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Is it safe to come out yet? - by John Brennan


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Is it safe to come out? Not in the Elton John way, mind. I needed a break from the madness of the transfer window. I’m just delighted that we can get back to the footy now. None of those close season highs in anticipation of a big signing and lows when we didn’t land our man. No, Klopp’s Reds are the very model of sanity, in no way intent on playing with our emotions and blood pressure. Snarky enough?

Anyway, the transfer window? Or “That’s the transfer window!” as Klopp will probably shout to the Main Stand if AOC – or whatever we’re calling him (and frankly, who cares?) – scores. Forgive me for using the conjunction “if”, rather than “when”, but NINE goals in 129 League games over SIX seasons will tend to make you sceptical. Another injury-prone player? For £35m? To add to competition for places with Hendo, Milner (our “new midfielder”, remember), Can, Wijnaldum, Lallana, Mané, Salah and Coutinho. Just what we needed!

 

Apologies for the cynicism. No, really. When Can is moved back to centre-half and when our “new midfielder” goes back to left-back due to the inadequacies of our defence, Chamberlain may well come in handy. I can’t wait to hear Klopp justifying this signing! There are those who’ll say it wasn’t a last-minute thing as he’s been linked with us all summer. But who hasn’t been linked with us since FSG got here? Nobody, that’s who.

 

It smacks of an “appeasement” signing to keep us in line. You got Salah. You got Chamberlain. We KEPT Coutinho, fending off the might of Barça. Hell, we even got you Robertson from Hull. Now, do please shut up!

 

I wrote the above on the first weekend of the international break, got side-tracked (think Moreno) and have just found the time now to come back to things. I could talk about us whacking Arsenal, but where’s the fun in that? We were good; they made us look great. Which goes to show that even Arsenal are capable of pulling the wool over Reds’ eyes. Klopp managed to keep his mouth shut for most of the ten days, which in itself is a miracle. Thing is, with him, you know that his next outpouring of verbiage is never far away.

 

Citeh? I’ve said in previous pieces that this team would sometimes need to score four to win. I thought that was reasonable enough! But never five. As for six… There were mitigating circumstances, of course. It’s hard enough playing City with 11 on the park. Try doing it with six. Oh sorry, you thought I was going to count our back four?! There’s no shame in losing to City; the shame is the way we packed it in. so the players obviously have to take responsibility. As does the “Boss”.

 

When anyone dares criticize him, of course, Kloppites trot out the same old “arguments”: “Would you prefer to go back to the 6-1 hammerings at Stoke?” (well, at least we scored that day); “I’d prefer this to those drab days under GH and Rafa.” (yeah, winning all those troffies and trophies, pffff, much over-rated). The reason we are in this mess and that we won’t win anything this season is the fault of the Board and Klopp.

 

In seventy-two League games, his teams have conceded 90 goals. NINETY!!! Seventy-two games is surely enough to realize there’s a problem and more importantly to try to fix it! Up front, this guy has a Plan A, B, C, D and E. There is literally a dozen combinations he has at his disposal and he deserves credit for that.

 

But at the back his Plan A is, at the very best, Clyne, Matip, Lovren and Milner. One of those is injured, the other is average at best, the other is a liability – literally, he’ll cost us 10 goals this season – and the other is our “new midfielder”. If Lovren or Matip get injured, Klavan can slot in! This is negligence on Klopp’s and the Club’s part. But woe betide you if you dare criticize him.

 

That’s the thing with the Cheerleader-in-Chief. Nothing sticks. Get beaten 5-0 at City? He has a built-in excuse with Mané’s sending-off. It would be cynical to suggest that was why he made such a big deal out of it, of course. Concede three at Watford? It wasn’t “that bad” and “too much was made of our defending”. Score on the counter-attack? Shout “That’s football!” at the crowd in a self-congratulatory manner. He’s above us all, isn’t he? The defence is just the on-field manifestation of this guy’s arrogance.

 

We can score at will and we’ll probably score over 100 goals this season. It’s the 14th of September and we’ve already got 16! Thing is, we’ve conceded 13. In seven games, we’ve conceded two or more in four of them (1 W, 2 D and 1 L). Even with our front men, we can’t continue taking on water. How can we expect them to score THREE or FOUR week-in, week-out and still not be guaranteed the win?

