Southampton Vs Liverpool - Sunday 28th May at 16:30

[AngryOfTuebrook]

One last time for a season that was mostly wretched, but will still see us qualify for Europe; most of the league dreams of being as crap as us. Neither team really has anything to play for - nothing to win or lose - so this could be anything from a lazy stroll in the sunshine to a cavalier display of fearless attacking. I'm guessing the former.

 

Southampton have been awful and were deservedly the first team down.  This could be the last chance for a few years to get points at St Mary's, so that's what we should do.

 

Just get these beat, Reds.

[bossy]

All rather moot, just win and play well Reds.

[Kevin D]

Our season starts now.

[s(k)aturation]

All's well that ends Dell.

 

 

[KMD7]

19 minutes ago, Kevin D said:

Our season starts now.

Klopp can go in the summer, frankly.

[Bjornebye]

 

[Creator Supreme]

27-0 to Southampton!

[Bobby Hundreds]

Can't wait for the final whistle.

[bizzle10]

good chance we might be last on motd just end this season

[an tha]

Almost the very definition of a dead rubber...but it is about £2m difference in prize money per place in league and if Brighton beat Man City in midweek we need something here to definitely secure that 2m and ensure the lights can stay on at Anfield for a bit longer....

 

 

[Carra_is_legend]

6 hours ago, KMD7 said:

Klopp can go in the summer, frankly.

He can go now for all I care.

[an tha]

Come on, Bournemouth.......THAT is the game this weekend!

[Anubis]

2 hours ago, an tha said:

Almost the very definition of a dead rubber...but it is about £2m difference in prize money per place in league and if Brighton beat Man City in midweek we need something here to definitely secure that 2m and ensure the lights can stay on at Anfield for a bit longer....

 

 

 

That’s our summer transfer budget we’re playing for.

 

Also, if the Chelsea players decide to ignore Frank’s tactics and somehow fluke a win on Thursday, it may set up a nervous last day for the Red Manc Rats.

[Trumo]

The final game of a wretched season, and I write this before the Mancs play 2 homes games this week, requiring just a point to guarantee a top 4 spot. The first of those games is on Thursday against Chelsea. Managed by Frank Lampard. Yeah, top 4 is gone. We have not occupied a top 4 place all season however. I thought that was a damning stat and then I remembered that it took a last-gasp goal from Fabio against the Geordies 4 games into the season to claim our first win, so we were in catch-up mode from the off. The following game was the 9-0 dismantling of Bournemouth which should have signified that we were over our post-2021/22 hangover, had finally clicked into gear in attack and could maybe cope with depleted midfield options, and no Ibou or Diogo. It wasn’t to be, and we’ve only managed to get to the fringes of the top 4 thanks to our recent run.

 

Southampton have obviously had a more wretched time of things, finishing rock bottom to take their place in the second tier for the first time in a decade. They got tired of Wrecked-it Ralph’s boom and bust form (firmly mired in ‘bust’ this season) and replaced him with the God-bothering Brentian Nathan Jones who was miles out of his depth. They shit-canned him after just a few months and have had to make do with an assistant coach taking charge of things until the summer, when they’ll have to rip it all up and start again, because they couldn’t entice a firefighter dinosaur or Ted Lasso to try and salvage their season. Anyway:

 

Tactical nous. Accuracy. Know-how. Intelligence. Nerve. Grit. Tenacity. Heart. Effervescence. Tricks. Impudence. Speed. Style.

 

I don’t ask for much.

 

Last season’s corresponding fixture followed the FA Cup victory over Chelsea on penalties just over a year ago. That game had taken an awful lot out of our players so Jurgen had opted to use his squad against the Saints. We were trying to hang on to City’s coattails in the title race as we pushed for an unprecedented quadruple. Virg, Thiago, Fab, Mo, Sadio and Lucho were all absent from the starting line-up while Curtis and Taki were in. Apart from conceding the opener to Nathan Redmond (who looks like a slightly younger Nuno Holy Spirit) after the Saints broke following a foul that wasn’t given, we completely bossed the game. Taki, who had spent 6 months on loan at Southampton the previous season, fired in the equaliser soon afterwards, and we eventually made our dominance count in the second half as Big Bird’s header from a corner took a slight deflection and looped into the far corner. What was most pleasing was that the team’s approach was no difference to how a full strength line-up would have approached it. No matter what, the win in ours.

 

https://youtu.be/utuw052m9fA

 

The picture was also bright in September 1988 when the defending league champions travelled to The Dell. It was always a tight and compact ground even after some new stands were built in the 1990s to comply with the Taylor Report’s recommendation for all-seater facilities at top flight stadia, but prior to that it was extremely claustrophobic and a ground on which we had a very patchy record. In those days, I think that would have been due to how the team had to travel to away grounds rather than the close proximity of the fans. The squad would have gone by coach on the day of the game whereas nowadays the lengthy journey between Merseyside and the south coast would be undertaken by flying and staying overnight in Hampshire, easing travel fatigue and aiding preparation and recuperation. The Dell was so hemmed in that the end stands followed the angle of the roads running immediately behind, and there was barely 2m between the touchlines and the perimeter fences.

