TheDrowningMan

Yeah, just saw that. Hopefully just bruising / dead leg and the upmost of caution, but it’s hard not to expect the worst given our injury situation at the moment.

Absolutely fucking brilliant.

No one who is expected to start against Forest should play this one. We can’t afford to risk any more injuries with the situation we have, and I’d also say we should be extremely cautious about who plays in the Europa game the week after given that City are up three days later.

I think you can also make a very, very good case for going back and removing points from the likes of Arsenal for deploying that tactic - after this, you’d have to question the integrity of a possible league title where that didn’t happen.

Klopp needs to mention Ben White after the game - ensure Arsenal are picked up on it from now on.

Definitely going to need to discard the FA & Europa this season - all in on the one that really matters. This number of injuries are not sustainable on multiple fronts.

If they’re (properly) fit, they should play. I’d prefer to see them rested in midweek; goalkeeper aside, no-one who is going to be starting against Forest should play much of a part in the FA Cup against Southampton.

We can’t bank on Arsenal falling away either though. They’ve got a guaranteed 12 points before they go to City, starting with tonight’s walkover against Newcastle.

Hopefully the preposterous idea that De Zerbi could succeed Klopp is fatally damaged after this.

Still, I think it’s a bit soon to consider him for the manager’s job.

That’s true, but there’s no way we’re finishing above Arsenal if we can’t win today, let alone the Cheats.

True, but I’d take probably not ahead of definitely not. And it would be nice for it to remain a realistic possibility for as long as possible.

They’re going to be a nightmare to break down now.

Regardless of us being top, given the opposition for the title, our challenge is well and truly over if we cannot beat Luton at home. It’s a game we should be winning regardless of injury problems.

Yep, absolutely agree - I don’t see anything in him that suggests there’s an extraordinary manager in there and strongly suspect we’d be looking at a Rodgers-esque outcome with him.

I suppose another possibility for Bayern is that they might go all in for Klopp, even if that means a season with a stopgap.

Haha, true. Though if he’s any good at Bayern we might have found someone else by then - not necessarily a trophy winner because we’ll need the extraordinary again to achieve that under FSG’s financial model but someone who keeps us in top four contention. I doubt FSG would want to rock the boat under those circumstances. If Xabi Tuchels it in Munich then he’s damaged goods and probably ends up yet another manager who slips between clubs every 18 months or so.

I’m not convinced about De Zerbi, but am hopeful that Alonso would choose us over Bayern. That job comes up every season or two, whereas he might not get another opportunity to manage Liverpool.

So does Roberto De Matteo, but I wouldn’t want him as our manager either. That one win aside, Tuchel has spent most of the last 5 or 6 years underwhelming at some of the richest clubs in the world.

Tuchel should not even be on a longlist of managers for a job like ours, let alone an actual contender - he hasn’t got what it takes and we’d be looking again come December. Would even take a chance on an unknown quantity from the Championship ahead of him.

We’ll still have some people claiming that a miserable known quantity like Tuchel should be a candidate for our job.

Teams never win leagues with a manager whose departure has been announced. The thing I’d question is how the news was leaked - Klopp let the owners know in November so making it known to the players & public clearly wasn’t the plan. That suggests there’s someone pretty high up at the club leaking information that they shouldn’t.

Not only do we have to beat them, but in all likelihood win every remaining game. If we are to drop any more points, it’ll have to be on a weekend where City have already done so - they will 100% capitalise if it’s the other way around.

Even if they go 4-0 up, Brentford have less than no chance of getting anything from this.

Yeah, that’s the thing - I’m surprised by how people get lured into a false sense of security by them year after year. It’s after New Year that they’re almost unstoppable, so you absolutely cannot allow them to get in front of you. Given City’s run of games, we almost certainly now have to win every game up to and including the one against them at Anfield. Even if we manage that, we cannot drop any further points unless they’ve already done so because they’ll just capitalise if we do.