Liverpool 0 Brighton 1 (Feb 3 2021)

[Dave D]

I know we arent exactly shipping goals (may change this weekend) but I would start playing centre backs at centre back (not meaning to sound patronising) There will be some good games and some howlers but how else do they learn. And you have to stick with it. Hooking them out after a dodgy game will do no good at all. These players have to have experience to learn and grow.

 

In doing so you get your first choice keeper, midfield and attack. Has to be better than this patched up disjointed hare brained strategy we are currently showing.

 

We have been worked out to an extent but we are also seemingly implementing a strategy/press that we are currently unable to execute due to missing players. Until you can remedy that, change it.

 

Play 3 centre backs? Don't let the fullbacks bomb forward, play 2 up front...whatever, just show an abilty to adapt.

 

Its a bit like asking a champion Jockey to ride a donkey in the National and getting upset that he isnt even trying to jump the fences!

 

He bloody cant and the longer you stand about puzzling over it the further behind he's going to get              

 

      

[rhylerpudlian]

3 hours ago, Trumo said:

This season is quickly becoming reminiscent of the 'mares of seasons past. Even the kits all look like they were inspired by our most fallow periods. The home kit is mid-90s fag-end-of-the-Souness-era fare when we had players like Dicks and Clough on the pitch. The teal away kit (colour wise at least) is a nod to the early 90s teams that featured Piechnik, Tanner and Kozma. The black/grey third is from that 2002/03 Houllier era when we went 11 games without a league win, relying on Heskey and Diouf for firepower. And the recent pinstriped Air Max 4th kit/leisure top is Hodgson era, with Cole, Konchesky, Jokanovic and Poulsen doing fuck-all in places like Utrecht.

 

When I've been able to watch us live this season, the worst I've seen from us is the home game against Atalanta. We've had plenty of completely ineffectual games since that still contained chances or half-chances, but in that Atalanta game we did absolutely nothing of note all game.

some of those names you mention dicks piechnik kozma jokanovic etc etc have brought me out in a cold sweat, think i'll have to go and have a lay down

 

[Kevin D]

[The Guest]

Jones not starting or being brought on far earlier was a massive mistake by Klopp.  He’s should be ahead of Ox especially in games like that.  I just don’t understand why we don’t stretch the game properly.  As soon as Shaqiri got moved right it was game over.  Robertson was never getting to the byline unless by complete chance.  Trent doesn’t bother even attempting it.  It just leads to impossible crosses or recycling the ball inside.  We’ve become so good at controlling the ball and games when we are in possession that sides literally don’t bother trying to get it back off us.  They just filter back knowing how hard we find to break teams down.

 

We really need to fundamentally change the way we attack though going forward.  Whether it’s changing the formation completely, switching the wingers over or just religiously training overlapping on each wing something needs to change.  Just repeating what we are doing just doesn’t work consistently anymore and is relying on individual brilliance of players that don’t produce it consistently any more.

[El Rojo]

Confluence of shite: 

Ridiculous run of injuries
No crowd (clearly more of an issue for us than City) 

A few scandalous VAR decisions, most notably Everton and Brighton away
Inevitable burnout after the intensity of the last few years (goalkeeper aside, we'd almost a full-strength team against Villa) 

 

[Frank Dacey]

I suppose if there's a silver lining its that by losing to Burnley and Brighton we've made it much more difficult for big fat Spam to maintain his record of never being relegated from the top flight. If he takes West Brom fown that might be the end of him which would be a (very small) crumb of comfort.

A couple of posts have delved back into troubled times in the past. I'd draw people's attention to the 64-65 season when a team that had been highly successful for three seasons (getting promoted, establishing themselves in the top flight and then winning the league in only our second season up) and played with very few injuries suddenly were afflicted by a terrible run of injuries. No player appeared in every league game and well over 20 players made senior appearances. We finished 7th in the league ....but we won the cup and the following season won the league again as the injuries disappeared. Let's hope we can limp into a top 4 spot, do well in the CL and bounce back next season in the league.

[sir roger]

Aye   I only managed 37 goals that season , tough times.

[Dr Nowt]

1 hour ago, El Rojo said:

Confluence of shite: 

Ridiculous run of injuries
No crowd (clearly more of an issue for us than City) 

A few scandalous VAR decisions, most notably Everton and Brighton away
Inevitable burnout after the intensity of the last few years (goalkeeper aside, we'd almost a full-strength team against Villa) 

 

I'd add another mate.

 

Every summer here Klopp has said how vital pre-season work is to the whole 'our identity is intensity'/duracell bunny levels of fitness we've shown under him. He's always maintained the summer preparation is paramount in allowing us to play that way. Obviously nobody else got a full pre-season either, but as running a marathon every game is such an integral part of who we are under Klopp, perhaps not getting that prep work in the bag to the normal level has disproportionately contributed to the sense of us being flat and lacking our usual tempo. To make matters worse, it's also a compressed season with little to no recovery time, so the original issue hitting us hard is exacerbated.