 

Liverpool had started off in the league in 1988/89 the way they’d left off the previous season. David Burrows had been signed from West Brom to fill the left back slot (allowing the versatile Nicol to move over to the other side where he was a more natural fit), but the big story was the return of club legend Rushie for a record £2.8m (£400,000 less than what Juventus had paid to bring him to Serie A the year before). We already had a fearsome attack, and adding him to it would have had the rest of English football shitting themselves. I imagine there were many conversations among fans back then thinking out loud about how good we would be if we still had Rushie in addition to the threat of Aldo, Beardo and Barnesy. Now it was a mouth-watering reality. At Southampton, it was Beardsley who had a standout game, running the Saints ragged. Incidentally, it was a Southampton team that contained former Red Jimmy Case in midfield, and had a young Alan Shearer amongst the subs.

 

It was Beardo who broke beyond the tackles of the Saints’ back line to square for Aldo to tap into the unguarded net from inside the six yard box for the opener. As much vaunted as that team was in an attacking sense, we also had a tendency towards defensive calamity. Just a couple of minutes after taking the lead, Gillespie bundled into Paul Rideout to leave Derek Statham with the task of beating stand-in Reds keeper Hooper from the spot. He did so with ease, sending the ginger net minder the wrong way. In the second half, Beardo killed a long high Ablett ball upfield stone dead in the centre circle before again dribbling past the flying challenges of the Southampton defence and placing the ball past John Burridge. A quality goal from a quality player. Liverpool began to turn the screw and the Southampton goal led a charmed life as chances went begging. Then Aldo was brought down by the keeper when clean through, and Big Jan tucked away the resulting penalty with his customary coolness. 3-1 and it looked like the rest would have a hard task of stopping us from running away with the league again.

 

 

September 1988 saw the latest slice of weird from David Cronenberg top the box office. Jeremy Irons starred as twin Jekyll and Hyde-esque gynaecologists Beverly and Elliot Mantle in Dead Ringers. Beverly the shy retiring, nervy type with Elliot the lecherous cad who thinks nothing of getting his end away with his patients while they are anaesthetised, and also while they’re not. Ultimately, one twin cannot do without the other. I know I’ve seen this film before but I don’t remember too much about it. It’s not a Cronenberg film without some fucked-up goriness and sure enough, Dead Ringers has its typically Cronenberg moments. This is a guy who brought us films like Scanners, The Fly and Crash (the 1990s film not the 2005 Oscar winner) after all. At the time, Irons was best known for Brideshead Revisited but had begun to carve out a successful film career in films that were well written but less hyped than the mainstream.

 

 

I think Jurgen’s decisions for this game will be dictated by what our chances of a top 4 place are. If it’s gone, I think he will wring the changes and opt to give the likes of Queef, Big Joe and Kostas a start, and use Trent in a more obvious midfield role rather than the hybrid position he’s done so well in of late. If Darwin is fit, he might get to start. Milly might get the nod over Hendo with Diogo coming in for Lucho. Bobby might even get a start too. Whatever the line-up and whatever’s at stake, the motivation, concentration, attitude and application must be spot on. They were a year ago in this fixture, and must be again. These traits set the standard and mustn’t be allowed to drop regardless of the situation. Carry it into the pre-season schedule where Jurgen and the club must look to right this season’s wrongs and get us back competing for the big prizes once again by regrouping and refreshing. I don’t care if none of you lot are arsed about this one. I am. Three points please.

[LFC 6 Times]

Just play Bobby.

[manwiththestick]

9 minutes ago, LFC 6 Times said:

Just play Bobby.

I get that Southampton are crap but I think he would get overrun.

[ZonkoVille77]

We're fuckin shite. 

[Barnesey]

Pedant that I am, I think Bournemouth was before Newcastle…

[s(k)aturation]

On 23/05/2023 at 00:06, KMD7 said:

Klopp can go in the summer, frankly.

 

No.  And stop calling me frankly.

[s(k)aturation]

On 24/05/2023 at 21:27, ZonkoVille77 said:

We're fuckin shite. 

 

Oh.  

Yes I suppose we are when I think about it.

An interesting insight, thank you for your perspective.

 

[suzy]

I can’t remember a time I’ve been less arsed about a game!

[Lee909]

A point or 3 and Lavia sounds the plan

[Jairzinho]

24 minutes ago, suzy said:

I can’t remember a time I’ve been less arsed about a game!

 

Been almost a week, for me.

[Scott_M]

Just win and finish the season on a high of a win and late flurry of good results.

[an tha]

A game with absolutely nothing riding on it...not even the 2m per place in table thing.

 

A totally dead rubber - a dead rubber against the worst team in the league - if the players can dredge up even 75-80% of being arsed then it should be a comfortable win - but frankly on this one off occasion i am just not arsed.....Events at the pit are of much more interest.