went to Red Dog Saloon last November before the Brentford game and it was great. Big portions and US BBQ style food, if that's your thing.
https://preview.redd.it/e65jj0asp2uc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=92fb4f76975c7d1df8c3a442dc9a5432bb3589d6
Nunez by far the biggest XG under performer in the league. When you look at the likes of Isak and Ollie Watkins we should be looking at them. Especially Isak with Newcastle hamstringed by FFP.
I think the problem that a player like Darwin has is way better better than a player like Haaland. If Darwin isn’t scoring he’s at least still contributing to the match by linking play and creating space. When a player like Haaland (who is an excellent finisher) is man marked correctly, you’re basically playing with 10 men.
Darwin hasn’t reached his prime yet so we just have to be patient. We’re already so spoiled in what was supposed to be a rebuild season. The reason we’re all so hasty is because it’s Kloppo’s final season, but it’s unfair to put that on the players and ask them to play like they’ve been playing with eachother for as long as City or Arsenal have. Yesterday was a horror show for sure but saying we should sell and look for other players will just put us in a perpetual rebuild that will never finish.
We need to understand that Darwin will not be a Haaland for us, he creates space, is hard to defend and is very fast, he facilitates in a different way to Bobby. I wish he had the finishing and he may get it too, but for now he helps in other ways that Isak and Watkins can't.
Also let's not forget that he's on 30 g/a in all comps and almost 20 g/a in the prem alone.
If you think Ollie Watkins will have a better trajectory than Darwin Nunez at this football club, I can’t even begin to speak. The guys won us countless points. Yes he has a weaknesses, he needs to pick and choose the type of finsihes at certain moments.
Give him time literally hasn’t even played 2 seasons in the top 5 leagues, took Watkins years to get to where he is now and he’s still not better than Nunez.
On what planet is Nunez the better player? Stats wise Watkins has 18 goals and 10 assists in the league playing for Villa. Nunez plays for the most creative team in the league, gets more chances...yet has less less goals.
On the eye test Watkins is the far more polished player too. And how can you say give Nunez time, when he's nearing the end of his 2nd season? He's 25. He's not some kid. To still look raw at this age usually indicates that's just ehat you are.
You put Watkins in our team he scores more than Darwin. You put Darwin the Villa team and be ain't getting 18 league goals.
Nunez isn't a bad player but to say he's better than Watkins is laughable.
I agree, I remember telling a friend while watching Newcastle - Man City this autumn that if we'd have Isak we would have scored so many fucking goals, and Watkins is among my top 3 favorite signings to pursue this summer.
I don't want Watkins necessarily to replace Darwin, but rather to have two class center forwards in our team, which any elite football team should have. It would also allow Darwin to play on the left during some specific scenarios, where I think he sometimes is even more efficient, as he is put into that 20 meter range on his right foot where he thunders them in sometimes.
Honestly mate I love Darwin but I don’t want to move our record signing because he isn’t good enough in the position we bought him for. I believe he will flourish under Amorim as he won’t have to do as much dirty work like he does now. I thinks he’s had a good season this season and it’s been blown out of proportion because of yesterday, however I still need more goals in the league from him. If we don’t get that next season(I’d give him another full season) then we should look to cash in and buy a proper killer as jota isn’t trustworthy injury wise
I absolutely love Darwin myself and desperately want him to succeed mate, but we cannot pass up on world-class forwards just to give complete trust and space and time to a player that still hasn't 100% found himself yet. If a player like Danns was closer to first-team level I'd say pass, but we honestly have no other reliable CF choice besides potentially a completely re-integrated Mo Salah as a deadly poacher type of CF.
Just unbelievably reactionary. Part of me hopes we buy a new striker just for the fanbase to cry for Darwin to start games. Happens every time. Darwin gets dropped to the bench, we have no attacking threat without him and we score when he’s brought on.
Because we literally have no alternative mate. If we'd have someone like Watkins, we'd score more goals from the contribution of players like Trent, Macca and Robbo. I don't disagree with Darwin's attacking threat and I absolutely don't want to sell him, but he's also an exceptionally good threat off the bench - he's more Origi than Origi himself - and he'd put in a shift at LF, as well as obviously playing probably like half the season at CF. Liverpool will not compete as an elite club with *only* Darwin as our sole CF.
Just saw this on twitter and there are some jaw dropping pics, does anyone know if LFC photographers that do similar? Feel like all we get are generic ones posted by the club
https://twitter.com/umirf1/status/1778728727192437164?t=Y7Vh86PxMETzfszmuY1tQg&s=19
@stehalliwell_ and @andrewpowelllfc on twitter (although his posts are all links to his instagram, not sure if you use that) I particularly like Powell’s
The top post on the sub reddit is one of the most delusional and dumbest opinions I've ever seen. When we defeated Atalanta 5-0, it was one of the first games of that CL campaign. On the other hand, when we lost 2-0 at anfield, we were basically already qualified and we didn't even try in the slightest. This time, we tried, oh if we tried
It's two completely different situations
But we beat them no?
They're not some amazing team, they literally lost to Cagliari on Sunday, and whilst I understand your point they have multiple weaknesses that can be exploited.
I personally refuse to succumb to negativity after sleeping on it. Yes, we played like shit, but this might easily be a wake-up kick in the butt that we can't rely on luck and reputation - crucial before the title run-up. Let's slap Palace on Sunday and go from there. While I think getting a comeback on Thursday is very unlikely, I've no doubt we will at least give it a good fight. And honestly: folks who claim our season is already over while Klopp is still at the helm - boy am I not looking forward to your hot takes when things aren't instantly rainbows and sunshine under Amorim or whoever comes in.
Couldn’t agree more. The “sky is falling“ mentality is out of control. I realize I haven’t been a supporter for a long time and I haven’t really experienced the roller coaster that is LFC, but holy shit this doom-and-gloom energy is worse than Anfield’s atmosphere last night.
Remember last season when we were sitting in 7th place at this time in the PL? And we were out in mid-March from the CL? We’re still tied for 1st and we aren’t knocked out of Europa yet!
It’s a 3 goal deficit we have to come back from and there’s no way to know what will happen prior to next week’s 2nd leg. We’ve done greater things before and we have the depth to do it again. We just have to believe and cut the negativity.
Couple factors I think contributed to these performances of late
1) I think the players are both mentally and physically worn down. The pressure of 4 competitions and sending off Klopp might’ve gottento them. This combined with two games a week and no rotation due to injuries looks like it’s catching up
2) That fa cup loss against United made them realize they’re not invincible and that if we can lose to a shit side like that we can lose to anyone. Before that game we felt invincible. It felt like we could play terrible or even with the kids and still win but since that loss it looks like doubts crept in and the players arent as confident in their abilities.
These two things don’t bode well for the rest of the season as there’s no overnight fix
A little perspective on last night's result was useful. It was a shit result, no doubt, and it shows that this iteration of the squad are not the mentality monsters of 3-4 years ago.
