PODCAST: 2023/24 Season Preview and Predictions

A neutral listening to that would wonder why the manager avoids criticism. I'm 50 minutes in and its mostly been criticism of transfer policy, of our recruitment, our tactics and the people we employ. The later 2 are 100% on Klopp and he plays a huge role in the other 2 aswell. 

My take away from the pod so far is this, if you guys are right then Jurgen's time is coming to an end. He's the one playing a system that leaves us hopelessly exposed. He seemingly can't fix our biggest flaw, one so easily identifiable even Ryan Gigg could see it.

I'll finish the rest in later.

I don't think he is avoiding criticism. We spoke about how he's got more power since Edwards left and that so far it hasn't worked out well. Appointing his mate this summer has so far been pretty disastrous but we'll see if he can prove his worth in the next 3 weeks.

The other thing is that it's hard to be apportioning blame for something when the window isn't over yet and the thing we'd be kicking off about may not be valid. We can only speak about what's happened so far, with the caveat that maybe they get their act together.

And while all of us have concerns about the tactics (as do most on here), it's pre-season and we're bedding in new players so that context needs to come into it. Writing it off completely now is stupid, let's see how it plays out. There are definite concerns about us defensively though and it is mad that we haven't been able to sort out how to defend against a ball over the top.

I found the second half much more uplifting. Like you lads I'd forgotten just how many teams are in a relegation battle. The team we have assembled looks good to destroy all those shit teams. None of them are coming out on the right side of a 4-3 and I think we have addressed the blanks he had at Forest, Bournemouth, Everton and Wolves. We look better equipped than Utd, Newcastle and Chelsea to beat the bottom 10.

Good listen. We’ll finish top tour at a canter providing we don’t get completely fucked by injuries.  
 

I agree about Doak - he looks a special talent. Hopefully he’ll get all the early cup games and a fair share of minutes off the bench in the league. 

I was surprised at general negativity being a consensus to be honest. I’m pretty shocked at how many of you think we won’t finish top four, we were just four points off fourth last season and we were awful in the most part. I see no reason we can’t expect a 10 point bump on last season’s 67 points which should comfortably reach top four.

I’m not sure any of our fans expect us to win the league or even realistically compete for it, but we haven’t suddenly become bums, and we are managed by a guy who has more than earned our trust. 
 

I know it feels like there’s a cloud around the club at the moment due to a feeling of not doing enough from a transfer point of view. However we’ve signed one player who has been excellent in the PL the last two years and will be a much needed upgrade, and a second player who I don’t know much about but expect will be a significant upgrade on the player he has replaced. I think we will finally stop pissing about and complete the deal for Lavia, and am hopeful we can sort another centre back out as that is definitely an area we need to strengthen given form and past injuries of our current options.

I think some of you are overrating our rivals.
 

City are still strong but they have lost a significant player in Gundogan, still think they’ll win the league comfortably though.

Arsenal have signed a cracking player in Rice, but I don’t rate Havertz and I don’t think Timber will make that much of a difference. They won’t be a surprise package this year and a few managers will hopefully have them worked out. I expect them to comfortably get top four though.

The Mancs for me still are nothing special. Just as capable of being shite as they are of stringing a few wins together. Glad they’ve signed a young striker with it all to prove instead of a certainty like Kane. They will have expectations this season, and they haven’t coped well with that post-Ferguson. Might squeeze top four but I wouldn’t rule out them missing out.

Chelsea are still a mess in my opinion. Midfield currently looks weak, and think they might struggle to score enough. Goalkeepers have to be a concern too. Pochettino is at least competent so I do expect improvement on last year, but I’d be surprised if they can finish top four.

Newcastle will find having to play twice a week much harder. I’d be surprised if they can stay as solid at the back as they were last season. Last year they didn’t lose many but they drew loads, I’d expect a few more losses this season. They will probably be strong at home, but I don’t think they’ll have enough for top four again.

Spurs/Villa/Brighton - all will be difficult to play against, none are troubling top four.

I really hope we sign another couple of players because this current despondency needs lifting. Just the fact we had Klopp in charge was enough to give fans belief the last six years, well he’s still here and I for one expect him to get us looking like a proper team again.

One other thing before I forget, not a chance Mo will give up penalties. He needs to be told though that if he misses again Mac Allister is next in line.
 

Also looking forward to having a threat from free-kicks around the box from someone other than Trent. Expect both Alexis and Slobo to both chip in with a few goals from set pieces.

Oh yeah did Dave ring Paul at 3 in the morning to get his predictions?

"Ibiza Jorge on the pussy sticks"

Just call it a day lads, you just completed football podcasts.

I want some of what Brownie's smoking over there if he thinks we can possibly finish 2nd. 

Nobody’s most important player was Allison.  
 

You’re all too positive for my liking. 

2 hours ago, TheBitch said:

Nobody’s most important player was Allison.  
 

You’re all too positive for my liking. 

Fair. I just think the level of consistency we can expect from him makes that a bit moot. 

13 hours ago, No2 said:

A neutral listening to that would wonder why the manager avoids criticism.

I think it may be because he’s proved, time and time again, that he knows more about football tactics and recruitment than the average TLW poster.

