The Guest

The problem is that one man’s bad decision is another man’s good one. We see it every single week. Managers, fans and pundits all moaning about decisions whether they were contentious or absolutely not. It’s taken years for people (including “experts” on the telly) to stop saying somebody isn’t clearly and obviously offside despite the lines showing them off and it being a yes or no decision. It’s like whack a mole. Everyone moans about something not realising if they stop doing that thing 2 other problems pop up. Remember when everyone used to say it needs to be the ref going over to the monitor so it’s his decision. Look at the mess that causes now. I didn’t want VAR but the reality is that it’s a good thing. The refereeing we seen yesterday was basically how it was all the time before VAR. United walked to titles and if it ever got tight they intervened on their behalf. It was hard to hold refs specifically Webb to account because they could hide behind the “difficulty” of it. Initially when it was brought in we started to see decisions we would normally be a victim to being overturned like Atkinson against Wolves calling a Lallana handball when he chested it. We got the nickname LiVARpool because we were getting so many on field decisions correctly overturned. Opposition fans were clearly so used to us getting bad calls they couldn’t handle it. None of them could point to any decisions being overturned in our favour that were incorrect. Over the seasons though VAR has slowly turned into being more subjective allowing the refs to essentially ref how they’ve always done. Penalise the sides they want to and let other things go they like. Years ago it was United because they were scared of Ferguson and now it’s either City or Newcastle for obvious reasons nobody in the public can fully call out. That refereeing performance has been coming for months. We are refereed differently to everyone else. It’s inarguable now. What’s happened is that Webb has come in and lifted the bar of “clear and obvious” so that they can make as many subjective and biased calls as they like and get away with it. They’ve been trying to botch our season in near enough every game so far. We’ve been that good/lucky we’ve basically overcome it in every game. The result has ended up with yesterday. They’ve overplayed their hand massively by sending 2 players off and not giving a perfectly good goal. The funniest thing I’ve seen is Neville saying that the referee looked mortified that they’d fucked up. He was so mortified that he then continued the most biased refereeing performance anyone has ever witnessed. The answer is that they need to take subjectiveness out of it. We need to actually define what a foul is, what a yellow card is, what a red card is etc. When a situation comes up like Jones red yesterday and everyone saying it shouldn’t be then it needs to be written into law that it isn’t and why for that exact situation. Webb’s position should be completely untenable because even to somebody who doesn’t believe the corruption shouts he’s 100% caused that performance yesterday because of his policy choices.

You know what would sum Klopp up for me this season. If we got a penalty late on and Salah was still taking them and he missed it.

Hahahaha don’t worry this is Klopps plan for Nunez.

I played 11 a side amateur football for nearly 30 years and at times in some of the most horrible football environments you can imagine. Football that me or you play or played is completely different and is refereed completely differently to top level football. I’d expect someone so smug about “playing football” would know that. At the top level for about 2 decades now that sort of action has been considered a foul and a lot of the time a booking.

It was outside the box.

It’s potentially a yellow because it’s a cynical foul where the player is running into open space in our half. He hasn’t gone for the ball he’s just pushed him over/put his arm across to stop him from running as quickly. We were lucky. Take your tinted specs off. He gets fouled himself and is pissed off but I’ve got no doubt Klopp and the coaching staff have drilled the players relentlessly about kicking/throwing the ball away. Yet here he is, the vice captain, doing it minutes in when he knows he absolutely shit at defending and could get exposed. He’s the most braindead player we’ve ever had and it’s fucking comical that he’s been given that level of responsibility. In a way his sheer level of stupidity helped us there because had it been 10 more minutes or so later and he done that I reckon the ref would have sent him.

The owners could have given Klopp 10bn and he’d still be playing Trent at right back. It wouldn’t matter. The first thing we should have done this summer is signed a right back. Second we should have signed two more right backs just in case anyone got injured to avoid playing this cunt there ever again. We should then have built the midfield around where he fitted or didn’t fit into that. We haven’t even signed a back up for him. That’s the season written off right there. There’s going to be plenty more of this as the season goes on but it’s still hard to prepare yourself for it. I said I think it will take Klopp about 20 league games before he finally abandons the hybrid mess completely but I’m beginning to think regardless of that he will never move Trent from right back permanently. If that’s the case then I just don’t see a successful future for us again.