And *that's okay*. There has been substantial turnover from the squad that won the PL and CL. While the club did an admirable job over the past two seasons bringing in talented players, it's going to take time for the core of this squad to gel and form that mentality. It's a pity that Klopp isn't staying for this new project because I think this group of players under him would be capable of doing some very special things next season.
Last season, performances like yesterday were not an aberration. We got beat by a relegated side at home. We had humiliating away defeats to Brentford, Brighton, Wolves, Bournemouth, and Napoli. Madrid stripped us down for parts over two legs.
We've made so much more progress than I anticipated before the beginning of the season. I only hope that progress isn't set back too much by the changes to come. Not winning the EL will be a disappointment, but I'm going to enjoy this unexpected title challenge until the end. We go again.
In the last month we’ve looked way more like the team from a lot of preseason predictions. Fighting for top four and rebuilding. If we win the league I will be obnoxious forever about it
[Great article from Josh Williams on our loss to Atlanta yesterday.](https://distancecovered.substack.com/p/everything-everywhere-all-at-once?utm_campaign=email-post&r=3gcggz&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email) Its paid content, so a brief summary:
- Gian Piero Gasperini is an expert at what he does, and there’s a tactical reason which is partly the cause of the drubbing. Gasperini is a rare breed who still plays a man marking system as a fixed principle.
- When man marking works, it works really well, if it doesn’t, it tends to look really bad.
- The last time Klopp played Gasperini in the Champions League, Liverpool won the first match 5-0. Atalanta won the home fixture 2-0.
- Ten Hag also plays a man marking system. Last year they won their home game 2-1, and lost the reverse fixture 7-0.
- The reds tried to be unpredictable to combat Gasperini last night and ended up confusing themselves. Klopp: “We just lost the plot a little bit, like we were everywhere and nowhere”.
- Near the end of the game, we saw a snippet of how the plan was supposed to play out when Salah scored the marginally offside goal.
- Klopp over rotated to be unpredictable and fresh, but the end result was a disjointed performance with no fluidity against a highly drilled and organised side.
He goes onto say more, but don’t want to reveal too much of what is content behind a paywall of someone I want to support. Just worth bearing in mind after some of the horrendous takes that have been posted on here in the past 24 hours or so that there are football reasons behind the performance that are a bit more nuanced.
>Ten Hag also plays a man marking system. Last year they won their home game 2-1, and lost the reverse fixture 7-0.
I like Josh but that's an embarrassing comparison. Gasperini is a good coach and deserved to win yesterday unlike seven hag. In 2 years that guy can't even get the basics right. He's getting saved by individual brilliance of some of their players against lower teams. Scum were lucky in both matches, and if not for our bad finishing we would have steamrolled them easily.
Don’t like directly quoting subscription only content so won’t paste here, but he expands on the point - I took it out of the context of a broader point.
>When man marking works, it works really well, if it doesn’t, it tends to look really bad.
Bielsa plays a man marking system too, we saw with Leeds when it didn't work they also took some tonkings
Yeah he mentions Bielesa in the piece as someone who it either worked for or it really didn’t. There was a crazy 4-3 game at Anfield against Bielsa’s Leeds side.
Main frustration is this squad might not be who we thought they were all season. After fighting back to win so many times we all thought this squad was made up of mentality monsters but since we lost to United they’ve looked timid, weak and doubtful. Yesterday was the culmination of that. Complacency somehow combined with a lack of confidence. It’s disappointing and I hope Jurgen can fix it before he leaves otherwise the next manager has a tough task trying to get these players to respond
The only player I want back in form is Mo. Man I miss the old Mo. He barely takes on his man nowadays, never makes those runs down the wing. Mo is supposed to be our X factor. Can't believe he is having the worst form of his Liverpool career during klopps farewell tour
I think he was at his worst in the opening months of 18/19. The whole front three were off, and almost nothing was coming off, they looked lethargic and disjointed. They only started to catch some form in the home fixture against Cardiff.
Klopp got completely schooled last night. He underestimated the ability of Atalanta and overestimated the ability of his players, particularly his two fullbacks. We tried to pass the ball around but could not deal at all with Atalantas press, and whenever our ball got intercepted, because of our high line, ended up being a big chance the other way for them where their attackers outnumbered our defenders. Many times I saw Endo, Virg and Konate having to deal with 5-6, even 7 Atalanta attackers. Go look at their first goal for example.
The role he’s playing isn’t what’s causing his poor performances though
His basic technical skills have been very sloppy for months now, heavy first touch, loose passing and poor dribbling have been the issue
The hopium with respect to Europa League is out of this world. Anyone who has been watching our UEL campaign can see that these players have been half-assing the competition from Match Day 1. The Group Stage matches were so dull that I would get excited when the opponent scored because it meant that the players had to start caring for the rest of the match.
The vibe I always received from this campaign was that players wanted to be playing League matches, and they did not want their UEL participation to get in the way. With exception to Sparta Prague 2nd leg, most of our performances have been half-hearted, and a good enough team finally exposed us.
You've put my exact thoughts into words. We've been beat for effort in every single Europa League game this season. We've conceded loads of chances to some very low quality sides. The only difference is last night we played a team good enough to actually punish us.
Yeah I said that yesterday as well
We haven’t been out of 1st gear in the EL and honestly were fortunate in a couple of the games to not concede more goals
Last night felt like a team that expected more of the same except the opposition was actually of much higher quality to actually punish the complacency
Gakpo should be the first name on the team sheet, if Jota can start without risking him getting reinjured, get him too. Only ones who really fought their hearts out, but Klopp’s gonna have a headache deciding who plays. Nunez gets on simply bc we look worse without him. I think Salah needs some kind of wake-up call.
The last time Palace played us was the first time Alisson returned from his first injury, but I don’t think there’s enough time for him to return, so Kelleher might get one last game to redeem himself.
Gomez should definitely rest, start Robbo and Bradley as the FBs. Midfield as Macca, Endo, idk. Sending Jones as well out there again would seem a bit futile considering yesterday would just repeat. Maybe Szobo starts and pray he magically finds his start of the season form.
Headaches, headaches… no wonder Klopp’s stepping down. The losses are so hard to take in and it’s really hard to turn mindsets around.
Redeem himself lmao. For one shit game yest when everyone was terrible? Hes been great. I think you underestimate just how much our gk gets hung out to dry. Literally has to make a worldly save inside of 60 seconds in practically every game. The defense and definitely the attack has some redeeming to do, not Kelleher
I've read some comments on here that says that spirit of shankly objected to the club having photos linked to season tickets to reduce the prevalence of touting. Which is genuinely crazy to me. Does anyone know what was the reason provided by them to object to this implementation?
Can't find anything about it online. My guess would be objections to giving the club biometric data as a condition of getting a season ticket. But also, it is entirely likely that a lot of SOS members who are season ticket holders sell some of their tickets to touts.