 

All those factors, and FSG being relative mingebags, have combined to make this the perfect storm. City buckled last season after 2 ridiculously intense years of high performance levels, and have bounced back this. As dispiriting as it all is atm - and I've found it hard to take any of this season seriously tbh, because COVID football just isn't the same sport - I'm not presuming we can't similarly return to a much higher level next season.

[s(k)aturation]

Thanks for keeping it brief, Dave.

[StevieMax]

4 hours ago, El Rojo said:

Confluence of shite: 

Ridiculous run of injuries
No crowd (clearly more of an issue for us than City) 

A few scandalous VAR decisions, most notably Everton and Brighton away
Inevitable burnout after the intensity of the last few years (goalkeeper aside, we'd almost a full-strength team against Villa) 

 

The greatest injury that LFC have suffered is the loss of US.

The Twelfth Man.

The X factor that picks LFC up on poor-to-average days and also scares the life out of some opponents as soon as they run out onto the pitch. WE also keep the officials that little bit more honest on close decisions as we can all see their mistakes and make sure they know it.

Sometimes our players need to feel appreciated for winning a tackle/throw in/corner at first hand to make them able to repeat that effort in the 88th minute when they feel that they are out on their feet.

[Pete]

I wish I could blame this season on Covid/Lack of fans/Injuries/being found out but the basic fact is since returning after the winter break, barring a few games we've been largely shit.  Not entirely sure why but it needs sorting & sorting soon otherwise we'll be a flash in the pan & back to scrapping for 4th on a regular basis. 

As for this game, as soon as they scored I turned off & waited for my alert to tell me we lost. We're that predictable now.  

[DaveT]

22 hours ago, Redlewie said:

Horrible game. Certain players being below what we know is their best is something that can be worked on, but can't do anything about our injuries. It's unbelievable. Last night we had missing;

 

Alisson

Van Dijk 

Gomez

Matip

Fabinho

Mané

Jota

 

5, maybe 6 of them are in our best starting 11. Only teams owned by drug dealers or countries have the back up to cope with that.

 

Not to mention Keita. (I know it's easy to forget he exists, but he's still our third highest ever transfer fee).

[Frank Dacey]

17 hours ago, sir roger said:

Aye   I only managed 37 goals that season , tough times.

You did have a good season, and congratulations on that, but the next highest scorer was the Saint with 11. The previous season he scored 22 and Alf Arrowsmith got 19, but he got a serious injury in the Charity Shield and hardly contributed so that's a hell of a lot of goals to take out of a team.

[Mikhail]

I always considered this season to be a write-off because of COVID and the way the lack of fans would affect us but that Summer window got me.

 

We got the best midfielder in the world, we got a backup for the front 3 and we got backup for our leftback. That is what a lot of fans wanted to be addressed and we got it. No one foresaw all three new players being missing for major chunks of the season and us losing our 3 first choice Centrebacks for the whole damn season.

 

 

The fact that we got to such a dominant position in spite of these circumstances and the vendetta against us by the PGMOL where pundits and other teams were ready to hand the league to us is crazy. And then things went wrong.

 

It's depressing watching the team finally break after 4 full seasons of greatness but I can't be too hard on them based on the circumstances. 

 

 

 

 

[stringvest]

On 04/02/2021 at 14:40, lebron said:

Agreed. Henderson's floaters are the absolute worst, closely followed by Salah's. I'll throw in the fact that we insist on taking nearly every set piece out-swinging as well. When you have absolutely no-one that can get a clean, free header, they are just a complete waste of time. As long as you have Shaq and Trent in the side you should just whip those set pieces with as much pace as possible, hoping either one of our players or the defenders get something on it. I guarantee that we will have far more dangerous situations/chances than we have now.

I'd love them to actually look up before playing them.  Henderson's curled lofted ball off the instep is useless most of the time, and Trent just doesn't look.  Infuriating.  Percentage balls.  We might as well have Don Howe and Howard Wilkinson on the touchline.  Coaching them to play low fast balls across the area IN FRONT of teammates coming on to the ball would be a no brainer.  Someone teach Robbo how to kick with his right foot too for fuck's sake.

[Redlewie]

3 hours ago, DaveT said:

Not to mention Keita. (I know it's easy to forget he exists, but he's still our third highest ever transfer fee).

Yeah, good point. I had a feeling I'd missed someone. Unfortunately he's easily forgettable. 

[ralph]

Not nice to read Dave, not nice to watch, glad you shared it with the non members as well.

[aws]

20 minutes ago, ralph said:

Not nice to read Dave, not nice to watch, glad you shared it with the non members as well.

A worry shared is a worry halved. 

. 

[kemskem]

A win against City and it will be the same points difference as if we’d beaten Brighton the other night and draw on Sunday. I’m not saying we’ve a good chance of winning the league now but Wednesday wasn’t actually fatal.

[Red_or_Dead]

I've only managed to steel myself to read this.  It's so depressing watching us play so shit with everything else going on in the world right now.

[sir roger]

2 hours ago, ralph said:

Not nice to read Dave, not nice to watch, glad you shared it with the non members as well.

Why the hell shouldn't they suffer ?

[aws]

2 hours ago, sir roger said:

Why the hell shouldn't they suffer ?

His writing's not that bad.