Liverpool 2 Swansea 3 (Jan 21 2017)

[tlw content]

I started off the United report last week apologising to the players for doubting them. Ha! They should be apologising to us this week, the knobheads, because it turns out those fears I had about how the wheels were on the verge of falling off weren’t unfounded after all. It just happened a week later than some of us feared it would. 

 

Is it too late for me to retract that apology? I should probably say sorry to all of you about to read this instead, because I’ve not taken this well, to put it mildly. I may well be over-reacting and in a few weeks I might look like a right twat (hopefully I do, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time), but that’s ok, I’m not telling you I’m right and that the sky is definitely falling in, I’m just telling you how I feel right now, and right now I feel absolutely fucking despondent. I mean come on…. Swansea? Fuck off Liverpool, just fuck off. 

 

We should have seen it coming I suppose. It’s rarely the big games that prove our undoing, because the players are up for those games and stay focused. The lacklustre displays and lapses in concentration almost always happen against shite. I can’t even put into words just how angry and disappointed I am after this game, although obviously I'm going to give it a go! 

 

I gave it two days to let the dust settle in the hope I’d come at it with a clearer, more rational perspective having had time to reflect, but I may as well have just written this as soon as I got home from Anfield as nothing has changed, I’m still completely disgusted. I just feel like washing my hands of the whole lot of them right now, the hope shattering bastards. 

 

First things first, the title isn’t happening. It was a nice dream while it lasted but it’s over now. We might go on a mini run when Mané gets back and get back onto the fringes of it, but even then there’s no point getting our hopes up as it will only end in bitter disappointment, as it always fucking does. This was the weekend where the dream died. Or specifically, it was the weekend where the dream choked to death on its own vomit. 


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[Scottish Steve]

Nailed it.

[Whelan5]

Absolutely spot on, and you let them off lightly too. Your points about the atmosphere

were right on the money, give it a rest Jurgen will you. The crowd do their bit when needed, its the weak minded players you need to concern yourself with. As for that Matip substitution, it was a head in the hands embarrassment.

[Paulie Dangerously]

 

"This was the weekend where the dream died. Or specifically, it was the weekend where the dream choked to death on its own vomit. 

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Not gonna catch many new subscribers with that Dave

[El Rojo]

You need to cheer yourself up, Dave. Maybe some pictures of the players laughing and joking in training from the official site would be just the tonic.

[ZonkoVille77]

Heartbreaking read, Dave. Absolutely heartbreaking.

[Einch]

Yeah. Very deflated here as well.

[s(k)aturation]

I'm in your minority, Dave, I'm afraid.

Title or GTFO.

 

Lose to the bottom side at home, perhaps, but let them score 3 times?

 

Nah, fuck that.

[stringvest]

yep, good article Dave.  I wouldn't trust this lot as far as I could throw them.  

[Christ's Chin]

I’m more angry at them as a collective than anything though. It’s not about singling out individuals, it’s the collective that’s the problem and Klopp is included in that. After a defeat like this it’s only natural to try and figure out what went wrong, and there are plenty of talking points and possible explanations. Was it due to Mané not being there? Maybe the problem was that the midfield too static and lacking creativity? Maybe the defence just isn’t good enough? Maybe it would have been different if Matip had played?

 

All of these things have some merit but you can analyse this to death and it’s all pointless at the end of the day. It’s not down to any one of those things because even allowing for ALL of that, we still should have won as it’s fucking SWANSEA and they’ve been horrendous all season. It’s something more than all of that because this has been happening for decades. The managers change, the players change, but we still keep losing to shit teams. It’s become embedded in the DNA of modern Liverpool and it’s why we never win the league anymore.

 

Chelsea will win it because there’s no way in a fucking million years they would lose at home like this to the bottom team, or ship three goals in 15 minutes to blow a 3-1 lead and lose at Bournemouth. Champions don’t do shit like that. Losers do. Is it too harsh calling them losers? Well they’ve lost two cup finals and then shit themselves when they went top of the league, so the weight of evidence isn’t exactly in their favour. 

 

And oh yeah, Kevin Friend is a massive cunt and if he never referees us again it will be too soon. That’s all I got, now I’m off to grab some razor blades and run a bath. And if I've dragged you into my pit of despair, I can only apologise.

 

Top class stuff Dave. Thanks for saying so emphatically what some have been thinking since that shambolic debacle on Satday (maybe that's why Jurgen was sat down? Sat day? Geddit?! I'll get me coat..!).

[sir roger]

It's just a good job we have no shit players anymore.

[dave u]

It's just a good job we have no shit players anymore.

 

Why I oughta...

[mike23]

Yep feeling very down myself still even 2 days later. Some defeats you can shake off and just look forward to the next game to make up for it but not this time and I'm really struggling to care if we beat Southampton or not (certainly not optimistic on that front the way we're playing anyway).