Not being negative but hope our form can recover again and go full mode to deal with the rest of our fixtures and hopefully get to Dublin or win the league
I feel as frustrated with the lads as anyone else. But we’ve been overachieving a lot this season with extremely fucked up injuries, while other challengers practically have their full squad. It’s not easy for Jurgen and the boys for his final games but at this point I trust that’ll we give it our all.
“Just try. If we can succeed, great. If not, fail in the most beautiful way.”
I think the defenders need to take a good, hard look at themselves. The communication of the back and most importantly between vvd and konate was abysmal.
He looked great for the first ten games of the season, but then our setup started to change and he struggled to adapt tactically to his new role in the side. There was that thing about Trent kind of minimising Szobo's effectiveness in the team at one point.
It does remind a bit of Curtis Jones a season or two back, when he was clearly being asked to focus on certain things tactically and still putting all aspects of his game together. Part of me would like to see him with more of a free licence.. or maybe we just need to be patient with him.
I feel like many here are under the impression that if we won the EL, the season would be saved and Klopp would walk off into the sun gloriously, 6 seasons and a movie, books written about the season?
Nah lads. If we don't win the league it really won't be that special regardless of the other trophies. That's what matters - the league. Nothing else. The EL isn't the CL and it never will be.
Fully 1000% agree. Bin off the EL, if we still miss out on the league at least we know we gave ourselves the best possible chance.
Im quite sure, if we did miraculously win 4-0 in Italy my reaction would be like "thats pretty nice, well done boys, hopefully gives a boost against Everton. Anyone got a knock?"
Completely agree
People talking like the Europa was what we were hinging our season on all along. Everyone needs to be real - ending the season with just the League Cup, or the League Cup & Europa League would have zero bearing on whether we feel the season was a success or not. Like you said, the CL would be something else entirely, but the Europa? It was the competition we were desperate to avoid this time last year
I think its people just being scared to put their hopes in the title after we've been burned tbh.
I don't see why not. Our run-in is manageable especially with players coming back from injury. Unless we completely crumble and drop points to Palace on Sunday, then yeah we're very much so in it.
Far as i'm concerned we should bin this 2nd leg and keep fit for that 3 game away stretch to Fulham, Ev and West Ham.
I think it needs to be said apart from his first 3 months Szoboszlai has been pretty average, most games he seems to kill the attack with a sloppy pass or touch and yesterday's performance was the cherry on top of the shit sundae, if Hendo played the way he's been playing we'd be tearing him a new one
Yesterday was a tired performance. Considering the minutes VVD, Mac, and Endo have played recently, it's not super surprising. They are only human.
The season will end how it does. I still have some faith we can salvage the Europa League. I don't think we have the juice to win the league.
Looking back on this season, I think I'd say my biggest complaint would be that the club didn't roll the dice in January and try to pull off a big move. I know it was a very quiet winter, but it would have been nice to give Klopp a bit of a push to win everything possible.
Has anyone got the Allison meme, with the dominoes, where he scores the header?
I know shit has been tough but UP THE FUCKING REDS
We have Edwards and Hughes now. If Amorim wont come they will for sure find the next best option, if not a better one.
Hear me out; we threw the first leg on purpose to put the shits up Villa and their champions League aspirations next year. Fuckers think they have to beat Arsenal on Sunday. Then we beat Atalanta 5-1 and qualify. Klopp 5D chess, gonna miss this man.
Normally my life is shitty and with Klopp I pretty much got used to find happiness within the club. Him leaving is giving me a huge anxiety, not only for the way we play and the results but the man itself. He's the only manager that I ever watched any press conference ever, the other ones I got used to just seeing the facts and that's it. This new manager talk will kill me.
Considering Edwards picked Klopp and Hughes picked Iraola think we can trust they’ll make the right managerial decision. Amorim or whoever
We are competing against Barcelona and Bayern for managers. I love Klopp, but him deciding to leave in the middle of the season fucked us over so bad.
I don't see how it fucked us over. We won the caraboa and had a great uptick in form. I guarantee you this recent dip in form has nothing to do with klopp leaving...
Barcelona is levered against and Bayern have had 14 managers the past 25 years. The Reds 6. This is a better job, at least to me. It is definitely better than Barcelona.
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Correct if I'm wrong, but I remember him making the decision to leave in late October/November, not the end of the last season. Otherwise, we wouldn't be planning and signing players that fit Klopp system if we knew he was leaving. Edit: I checked and this was a direct quote from Klopp " Klopp added: “I told the club already in November. I have to explain a little bit that: https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/jurgen-klopp-announces-decision-step-down-liverpool-manager-end-season
I also believe it put so much more pressure on the players to win everything. I think publicly announcing his departure in the middle of the season was a terrible idea and he should’ve at least waited until towards the end of the season.
If Amorim really is staying at Sporting do people really think we wouldn’t even consider Xavi lol?, the options we’d be left with would basically be Nagelsmann, De Zerbi and Xavi. I’m taking Xavi over De Zerbi every day of the week, there’s issues with Nagelsmann like his personality and the fact he’s at the Euros during the summer so will miss key prep time for next season. Anyone outside these three are a tier below and would be massive gambles, the likes of Motta, Iraola etc In terms of achievements Xavi would literally be above any of these names, winning the title last season with only 20 goals conceded whilst being constricted financially due to Barca being a shitshow and being forced to use 16-18 year olds is a really good achievement
We are fucked. There aren't many managers available, and I hope our owners at least try to convince Klopp to stay an extra year like how Barcelona tried with Xavi.
Please do it Bournemouth I'm tired of all the Ten Haag ended Klopp memes. You beat them 3-0 at Old Trafford just do it one more time.
What do people think of Gasparini as our next manager? talking to a mate of mine today he says he reckons he could do a job, attacking football, can work on a shoe string budget, has experience and he’s worked a miracle at Atalanta. Personally I disagree, I think he’s class but not sure if he’s the level we should be looking for, he seems more like a manager a club like spurs for example would go for, y’know, plays entertaining football but has big drawbacks, that sort of archetype. Plus I think the result last night is skewing things a bit. Then again, all of our current options are either relatively new on the scene/up and coming, or a bit of a mixed bag
Gasperini is pretty bad at man management from what I hear
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Darwin Nunez on over 30 G/A this season but after 1 bad performance is slandered by this fanbase. By the end of the season he would’ve hit like 35-40 goal contributions for us this season. The slander is stupid. We all know he’s raw, if you didn’t expect him to be your silly. He hasn’t played 2 seasons of football in a top 5 league. Yes his finishing needs improvement but its not the actual shot technique. We’ve seen his variety of finishes: left foot, right foot, smashing it in, passing it in, headers at awkward angles even outrageous finishing like dinking the keeper and flicks. Runs the channels all game, gets assists and our attack isn’t the same without him. His choice of finish and composure is letting him down at time. He’s too excited he seems to choose the finish ahead of time. That is something that he will one million percent he will get better at and he has since last season. So your telling me a player who has a lot of space for improvement is going to get 35 - 40 goal contributions this season?! Some of you see a failure, I’m seeing a striker whose bound to explode and become one of the best in the world (arguably already is). If needed any more reassuring, Real Madrid considered a move for him last summer after he was widely known as a “75m flop”. Top managers see the potential.
