Title Race

[Arnaud]

As Dave wrote in the match report, everybody is entitled to believe what he wants.

 

What is sure though it’s the story has not been written yet. Not sure it sounds English, but you get the point, everything remains  possible.

 

The best like Istanbul, Barca, Dortmund or the worse like Chelsea 2014 or Arsenal 89.

 

 

[Creator Supreme]

2 hours ago, The wanderer said:

 

Fucking right I am.

[Welsh]

Some of you must never be able to enjoy winning a game or a trophy.

 

I bet if we win the league, the first thing you'll all say is how it's probably the last time we'll win the league for a few years now Klopp's gone.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

2 hours ago, Arnaud said:

As Dave wrote in the match report, everybody is entitled to believe what he wants.

 

What is sure though it’s the story has not been written yet. Not sure it sounds English, but you get the point, everything remains  possible.

 

The best like Istanbul, Barca, Dortmund or the worse like Chelsea 2014 or Arsenal 89.

 

 

Exactly.  Anything could happen - and it's going to be fun finding out what's next.

[dave u]

Fun is definitely not the word that comes to my mind when I think about what comes next. Even if we somehow won it, it's going to be torture rather than fun!

[SasaS]

Exactly , if this is fun, there must be a spare sound proof room in Angry's house with the full set of fun equipment hidden in the cupboard.

[Dapower]

4 hours ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Talking about last season's collapse, it's a year today since Trent squared up to Xhaka and Freaky Fridayed both team's seasons.

Another bloody big game we should have won in the end

[Code]

All I ask for is us going into the last game of the season without having to rely on Everton or West Ham. 

[Dapower]

I’m thinking of going Crete for 4-5 nights end of April for a break and I’m currently plotting dates we don’t play a league game while I’m there so I can enjoy it

[Arnaud]

31 minutes ago, dave u said:

Fun is definitely not the word that comes to my mind when I think about what comes next. Even if we somehow won it, it's going to be torture rather than fun!

Hope is stronger than fear or resentment.

 

What do we want to feel ? 
 

We moaned for years because challenging for the League was over at Christmas. 
 

We all agree no one expected us to be where we are now back in august.

 

It may hurt but it could be awesome. 
 

Never give up !

[Bob]

5 minutes ago, Arnaud said:

Hope is stronger than fear or resentment.

 

What do we want to feel ? 
 

We moaned for years because challenging for the League was over at Christmas. 
 

We all agree no one expected us to be where we are now back in august.

 

It may hurt but it could be awesome. 
 

Never give up !

Fucking right.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

There are 17 teams in the Premier League who are free from the torture of a title challenge and I wouldn't swap places with any of them.

[TD_LFC]

8 minutes ago, Arnaud said:

We moaned for years because challenging for the League was over at Christmas. 

 

As shit as last season was it was a nice break not having to worry about a 40 yard last minute winner from some shitehawk at City ruining a good weekend or knowing that a draw was as bad as a loss every game like in the previous 4 years.

 

Far less stressful.

[Bob]

I stood and watched us almost but not quite win the league twice at anfield on the last day of the season  under Klopp like 40-50,000 others and as draining and emotional as it felt, it was still two of the best seasons of footie I'll ever watch and two of the times I've felt most proud to be a red.

 

The season we almost won it under Rogers was the first time I'd actually thought we could genuinely win the league in my adult life, but we fell short, but that season I was bouncing through the week looking forward to the next match.

 

Watching us win is great, but thanks to covid I've never seen us win the league, but I can say I have thoroughly enjoyed watching us come as close as we have and I'm gonna give this one every chance.

[Anubis]

1 hour ago, Arnaud said:

Hope is stronger than fear or resentment.

 

What do we want to feel ? 
 

We moaned for years because challenging for the League was over at Christmas. 
 

We all agree no one expected us to be where we are now back in august.

 

It may hurt but it could be awesome. 
 

Never give up !

[Dapower]

1 hour ago, Code said:

All I ask for is us going into the last game of the season without having to rely on Everton or West Ham. 

