Will everything be okay next season?

[deiseach]

Yes, and if it isn't okay I'm okay with that. I lived to see Liverpool win the league in a time when I didn't take it for granted (see also: European Cup x 2). From now on, my only goal is to get that season ticket which, now that Everton have won at Anfield this millennium, is the thing in my Liverpool life that has taken over 20 years to come to pass, and share the cost with someone so I can watch them play and not feel like every game is make-or-break.

[stringvest]

14 hours ago, Baltar said:

Everything will be grand, once FSG bugger off and we get decent owners.

What you mean is indecent owners who are happy to launder money or provide a veneer of respectability or good PR to their nefarious business activities or crimes against humanity.  Because they're the only ones who will give you what you want.  

[dockers_strike]

8 minutes ago, stringvest said:

What you mean is indecent owners who are happy to launder money or provide a veneer of respectability or good PR to their nefarious business activities or crimes against humanity.  Because they're the only ones who will give you what you want.  

Correct. Never ceases to amaze me the number of people who think there are 'better owners' out there. Why dont people be honest and say they want owners like abramovich, mansour or the PSG mob?

 

The Football League is full of owners who promised fans they'll be better owners than the previous lot, will spend shitloads of money on new players yet havent delivered.

 

I believe Stoke City's owner is actually a higher net wealth individual than Henry. Maybe we could persuade him to buy the club? Oh, wait....

[VladimirIlyich]

On 09/03/2021 at 12:20, dockers_strike said:

Correct. Never ceases to amaze me the number of people who think there are 'better owners' out there. Why dont people be honest and say they want owners like abramovich, mansour or the PSG mob?

 

The Football League is full of owners who promised fans they'll be better owners than the previous lot, will spend shitloads of money on new players yet havent delivered.

 

I believe Stoke City's owner is actually a higher net wealth individual than Henry. Maybe we could persuade him to buy the club? Oh, wait....

Isnt Stoke City a she? Or is that his daughter,the one who runs Bet365?

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

On 08/03/2021 at 22:05, Baltar said:

Everything will be grand, once FSG bugger off and we get decent owners.

You’re in for a long wait.

[LFC 6 Times]

I guess the answer is an emphatic yes.

[DJLJ]

Just now, LFC 6 Times said:

I guess the answer is an emphatic yes.

If we win the tie against Villarreal and go to the final, we'll have appeared in every game we could have appeared in over the year. That is showing incredible depth in the squad.

[Bobby Hundreds]

I wish I could neg my own posts.

[aws]

Saved you the bother. 

[lebron]

On 06/03/2021 at 14:22, lebron said:

People seriously thinking Bamford or Ings would do better as our mid-attacker than Firmino... (rolls eyes). Form is temporary, class is permanent. Get our CBs back, the whole team moves further up the pitch, and Firmino's press and interplay will be back to its best.

 

As for the question posed, Gomez and Vvd back and we will be a completely different team.

 

We need new referees in the PL to get a fair crack at no 20, but no 7 will be brought home

 

 

 

 

I still think a lot of people (including some of our own supporters) seriously underestimated how detrimental losing all our CBs to injury last season was. It was pretty clear that things would improve drastically once we had some pace, height and strength back in our defence. It took a while for Virgil to get going again, and while Gomez hasn't really had a sniff, I'm sure he would have played himself into form if Matip and Konate weren't so damn good!

 

The jury might be out still on Bobby's return to form (even if his goal involment per minute is his best ever for us), but no doubt our other attackers have thrived on play being located 20 yds further up the field as well.

 

Small matter of cashing in on the semi-finals and excellent league position, but a fair bit of overreaction in this thread. Doubters to believers, and back into doubters. Hopefully most are back as believers now....

[El Dangerous]

On 08/03/2021 at 15:40, El Dangerous said:

We’ll be fine. Can see us winning the quadruple tbh.

Oh aye.

[VladimirIlyich]

16 hours ago, lebron said:

I still think a lot of people (including some of our own supporters) seriously underestimated how detrimental losing all our CBs to injury last season was. It was pretty clear that things would improve drastically once we had some pace, height and strength back in our defence. It took a while for Virgil to get going again, and while Gomez hasn't really had a sniff, I'm sure he would have played himself into form if Matip and Konate weren't so damn good!

