Antynwa

Still going

19 hours ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Nah. Football involves defending as well as attacking.

Yes, but that 1st half against Arsenal, again despite everything is still my favourite period of football ever 

I still think, despite everything the 13/14 team produced the best football we've ever seen. 

10 minutes ago, Colonel Bumcunt said:

I just can't figure out who would replace him.  

The Tories aren't sorry for anything they've done, the replacement won't be contrite and benevolent, but they need a stable and sane person to take them into a GE.  Just not a lot of candidates.  

Jeremy Hunt has made his position clear, I reckon it'll be him. 

On 04/06/2022 at 18:19, Scott_M said:

On the comments on Curtis Jones on the previous page...

 

He had a very stop / start season - didn't he have COVID19 at the start, then had a concussion and a few other bumps along the way.

 

I really liked him when he came in the side, left wing, playing off the cuff, a bit of a maverick, happy to take the 5th penalty etc etc etc. I think playing him in central midfield has limited the good things about him and asked him to do things he's not entirely comfortable with.

 

Despite his talent on the ball, IMO, Jones hasn't shown the defensive / controlling tempo aptitude to play in midfield. There was a couple of games early in the season, when he played there he was invisible. I know when he played towards the end of the season it was against "lesser" opposition, I thought he looked more mature. He was very good at Southampton.

 

Maybe we're asking too much of him? He's come into the side later than say Owen or Fowler and once he's come in, he's been asked to learn a new position, which is likely against his natural maverick instincts.

 

To me, he's not shown an attitude problem. He's been giving it biftas at the trophy lifts we've had and looks a fun part of the squad.

He is clearly a very, very talented player. The jury is still out if he's a central midfielder. 

Jones has a touch of the 2012-2013 Henderson's about him. Every time I watch him he tries to do the right thing, but sometimes it doesn't come off like it didn't for Henderson, you can tell there is a player there and if he can bulk up and build himself upon Henderson's style he'll be a cracking player for us for years. 

On 04/06/2022 at 08:54, Kevin D said:

Body language is obviously not a clear barometer of anything, really, but I’ve seen a few times when he’s been subbed early and he doesn’t like it.

 

 He’s still a very good midfielder, do you worry he might think about moving to another big team where he could still be the guy? 
 

I’d be thinking that, in his situation, personally.

There will be a transition for Henderson coming forward, but its not anytime soon. I think he's had a great season. Again he captained a side, played most amount of games and came 15 minutes away from winning the league. 

You can't ask for much more else. 

Just now, Section_31 said:

If he goes to a rival he can seriously get fucked. If I see Salah in city colours I'm done with football and life.

Torres hurt more. 

Its disappointing but we've been down this road before. I still think it gets sorted for what its worth, but even if it it doesn't, we will be okay. 

With Mane looking likely to go, Salah contract likely to rumble on. Players aging and moving on, are we in the middle of a rebuild? The number of players likely to go including those who have gone, really does deplete the squad. Not to mention they're all getting older I.E Milner, Henderson, Thiago, Bobby

The historic front three would need to be broken up at some point, but its clear now this needs to be managed in such a way as to limit the immediate impact. With both Salah and Mane increasingly looking likely to depart over the next 12 months. 

What say you?  The Athletic Reported a while ago that this summer was seen as a transition one and I think this is likely to be the case, and I think reflects Jurgen staying on longer.

Could simultaneously be a bit mad and exciting this 

It's sad but if he goes he goes, we cannot really replace both Mane and Salah in one transfer window. 

After I stopped being a cry arse, I took my youngest to Leeds Street. She was gutted she didn't see Klopp, but what a tonic. Love my club. 

My big worry is that we do look absolutely knackered. Mentally and physically. 

Usually you can point to something, a poor player, a poor performance, a weakness something to get your teeth into. We have none of that, on our day I back us 100% but the negative side of me thinks that we're going to have to shithouse our way through this game if we're going to win it. 

They deserve nothing but credit, and maybe in light of yesterday I'm at a negative disposition, its going to be hard. 

When they played The Real Thing - I've never been so happy

You know, being lucky is not a bad attribute to have.

Just give him whatever he wants plus another 10 years. He’s been integral to our success, and quite frankly I don’t want to live in a world where he doesn’t retire here 

Couldn't care less if we finish 9th

Couldn't care less about the Memes and the Twitter nonsense

Couldn't care less if Everton win something and they have one as well

Couldn't care less if we didn't have the actual trophy

I want a parade, I want the lads on a bus around Liverpool so I can take my kids, I want Lallana and Degsy on that bus, I want them wearing new balance gear. I want the sun to be shining and I want my fucking parade. 

Do you want your parade?

4 Steps to winning the game

1. Drop Thiago

2. Push Hendo into midfield

3. Score goals 

4.????

It was unplayable on PS4, Managed to get hold of a PS5 and it plays fine. Some frustrating bugs but not all that bad.

Story is a bit crap though

17 minutes ago, Joey8FrogsLegs said:

Henderson was never the Gerrard replacement.

 

He’s been praised now, and rightfully so, because of the part he’s played in the teams development and achievements over the last seasons.

 

But I think you’d struggle to find a single person who, when Gerrard left, would say ‘yeah, Henderson is the Gerrard replacement’ 
  

He definately wasn’t back then, and he isn’t now imo.