If we are not top going into last game forget it so we’ve got 6 games to get there 

[an tha]

7 minutes ago, Dapower said:

If we are not top going into last game forget it so we’ve got 6 games to get there 

Yeah there is absolutely zero chance that west ham or the shite would get anything...

 

By same token same applies to wolves against us if the other two required them to get something.

 

We have to have it in our own hands on final day as do they.

 

Only possible element of doubt would be if somehow 2 or even all 3 were on same points and it became a GD contest.

[Bobby Hundreds]

It was the fucking worst when Villa were beating City but we were also fucking it up at the time. Its like it was ours and we were throwing it away. Unfortunately Gerrard took Countinho off and Villa folded. 

[Barrington Womble]

20 hours ago, Ronnie Whelan said:

Good post.  

 

My gut is we'll drop points at Villa Park. Think we'll edge Spurs in a high scoring and nervy game. I have this feeling we'll smash Everton, but West Ham will be a horrible game that we'll just get over the line. The others will be okay I feel.

 

I have this feeling Spurs will take points off the other two. We may get another surprise as well like Villa drawing at Arsenal or City at Brighton.

 

We just need to hope City don't batter Luton this weekend so they don't edge ahead on the goal difference. 

 

The thing with all these fixtures is it's really hard this far ahead to know what team you're going to play.

 

Everton aren't used to playing twice per week, don't have much of a squad and they'll be playing us either side of games with forest and Brentford. They'll certainly need to win the former and will probably want points from the latter. West ham at the end of that week, also struggle around midweek games even though they're much more capable of that than Everton. And if they get past Alonso in the next round, they'll have a European semi ahead. 

 

The following week we have spurs at anfield and it'll be clearer by then ifn5th place is in the CL and if it is, they'll be on the beach, because the mancs won't be catching them. And then the following week it's villa who'll like be in the same boat as spurs and will have likely just played a European semi with their best team. 

 

Then all that could be shite as villa and west ham might be out of Europe, England don't look like getting the 5th CL spot and all these games are really live with teams fighting for their lives and not prioritising. 

 

Then there's all kinds of permutations for city and arsenal. 

 

So I just see it as absolutely nobody has more points than us as it stands. So keep moving forward, get the next 3 points and see where we are. You never know, that point in Manchester might end up being the point that wins it. 

 

 

3 hours ago, dave u said:

Fun is definitely not the word that comes to my mind when I think about what comes next. Even if we somehow won it, it's going to be torture rather than fun!

Mate, you've got to try and enjoy it. Otherwise what's the point. And this is likely to be the last time we'll get to enjoy it for a few years, so make the most of it. 

[Red Shift]

If memory serves me correct, this is the first time under Klopp that we have competed in the Europa League AND been in a Title challenge. That is a disadvantage I think, because we play Thursday night games, and although we then usually play on Sunday, it gives our main rivals an extra day’s recovery because City & Arsenal are in the Champions League playing in tues & weds nights. Could this explain why we haven’t beaten them this season over those four games? Possibly.

[Barrington Womble]

2 minutes ago, Red Shift said:

If memory serves me correct, this is the first time under Klopp that we have competed in the Europa League AND been in a Title challenge. That is a disadvantage I think, because we play Thursday night games, and although we then usually play on Sunday, it gives our main rivals an extra day’s recovery because City & Arsenal are in the Champions League playing in tues & weds nights. Could this explain why we haven’t beaten them this season over those four games? Possibly.

 

Personally I think the uefa cup has been great for us. We've rotated heavily, been able to ensure players got plenty of minutes both while they were bedding in or not making the team, so we've then had a lot of players who had match sharpness when we needed them. We didn't win at city, because we never win at city. We should have beaten them at anfield, we absolutely battered them. Same for arsenal. We lost at arsenal while dominating the game Ali and vvd fucked up and we pretty much lost our heads after it - and there was no Europe in that phase of the season, but we had been playing domestic cups while arsenal did nothing but practice free kicks. 

 

And now we're at the business end of the season, I hope klopp continues to rotate and uses the competition to get minutes into the legs of the players who need it. And if that means we go out, so be it. But we have some talented lads who should get some time over these games, Trent, Jota, Ali, Jones. Plus players like Kostas, grav and gakpo. I don't think we should be thowing loads of kids at it, but getting fringe and returning players some time might make all the difference in the league. 