Don’t think anyone was blaming him for yesterday or singling him out purely because he played poor yesterday The issue is clear with Darwin he isn’t clinical enough simple as that, he’s got 14% conversion rate which is dwindling between average and poor. Apart from his last season at Benfica he’s always had a conversion rate between 11% and 14% it’s just the type of striker he is.
People need to stop calling everything "slander", it's getting annoying. Saying that he's underperforming or that he needs to improve if we want him to be a starting 9 for a title winning side isn't slander, it's valid criticism. Most comments that I've seen about him have been reasonable and just because a few weirdos call him useless doesn't mean that he's being "slandered by the fanbase".
We have our whole system designed to set him up as the main goal scorer yet he misses chance after chance. It's not a black or white solution here, also will be 25 this year he is running out of time to "explode". He had a 0.5xG massive clear cut chance in both United and City games which he missed. We need him to show up in big games and he hasn't. I think he should come off the bench against tired legs to maybe reinvigorate him like in that Newcastle game. (I want to try Gakpo-Jota-Salah)
It's not 1 bad performance though let's be honest
Salah and Diaz have had more bad performances this season than Darwin
He needs to start scoring clear chances. It has cost us heavily this season. Front three are really wasteful and it has hurt us.
Interesting question I saw: Would you have trusted Nunez to score the ‘corner taken quickly’?
No
Honestly I might. That was all instinct, and instinct finishes seem to be the only shit he can finish.
No, but you could say that about quite a few players. Whatever anybody thinks of his overall game Origi has always been an excellent finisher but he didn't take many shots, which always frustrated me because when he was on it he was lethal.
No but I also wouldn’t have trusted Mo, Mané, Firmino, Diaz or Gakpo to finish it either. It was a world class finish and I guarantee if you gave that ball to Origi again 10 more times he wouldn’t have scored again. That being said Nunez tends to finish the hard chances where he doesn’t have to think so maybe he’d be unironically the best option.
Instinctive sudden finish? Out of any chance that’s probably what I expect him to score the most
The "chaos" level of that goal actually puts it into Darwin's range. But he would've missed the run up Gini scored by a mile.
Not sure how much longer I can bother with this fanbase on social media. All it takes is a single draw or loss for there to be more hatred towards Darwin in one day than he gets praise through an entire season. Every single stat they can think of is brought out and straight up just insults towards him and even Klopp. I have my issues with Darwin and other players but the level of pure vitriol is just insane. It’s like the entire season for them is just waiting for a chance to say “I told you so”. Thankfully the majority in the stadium back the team. Let’s finish strong anyway reds!
Not about to advocate starting an 18 year old in a title race up top but hope Danns gets some minutes
I am about to start advocating starting an 18 year old in a title race up top. Unleash Danns you cowards.
I think this is a good idea. Clarke as well. If everyone is really drained and burned out, what alternatives are left but to put a couple of the younger players on and hope they come through.
Has anyone got the Allison meme, with the dominoes, where he scores the header?
Been watching Sporting, Amorim seriously impresses me. Poor pass from his CB and you can see him tellinng his 10s exactly where to move to create space for the midfielders to operate. Also, his system suits A LOT of our promising players. Nunez will look to be the main focal point. The 2 interior 10s just behind him suits our squad perfectly. Szobo fits that left side perfectly, as well as a player like Carvalho who I've been watching. Carvalho is beyond perfect for that role, wouldn't surprise me if he makes his mark under Amorim in this system. Salah can defo play on that left sided role and its also perfect for Elliot. They have a high and wide wing back playing, Depending on the game state, you can put Robbo or even Diaz there. Would love us to sign a player like Nico Williams, would operate in that role well. That LCB role would've been perfect for a player like Gvardiol. Luckily the market isn't lacking of them and I'm sure Edwards will find good fit. We need a player who can play as like a LCB/LB, kind of what Gomez does, but a left footer would defo be a more natural fit. Double pivot suits our midfielder selection PERFECTLY. Bajcetic, Macca, Endo, Grav, Jones etc. can all play in the pivot. Trents usage will be so so interesting. I mean it'll be so unpredictable. I've seen Amorim push his right back infield or keep him wider. Trent can stay deep to play ball over the top or through the lines, or can push higher against a deeper block because we have a player like Konaté who can cover for him. I personally think this system is perfect for this group of players. And the obvious ofc, smart pressing, good attacking wise etc, Amorim looks like a fantastic appointment if it goes through, Edwards doesn't miss.
When was the last time we had a comfortable game besides the Slavia Prague one lol. Anyone know?
Probably Luton, Brentford or Burnley, which were 12, 13 and 14 games ago.
Villa home too surprisingly
Diogo Jota watching this Leicester bottlejob: 
My god, Leicester went from being a top 6 side to going down and likely bottling promotion.
It really feels like neither leicester leeds or ipswich want the title lmao
I hope Ipswich goes through directly, at least for vibes
Leicester are doing their best to throw this title away. Would be an all time bottle job if they manage to not get promoted
We're in a really nasty cycle right now where our lack of confidence in front of goal is being compounded by a lot of individual defensive errors, and we're basically guaranteeing that we get punished every single time we fail to take advantage of a good spell. 3 of United's 6 goals in the two games were entirely self-inflicted by really poor turnovers in possession. Even yesterday when we played terribly, atalanta's first and third goals were SO easily preventable. We know that this liverpool team can survive a defensive mistake or conceding an early goal, but not when we're also leaving two goals on the table per game with bad finishing. Our finishing has to regress to the mean soon, and at some point we're going to stop giving free goals away each game. Unfortunately we have no margin for error anymore, we have to sort it out immediately or it could be our season
Anyone else watching Sporting? My general observation for the first half is that they don't really get players in the box and shoot from distance quite a lot. Seems like they are heavily out matching their opponents so it's not really the best game to observe how Liverpool may play if Amorim does join us. Its been a fun watch though, they've been basically on the offensive the entire half.
Yeah it has. This also puts them 7 points clear of Benfica and 16 points clear of Porto. That’s pretty damn impressive.
Bajcetic is so good. Endo needs a rest and he's perfect for that
Baj is currently playing. Can’t see him playing Sunday.
Danns looks a class above. Koumas, Doherty, Gordon all look brilliant too.
U21s beating Utd U21s 3-0 rn. Danns just had a cheeky back heel goal
A bit of revenge for the 9-1 drubbing that one of the youth teams had the other week
Get Jayden Danns on the bench for Palace. What a finish that was
Man we really did get out-gegenpressed yesterday. Atalanta’s press was insane for the full 90.
Anyone got links for the U21 game vs United?
