Will everything be okay next season?

[clangers]

Limited spending to improve unless we sell. Top four is realistic. It'll be difficult to keep up with the oil rich clubs given the drop in revenue and FSG being only too happy to use this as an excuse.

[joe_fishfish]

Top four is gone, Wijnaldum will be gone in summer, and I don't see us cashing in on a big name because the clubs that have money to spend will have better options.

 

Having a good pre-season and getting Van Dijk, Gomez and Jota back will help enormously. I don't really think Wijnaldum will be a big miss unless we get a similar level of injuries as this time round, which I don't think we will. Let's face it, he isn't exactly incisive with his passing.

 

I'm presuming we're gonna sign Kabak, we need a third choice body at the back and he's cheap enough, even if he's a bit shit. If we have any money whatsoever to spend after that, or we manage to shift anyone, I'd use the cash on a forward who can press AND score goals. Mane and Firmino have been embarrassing this season, and while Salah has been much better than either, he's still missed a lot of easy chances.

 

Danny Ings must be looking at our front line this season and thinking he should have been leading it.

[andyj]

12 minutes ago, joe_fishfish said:

Top four is gone, Wijnaldum will be gone in summer, and I don't see us cashing in on a big name because the clubs that have money to spend will have better options.

 

Having a good pre-season and getting Van Dijk, Gomez and Jota back will help enormously. I don't really think Wijnaldum will be a big miss unless we get a similar level of injuries as this time round, which I don't think we will. Let's face it, he isn't exactly incisive with his passing.

 

I'm presuming we're gonna sign Kabak, we need a third choice body at the back and he's cheap enough, even if he's a bit shit. If we have any money whatsoever to spend after that, or we manage to shift anyone, I'd use the cash on a forward who can press AND score goals. Mane and Firmino have been embarrassing this season, and while Salah has been much better than either, he's still missed a lot of easy chances.

 

Danny Ings must be looking at our front line this season and thinking he should have been leading it.

its far from gone mate take alook at who Chelsea the manc's and Leicester have to play they can all still bin it along with west ham and Everton we just need to get on abit of a run also stop dicking about at the back shove 2 defenders in and leave them there

[3 Stacks]

14 minutes ago, joe_fishfish said:

Top four is gone, Wijnaldum will be gone in summer, and I don't see us cashing in on a big name because the clubs that have money to spend will have better options.

 

Having a good pre-season and getting Van Dijk, Gomez and Jota back will help enormously. I don't really think Wijnaldum will be a big miss unless we get a similar level of injuries as this time round, which I don't think we will. Let's face it, he isn't exactly incisive with his passing.

 

I'm presuming we're gonna sign Kabak, we need a third choice body at the back and he's cheap enough, even if he's a bit shit. If we have any money whatsoever to spend after that, or we manage to shift anyone, I'd use the cash on a forward who can press AND score goals. Mane and Firmino have been embarrassing this season, and while Salah has been much better than either, he's still missed a lot of easy chances.

 

Danny Ings must be looking at our front line this season and thinking he should have been leading it.

We need an attacker than can score goals when the plan isn't working. Salah has clearly become our key forward because he's shown that even when Klopp's style of play goes to shit, he can still find a goal from somewhere. Jota has been promising in that sense as well.

 

We already knew this about Firmino, but Mané as well just feels like he was propped up by Klopp all along. The second the attacking plan has gone out the window, they've become completely useless. They both run around and try hard but they can barely even find the quality to get a shot off. Maybe that's unfair in terms of Mané, but he's been bothering me. 

[Crazy Dave]

I'm not convinced that what's happened this season will magically disappear once we start pre-season. Something just isn't right at the club whether it's the manager being tired, too stuck on his philosophy, or the players not getting along - this isn't just down to some absences. 

 

Half the squad seem to have two years left on their deals come this summer so we're at a serious crossroads there. This includes the likes of Van Dijk, Fabinho, Allison, Salah, Firmino and Mane. I can't see us wanting to let any of them, with the exception of Firmino, get down to 12 months given the risk of them walking away for nothing. I'm also worried that one or two will not be in a particular rush to renew now. 

 

I think we'll improve as we'll still have lots of quality in the squad and I'm going to assume lightning won't strike twice as regards our injury crisis, but it's hard to imagine that there won't be a hangover. The players confidence has hit rock bottom and has to be rebuilt from scratch. They've gone from feeling invincible to unable to score a goal, let along win a game, at Anfield. Fans being back will help, but there's still personnel issues that will remain. Whether one summer can turn that around I'm not sure. 

 

I'd be looking at replacing Firmino, but we also need to have a conversation about Mane too. This team only functions if there's lots of goals coming from whomever is playing in his and Salah's position and Sadio is looking like a blunt instrument. Whether he's peaked and is now on the way down, or whether this is a temporary "blip" that will go away remains to be seen, but I'd certainly be looking at him being on the bench more next season. 

 

Salah I expect to agitate for a move away. He's down to two years on his deal and at his age and profile he won't be fancying being outside of the Champions League next year. 

