Will we suffer from lack of euro competition at the start of next season?

[niallers]

With city, united et al continuing competitive football into August, and with a shortened preseason to boot, will we suffer from a lack of rhythm come the start of the season compared to them?

We're a team that's very much one who loves being in the groove so having only a couple of preseason friendlies could see us at a disadvantage.

Small margins go a long way after all. 

 

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

Just now, niallers said:

With city, united et al continuing competitive football into August, and with a shortened preseason to boot, will we suffer from a lack of rhythm come the start of the season compared to them?

We're a team that's very much one who loves being in the groove so having only a couple of preseason friendlies could see us at a disadvantage.

Small margins go a long way after all. 

 

I think yes, we could suffer from this at the start of next season.

 

But over a long season I think having a long preseason for Klopp and his team to work on fitness levels and tactics will only make us stronger. One of the things Klopp does better than all other managers seems to be training and coaching. This along with our excellent nutrition and fitness team will give us an advantage in the long run.

 

Therefore expect us to start a bit slowly, but kick on in Oct/Nov.

[Strontium]

More likely to suffer a hangover from our stuttering end to this season.

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

5 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

More likely to suffer a hangover from our stuttering end to this season.

Not too worried about that. Klopp dont need it, but maybe both players and nor least supporters may need a reminder that once you drop to 95% in this league you really are nothing special. We are a massive unit first and foremost, and both our attack and defence are very dependent on an extreme high intensity pressing game to be at our very best. We’ve taken big steps the last 12-18 months, and become much better at resting with the ball in the team and killing games off, but we’re still only extremely good when we go full throttle.

 

Also we have a some world class players, but maybe not as many as we think. 
 

We need to be as hungry at the start of next season as we were at the start of this, and a few poor results at the end of this one may be a blessing in disguise.

[Trumo]

We might lack sharpness in the early part of the season but I'd expect things to be back on track after the first month or so. We just need to make sure we are still right in the mix if/when others start to tail off from the lack of a proper break later in the year.

 

The lockdown has had an impact for sure, but our current lack of edge having sewn up the league early is the same problem that has befallen the likes of PSG, Bayern and Juventus in recent years. All have suffered a dip in performance at the business end of the Champions League campaign because they've not had to sustain the level of intensity. We aren't in it ourselves, but had we got past Atletico we might have suffered a similar fate against our next opponents.

[niallers]

We've also won, and I emphasise the word won, 15 games this year by 1 goal. Now, we deserved to win nearly all of them in my opinion, but we only need to see 3 or4 of those turn into draws and we're 8 points off where we were. 

Having a strong city helps us I think more than we let on. That fear of having to win each game is one hell of a motivating tool

[Bruce Spanner]

No, but City will!

 

[dockers_strike]

I dont get why people are falling for the neville narrative we won so many games 1-0. Is it any different to winning 2-1, 3-2, 4-3?

 

I just think this exercise is trying to second guess what might happen. We could easily win more games by 2 clear goals next season, who knows? if city and united are 'fresher' than us at the start of  the season because they havent had a break, doesnt that mean they'll likely be fucked from March next season?

 

The way I look at it is, retaining the title would be great. So would winning the CL again. Some even want us to have a dig at winning the FA Cup. I think it's a massive ask to expect the team to retain the title and be even better than this season.

[Bjornebye]

I'm pretty confident that the best manager in the world will see to it that we won't suffer. 

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

3 hours ago, niallers said:

We've also won, and I emphasise the word won, 15 games this year by 1 goal. Now, we deserved to win nearly all of them in my opinion, but we only need to see 3 or4 of those turn into draws and we're 8 points off where we were. 

Having a strong city helps us I think more than we let on. That fear of having to win each game is one hell of a motivating tool

Some good points in this post.

[JohnnyH]

16 hours ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

More likely to suffer a hangover from our stuttering end to this season.

I 100% see it from the other way around. From the day we won the league I’ve wondered if an average end of season with a few draws or even a few losses would do no harm in re-focussing everyones’ minds. We’ve had a season we’ll never have again. This 97 points last season and probably around that same this season is unsustainable, as we’ve seen from City this season. 
 