 

Lack of signings and an obvious inability to find answers to our numerous defensive problems are compromising any chance of success this season. We’ve got to get to January with these defenders: 23 more games in all, 17 in the League. By which stage we will have conceded another 30-35 goals. And put paid to another season.

 

But we have Oxlade-Chamberlain!

 

John Brennan

@JohnAPBrennan



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Here we go again! Let's get rid of the first world class manager since Rafa because we conceed too many goals,despite being back in the CL and being genuinely respected when playing anybody,including all the big teams. Is Klopp untouchable? No,of course not but he has taken us up several notches since being here and deserves to see out his contract based on that. As for those of us who support his tenure not allowing criticism,that is bollocks,we are all well aware of our defensive failings and often voice criticism about this. The problem is that after the latest shambolic transfer window fans are not at all sure who is to blame. All I can say is that FSG have had far more transfer windows than Klopp yet the dealings remain mostly uninspiring and modest at best. If ever there was a transfer window where cash was significantly splashed this was it,yet it once again wasn't.

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Here we go again! Let's get rid of the first world class manager since Rafa because we conceed too many goals,despite being back in the CL and being genuinely respected when playing anybody,including all the big teams. Is Klopp untouchable? No,of course not but he has taken us up several notches since being here and deserves to see out his contract based on that. As for those of us who support his tenure not allowing criticism,that is bollocks,we are all well aware of our defensive failings and often voice criticism about this. The problem is that after the latest shambolic transfer window fans are not at all sure who is to blame. All I can say is that FSG have had far more transfer windows than Klopp yet the dealings remain mostly uninspiring and modest at best. If ever there was a transfer window where cash was significantly splashed this was it,yet it once again wasn't.

 

Out of rep, spot on.

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Is it safe to come out? Not in the Elton John way, mind. I needed a break from the madness of the transfer window. I’m just delighted that we can get back to the footy now. None of those close season highs in anticipation of a big signing and lows when we didn’t land our man. No, Klopp’s Reds are the very model of sanity, in no way intent on playing with our emotions and blood pressure. Snarky enough?

Anyway, the transfer window? Or “That’s the transfer window!” as Klopp will probably shout to the Main Stand if AOC – or whatever we’re calling him (and frankly, who cares?) – scores. Forgive me for using the conjunction “if”, rather than “when”, but NINE goals in 129 League games over SIX seasons will tend to make you sceptical. Another injury-prone player? For £35m? To add to competition for places with Hendo, Milner (our “new midfielder”, remember), Can, Wijnaldum, Lallana, Mané, Salah and Coutinho. Just what we needed!

 

Apologies for the cynicism. No, really. When Can is moved back to centre-half and when our “new midfielder” goes back to left-back due to the inadequacies of our defence, Chamberlain may well come in handy. I can’t wait to hear Klopp justifying this signing! There are those who’ll say it wasn’t a last-minute thing as he’s been linked with us all summer. But who hasn’t been linked with us since FSG got here? Nobody, that’s who.

 

It smacks of an “appeasement” signing to keep us in line. You got Salah. You got Chamberlain. We KEPT Coutinho, fending off the might of Barça. Hell, we even got you Robertson from Hull. Now, do please shut up!

 

I wrote the above on the first weekend of the international break, got side-tracked (think Moreno) and have just found the time now to come back to things. I could talk about us whacking Arsenal, but where’s the fun in that? We were good; they made us look great. Which goes to show that even Arsenal are capable of pulling the wool over Reds’ eyes. Klopp managed to keep his mouth shut for most of the ten days, which in itself is a miracle. Thing is, with him, you know that his next outpouring of verbiage is never far away.

 

Citeh? I’ve said in previous pieces that this team would sometimes need to score four to win. I thought that was reasonable enough! But never five. As for six… There were mitigating circumstances, of course. It’s hard enough playing City with 11 on the park. Try doing it with six. Oh sorry, you thought I was going to count our back four?! There’s no shame in losing to City; the shame is the way we packed it in. so the players obviously have to take responsibility. As does the “Boss”.

