Sparky

But at least we know now he went there for a fresh challange.

As if anything will happen...

The maths and the moving parts of all this, needing homegrown or U22 players, is surely informing whatever decisions are being made. Especially if Phillips is off as well. I imagine they are thinking about a batch of 3 transfers together and in terms of "If we buy X and Y then the third player has to be homegrown/U22" etc rather than just buying someone to replace Fabinho and then moving on to the next position.

Schroedinger's Twat.

Thank you! That's all I wanted to hear.

All of this Ashley Young ribbing is quite hard to bear when I'm a day older than him...

There's a depressing number of candidates for Worst Game considering I think we only lost 4 in the whole of last season? Forest (a) for me though, that's when I could tell we'd reverted back to being a side that would lose away to any old shite who had a bit of desire.

I'm starting to lose hope that we'll be able to overturn a 3 goal deficit at the Bernabeu...

I know he played badly but there's no need for name calling.

Of the other 31 teams in the Champions League, only one got more points than us (Bayern). And we finish 2nd in our group. I wonder if a team has ever got 15 points and finished second. Add it to our list of unwanted records.

I certainly agree with that, it's no good having two defenders on the halfway line for one ball to put someone clean through. The knock-on effect of having so many early season injuries is that we aren't able to rotate, which adds to the fatigue and the players all looking like they're running through treacle. Yeah fundamentally I agree and I think once we get players back fit things will improve a lot due to the quality and chance to rest players. I know Klopp won't go to three at the back because it'd be too much to implement mid-season even if he wanted to. But I do think it would solve a lot of our current issues.

I think the game has evolved beyond "winning the midfield battle". How many midfield battles do we even have each season, we tend to dominate the ball in 90% of our matches? Our problem has been that we haven't been creating good enough chances and we've been wide open and played through in a couple of passes whenever teams break against us. You're right that we wouldn't be having this discussion if the players were putting pressure on the ball, but they aren't and that's the point. I doubt they've just decided not to, it's probably because they're all mentally and physically knackered. I don't think it'd be suitable for every game but in the short term it might help cover our deficiencies and probably just freshen things up for the players who look like they're stuck in the same playing patterns that worked incredibly for a couple of seasons but have been figured out now. Doing something different might reignite a bunch of them.

Didn't get much love from anyone a year ago but since we've reinventing ourselves I thought I'd bring it back. I still think a 3-4-2-1 is worth a look (when we've got some fit CBs) and would probably suit our personnel better than this time last year. Gomez - Matip/Konate - VVD TAA - Fabinho - Thiago - Robertson Salah - Diaz Nunez Bring Salah and Diaz inside a bit rather than hugging the touchlines and miles away from each other/the goal. Firmino, Elliott, Carvalho all suit those roles. Nunez or Jota as CF. One less midfielder to worry about. CBs who are comfortable stepping out with the ball. I mean, I know nothing about anything but it seems clear that what we're doing currently isn't working and has gone stale, Ancelotti said they knew exactly how we'd play in the Champions League final. We were very good at it for a long time but if they haven't got the legs to play like that any more or whatever the issue is, do something else. And yes I know, Klopp doesn't like three at the back. He probably doesn't like being shite either.

Yeah I've watched all four episodes so far and can't stop thinking about it. Like a cross between The Truman Show and Synecdoche New York. I've never laughed with incredulity so much at anything, it's ridiculous and brilliant.

I was expecting to see Gazza turn up with his fishing rod and some beers.

Another subtle touch I liked was that Alisson would get the ball after every Chelsea penalty and hand it to the next Liverpool taker and give a word of encouragement. Most keepers walk off and it's the opposition keeper handing the ball to the next taker being a gobshite and trying to intimidate them. These little things add up.

And why are they allowed to have that World Champions badge on their shirts when we were only allowed to have it for one PL game or some bollocks like that?

Probably because they know it's a waste of time when he just tries to recreate his goals against Watford and City every time he receives the ball.