We haven’t been playing “the system” since Trent got booked about 6 mins in. What game are you watching? He’s been playing right back in and out of possession since that moment and hasn’t stood in midfield once. The problem is he’s a fucking shocking right back with a horrific attitude.

Diaz. Wow. Klopp trying to alienate our best player now. We are absolutely done. This season is going to be a car crash.

Klopp is close to being finished. He can’t not play Trent at right back and it’s fucking murdering us game in game out. On comes Gomez and that means the stupid cunt at right back is staying on until he gets sent off. It’s absolutely mental.

Its Lovren Spurs levels this. People need to wake the fuck up with this joke. Mainly Klopp.

Genuinely what is he still doing on the pitch?

Endo looks overawed as well. Needs a few good passes or he’s going to unsettle the defence.

Trent having a shocker even by his standards.

Do you reckon he’s the most braindead footballer to ever play for us? He’s got to be up there.

Defensively it doesn’t really matter if Trent goes wandering into midfield when we have the ball. We are fucked regardless because defensively he’s still playing right back. His attitude still stinks and I expect us to get exposed even if it doesn’t because he will go to sleep numerous times anyway. With the ball he will probably just be anonymous again if Newcastle just send a man to follow him inside. We won’t get him the ball and spend the first half an hour causing our own problems or smashing the ball up the pitch from repeated goal kicks after turning the ball over to them doing it a few minutes before.

Unsurprisingly since Abramovich left nobody wants to give them 40m a season anymore. They were told expect a drop off to 25m. Out of the blue they’ve agreed a deal with a company that was set up a few months ago for 40m a season. It turns out this company is also owned by investors in Clearlake capital. The prem have not ratified it yet because they brought those rules in to stop Newcastle doing it.

At the moment Gakpo or Jota are guaranteed starters ahead of Nunez. Not only is Gakpo a better player than him he actually suits the way we play. I doubt Gakpo is bedding into a new position either. As soon as we’ve got someone to play in the 6 then Gakpo goes back up top and the two new midfield lads play the 8’s. The clamour to get Nunez in the team is absolutely baffling. He’s complete garbage. Even the captain chaos stuff has completely disappeared when he plays. It’s just give the ball away or hit a shot in a stupid situation.

Absolutely no chance. Klopps got big plans for him but starts Jota or Gakpo ahead of him up front. If we had paid 10/20m for him he wouldn’t have survived this transfer window. His touch is terrible and his decision making is even worse. He’s got nothing else to his game that’s going to make up for those faults at a top club. He’s been here a year and all he’s shown us is that he’s thick. The early sending off summed up how dense he is and he hasn’t given any indication to suggest different. We are now just throwing him on at the end of games in hope more than anything. He was an awful signing. We seemed to get into a habit of signing players that played well against us. The daft thing about signing forwards that do well against us is that very few if any teams play a high line like we do. He did well because he beat our offside trap and that was it. We could 100% play him in more like Dave suggests but the vast majority of our games do not allow the opportunity for balls in behind. He doesn’t suit playing with inverted wingers and needs crosses for tight games and we play that way even less now with this hybrid mess. Klopp is literally willing to throw another season down the drain to force the hybrid set up through. If he had any plan whatsoever for Darwin he would be playing him now and dealing with the pain of it.