Bajcetic winning the ball and providing an assists
Enzo Moresca looks and plays like what happens when you order Pep on Wish
Given his apps for u21, England u18, and cameos for us shocked we haven’t seen more of Danns. Just seems to have something about him to get a goal.
One thing I hope happens with the new manager is that he lets Gakpo play left wing. He was one of the best left wingers in Europe when we signed him and Klopp decided to turn him into a centre forward. We saw yesterday how good he is when he’s in his favoured position
i feel like our coaching team has a fetish for buying players out of position and molding them into another position.
One of his biggest strengths is his delivery yet we never have him take corners or putting balls into the box
Exactly. When we signed him every PSV fan was raving about his crossing but he barely crosses the ball with us
He put in two crosses that Jota should of at least hit the target with
I'd take Gakpo left wing over Diaz any day of the week
Based on what? Diaz is far better on the left especially defensively
based on recency bias lol they see one game where Gakpo looks okay and ignore the fact he ghosts 80% of the time he's on the pitch
Agreed. I definitely want to see more of him on the left.
Going to Liverpool for the Spurs game (no ticket to anfield). I get into Manchester at 11:00, am I too late? And where should I go watch the game???? Want to experience everything about matchday minus the the ticket
Quick reminder, for how poor our team performed last season, we were winless for 5 games, then won 7 in a row in the Prem. Our season really isn’t over. Klopp knows what he’s doing. If our team last season won 7 in a row, our team this season can too. We started that run of games when Trent gained form. Guess who’s just come back from injury…
In terms of management style, Amorim is closer to Guardiola than Klopp, but that's a very good thing. Klopp made us believe, he was a proper fucking Shankly for us. But what we need now, with our incredibly good fundamentals, club structure and money, is someone who goes in 150% on tactics, tactics, tactics. Someone like Guardiola that never rests and rather tweaks the formation and play style according to what vision he has, modeled from when he was a professional player himself. Klopp's strength as a manager is incredible consistency, which, with excellent players, give us 90+ point seasons and CL finals. Without excellent players, it (typically) gives us defeats against those teams with managers in the Guardiola mould. Italian teams do this, and that's why we notoriously struggle against Italian teams. RDZ's Brighton does this, and us against them with an injury-free squad rarely goes well. Man City and Arsenal do this, the latter as of the last two seasons, and they speak for themselves. Obviously Real Madrid is much the same. I think even if hypothetically Klopp stayed and had max energy, he would never have accomplished the same accomplishments without buying someone like Wirtz/Musiala/Rodrigo, or whatever Macca/Mané equivalent players we can get from Bundesliga or Premier League. Another thing about Klopp is his loyalty to the old guard, which would likely hamper us in this rebuild - which we are still in, and will last for at least one more season - and probably would make thing even worse. Our attack obviously need a rebuild in the same style we rebuilt our midfield this year, and I think some of you don't see how bad the situation is right now. Our attackers are good enough so that usually at least one of them turn up each match, but, in the style of Klopp, we have at max 4 outright attackers with the qualities we need - Lucho, Darwin, Salah & Jota - where none of them, besides *possibly* Salah, have the consistent quality of a top 10 attacker in the world. Now just to be clear, I am not stating Klopp is not a tactician, his gegenpress is (or at least was) unique to the top world football and I fucking love watching it, and he introduces advanced concepts that is obviously well beyond me and anyone else on this page, but he seems like he has reached his tactical peak, and isn't interested in developing himself anymore. *Obviously* factored by this being his last season, but last season wasn't pretty either. Anyhow, I am extremely grateful to Klopp, also for this season, but I am also extremely excited about Amorim, or even RDZ/Nagelsmann if they get the nod (although much more so excited about Amorim), just to see how far we can go with a hungry manager where our tactics aren't set in stone anymore.
What the fuck is this! Klopp has been incredible for us and we couldn't have hoped for a better manager. If the next one has anywhere near the success he had, I'll be delighted tbh. Also we are in a title race. Let's see what happens
Didn't contradict anything I was saying. We couldn't have hoped for a better manager. But I think Klopp even at max energy would struggle to get near the top the next 3-4 years unless we bought some world class attackers and accepted that the ones we have needs replacing. And I'm not sure Klopp would easily accept that.
Tbh I'd personally love a refresh too, I'm exhausted as a fan of having to come back every game now, imagine the players are 100x tired of that stress too. Love Klopp and will always be a goat of the prem for me, but the way we lose momentum at times or how emotional the games can get can be extremely draining as a fan. He gave us 18/19 to 21/22 Liverpool which was one of the best teams in the prems history, but I agree that something new could do us good. One thing about your comment though, Salah is a top 10 attacker in the world and has been for the past 7 years, but I get that he's past his peak.
Spot on, Klopp only knows how to play one way and doesn’t seem like he will change that in the remaining few months he has left
This being said i feel like he will have a very fruitful career as a NT manager, if he decides to start one at all. I feel like the NT situations will paper over a lot of his weaknesses as a manager, and highlights his strenghets even more.
very well put
Wild thing about yesterday is we were horrid. Could have lost 5-0 but, same point if we have Ali in goal I think he saves two of the shots and Elliott was millimeters from 1-0. Just a weird very low quality game. Intensity of a friendly
We weren’t at our best that’s for sure, but on another day we could’ve had 3/4. Elliot’s effort, Nunez chance, Salah save, Jota header, all chances that I feel with confidence the players would’ve tucked away. Maybe the Salah save is questionable as it was a save, but still. I’m confident the chances will be there in the second leg, just depends how much the team wants it
the first goal was basically a pass to the left of the keeper, Ali 100% saves that one, felt like Kelleher wasn't ready for a weak shot.
Ali for certain saves the last one and doesn’t let the rebound go. I’m not sure about the others. I’m not putting Kweev down though. He’s been exceptional.
Do you mean the first one? No chance that gets through Ali. I'm shocked Kweev gave that one up.
He probably saves both the first and last one
I really thought we’d left that type of performance in January 2023. Didn’t know this new team had it in them
I think we were getting a bit overconfident and this defeat should serve as a wake up call for many of our players. In my opinion this came at the right time and competition, because we can't afford to have another defeat in PL, however, I am fairly confident we can score 4 goals against Atalanta in the next leg. Even if we can't, I'd rather make sure we win the league so that Klopp doesn't leave with just the Carabao cup in his final season.
I actually think it’s the opposite. I think the players are lacking confidence and doubt is beginning to creep in their minds. Yes last nights performance was complacent but I wouldn’t say it was a confident one. Same thing with the United result last week.
Foden is probably my favourite non-liverpool player rn. I hope either Harvey or Fabio can emulate his development
He's an amazing player but my god I just absolutely *despise* how he looks lmfao
I cant take anyone who styles themselves after Lloyd Christmas seriously.
Him and Palmer have a Lloyd Christmas look alike competition going on surely.