 

The jury might be out still on Bobby's return to form (even if his goal involment per minute is his best ever for us), but no doubt our other attackers have thrived on play being located 20 yds further up the field as well.

 

Small matter of cashing in on the semi-finals and excellent league position, but a fair bit of overreaction in this thread. Doubters to believers, and back into doubters. Hopefully most are back as believers now....

I think there were genuine concerns about how we were going to deal with the CB situation give the seriousness of VVD's injury and Matip's constant woes. The signing of Konate plus the PEDs being issued to VVD and Matip himself have cured this though!

[Harry Squatter]

[VladimirIlyich]

4 minutes ago, Harry Squatter said:

Haha! 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

On 05/03/2021 at 11:42, Bjornebye said:

We will fuck everyone into dust next season. 

Stig knows.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

On 05/03/2021 at 11:56, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Some reinforcements - a CB; a replacement for Gini; a Jota-level forward - and we'll challenge for the title. 

Turns out we only needed two of the three.

[No2]

On 05/03/2021 at 20:40, No2 said:

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.

I think it was as simple as this, it wasn't real football. 

[etho]

On 08/03/2021 at 11:17, etho said:

If Klopp changed us from doubters to believers, I'm not about to go back there. 

We've obviously got alot of problems and this is pretty unprecedented, but I don't have any doubts we have the right man to fix it, and he will, as long as he wants to be here to do it.

 

Be nice if someone could untie his hands behind his back to make some squad changes if he sees fit to do so.

I'm so glad Jürgen is a red

[Colt Seavers]

I meet a lad I used to work with once a month and when it came to May...14th cup final: 21st final league game; 28th potential European Cup Final.

We are so lucky to watch this team

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Before this season, the longest anyone has sustained a bid for the quadruple was Chelsea in 2006-07, who kept it going until the first of May.

 

Our bid will last until the third of May, at least.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11096/12579011/liverpools-quadruple-quest-how-do-jurgen-klopps-side-fare-in-historic-bid#:~:text=The closest any top-flight,in the 2006-07 campaign.

 

[VladimirIlyich]

On 23/04/2022 at 01:29, Colt Seavers said:

I meet a lad I used to work with once a month and when it came to May...14th cup final: 21st final league game; 28th potential European Cup Final.

We are so lucky to watch this team

22nd is final league game.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

On 05/03/2021 at 11:16, El Rojo said:

Can we recover when the heart of our team returns, or is what we're seeing now part of a bigger decline? Have we been found out tactically? Are we screwed psychologically now too as a result of all the new records we've been breaking in recent weeks?

 

Wijnaldum will surely be gone, and we won't have money to bring in anybody who'd make the first team due to a combination of not finishing in the top four and no team buying another's deadwood in the current climate. 

 

Can this team (with little or no quality left on the bench) compete for the title?

 

Alisson, TAA, Matip/Gomez, VVD, Robbo, Fabinho, Henderson, Thiago/Jones, Mane, Salah, Jota

 

[TheRedMachine]

On 08/03/2021 at 22:05, Baltar said:

Everything will be grand, once FSG bugger off and we get decent owners.

Candidate for worst post on this forum ever. 

[Numero Veinticinco]

2 minutes ago, TheRedMachine said:

Candidate for worst post on this forum ever. 

Allow me to introduce you to the GF. 

[DJLJ]

Good insight into measures taken by LFC to try and limit the squads injury time.

 

https://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/the-silicon-valley-technology-that-is-helping-reds-to-keep-players-fit-and-strive-towards-a-quadruple-41664733.html

 

Quote

The Silicon Valley technology that is helping Reds to keep players fit and strive towards a quadruple
Zone7 artificial intelligence – which is aimed at improving performance while reducing fitness issues – shows Liverpool have only lost 1,008 days to injury this season, compared with 1,513 in 2020/’21

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool team have been using Zone7’s technology since the start of this current season. The platform analyses player information, including in-game and training data, as well as biometric, strength, sleep, flexibility and stress levels. Photo: PA/Reuters
Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool team have been using Zone7’s technology since the start of this current season. The platform analyses player information, including in-game and training data, as well as biometric, strength, sleep, flexibility and stress levels. Photo: PA/Reuters
James Ducker
May 19 2022 02:30 AM
“I always say we are a little bit like criminal detectives.” So says Dr Andreas Schlumberger, Liverpool’s head of recovery and performance, but it is hard to imagine even the most enlightened FBI agent employing anything more sophisticated than the extraordinary technology that is helping Liverpool in their quest for an unprecedented quadruple.

