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Everton 2 Liverpool 0 (Apr 25 2024)

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That’s that then. Season over, Klopp’s going out with a whimper and a campaign that promised so much is ending in massive disappointment and anger. Ok, we’ve got a trophy under our belts but is that League Cup really offering any consolation right now? Absolutely nothing is consoling me, I’m just fucking devastated about all this. It’s not the missing out (I think most of were expecting to come up just short), it’s the way we’re missing out. 

 

I need to strike the right balance here between how I’m feeling and what I know to be completely knee jerk over the top statements. How I feel right now is not what I’ll be feeling when I’ve calmed down. At least I don’t think it will. Maybe I’ll still be feeling this way, who knows. I do know that I said a few weeks back that if these players didn’t go and win at Old Trafford I’d struggle to look at them in the same way. I also said if they allow Klopp to go out with a whimper I’d struggle to forgive them and it would take some getting over. So this isn’t a reaction to losing a derby, it’s something that’s been in my head for several weeks.

 

And that’s exactly how I’m feeling right now, so maybe it won’t pass, I don’t know. All I know is that I don’t want to even look at this team right now. The sense of disappointment in them is something I’m not sure I’ve experienced this strongly before. They were on the brink of doing something really special and they’ve thrown it away. Ok, on the brink is overstating it, but they had put themselves in a position where it was attainable, and instead of rising to the challenge they’ve completely buckled under the pressure and what we’re seeing now is a collective mess. 

 

They ALL have blood on their hands and it’s pointless looking for scapegoats because they’re all to blame to varying degrees. Except the kids. They’ve done us proud. Everyone else? They’ve shit the bed. Everyone will have their own scapegoats and say “if he’d have done blah blah blah then this wouldn’t have happened” but honestly, when it comes to the outfield players it’s literally all of them. They’ve all contributed to this recent shitshow to varying degrees and we saw that in this game.

 

Diaz was our best player but he missed a great chance in the first half which if he’d scored would have changed things completely. He’s been the one forward who has consistently been at it over recent weeks and he’s put most of his team-mates to shame. Yet for all of his endeavour he hasn’t delivered the quality we’ve needed either. Look at the City game for example. He was great, but the one v one he missed was decisive. Still, in terms of the forwards he’s the one I’m the least disappointed with by some distance. I’m just highlighting him to make the point that even he, the best player we’ve had over this period, isn’t blameless. He just has less blame than the rest, but collectively this has been a huge meltdown.

 

This is the lowest point of the Klopp era by far. We’ve lost finals, missed out on titles on the last day, had some stinking times last season and during COVID but we knew we’d come through all of that and be stronger for it. And we were. Now? Fuck knows. Jurgen is leaving, which in itself is bad enough, but the ‘great squad’ he was leaving behind for his successor suddenly looks nothing of the sort. Now there are question marks about virtually everybody.


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Lot of sad truths in that. 

 

The bond between fans and players was broken when we threw away the FA cup match against the Mancs. If, as a Liverpool player, you can't put up a fight against the mancs and Everton then you've broken that bond IMO.

 

 

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Huge reaction to an incredibly disappointing performance but did anyone really believe these guys were capable of this after recent weeks, I was putting up the white flag after Sheff Utd. This is a new young team. Different style of play, injuries, officials, Klopp leaving pressure... we are all forgetting that this team always found a way to win.. until they couldn't, they had us believing in the fairytale ending ...until the pressure got to them. Let's not kid ourselves only a few of these lads "have been there before, The red arrows" yes they have and despite their efforts we still came up short, yes they were a better team but had been together longer, but both versions of Klopp team were chasing the 115ers. 

So yes they buckled but we have had a real ride and believed up until then.

On the pod admiring Arsenal this season , 16 clean sheets, they shit the bed v Villa and likely will lose out again to the cheats 

Last season they buckled under that pressure they had no other distractions as I recall and couldn't hold on. They have learned,  dug in, responded well to setbacks and possibly will still be short. Last season and parts of this AFC fans wanted Arteta out, "we can't score, we need a striker...". Seen their goal difference?

Appreciate loads of other Different circumstances and issues, but this team had us dreaming of a quadruple AGAIN. 

We also don't play the same way, under the red arrows it was the draws that killed us despite how fckin brilliant they were. Thiago was brought in for more control, not a six really as his game was half way line control, us camped in the opposition half, ala Barce/Bayern. Now we have the inverted full back, all in a bid to NOT be City but be a hybrid Klopp and City. 