[andyj]

1 hour ago, clangers said:

Limited spending to improve unless we sell. Top four is realistic. It'll be difficult to keep up with the oil rich clubs given the drop in revenue and FSG being only too happy to use this as an excuse.

to be fair we sold Coutinho and it was pretty much doom and gloom but we didn't miss him and i think it would be fair to say if we sold 1 of the front 3 then the same thing would happen. Bobby has been poor for a while now so id most likely move him on. Also we have a number of players that was talked about the other day that would most likely leave plus the loaned out players we have that will never make the first team. Get rid of the dead wood and bring in fresh faces 

 

[Barrington Womble]

we've got to get through the rest of this season i think before assessing where we are. if our league form carries on like this and we lose 3-1 on wednesday, well i honestly think big things need to happen, because clearly some of their heads have gone. everyone keeps crying it in about injuries, but last nights team is a Jones and Kabak away from our possible best XI. but they look completely gone in the head. and thinking about this on a human level, with the lives we've all had to lead these last 12 months, it's possible half of these lads fucking hate each other. they've seen next to nobody else since football resumed in june. so a holiday, away with some international teams and maybe 5 new faces might freshen it all up enough for next season. 

[No2]

Part of the problem we had was we were too good. Alisson, Trent, Virgil, Robertson and Fabinho were the best in the world in their positions, if not the best then top 3. Manè and Salah could make similar claims. Thats 7 of the starting XI we couldn't improve on even with Qatari money. Then we have Henderson we wouldn't want to replace and Gomez who is player who could be a world beater, he's a good age and you certainly wouldn't look to replace him.

 

That leaves Bobby and Gini, both players we did bring in players to compete for their positions.

 

Chelsea and City have 15 or 16 eight out of ten types while we had a first 11 full of 9/10 types.

So we have Salah (9) and Ox (7), where they have Mahrez (8) and Silva (8), so we both have 2 players with an average of 8 out of 10 but the drop off for us is felt much greater. Is that bad planning or unavoidable? I'd say the latter,  these players at their best are still the best team in the league (europe??). They just need a break and a change of scenery, come back fresh with another couple of Jota type players to spark a challenge.

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

Not beating the lesser teams since Xmas which we should have done has fucked us. We should have done far better with what we had available, no doubt.

[Harry Squatter]

If we don't get any money off the mingebag owners then it will be another wasted season. We will end up fucking off the domestic cups to concentrate on top 4. Like we did when Klopp first came here. Knackering the same set of players into submission.

 

If we do get money we need a mobile centre back who hopefully is an aerial threat off set peices.

 

Need a forward to replace firmino and another option with pace.Origi offers fuck all and Shaqiri is never a regular. 

 

Need a midfielder who can actually score goals. 

 

We have a decent back up keeper in Kelleher now.

[Strontium]

We won't even win a raffle while we're owned by the tightest cunts since the Temple of Vesta was destroyed. Happy to help.

[JoeBuck01]

This is a great thread with every post quality.

 

This season feels like 80-81 and 04-05. Terrible in the league with a seeming inability to turn it round , only then to win Big Ears.

 

Of course Paris was the last hurrah of our greatest ever team which had been around for 3-4 seasons since the 3 Scots arrived in 77-78 to become the spine of two of our great sides. The next season evolved with Brucie in for Clem, Lawro for Thommo, Sammy for Jimmy, Ronnie for Ray, Rushie for Johnno etc.

 

We probably don't need 5 changes but need a number 9 (Ings or Bamford would both do well and only have a year left on their contracts) ,  probably a number 10 ( although try out Bobby/ Shaq) and some natural width to stretch teams like City do (a Sarr or a Traore).

 

Probably most importantly though is a Plan B for a possession game which can penetrate tight defences, which would suit a 4-2-3-1.  A counter pressing 4-3-3 assumes we have the energy (which we've lost) and teams play out from the back (which they don't always against us).

[coachpotato]

To answer the threads title, I think a lot will depend on how Jurgen Klopp is after this season is finished.

With all that has gone on, and is going on, he looks as though he needs a good rest and, probably, time to grieve his Mums passing.

He looked lost after the Chelsea game when he was interviewed.

Yes, we need to strengthen the squad, yes, we will struggle to do that if we don’t finish top four, yes, we need to look at the squad and have a sort out of the sick notes and older players nearing their contract renewals etc. etc., but if Klopp doesn’t come back next season as the Klopp we know, then we’re in deep shit.

[waddy78]

It's not just this season tho, there was a stat on Bein sports today, since Watford last season when we lost we've won 18 and lost 11 and drawn 9 in a calender year, the problems started at the back end of last season but they were masked because we won the league and everyone (including myself) put it down to us taking our foot off the gas as we'd pissed the league. This is more than a blip unfortunately the team look lost and I'm sure a big part of that is the injuries but also it's screaming for a big shake up the squad beyond the first 13-14 players is poor and probably most of those fringe players are mid / lower team level I don't see FSG spending big even if we made the CL and if we don't which looks more likely then Jurgen will be told to sell before he can buy my worry is if Jürgen tells them to stick it and walks away.