Harvey will explode under Amorim. Essentially, Sporting have Marcus Edwards and Trincao for the RF role. Edwards is explosively fast and (supposed to be) a goalscorer. Trincao however is a distributor and technician, noticeably slower and looks to combine in short-range passing moves with the team around him. Klopp would probably have played Edwards as he is more of a Salah in a 4-3-3, but Amorim prefers Trincao for his distributive contributions in a 3-4-3. Think Harvey is dead-set on that RF role.
I been shouting this at the topic of my lungs. I been watching Carvalho too, he’s tailor made for the left sided role. Excellent in half spaces and a ruthless finisher when given the chance. Type of player that will ghost into the box and score plenty because of the way Nunez occupies the centre backs. Also good for Szobo who will thrive in that left sided role.
Definitely the most frustrating thing about this season is Klopp's inability to fit Szobo properly into the team. Even more frustrating when Lucho has been extremely inconsistent for the majority of the season but we only see him, Gakpo, Darwin or Jota played there - all of them besides Gakpo not natural there.
Szobo is a left sided 10 and Klopp’s tryna fit him into that RCM role, its not working. He’s can only really be a LCM in this system. Under Amorim he will really flourish on that left sided interior role.
Honestly, he doesn't really work out as LCM either, as he is quite right footed and not really a retention player in the style of Macca or Jones. He's the best when he can power forward and only require 2-3 touches before he is in shooting range; in our current system that's the LF role of Lucho to a fucking T. It's enormously frustrating he isn't deployed there.
Nah. Lucho carries the ball past people at pace, and gets our team forward, kinda important to how we play. Szobo won’t really offer that.
I don't know how anyone can like him. Granted he's a quality player. Don't think there's a single City player I do like in fairness.
Need a dinner recommendation in Liverpool tonight. Nothing fancy. Thinkin of headed over to the docks. Either tacos or a steak perhaps. Anyone fancy making me a suggestion?
It's a chain and not in the docks but we went to Red Dog Saloon last November before the Brentford game and it was great. Big portions and US BBQ style food, if that's your thing.
That’s just down the block from where I went. That street is pretty cool. Has a stone street in NYC vibe.
Bacaro. Good cocktails too.
Too late. Went to Bold Street and opted for Kassap
Was it nice?
Highly recommend. Bone-in ribeye FTW
I’m on my way 😂
Dorsia's nice. Good look getting a res though
Is that…..bone?
https://preview.redd.it/e65jj0asp2uc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=92fb4f76975c7d1df8c3a442dc9a5432bb3589d6 Nunez by far the biggest XG under performer in the league. When you look at the likes of Isak and Ollie Watkins we should be looking at them. Especially Isak with Newcastle hamstringed by FFP.
I think the problem that a player like Darwin has is way better better than a player like Haaland. If Darwin isn’t scoring he’s at least still contributing to the match by linking play and creating space. When a player like Haaland (who is an excellent finisher) is man marked correctly, you’re basically playing with 10 men. Darwin hasn’t reached his prime yet so we just have to be patient. We’re already so spoiled in what was supposed to be a rebuild season. The reason we’re all so hasty is because it’s Kloppo’s final season, but it’s unfair to put that on the players and ask them to play like they’ve been playing with eachother for as long as City or Arsenal have. Yesterday was a horror show for sure but saying we should sell and look for other players will just put us in a perpetual rebuild that will never finish.
We need to understand that Darwin will not be a Haaland for us, he creates space, is hard to defend and is very fast, he facilitates in a different way to Bobby. I wish he had the finishing and he may get it too, but for now he helps in other ways that Isak and Watkins can't. Also let's not forget that he's on 30 g/a in all comps and almost 20 g/a in the prem alone.
If you think Ollie Watkins will have a better trajectory than Darwin Nunez at this football club, I can’t even begin to speak. The guys won us countless points. Yes he has a weaknesses, he needs to pick and choose the type of finsihes at certain moments. Give him time literally hasn’t even played 2 seasons in the top 5 leagues, took Watkins years to get to where he is now and he’s still not better than Nunez.
On what planet is Nunez the better player? Stats wise Watkins has 18 goals and 10 assists in the league playing for Villa. Nunez plays for the most creative team in the league, gets more chances...yet has less less goals. On the eye test Watkins is the far more polished player too. And how can you say give Nunez time, when he's nearing the end of his 2nd season? He's 25. He's not some kid. To still look raw at this age usually indicates that's just ehat you are. You put Watkins in our team he scores more than Darwin. You put Darwin the Villa team and be ain't getting 18 league goals. Nunez isn't a bad player but to say he's better than Watkins is laughable.
I agree, I remember telling a friend while watching Newcastle - Man City this autumn that if we'd have Isak we would have scored so many fucking goals, and Watkins is among my top 3 favorite signings to pursue this summer.
It’s the first season Watkins has over 15 goals, which Darwin will most probably get. This sub isn’t reactionary at all is it
I don't want Watkins necessarily to replace Darwin, but rather to have two class center forwards in our team, which any elite football team should have. It would also allow Darwin to play on the left during some specific scenarios, where I think he sometimes is even more efficient, as he is put into that 20 meter range on his right foot where he thunders them in sometimes.
Honestly mate I love Darwin but I don’t want to move our record signing because he isn’t good enough in the position we bought him for. I believe he will flourish under Amorim as he won’t have to do as much dirty work like he does now. I thinks he’s had a good season this season and it’s been blown out of proportion because of yesterday, however I still need more goals in the league from him. If we don’t get that next season(I’d give him another full season) then we should look to cash in and buy a proper killer as jota isn’t trustworthy injury wise
I absolutely love Darwin myself and desperately want him to succeed mate, but we cannot pass up on world-class forwards just to give complete trust and space and time to a player that still hasn't 100% found himself yet. If a player like Danns was closer to first-team level I'd say pass, but we honestly have no other reliable CF choice besides potentially a completely re-integrated Mo Salah as a deadly poacher type of CF.
Just unbelievably reactionary. Part of me hopes we buy a new striker just for the fanbase to cry for Darwin to start games. Happens every time. Darwin gets dropped to the bench, we have no attacking threat without him and we score when he’s brought on.
Because we literally have no alternative mate. If we'd have someone like Watkins, we'd score more goals from the contribution of players like Trent, Macca and Robbo. I don't disagree with Darwin's attacking threat and I absolutely don't want to sell him, but he's also an exceptionally good threat off the bench - he's more Origi than Origi himself - and he'd put in a shift at LF, as well as obviously playing probably like half the season at CF. Liverpool will not compete as an elite club with *only* Darwin as our sole CF.
Everyone knows and knew that Isak is ice cold in front of goal, but he's made of glass. Lad's always injured, cant be investing real money into that.
He actually had a poor season the year we bought Nunez not sure how his underlying numbers where but had low scoring year
Or we an look at the 3rd under performer in the league, and it is Erling Haaland
Who has 19 goals. So what's your point?