 

Football does seem a bit empty and pointless right now. Yeah we can maybe still make top 4 but so what? Great we're back in the champions league but it's not like we'd have any chance of winning it now. Back in the days of Rafa it always seemed a realistic possibility but now it just seems a closed shop with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern in a different class to everyone else. It would generate more money to improve the squad? Hmm I remember thinking that last time we qualified but instead we sold our best player and bought a load of mediocre shite - not one single one of whom couldn't have been signed anyway without champions league football to offer. It does just seem like we're in an eternal loop of despair where occasional flashes of hope always seem to just be snuffed out in the most ridiculous ways possible.

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

Title was never happening, top four will be difficult from here because we cannot even beat shite at home, so much for all our home games.

The manager can only do so much. Chelsea, Man U and City will spend hugely again in the summer. What we need is an official Psychiatric partner for the fans. Our accountants are doing splendidly. The owners can have pride in that.

[El Rojo]

I'm in your minority, Dave, I'm afraid.

Title or GTFO.

 

 

Surely it's not a minority? And if it is, maybe it's a generational thing where fans with no memories of 1990 and before have understandably lower (and probably more realistic) expectations.

 

Not arsed about whether we finish second or ninth. The sad fact is, we've a better chance of a tilt at the title again next season if we were to finish ninth.

 

Leicester won it last year. We almost won it two years before with a lot of limitations on and off the field. Is it that impossible a dream, and is the constant pressure to right the wrong an unbearable burden for any manager and set of players that we might have?

[Anubis]

Are you Coulter

Are you Coulter

Are you Coulter in disguise?

Are you Coul-ter in disguise?

[deiseach]

I said it after the Stoke game, that I couldn't shake the feeling throughout that dropping the best part of fifty quid on this was utter lunacy. It was like buying cannabis (allegedly) from the skankiest man loitering around Mathew St at 3am.  It might be the good stuff, it might literally be shit. On Saturday, it was shit.

[stringvest]

Surely it's not a minority? And if it is, maybe it's a generational thing where fans with no memories of 1990 and before have understandably lower (and probably more realistic) expectations.

 

Not arsed about whether we finish second or ninth. The sad fact is, we've a better chance of a tilt at the title again next season if we were to finish ninth.

 

Leicester won it last year. We almost won it two years before with a lot of limitations on and off the field. Is it that impossible a dream, and is the constant pressure to right the wrong an unbearable burden for any manager and set of players that we might have?

 

 

Undoubtedly there will be pressure on manager and players.  No issue with the manager being able to handle pressure, but I think we've got too many wilting violets in the team.   

[Jenson]

Getting a bit sick of all this "The fans have to help us when we're struggling to beat defensive teams" shite as well.

 

Get.To.Fuck.

[TalkSilly]

God, I think I'm more upset after reading that than I was at the end of the game, and I can't think of anything positive to add either.

 

I think Klopp had a difficult balance to strike with the squad in the summer. He's an optimist by nature so he gambled and it's just not paid off. Out of Europe, this season's demands were always going to be ridiculously uneven. 17 games in the first 15 weeks. Only 4 midweek games in the League Cup where he could get away with playing a fringe side, then it goes mental in December and January, 15 games in 9 weeks, all of them important. From the start of Feb until the end of the season we only have one midweek game if we don't progress further in the cups. 7 relatively sedate months but the failure to cope with the 2 mad ones in the middle have cost us this season.

 

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

The defence is not good enough, as are our keepers. The midfield offers no protection.

We are short of quality and depth. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was...

[El Rojo]

Undoubtedly there will be pressure on manager and players.  No issue with the manager being able to handle pressure, but I think we've got too many wilting violets in the team.   

 

Difficult to argue with that. I think there's a level of pressure and unrealistic expectation that no other club will generally experience though.

 

After a weekend like this, I could see the job and everything that goes with it even wearing down a man as ebullient as Klopp. 

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

Jurgen knew what he was taking on, or should have. Maybe he is happy, maybe he is dismayed. 

[stringvest]

Difficult to argue with that. I think there's a level of pressure and unrealistic expectation that no other club will generally experience though.

 

After a weekend like this, I could see the job and everything that goes with it even wearing down a man as ebullient as Klopp. 

 

 

I don't get this though.  Pressure and expectation are greater at clubs that have won stuff over the last couple of decades.  Arsenal, ManU, ManC and Chelsea - expectation there is far greater - we're not a unique case, in any way.  

[El Rojo]

I don't get this though.  Pressure and expectation are greater at clubs that have won stuff over the last couple of decades.  Arsenal, ManU, ManC and Chelsea - expectation there is far greater - we're not a unique case, in any way.  

 

I disagree. I think there's a pressure for players and managers here to do better than their equivalents at clubs with similar levels of success in recent times. Put in on the huge fanbase and brilliant history or whatever else, but it's definitely there.

 

Just to clarify, I'm speaking in a more general sense - Saturday's shambles was unacceptable by any standard.