[Barrington Womble]

11 minutes ago, waddy78 said:

It's not just this season tho, there was a stat on Bein sports today, since Watford last season when we lost we've won 18 and lost 11 and drawn 9 in a calender year, the problems started at the back end of last season but they were masked because we won the league and everyone (including myself) put it down to us taking our foot off the gas as we'd pissed the league. This is more than a blip unfortunately the team look lost and I'm sure a big part of that is the injuries but also it's screaming for a big shake up the squad beyond the first 13-14 players is poor and probably most of those fringe players are mid / lower team level I don't see FSG spending big even if we made the CL and if we don't which looks more likely then Jurgen will be told to sell before he can buy my worry is if Jürgen tells them to stick it and walks away.

We were top at Christmas in a mad world and we'd lost Gomez and VVD, I thought under the circumstances we were doing amazingly well. So if you mean we dropped off from winning almost every game, well of course, but that was always going to happen. But what happened from Watford to Palace away bears no relation to what has gone since. Since boxing day, we've averaged less than a point per game I think. That is relegation form. 

[Bobby Hundreds]

I know it's too simplistic but it feels like since that Athletico game a basic blueprint was shown there on how to deal with us and it feels like we face that athletico side nearly every week now. We should adapt our game, even with our injuries we have faced teams with much worse players than us and they handle us with ease. I genuinely think the high line is the biggest cause of our issues and they where there before the VVD injury. You can't play intense football year after year or stay still when everyone else adapts.

[Bobby Hundreds]

4 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

We were top at Christmas in a mad world and we'd lost Gomez and VVD, I thought under the circumstances we were doing amazingly well. So if you mean we dropped off from winning almost every game, well of course, but that was always going to happen. But what happened from Watford to Palace away bears no relation to what has gone since. Since boxing day, we've averaged less than a point per game I think. That is relegation form. 

We were top at Christmas but we weren't playing well our away form was ludicrously bad and our home form finally caught up. 

[El Rojo]

31 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

I know it's too simplistic but it feels like since that Athletico game a basic blueprint was shown there on how to deal with us and it feels like we face that athletico side nearly every week now. We should adapt our game, even with our injuries we have faced teams with much worse players than us and they handle us with ease. I genuinely think the high line is the biggest cause of our issues and they where there before the VVD injury. You can't play intense football year after year or stay still when everyone else adapts.

I don’t think it’s too simplistic at all. There was a marked difference in how teams set up against us after Atletico knocked us out.

[No2]

1 hour ago, coachpotato said:

To answer the threads title, I think a lot will depend on how Jurgen Klopp is after this season is finished.

With all that has gone on, and is going on, he looks as though he needs a good rest and, probably, time to grieve his Mums passing.

He looked lost after the Chelsea game when he was interviewed.

Yes, we need to strengthen the squad, yes, we will struggle to do that if we don’t finish top four, yes, we need to look at the squad and have a sort out of the sick notes and older players nearing their contract renewals etc. etc., but if Klopp doesn’t come back next season as the Klopp we know, then we’re in deep shit.

Klopp is a football man, he will be hating this as much as we are. He just needs the crowds back. Our best performances were with fans this season and our worst were when they took them from us again. It was like we couldn't pretend anymore and reality smacked us in the face, that reality being a season we all.just what to end so we can start a real one.

[LFC 6 Times]

I think fans back will provide a natural lift and change the dynamic hugely. But we have fuck loads to put right.

[Captain Howdy]

No, this team isn’t just cooked it’s burnt to a crisp, they’re not playing for each other, they look disinterested and half of them look like they don’t want to be here, dunno what’s happened behind the scenes but very clearly something has, add in to the mix that the manager looks utterly clueless and we’ve got a serious situation on our hands. Complete overhaul needed imo, you don’t lose 5 consecutive home games by being anything other than complete and utter dogshit.

[Duff Man]

Not with that squad. Matip/Gomez simply cannot be relied upon, and our midfield will be significantly worse off with Gini gone. Difficult to imagine Hendo having a season free from injuries, too. Plus there's the possibility that Virgil isn't Virgil anymore. Top four and a cup run is achievable, but fuck me what a comedown from champions seemingly on the cusp of dominating for a bit.

 

Tactics/style of play definitely a concern, too, but unless we strengthen in the right areas, it's kind of moot. Feels like the beginning of the end, tbh.

 

[Duff Man]

On the bright side I think if Jota can stay fit we'll score a shitload of goals. I'd settle for a 17/18 style season, actually.

[Barrington Womble]

1 hour ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

We were top at Christmas but we weren't playing well our away form was ludicrously bad and our home form finally caught up. 

But we were still top..we found ways to win. Now and then is chalk and cheese. 7 goals in one game against palace. We haven't managed a goal per game in the dozen or so matches since. 

[Jordy Brouwer]

It will be better next season almost certainly but unless we start using the ball better in the final third top four is as good as it will get.