Invented by the artificial intelligence company Zone7, who are based in California’s Silicon Valley, Liverpool have been using cutting-edge computer algorithms that detect injury risk and recommend pre-emptive action.

It all helps to explain why manager Jurgen Klopp chose to rotate nine key players in beating Southampton on Tuesday night, barely three days after needing 120 minutes to win the FA Cup.

It perhaps also helps to explain how Liverpool have slashed their number of lost days this season to injury by more than a third and retained such remarkable performance levels across 61 games.

News of the partnership can be disclosed today for the first time, as well as Liverpool’s decision to extend their use of the artificial intelligence platform by a further two seasons, as well as with the women’s and U-23 teams.

The Liverpool men’s first-team squad have been using Zone7’s technology since the start of this current 2021/’22 season. The platform analyses comprehensive player information, including in-game and training data, as well as biometric, strength, sleep, flexibility and stress levels to create risk signals and practical interventions, all aimed at improving performance while lowering injury rates.

That information is then directly delivered via an app to a club’s key decision-makers, ranging from the manager through to his various sports science, medical and coaching staff.

“Football has become very data rich and, if you can extract deep value from the data, then you can have a competitive advantage,” says Tal Brown, the chief executive and founder of Zone7.

‘I'm not sure yet if he's involved’ – Andreas Christensen may have played his last game for Chelsea
“This is already very well established in the area of talent identification, and it is now starting to happen in measuring and trying to optimise player wellbeing and performance.”

Brown was a first-class graduate of computer systems engineering at the University of Warwick before starting his career in the Israel defence force’s intelligence corps. His team have long been designing predictive software in other industries, ranging from cyber security to financial services, and began working in football four years ago. They duly gathered millions of hours of data from more than 30 teams worldwide, including Getafe, Glasgow Rangers and Hull City.

In its quest to identify patterns that might get missed by purely human analysis, the algorithm provides information at various levels, from football as a sport through to teams and individual players. It is designed constantly to update and improve with new data.

“The software can simulate optimal scenarios on a day-by-day basis so that the players are trending towards their peak and injury risk is minimised,” explains Brown. “Sometimes risk may mean a reduction in workload – less running of a specific type, like sprinting. Sometimes a player can be under-trained and additional work may be required.”

Central to Zone7’s philosophy has been to also employ people with experience inside professional football to advise and help deliver the information in a way that is practical and accessible.

“These are Premier League veterans – it’s not just a couple of people from Silicon Valley running around with spreadsheets,” says Brown. “It was a long process to create adaptations that make the software usable in a football environment.

“Football is not stock trading and neither is it anything else out there on a professional or human experience.”

At the time of the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, Zone7 had evolved to the point where they believed that their systems could detect 70pc of injuries up to seven days before they occurred.

They specifically highlighted the correlation between game-load and injury, emphasising the elevated risk of six matches over a 30-day period. Liverpool have just completed their ninth match in 30 days, including the last seven back-to-back midweeks.

Brown cannot talk about the specific findings of any one club, and stresses that there “are no certainties”, but does reveal some fascinating insights.

Although there is indeed a general correlation between game-load and injury risk, this changes according to mitigations that are put in place and there are also clear dangers associated with too much rest.

“We have found across all teams that, in about a third of cases, injury risk is attributed to under-training and not over-training,” he says. Environmental factors, such as travel and sleep, and whether a team have stayed in a hotel immediately after a fixture, are areas that are producing increasingly striking results. Zone7 also now works with teams in the NBA and NFL, allowing their systems to identify trends which may be distinct or common to different sports.

“The algorithm is as good as the data – the more examples, the better it will become and, over time, it will have less black spots,” says Brown. Events like the condensed Covid programme and Liverpool’s current schedule have therefore provided rich opportunities to harvest new information.

According to Premier Injuries, a company which analyses injuries across England’s top flight, Liverpool have recorded vast improvements this season.

They have so far lost 1,008 days to injury, compared to more than 1,500 in 2020-’21.

Crucially, the days lost to what are deemed ‘substantial injuries’, which are those lasting more than nine days, have almost halved from 1,409 to 841.