We need a sense check on these lads. Questions for the new coach are What in reality?.

Mo stick or twist?

Diaz good enough quality?

Virgil can he continue his form overall?

Darwin can you coach composure?

So are we saying that these lads are shit and don't try? No they have hit a wall, look out of ideas  listless every one of them. So whilst it is them " Daddy" leaving is affecting all of them.

If we think back to last season we're were dogshit for 1st half of that season. My theory is that Klopp was off at the end, the players sulked he changes his mind and the second half was better....

This feels like a repeat they had no idea until it came out, we rode the emotion until we couldn't. Klopp did not deserve that but the players look like him, tired, accepting of fate.

Take a breath.

We have Ali, Trent,Robbo, Konate, Quansah, Bajetic, VVD, Macca, Szbos, Bradley, Kweev, JoeyG, Endo, Danns McConnell Clarke, Doak, Jota. Some still WIPS Darwin, GravenB, Diaz.Cody

Maybe Mo... 

Despite recent weeks Klopp believes in his squad, so why don't we?

Klopp 1.0 made us dream, believers, fell short, then delivered, then fell short....

You can't teach adversity you can only experience it. Up to them now along with Arne to use this recent run to make you stronger.  If they can't then they go, but they deserve our trust, faith and understanding now.

They need us to say its OK, let's go again but next time get it done. They need the belief that we believe in them

Farewell to our greatest manager in a generation. We will always love you. 

Welcome Arne, the floor is yours.

 

 

 

 

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With regards to the Van Dijk "they" comments, i was absolutely fuming until i actually read it, and now i know what he means. 

 

What he said was "I think everyone has to look in the mirror, look at their own performance and ask 'did they really give everything? Do they really want to win the league?" - he is talking about everyone.    

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20 hours ago, tlw content said:

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...The worst player on the pitch though was Konate. What the fuck has happened to him lately? He’s been throwing in “Lovren at Spurs” performances after looking like a world beater for most of the season. How the fuck is he feeling the pressure? He’s played in Champions League and World Cup Finals. He shouldn’t be the quivering wreck he’s been for this past fortnight. Like I say though, nobody has been immune from it.

 

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Konate has, at least after Bradley was injured, been given the impossible task of playing two posistions at the same time, CB and RB. Should be considered when judging him.

 

 

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I think some of the last minute wins, in retrospect, papered over some severe cracks. If you’re needing 98min winners against relegation fodder there’s something wrong, regardless of how amazing it is in the moment. If anything the last few weeks should bury ‘the cult of Darwin’ - like everyone else I 100% wanted him to be a huge success, but where once we bought El Pistolero on this occasion we ended up with El Pisholero. It would be 100% wrong to blame him solely as we win as a team and lose as a team, but few could argue that strikers missing sitters/half chances time-after-fucking-time just absolutely kills the team. If it’s Slot, so be it. We need to get behind him, give him a decent chance and see how we get on. I suspect we’re going to need major surgery up-front as I can see at least two for the front five leaving, so let’s hope Edwards / Slot have their shit together from day 1. 

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1 hour ago, Marcas said:

I think some of the last minute wins, in retrospect, papered over some severe cracks. If you’re needing 98min winners against relegation fodder there’s something wrong, regardless of how amazing it is in the moment. If anything the last few weeks should bury ‘the cult of Darwin’ - like everyone else I 100% wanted him to be a huge success, but where once we bought El Pistolero on this occasion we ended up with El Pisholero. It would be 100% wrong to blame him solely as we win as a team and lose as a team, but few could argue that strikers missing sitters/half chances time-after-fucking-time just absolutely kills the team. If it’s Slot, so be it. We need to get behind him, give him a decent chance and see how we get on. I suspect we’re going to need major surgery up-front as I can see at least two for the front five leaving, so let’s hope Edwards / Slot have their shit together from day 1. 

I've been happy to cut him plenty of slack this season (I'm sure he's grateful for that) as I think he's been really unlucky. He's hit the woodwork more than twice as often as the next person in that chart and at least three goalies have pulled off point blank worldies, which so easily could have richoted into the net as come back out. However it'll be a long time before I forgive him for hitting Pickford's legs when that dickhead left three quarters of the goal invitingly open for him.