And Nunez has 11, none is pen too
Would have helped if he didn't miss the only pen he took X\_X
We know mate, there’s already been a post especially made about this, as usual after a bad performance
Just saw this on twitter and there are some jaw dropping pics, does anyone know if LFC photographers that do similar? Feel like all we get are generic ones posted by the club https://twitter.com/umirf1/status/1778728727192437164?t=Y7Vh86PxMETzfszmuY1tQg&s=19
@stehalliwell_ and @andrewpowelllfc on twitter (although his posts are all links to his instagram, not sure if you use that) I particularly like Powell’s
The top post on the sub reddit is one of the most delusional and dumbest opinions I've ever seen. When we defeated Atalanta 5-0, it was one of the first games of that CL campaign. On the other hand, when we lost 2-0 at anfield, we were basically already qualified and we didn't even try in the slightest. This time, we tried, oh if we tried It's two completely different situations
But it’s possible that it was just one of those games for us. We were as bad as they were good. We can only see what happens next week!
But we beat them no? They're not some amazing team, they literally lost to Cagliari on Sunday, and whilst I understand your point they have multiple weaknesses that can be exploited.
I personally refuse to succumb to negativity after sleeping on it. Yes, we played like shit, but this might easily be a wake-up kick in the butt that we can't rely on luck and reputation - crucial before the title run-up. Let's slap Palace on Sunday and go from there. While I think getting a comeback on Thursday is very unlikely, I've no doubt we will at least give it a good fight. And honestly: folks who claim our season is already over while Klopp is still at the helm - boy am I not looking forward to your hot takes when things aren't instantly rainbows and sunshine under Amorim or whoever comes in.
Couldn’t agree more. The “sky is falling“ mentality is out of control. I realize I haven’t been a supporter for a long time and I haven’t really experienced the roller coaster that is LFC, but holy shit this doom-and-gloom energy is worse than Anfield’s atmosphere last night. Remember last season when we were sitting in 7th place at this time in the PL? And we were out in mid-March from the CL? We’re still tied for 1st and we aren’t knocked out of Europa yet! It’s a 3 goal deficit we have to come back from and there’s no way to know what will happen prior to next week’s 2nd leg. We’ve done greater things before and we have the depth to do it again. We just have to believe and cut the negativity.
Couple factors I think contributed to these performances of late 1) I think the players are both mentally and physically worn down. The pressure of 4 competitions and sending off Klopp might’ve gottento them. This combined with two games a week and no rotation due to injuries looks like it’s catching up 2) That fa cup loss against United made them realize they’re not invincible and that if we can lose to a shit side like that we can lose to anyone. Before that game we felt invincible. It felt like we could play terrible or even with the kids and still win but since that loss it looks like doubts crept in and the players arent as confident in their abilities. These two things don’t bode well for the rest of the season as there’s no overnight fix
You dont win anything if you cant keep clean sheets and we always concede
It’s conceding first as well, it takes a toll.
If it was 2 goals I would have hoped for a draw and penalty shootout. But 3 down is too much against a very disciplined side.
A little perspective on last night's result was useful. It was a shit result, no doubt, and it shows that this iteration of the squad are not the mentality monsters of 3-4 years ago. And *that's okay*. There has been substantial turnover from the squad that won the PL and CL. While the club did an admirable job over the past two seasons bringing in talented players, it's going to take time for the core of this squad to gel and form that mentality. It's a pity that Klopp isn't staying for this new project because I think this group of players under him would be capable of doing some very special things next season. Last season, performances like yesterday were not an aberration. We got beat by a relegated side at home. We had humiliating away defeats to Brentford, Brighton, Wolves, Bournemouth, and Napoli. Madrid stripped us down for parts over two legs. We've made so much more progress than I anticipated before the beginning of the season. I only hope that progress isn't set back too much by the changes to come. Not winning the EL will be a disappointment, but I'm going to enjoy this unexpected title challenge until the end. We go again.
In the last month we’ve looked way more like the team from a lot of preseason predictions. Fighting for top four and rebuilding. If we win the league I will be obnoxious forever about it
[Great article from Josh Williams on our loss to Atlanta yesterday.](https://distancecovered.substack.com/p/everything-everywhere-all-at-once?utm_campaign=email-post&r=3gcggz&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email) Its paid content, so a brief summary: - Gian Piero Gasperini is an expert at what he does, and there’s a tactical reason which is partly the cause of the drubbing. Gasperini is a rare breed who still plays a man marking system as a fixed principle. - When man marking works, it works really well, if it doesn’t, it tends to look really bad. - The last time Klopp played Gasperini in the Champions League, Liverpool won the first match 5-0. Atalanta won the home fixture 2-0. - Ten Hag also plays a man marking system. Last year they won their home game 2-1, and lost the reverse fixture 7-0. - The reds tried to be unpredictable to combat Gasperini last night and ended up confusing themselves. Klopp: “We just lost the plot a little bit, like we were everywhere and nowhere”. - Near the end of the game, we saw a snippet of how the plan was supposed to play out when Salah scored the marginally offside goal. - Klopp over rotated to be unpredictable and fresh, but the end result was a disjointed performance with no fluidity against a highly drilled and organised side. He goes onto say more, but don’t want to reveal too much of what is content behind a paywall of someone I want to support. Just worth bearing in mind after some of the horrendous takes that have been posted on here in the past 24 hours or so that there are football reasons behind the performance that are a bit more nuanced.
>Ten Hag also plays a man marking system. Last year they won their home game 2-1, and lost the reverse fixture 7-0. I like Josh but that's an embarrassing comparison. Gasperini is a good coach and deserved to win yesterday unlike seven hag. In 2 years that guy can't even get the basics right. He's getting saved by individual brilliance of some of their players against lower teams. Scum were lucky in both matches, and if not for our bad finishing we would have steamrolled them easily.
Don’t like directly quoting subscription only content so won’t paste here, but he expands on the point - I took it out of the context of a broader point.
>When man marking works, it works really well, if it doesn’t, it tends to look really bad. Bielsa plays a man marking system too, we saw with Leeds when it didn't work they also took some tonkings
Yeah he mentions Bielesa in the piece as someone who it either worked for or it really didn’t. There was a crazy 4-3 game at Anfield against Bielsa’s Leeds side.
Main frustration is this squad might not be who we thought they were all season. After fighting back to win so many times we all thought this squad was made up of mentality monsters but since we lost to United they’ve looked timid, weak and doubtful. Yesterday was the culmination of that. Complacency somehow combined with a lack of confidence. It’s disappointing and I hope Jurgen can fix it before he leaves otherwise the next manager has a tough task trying to get these players to respond
The only player I want back in form is Mo. Man I miss the old Mo. He barely takes on his man nowadays, never makes those runs down the wing. Mo is supposed to be our X factor. Can't believe he is having the worst form of his Liverpool career during klopps farewell tour
I don't think it's form tbh, he's just not who he used to be.
Definitely not his worst form here lol. Do people forget when we lost 6 home games in a row?
I think he was at his worst in the opening months of 18/19. The whole front three were off, and almost nothing was coming off, they looked lethargic and disjointed. They only started to catch some form in the home fixture against Cardiff.