A few annoying results, and poor performances will do the younger players especially no harm in getting back to the hard work. 

[No2]

The break we get can only be considered a massive plus. It's possible our lads will actually get a holiday in a place with sun and sand. Everyone else that matters will be flogging themselves for the next 13 months, Klopp has already begun resting our lads and will continue to do that ahead of any records. Come Novemeber we will start to see City stumble while we kick into an extra gear.

 

 

[niallers]

3 hours ago, No2 said:

The break we get can only be considered a massive plus. It's possible our lads will actually get a holiday in a place with sun and sand. Everyone else that matters will be flogging themselves for the next 13 months, Klopp has already begun resting our lads and will continue to do that ahead of any records. Come Novemeber we will start to see City stumble while we kick into an extra gear.

 

 

Unless they buy 2 teams worth of players of equal ability so they can rotate 11 players each week. They can now do exactly that and nothing will happen to them. Oil cheating cunts

[an tha]

Too many games - are we tired?

 

Less games - are we rusty?

 

Just get on with it, we'll be fine.

 

 

[VladimirIlyich]

On 14/07/2020 at 13:00, an tha said:

Too many games - are we tired?

 

Less games - are we rusty?

 

Just get on with it, we'll be fine.

 

 

I feel we are a better team with momentum,but we also need a rest given the successes of the last two seasons. I think we will be slower out of the blocks in the sense that I can't see us putting on scintillating performances even though I expect us to still get positive results. Plus,as it looks like we wont be adding many new faces it gives the regulars a chance to recharge their batteries and get over current injuries,especially Henderson.

[Barrington Womble]

You can actually look longer than just this season I think. Our lads will get a rest now, but next season won't finish till late because of the euros and who knows how the season break will look the year after with the WC in Qatar in the December, so cutting a month out of the middle of the season. I trust klopp to get any pre-season right. I can't see how over the coming seasons having the break will be anything but good, especially as we run such a small squad and so many of the squad will break 30 over the next couple of years. 

[Guest Pistonbroke]

On 11/07/2020 at 21:49, Bjornebye said:

I'm pretty confident that the best manager in the world will see to it that we won't suffer. 

 

This in a nutshell. Plus we'll benefit from some sort of break, if we hit the ground running we'll be sorted. You also have to factor in that both Manc teams and Chelsea will be bedding in new players in weird circumstances. 

[Megadrive Man]

One thing that doesn't seem to have been discussed is how will European matches happen next season?

 

Is it realistic to have clubs flying in and out of different countries, particularly as a second wave is predicted in the winter?

[Barrington Womble]

17 hours ago, MegadriveMan said:

One thing that doesn't seem to have been discussed is how will European matches happen next season?

 

Is it realistic to have clubs flying in and out of different countries, particularly as a second wave is predicted in the winter?

I don't think it's realistic. But I don't think uefa will want to accept that. I wonder if there's an option to run the uefa cup, champions League and perhaps a trophy for the teams that need to go into qualifying and play it like 3 World Cups over a month. So the CL would start with the 32 groups stage teams, any who'd qualify beyond the automatics goes on coefficient of those in the qualifying rounds. The next tier fill up the remaining gaps into the uefa cup. And all those left from uefa and CL qualifiers play in a 3rd competition. I imagine that would still leave some clubs out, but their financial reward from Europe is probably so small they could easily be bought off for 1 year. 

[an tha]

On 18/07/2020 at 08:25, VladimirIlyich said:

I feel we are a better team with momentum,but we also need a rest given the successes of the last two seasons. I think we will be slower out of the blocks in the sense that I can't see us putting on scintillating performances even though I expect us to still get positive results. Plus,as it looks like we wont be adding many new faces it gives the regulars a chance to recharge their batteries and get over current injuries,especially Henderson.

I reckon we will be ok.

 

All the players have just had the longest rest of their careers and are now in a run of games that have the intensity of pre season games as the job has been done for weeks.

 

Couple more of them to go, then a short break and rest and then back into it....meanwhile Man City can chase the massively tainted joke version of the European Cup that is being held soon and the 3 games or whatever it is won't give them any real advantage or disadvantage over us IMO