 

In fact I find the whole ‘replacement’ logic a bit odd. Great players and poor players leave, and new ones come in. The manager and the coaching staff builds new teams based on the players available. And thankfully with our current setup they do so based on a long term plan. 
 

We’ll need a new captain when Henderson leaves, or when he looses his place in the starting eleven maybe. That’ll be sorted. But we dont need to worry about replacements imo, and I dont think we do either.

 

Having the right characters in the squad to build a long term winning culture is a different discussion. I think we need that, and I think we have it now in Henderson, Milner, Van Dijk and maybe a few others. In that respect maybe Milner was far more important than Henderson a few years back, in him we brought in a proven winner, something that was lacking in the squad at the time.

You're right in part that's why I said 'replacement', Shelvey was planned as his replacement as was Emre Can.

In all seriousness though, I am unsure how you even go about replacing Hendo. Hendo is everything, the power, the desire, the fact he's come through a tunnel of shit and smelling like roses. You can't buy the experience, and everything that has culminated to make Hendo the man he is today and the impact he has on this team.

Every time we've lost a legend you can't just go out and get someone like that person because it doesn't work. Hendo was never Gerrard, he was something different to Gerrard and the team has to adapt.

If we want another talismanic midfielder, I do think we should be molding Curtis Jones to be that guy, Hendo was always the Gerrard 'replacement' but Hendo's seems not at all obvious. 

21 hours ago, Total Longo said:

I would almost go as far as saying Ant possibly loves Hendo even more than i do, and i am the Galactic President of the Jordan Henderson supporters club.

1. Hendo

2. Wife

3. Kids

In that order

I'm not overly fussed about Henderson's replacement because I'll stop supporting the club at the point he leaves

We need an evolution of this Liverpool side. System and personnel. 

This isn't new 

It was like this before Van Dijk got injured

Its been a good run

Jordan Henderson was probably one of few players who came out of the game with any credit

I love him, leave him alone.

4 minutes ago, Red74 said:

Problem Robbo’s facing is that he has to babysit Henderson and can’t get forward to support the attack. 
 

There was a moment in the 1st half were Gini was holding the ball up in their half waiting for Robbo to bomb on but he was nowhere to be seen. 
 

There was another passage of play in the first half were we got the ball back on our left side and Henderson started running up the pitch with the midfield and Robbo had to tell him to get back.

 

We couldn’t afford to take the risk yesterday of leaving wide open spaces for them to isolate Henderson in and Robbo made sure that our left hand side was on Wuhan levels of lockdown 

Less so yesterday but even when Robbo was supporting the attack - both him and Mane ran into brick walls - time and time again. Newcastle was horrific 

1 hour ago, Alex_K said:

1. We conceded 16 goals in 8 league games prior to Gomez joining VVD as injured (11 goals in 4 games prior to VVD's injury; 7 admittedly in the Villa outlier);
2. We have conceded 5 goals in 10 games since Gomez + VVD were injured, and we reverted to 1 or more midfielders in defence (combo from Fabinho / Henderson / Milner). Fixtures incl. United (1st), Leicester (3rd), Tottenham (5th), S'ton (8th). 2 conceded total in those games.

2 possibilities:

1. The total absence of centre backs has transformed us into a singularly better defensive unit than the presence of VVD/Gomez/Matip (variously). Unlikely.
2. The entire system & structure of the team has been adapted to compensate. Likely.

When this system changes it impacts everyone. It impacts the time taken to reach the box. It impacts the position of the wingers on the touchline. It impacts cut-backs from the byline. It impacts position of delivery of crosses. It impacts committment of players to set-pieces. Everything.

 

Against City, Wolves, Palace in recent months we've played as scintiliatingly as any games in a long time. Salah remains top scorer. LFC remain top scorers. Despite being top scorers, when 2 midfielders and/or Williams/Philipps have played in defence in league games we have struggled to fashion chances. These are the facts.

 

The system (and Klopp football is nothing without its systems) is hamstrung at the moment. The mind-numbing levels of short term thinking posted across this forum this week is embarassing frankly. Everything from barbs at Klopp, Wijnaldum to the whole front 3 needing to be broken up to the entire team needing a rebuild. Just completely inane dribble. You'd hope the quantatively strongest LFC squad in history would allow for a more nuanced discussion. Apparently not. Maybe some are not capable of more than happy-clapping when we win and booing when we don't. At least their mentality is understood now. To note - we were odds on favourites to win the title 4 league fixtures ago.

 

Not a direct strike at this thread - it at least posits options. More at the pessimists & idiots who really, really don't deserve what this squad has crafted over the past 3 years given the circumstances right now.

 

 

 

I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but as I said this run of form isn't just limited to this season. Since January we've not been that good, now the intensity, pandemic, and the fact we won the league in the period does mean that the intensity levels had been bound to drop.

When I watch them, they look devoid of any novel ideas. Yesterday was slightly different in that Thiago was picking passes that others previously hadn't seen, but that Mane and Robertson link up has produced very little recently, Bobby is effectively a passenger when we need someone to step up, and well Salah has been Salah.

I'm probably just venting and i love them all to bits but the pattern of play is now becoming too consistent, and not in a good way.

I think we could be entering a period of transition and if we persist with something that may have ran its course then we will suffer for longer.