I don’t know why everyone is so baffled by what’s going on. When we signed him Klopp and the coaches clearly thought he was better than he is which is why we paid the money we did. It’s now obvious he’s dogshit and completely thick. He’s not learned anything in a year of being here and it’s obvious every time he’s on the pitch. We now can’t sell him because nobody would give us any decent money for him or pay him the wages he’s on either so we are stuck with him. Even if that’s guessing on my part the second we would go to the market or the player himself to test it then the relationship between him and the manager would be dead and it’s not worth risking it. He’s nowhere near the same level as the other 4 forwards so barring injury or suspension he isn’t going to be playing or getting runs of games. Klopp will just be throwing him on to see if he can get a goal with very little tactical input. I think we are going to see a lot of later career Sturridge-esque performances from him where he thinks to get into the team he needs to score so his decision making is going to get even worse.

I usually agree with you a lot of times but we were absolutely shite. It wasn’t just a few ropey moments. We couldn’t keep the ball at all. I think we went nearly an hour without putting 5 passes together. The set up in every aspect is absolutely horrific at the moment. In our big point seasons we won a lot of games by a goal and struggled to create chances because of a lack width. We were hardly ever hanging on though. We were in complete control of the ball against every team bar City and didn’t look like conceding unless it was a freak situation.

The right back/midfield hybrid position has been a car crash waiting to happen. Personally I think it’s difficult to judge how good/bad he would be in midfield because this hybrid thing is not the same as him playing there exclusively. It was absolutely shit yesterday because Chelsea did what I expect every single side to do. Just put a couple of players in the middle of the pitch from a restart and you can’t get Trent the ball. They don’t need to be worried about the ball going wide right because nobody is there. We then try to pass it out and give it away or have to twat it long. We then just did that over and over again for about 80 minutes. When Trent does get the ball in the middle he then doesn’t have a right back option as a pass. It ends up meaning he’s playing tight straight passes in the middle of the pitch or dawdling on the ball because of the lack of options. It’s mind numbingly stupid tactics that for some stupid reason we are just sticking with. I don’t think I’ve ever seen us struggle to keep the ball in game so badly. None of the angles or options are there. We are getting the worst of both worlds. His lazy can’t be arsed attitude to defensive situations because he’s still “defending” from right back alongside no creativity because we can’t him on the ball when we have it. The long term problem for me now is that we’ve signed midfielders that are better tried and tested 8’s that should play ahead of him. If you put Gomez right back (which I would 100% do) or sign a new RB then the only midfield position I think he suits is playing alongside a ball winner (we are hopefully going to sign) in a 4231. That means you’re then picking between 1 of Szobo and Mac. It’s a fucking mess.

The specific left centre back thing is a daft idea. Robertson was crap yesterday but he still played largely as a left back in this formation. I wouldn’t be playing a centre back there because they would have got slaughtered. At some point Klopp is going to wake up and stop doing this stupid set up as well because it’s killing us and at that point you’ve wasted money. I’m not against signing a centre back because of how injury prone ours are but a specific led sided one because of the current formation would be stupid. We need to sign a right back and two midfielders that can come straight into the team.

I’m only 15 mins in but Brownie has absolutely nailed it. It’s his attitude to defending. It stinks and has stunk for years. The interview tells you all you need to know. We’ve made someone the vice captain who is literally willing to burn the team down to force the manager to move his position. I don’t even think the hybrid position is the problem defensively. Most of the problems come when he’s in position. There’s so many times when the ball or the player goes past him and he just goes into can’t be arsed mode. There was one occasion where someone got behind him and Konate sprinted his arse off to get back. At that point you can clearly see Trent completely turn off tracking back getting slower and slower. He 100% takes the view of oh well if they score now there’s nothing I could have done and if Konate makes the tackle then great. What happens is Konate makes the tackle but the ball spills out back to Chelsea where Trent then should have been but wasn’t because he couldn’t be arsed. Chelsea then fuck it up and goes for a corner and Trent runs off giving Konate a high 10. There’s absolutely no way he isn’t getting slagged off by the other players. They will all be fully on to him. It feels like a war of wills between Trent and Klopp at the moment and we are the losers.

He’s running his arse off and the set up is killing him. He then gets dragged off because he’s not getting the ball. I’m not surprised he’s fuming. Other than the first 15 mins or so when Chelsea were clearly nervous and panicking the way we are playing now is going to create even less chances than we were making last season.