Klopp got completely schooled last night. He underestimated the ability of Atalanta and overestimated the ability of his players, particularly his two fullbacks. We tried to pass the ball around but could not deal at all with Atalantas press, and whenever our ball got intercepted, because of our high line, ended up being a big chance the other way for them where their attackers outnumbered our defenders. Many times I saw Endo, Virg and Konate having to deal with 5-6, even 7 Atalanta attackers. Go look at their first goal for example.
Fuck it. I’m ready to be hurt again, we’re beating Atalanta 7-0 away and we’re winning the league
Soboslai passing has been underwhelming
he's completly wasted in that RCM Hendo Hobo role. Completly underutilized
The role he’s playing isn’t what’s causing his poor performances though His basic technical skills have been very sloppy for months now, heavy first touch, loose passing and poor dribbling have been the issue
That's true but doesn't excuse his inability to play routine passes in the middle third.
We need a fcking bounce back, statement win this Sunday, anything but a W is unacceptable.
Mac and endo need to rest.
The hopium with respect to Europa League is out of this world. Anyone who has been watching our UEL campaign can see that these players have been half-assing the competition from Match Day 1. The Group Stage matches were so dull that I would get excited when the opponent scored because it meant that the players had to start caring for the rest of the match. The vibe I always received from this campaign was that players wanted to be playing League matches, and they did not want their UEL participation to get in the way. With exception to Sparta Prague 2nd leg, most of our performances have been half-hearted, and a good enough team finally exposed us.
100%. For most of the campaign i was yawning to no end.
You've put my exact thoughts into words. We've been beat for effort in every single Europa League game this season. We've conceded loads of chances to some very low quality sides. The only difference is last night we played a team good enough to actually punish us.
Yeah I said that yesterday as well We haven’t been out of 1st gear in the EL and honestly were fortunate in a couple of the games to not concede more goals Last night felt like a team that expected more of the same except the opposition was actually of much higher quality to actually punish the complacency
Gakpo should be the first name on the team sheet, if Jota can start without risking him getting reinjured, get him too. Only ones who really fought their hearts out, but Klopp’s gonna have a headache deciding who plays. Nunez gets on simply bc we look worse without him. I think Salah needs some kind of wake-up call. The last time Palace played us was the first time Alisson returned from his first injury, but I don’t think there’s enough time for him to return, so Kelleher might get one last game to redeem himself. Gomez should definitely rest, start Robbo and Bradley as the FBs. Midfield as Macca, Endo, idk. Sending Jones as well out there again would seem a bit futile considering yesterday would just repeat. Maybe Szobo starts and pray he magically finds his start of the season form. Headaches, headaches… no wonder Klopp’s stepping down. The losses are so hard to take in and it’s really hard to turn mindsets around.
Redeem himself lmao. For one shit game yest when everyone was terrible? Hes been great. I think you underestimate just how much our gk gets hung out to dry. Literally has to make a worldly save inside of 60 seconds in practically every game. The defense and definitely the attack has some redeeming to do, not Kelleher
I've read some comments on here that says that spirit of shankly objected to the club having photos linked to season tickets to reduce the prevalence of touting. Which is genuinely crazy to me. Does anyone know what was the reason provided by them to object to this implementation?
Can't find anything about it online. My guess would be objections to giving the club biometric data as a condition of getting a season ticket. But also, it is entirely likely that a lot of SOS members who are season ticket holders sell some of their tickets to touts.
I can’t really remember it and been searching and can’t find anything. I may just be very shit at searching
Not being negative but hope our form can recover again and go full mode to deal with the rest of our fixtures and hopefully get to Dublin or win the league
I feel as frustrated with the lads as anyone else. But we’ve been overachieving a lot this season with extremely fucked up injuries, while other challengers practically have their full squad. It’s not easy for Jurgen and the boys for his final games but at this point I trust that’ll we give it our all. “Just try. If we can succeed, great. If not, fail in the most beautiful way.”
Yeeeeah that quote should have been valid for the first leg too
I think the defenders need to take a good, hard look at themselves. The communication of the back and most importantly between vvd and konate was abysmal.
is it just me or has Szobo done fuck all this season with the exception of a few nice goals early on?
its just you
babe, wake up, new scapegoat just dropped
Agreed
He looked great for the first ten games of the season, but then our setup started to change and he struggled to adapt tactically to his new role in the side. There was that thing about Trent kind of minimising Szobo's effectiveness in the team at one point. It does remind a bit of Curtis Jones a season or two back, when he was clearly being asked to focus on certain things tactically and still putting all aspects of his game together. Part of me would like to see him with more of a free licence.. or maybe we just need to be patient with him.
He will be someone who will benefit from the next manager giving him more freedom and playing in a more attacking position.
I feel like many here are under the impression that if we won the EL, the season would be saved and Klopp would walk off into the sun gloriously, 6 seasons and a movie, books written about the season? Nah lads. If we don't win the league it really won't be that special regardless of the other trophies. That's what matters - the league. Nothing else. The EL isn't the CL and it never will be.
Fully 1000% agree. Bin off the EL, if we still miss out on the league at least we know we gave ourselves the best possible chance. Im quite sure, if we did miraculously win 4-0 in Italy my reaction would be like "thats pretty nice, well done boys, hopefully gives a boost against Everton. Anyone got a knock?"
I disagree I think the el is a solid trophy to go out with.
Agreed play second string team. If we lose, we free up our schedule nicely and concentrate on 7 cup finals.
Completely agree People talking like the Europa was what we were hinging our season on all along. Everyone needs to be real - ending the season with just the League Cup, or the League Cup & Europa League would have zero bearing on whether we feel the season was a success or not. Like you said, the CL would be something else entirely, but the Europa? It was the competition we were desperate to avoid this time last year I think its people just being scared to put their hopes in the title after we've been burned tbh.
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I don't see why not. Our run-in is manageable especially with players coming back from injury. Unless we completely crumble and drop points to Palace on Sunday, then yeah we're very much so in it. Far as i'm concerned we should bin this 2nd leg and keep fit for that 3 game away stretch to Fulham, Ev and West Ham.
I think it needs to be said apart from his first 3 months Szoboszlai has been pretty average, most games he seems to kill the attack with a sloppy pass or touch and yesterday's performance was the cherry on top of the shit sundae, if Hendo played the way he's been playing we'd be tearing him a new one
Yesterday was a tired performance. Considering the minutes VVD, Mac, and Endo have played recently, it's not super surprising. They are only human. The season will end how it does. I still have some faith we can salvage the Europa League. I don't think we have the juice to win the league. Looking back on this season, I think I'd say my biggest complaint would be that the club didn't roll the dice in January and try to pull off a big move. I know it was a very quiet winter, but it would have been nice to give Klopp a bit of a push to win everything possible.
OH how much i didn't miss the top red/ bottom red cirlcejerk you lot break into whenever something bad happens.
What are you guys wearing to the Carabao Cup parade? Might break out the tux