gkmacca

Yes, I remember that one. Crazy. I'm afraid I'm getting increasingly cynical about the supposed tactical nous of players for dead ball situations. Do players really have a range of corner kicks to choose from? Robbo seems to put up his hands in the same gesture no matter where he puts the ball these days. Same with the intense hand-over-mouth chats over the ball before free kicks ('I think I'll try to whip it over the wall and straight down into the left-hand corner'. 'I was thinking of doing the same for the other corner'. 'Let's compromise - I'll blast it straight at the wall, then you blast the rebound over the bar').

Keita's attempt to swazz a shot into the goal against Madrid - the gold standard for idiocy. For me, Trent's ludicrous attempt in the last game to curl the ball into the goal, when all it needed was a straight hard shot, represented the next most stupid decision in recent years. But there are so many recently. Amazing that we can have multiple specialist coaching and brain scans and god knows what else but we can't get forwards to just sharpen the heck up.

Much better tactics, much better performance, but the same horribly wasteful finishing. What is always exasperating is the sight of top class technical players leaning back and blasting shots way over the bar. Really, it should hardly ever happen.

He's never recovered from George Harrison's evaluation of him:

Didn't look like it, though.

There probably are, deep down, some factors that the farewell era has brought on us. Klopp, for all his professionalism, has been doing some 'where next' media interviews; he's turned down loads but he's had to do some. If that doesn't affect someone, it would be weird. Pep seems to have already moved on. He's nowhere near as engaged he used to be. It's as if he's already mulling over the chats with his agent. Then there are the players. What is at the back of their mind these days if they don't push themselves on? 'The manager might drop me next season?' Nope. 'The manager might sell me next season?' Nope. So everything, now, is very much short term, no matter how much they fight ('fight,' hah!), against it. The end of the season, suddenly, cannot come soon enough.

Quite. He is absolutely exasperating. Part of being a top player is making the right judgement at the right time. He hardly ever gets that right. That early attempt, leaning back, trying to curl the ball in - utterly wrong for that situation. Trying to hit the ball back into the area without lookng up to see three players were offside, and he didn't even find them anyway - just witless and irresponsible. And he'll probably think it was all someone else's fault.

TAA - when pace and power was all that was needed, he leant back and tried a shot with his instep. After that, multiple deep crosses without looking into areas where several of our players were offside, and some truly stupid looping balls towards their keeper. Infuriating.

I'd have to disagree about Endo. He's doing his best and without someone like him in that position we'll be even more open to their attacks. You have Konate falling over and making multiple other errors, Macca getting caught with the ball, Diaz getting caught with the ball, Jones being caught with the ball, Bradley being caught with the ball - in his position, Endo's hardly going to look calmly in control with all of that chaos around him and coming at him. We are still creating chances but everyone is so anxious they're snatching at everything, and that's just going to go on unless we get some luck, settle back down and use our intelligence. It needs a great HT talk.

It's the mental aspect that's become so slow. I half expect George Sephton to announce each pass before it happens. The fans need to hold their nerve as much as the players. The confidence has slipped away. It can come back if we just fight our way back into this, but there's way too much tension in the team at present.

Personally, the way things are going, I'd rather see the club organise some ceremony in the ground for Jurgen, or something more imaginative but self-contained, rather than send him around the city with just the league cup as a send off. There's an air of exhaustion sinking into the atmosphere these days, and it's understandable, but this man has been an astonishing presence these past few years, in so many ways, it shouldn't end in bickering and sneering.

He's got a huge amount of potential. He showed that in his first few games. The excessive hype that followed didn't help him one bit - where were the ferocious shots, the corners that went straight in, the aggressive midfield performances? - but give the bloke a break. Next season will see what he can really do, but to dismiss him at this stage is absolutely idiotic.

If the Board does indeed now have 'a fundamental, legally binding role in Liverpool FC’s decision-making processes' I can't see how it so far hasn't even (as far as I know) made its position on this issue public. SOS were particularly prominent in stressing what an important achievement the Board was for supporters. Rather than dilute the atmosphere in a key European game, I'd expect, as a supporter, this Board to be assuming responsibility for pursuing the matter.

Well, what the heck is 'The Supporters' Board' supposed to do? Was it not 'developed as part of the club’s commitment to strengthen dialogue with supporters and increase the involvement of fans in decision-making processes in order to ensure engagement is more robust and effective. As such, the new process will be put in place to enable deeper consultation with supporters on fan-facing strategic decisions'? Does it not now have, according to SOS's website, 'a fundamental, legally binding role in Liverpool FC’s decision-making processes for the first time in the club’s history'? That sounds to me like an obvious means of pursuing the issue, and, unless it's been an utter waste of time since it was set up in 2022, the most practicable means of moving any discussion on. And yet we're reduced to a flag ban???

Quite.

No sympathy for these interviewers. He looks like he's just emerged from a ditch, he doesn't just ask knowingly insulting questions, he repeats them and then tries to get credit for them, then he doesn't know where to go because he's so dazzled himself with the insults he's accidentally turned his tiny hack brain off by mistake. I've loathed most of what Hendo has done and said over the past few months but he's handled this remarkably well - most people would have chinned the shite.

To celebrate this fact, Nike are teaming up with Chums to produce the Paisley2 line of sportswear, which will include the classic brown cardigan, tan shirt, grey slacks and patterned socks made famous by the great man.

Strange character. Bitterness seems to well up inside of him on a regular basis. Resented Rafa. Resented Hodgson not being loved by LFC fans. Then seemed to resent the backlash against him.

No doubt those gut-bucketed fried chicken Gooner devotees, Slobbo and Fucko, or whatever they call themselves, when they're not trying to pretend they're really from Jamaica, excite themselves, in the absence of any women venturing into their oily-paunched personal spaces, to the point where they're almost dribbling ready for Piers Morgan to do his worst with them. They can feck off into the fantastic metaverse they came from, and be haunted forevermore with celestrial re-runs of George Graham's team 'going through the motions' while their own chants of 'HOOF!' bleeds their ears.

He's making some awful technical decisions, which, added to his godawful failure to make his right leg useful for anything other than standing up, is a disgrace. The fact he has managed to keep the positive stats ticking over is, yes, a huge achievement, but for me none of that excuses the fact that, for a world class player, he's still shite when the ball lands on his right foot, when he's on the side of...the fecking right wing.

In every single game this season, we should have beaten them. I won't say 'blown them away,' but I mean that. The fact we didn't, well, that poses questions for a new manager and a new season, but there's simply no point in dwelling on it. Move on. Deal in what we can still deal with.

And to think he walked off in a sulk last game. If I see him lean back and blast over one more time I'll kick him to Dubai.

Frankly, if we can't cope against that team, we don't deserve the title. Plain and simple. Time and again we hand it to them on a plate.

Painfully predictable. What is it with these players? They've too much experience playing away in hostile atmospheres to repeatedly get spooked like this.

The ever-cunning Bielsa sat on a bucket, thus confusing the size-ists. Ruben could stand on one of those fold-out steps that you can buy from B&M. Or wear some vintage glam rock red-sparkle platform boots. I wouldn't worry about his height. The beard can go, though. Jurgen went full-Barthesian in his gradual move from dyed hair and designer stubble to anti-vanity greying chin-bush. Ruben's beard is just too bland. Oh dear, there is so much about which to worry!