[Ronnie Whelan]

19 minutes ago, Barrington Womble said:

 

The thing with all these fixtures is it's really hard this far ahead to know what team you're going to play.

 

Everton aren't used to playing twice per week, don't have much of a squad and they'll be playing us either side of games with forest and Brentford. They'll certainly need to win the former and will probably want points from the latter. West ham at the end of that week, also struggle around midweek games even though they're much more capable of that than Everton. And if they get past Alonso in the next round, they'll have a European semi ahead. 

 

The following week we have spurs at anfield and it'll be clearer by then ifn5th place is in the CL and if it is, they'll be on the beach, because the mancs won't be catching them. And then the following week it's villa who'll like be in the same boat as spurs and will have likely just played a European semi with their best team. 

 

Then all that could be shite as villa and west ham might be out of Europe, England don't look like getting the 5th CL spot and all these games are really live with teams fighting for their lives and not prioritising. 

 

Then there's all kinds of permutations for city and arsenal. 

 

So I just see it as absolutely nobody has more points than us as it stands. So keep moving forward, get the next 3 points and see where we are. You never know, that point in Manchester might end up being the point that wins it. 

 

 

Mate, you've got to try and enjoy it. Otherwise what's the point. And this is likely to be the last time we'll get to enjoy it for a few years, so make the most of it. 

Good post.

 

From memory, West Ham don't play the night we play Everton which makes that a very tough Saturday game. It's funny though, even if Spurs had achieved their goal, I'd still worry about them and equally hold out hope for them against City. I have this hope Villa could do a number on Arsenal this weekend. 

 

A huge advantage we have is that we have numerous players coming back from injury at just the right time. Fair enough City will too but Arsenal have had a lot of luck in this regard.

 

[Barrington Womble]

5 minutes ago, Ronnie Whelan said:

Good post.

 

From memory, West Ham don't play the night we play Everton which makes that a very tough Saturday game. It's funny though, even if Spurs had achieved their goal, I'd still worry about them and equally hold out hope for them against City. I have this hope Villa could do a number on Arsenal this weekend. 

 

A huge advantage we have is that we have numerous players coming back from injury at just the right time. Fair enough City will too but Arsenal have had a lot of luck in this regard.

 

You might be right about west ham not having a game that week, I just assumed they did, because nearly everyone seems to be on the same number of games and I thought it was just catch up week for postponed matches. 

 

I just don't know who'll take points off any team. The 3 at the top have dropped points to everyone. We've dropped points at the top, but we also dropped at Luton. City have lost to wolves, drawn twice with Chelsea and drawn to palace while also conceding twice to them at the weekend in a win. Arsenal have had times where they looked like they couldn't buy a goal, have lost to Fulham, west ham and Newcastle. And they dropped a lot of points in the period where they've played more games. 

 

7 games isn't many. But with the pressure of the season and massively intense games (just look what they're both going through tonight), I think points could be dropped at any time or never. Which is why we've just got to get our next 3 points and imo, use the uefa to get those players you mention back to match fitness. 

[The wanderer]

5 hours ago, TD_LFC said:

 

As shit as last season was it was a nice break not having to worry about a 40 yard last minute winner from some shitehawk at City ruining a good weekend or knowing that a draw was as bad as a loss every game like in the previous 4 years.

 

Far less stressful.

It really wasn’t fun watching that shitshow.  I’m enjoying the ride this year with all the highs and lows.

[an tha]

Yeah it is nerve shredding, stomach churning, arse clenching, fucking torture these titlw races - especially with where bar is these days....

 

Yes the scars of 97 and 92 pts not being enough are still fresh, and yes there is a horrible fear of something similar happening yet again.

 

It is in many ways horrible, really horrible. It consumes you even when game is not on, the stress is off the charts....

 

But give me this all day fucking long with all the fucking stress, angst and worry it entails over finishing fucking 8th/knowing won't be winning league by November and top 4 being the best can hope for.