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48 minutes ago, DaveT said:

I've been happy to cut him plenty of slack this season (I'm sure he's grateful for that) as I think he's been really unlucky. He's hit the woodwork more than twice as often as the next person in that chart and at least three goalies have pulled off point blank worldies, which so easily could have richoted into the net as come back out. However it'll be a long time before I forgive him for hitting Pickford's legs when that dickhead left three quarters of the goal invitingly open for him.

Yeah look I know he’s been unlucky - at times. But bad luck doesn’t excuse the sheer amount of misses. Read somewhere that he’s had 40 ‘big chances’ this season and scored 7 of them. If that’s true then it’s an utterly shameful record. Can you imagine what that other Uruguayan bloke we had would have done with that amount of opportunities? But I’ll freely admit though that none of the front 5 (apart from pre-Christmas Salah) have pulled-up any trees - in one respect I’m sort of glad it’s happened now because if we’d still been in contention in the last 5mins against Wolves and we missed a 1-on-1 to win the league I’d have taken a baseball bat to someone

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1 hour ago, DaveT said:

I've been happy to cut him plenty of slack this season (I'm sure he's grateful for that) as I think he's been really unlucky. He's hit the woodwork more than twice as often as the next person in that chart and at least three goalies have pulled off point blank worldies, which so easily could have richoted into the net as come back out. However it'll be a long time before I forgive him for hitting Pickford's legs when that dickhead left three quarters of the goal invitingly open for him.

 

This is exactly where I'm at. I can explain / defend most of the misses, but that one is really staying with me as it's genuinely inexcusable, bordering on unforgivable even. I just can't process how you go from having the composure to look up to see where the keeper is, seeing a massive space to put the ball, and then somehow just deciding 'nah fuck that' and twatting it as hard as possible straight at him. It would have been bad enough if he hadn't had a look, but the fact he did and then still just blammed it makes it by far the worst miss I've seen from him, and that includes Luton and when he dribbled round the keeper and hit the post from a few yards. This was way, way worse because it wasn't just one of those things, it was just negligent.

 

I wonder just what the fuck they've been doing with him in training, and whether anyone has ever even bothered sitting down and discussing his finishing with him. I'd like to think they have, but there's absolutely no evidence of it and Klopp has never alluded to it. He has always just tried to play it down, which publicly is right but privately you'd assume there'd have been some sort of dialogue/help to sort it out. Maybe they didn't want to get him thinking too much and were hoping it would just fix itself? I've no idea, but as I said on the pod that was a coward's finish.

 

The thing that really annoys me is that finishing isn't that hard. Getting into the positions to get chances is a million times more difficult than the actual act of putting those chances away. Look at Jota's goal at Palace. Not a great strike, bit scuffed even, but he saw where the space was and he put the ball there. It's really not difficult.

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3 hours ago, JustTosh said:

Konate has, at least after Bradley was injured, been given the impossible task of playing two posistions at the same time, CB and RB. Should be considered when judging him.

 

 

 

Nah, he's done that before and been amazing. His problems recently haven't been with wingers running at him, it's been shit strikers like Scamacca and DCL making him look like a donkey. His passing has also gone to shit recently too. We can probably trace it back to when he got injured and then went away with France. I can't remember him playing well since then. Might be wrong, he may have had one or two good games, I can't remember.

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I think we were in a slightly false position and I'll be honest, I never for a second thought we would end up winning the league.

 

I know Xg is not a perfect pointer, but I put a graph on one of the threads after the United league game which was quite interesting. Despite the hand-wringing about our finishing efficiency we were only a goal or so below the expected amount scored. The outlier was goals against where we had conceded 10 goals less than expected, and overall we should have been way back from Arsenal and Man City. A discrepancy like this was probably down to excellent goalkeeping, last-ditch defending and poor finishing and was likely unsustainable over a full season.

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4 hours ago, dave u said:

 

Nah, he's done that before and been amazing. His problems recently haven't been with wingers running at him, it's been shit strikers like Scamacca and DCL making him look like a donkey. His passing has also gone to shit recently too. We can probably trace it back to when he got injured and then went away with France. I can't remember him playing well since then. Might be wrong, he may have had one or two good games, I can't remember.

You may be right, he's not covered himslef in glory, that's for sure.

 

I'll eventuallty come to my senses, but right now I'm still so fuming with anger at Trent that anyone who has to cover for him gets an excuse from me. I'll sober up sometime, at least I hope so.

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