2 hours ago, Chris said:

Fair. I just think the level of consistency we can expect from him makes that a bit moot. 

I reckon he’s gonna important in keeping the score down when we inevitably get done by the ball over the top of our right back by complete no-mark teams because we haven’t found a way of defending it. 
He’ll be the difference of 15+ points over the course of the season and he gets TheBitch vote of most important player. 
 

Cracking pod again lads. 
 

I’m in the same camp as John G and Terry, esteemed company, who have us down as 4th at best, probably 5th. 

Paul sounded like hes about to top himself 

4 hours ago, TheBitch said:

I reckon he’s gonna important in keeping the score down when we inevitably get done by the ball over the top of our right back by complete no-mark teams because we haven’t found a way of defending it. 
He’ll be the difference of 15+ points over the course of the season and he gets TheBitch vote of most important player. 

So just like last year then.

I take back my Trent selection, you've won me over. 

Just being 'better than last year' is setting the lowest of bars. We couldn't possibly be worse. So yeah, we can easily improve by 10 points by doing very little. As I said on the pod, there are easy gains to be made just by not being shit against the likes of Bournemouth and Forest.

Not really the point though. We're a couple of midfield injuries away from being scrapping for fourth again because - so far- the summer has been a clownshow of epic proportions. And let's not forget that last summer was too. Some of you went nuts about last summer and us not signing a midfielder. I didn't, I stayed calm about it because I bought into the plan of "waiting for Jude". More fool me. 

That was a massive mistake, but hey ho, it's sound because we'll use the money to sign four or five and we;ll get them in early because Jurgen knows he needs to rebuild the squad and he wants everyone in for the pre-season training camp.

Yeah how's that worked out for us?

There's an old saying in Tennessee. Fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.

All of the predictions that have us finishing as high as second are predicated on us keeping most of the first eleven fit for the 38 league games. If that happens, sure we could maybe do what Arsenal did until it eventually caught up with them from March onwards, but it's unlikely isn't it? Especially given our recent history of being unable to keep players fit.

2 hours ago, Daisy said:

Paul sounded like hes about to top himself 

If he was, he's in full denial now. While the pod groupchat is kicking off about this Lavia / Chelsea business, Paul and Stu are posting articles about the inswinging / outswinging ratio of our corners.

I'm not even joking. 

4 hours ago, Jurgen Knows said:

I think it may be because he’s proved, time and time again, that he knows more about football tactics and recruitment than the average TLW poster.

In terms of recruitment, he's making a decent fist of proving you completely wrong this summer!

12 hours ago, Vincent Vega said:

Oh yeah did Dave ring Paul at 3 in the morning to get his predictions?

Jules was even worse, I had to get him to do a second take and then I edited out the long pauses and set the speed to x1.5 to make him sound normal!

12 hours ago, Vincent Vega said:

One other thing before I forget, not a chance Mo will give up penalties. He needs to be told though that if he misses again Mac Allister is next in line.
 

Also looking forward to having a threat from free-kicks around the box from someone other than Trent. Expect both Alexis and Slobo to both chip in with a few goals from set pieces.

Slobo?

Dan, is that you?

8 minutes ago, dave u said:

 

Slobo?

 

Dan, is that you?

10 hours ago, TheBitch said:

I want some of what Brownie's smoking over there if he thinks we can possibly finish 2nd. 

Too negative last year, too positive this year, I’m still searching for my equilibrium.

43 minutes ago, dave u said:

 

In terms of recruitment, he's making a decent fist of proving you completely wrong this summer!

So Klopp no longer knows more about football recruitment than the average TLW poster?

1 minute ago, Jurgen Knows said:

So Klopp no longer knows more about football recruitment than the average TLW poster?

Mate you need to stop taking things so literally.

58 minutes ago, dave u said:

Just being 'better than last year' is setting the lowest of bars. We couldn't possibly be worse. So yeah, we can easily improve by 10 points by doing very little. As I said on the pod, there are easy gains to be made just by not being shit against the likes of Bournemouth and Forest.

 

Not really the point though. We're a couple of midfield injuries away from being scrapping for fourth again because - so far- the summer has been a clownshow of epic proportions. And let's not forget that last summer was too. Some of you went nuts about last summer and us not signing a midfielder. I didn't, I stayed calm about it because I bought into the plan of "waiting for Jude". More fool me. 

 

That was a massive mistake, but hey ho, it's sound because we'll use the money to sign four or five and we;ll get them in early because Jurgen knows he needs to rebuild the squad and he wants everyone in for the pre-season training camp.

 

Yeah how's that worked out for us?

 

There's an old saying in Tennessee. Fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.

 

All of the predictions that have us finishing as high as second are predicated on us keeping most of the first eleven fit for the 38 league games. If that happens, sure we could maybe do what Arsenal did until it eventually caught up with them from March onwards, but it's unlikely isn't it? Especially given our recent history of being unable to keep players fit.

Yeah, my point about saying 2nd is a possibility is the best case scenario/perfect storm situation. Players staying fit, rivals being as inconsistent as us, getting in a couple of more players before the end of the window etc.

Our starting 11 on paper is good enough to finish the best of the rest, all of the variables around that then come into play.