 

When anyone dares criticize him, of course, Kloppites trot out the same old “arguments”: “Would you prefer to go back to the 6-1 hammerings at Stoke?” (well, at least we scored that day); “I’d prefer this to those drab days under GH and Rafa.” (yeah, winning all those troffies and trophies, pffff, much over-rated). The reason we are in this mess and that we won’t win anything this season is the fault of the Board and Klopp.

 

In seventy-two League games, his teams have conceded 90 goals. NINETY!!! Seventy-two games is surely enough to realize there’s a problem and more importantly to try to fix it! Up front, this guy has a Plan A, B, C, D and E. There is literally a dozen combinations he has at his disposal and he deserves credit for that.

 

But at the back his Plan A is, at the very best, Clyne, Matip, Lovren and Milner. One of those is injured, the other is average at best, the other is a liability – literally, he’ll cost us 10 goals this season – and the other is our “new midfielder”. If Lovren or Matip get injured, Klavan can slot in! This is negligence on Klopp’s and the Club’s part. But woe betide you if you dare criticize him.

 

That’s the thing with the Cheerleader-in-Chief. Nothing sticks. Get beaten 5-0 at City? He has a built-in excuse with Mané’s sending-off. It would be cynical to suggest that was why he made such a big deal out of it, of course. Concede three at Watford? It wasn’t “that bad” and “too much was made of our defending”. Score on the counter-attack? Shout “That’s football!” at the crowd in a self-congratulatory manner. He’s above us all, isn’t he? The defence is just the on-field manifestation of this guy’s arrogance.

 

We can score at will and we’ll probably score over 100 goals this season. It’s the 14th of September and we’ve already got 16! Thing is, we’ve conceded 13. In seven games, we’ve conceded two or more in four of them (1 W, 2 D and 1 L). Even with our front men, we can’t continue taking on water. How can we expect them to score THREE or FOUR week-in, week-out and still not be guaranteed the win?

 

Lack of signings and an obvious inability to find answers to our numerous defensive problems are compromising any chance of success this season. We’ve got to get to January with these defenders: 23 more games in all, 17 in the League. By which stage we will have conceded another 30-35 goals. And put paid to another season.

 

But we have Oxlade-Chamberlain!

 

John Brennan

@JohnAPBrennan

 

Click here to view the article

 

 

Load of shite.

 

I reckon Brennan was pissed when he wrote that.

 

Etc

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Oxlade Chamberlain was signed to appease the fans? You fuckin mad?

 

Also, the inverted commas when you call Klopp the "boss" - nice touch.

 

I can't disagree with everything you've written (unfortunately) because criticisms of the defence are valid, and it's a problem that really should've been addressed in the transfer window. However, it's quite clear that Klopp has a long term plan, one that doesn't involve fan appeasement, and I would like to see him carry it through til the end. We've still only lost one game in fuck knows how long, so your desire to see the manager replaced is reactionary, at best. IMO.

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Everyone is entitled to their view but I'm afraid I found the tone of the whole piece to be snide and divisive. One or two reasonable points were almost made, but when you have to traverse layers of snide to get to said point, it is self defeating.

 

If it's a wind up, well played.

If it's not a wind up, hopefully it only represents a tiny fraction of our fan base.

 

Of course the defence is iffy. Blah blah blah. But let's have some context to the moaning. We just qualified for the CL for only the second time in 8 years. We had a tricky game against Sevilla and on another night we'd have won it comfortably on the balance of play and chances. I'm backing us to progress through the group. We'll see.

 

As for the league, we've had an average start after four games, but again, some perspective please. Not many will come away from Man City with anything to show for the trip, never mind when you are a man down. We are one win back from matching the 10 point tally of the two teams at the top, with loads of football to be played.

 

As for the manager, I'm not aware of anyone who is blind to his faults. Everyone knows the team is set up with a bias to attack, and the defence is iffy. There are minor things beyond that, but that's the main flaw. If those on the negative side of the fence think they are true aficionados because they are the only ones who can see it, rest assured you are not.

 

The negativity grates, but each to his own on that. If that's how you see the world, more power to you. It is probabaly too much to ask for a modicum of perspective and a dash of fairness thrown in too.

 

Support the manager? Nah, I'll stick the boot in.

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