mike23

I genuinely couldn't believe how bad we were for large chunks of that game. So many players just doing inexplicable things. The midfield seemed to be having a competition to see who could overhit the most passes, Trent didn't seem to be able to do a thing right, and even Van Dijk ended up being rash in the sort of situation he's usually so in control of. We were fortunate not to go 2 down when they hit the post, but once we got level we suddenly seemed to be carving them open with ease and really should have been in front. Then yet another sloppy pass put us in trouble (I think it was Matip that time), and we ended up conceding the penalty. It looked pretty soft and he was definitely looking for it, but there just wasn't really any reason for van Dijk to dive in like that. He had cover. There seemed to be long reviews after both of our goals and whilst they reviewed the penalty, yet only 5 minutes of injury time. It probably wouldn't have made much difference as we were disappointing again after the second equalizer. I thought we'd lay siege to their goal but the game just got really scrappy with loads of stoppages. The ref didn't help in that respect as suddenly he was blowing up for everything after letting Fulham be really physical for the entire game. But ultimately we've no one to blame but ourselves. We just didn't look right from the very first whistle and apart from that 1 dominant spell just before and after Nunez's goal we just looked nothing like our usual selves. I didn't see this coming at all after we were so good last week and it's just not the sort of fixture we can afford to drop points in. We all bemoaned some of the silly points dropped in the first half of last season and this is every bit as bad - maybe even worse if Fulham end up being as bad as they were in their last couple of premier league campaigns. Let's just go with Nunez from the start from now on. It's just sad to watch Firmino these days.

Already managed to produce a worse 45 minutes than at any stage last season. Absolute garbage so far. 2nd to every ball, constant misplaced passes, we've just not turned up at all. 45 minutes to sort it out. Surely we'll be better in the 2nd half.

1. Liverpool 2. Man City 3. Spurs 4. Chelsea 5. Arsenal 6. Man Utd 7. Newcastle 8. West Ham 9. Palace 10. Villa 11. Brighton 12. Leicester 13. Wolves 14. Southampton 15. Everton 16. Forest 17. Brentford 18. Leeds 19. Fulham 20. Bournemouth

It wasn't our night but I just don't think we need to go overboard and start making out that we're perennial nearly men because of 1 game or suggest that Klopp can't win finals. 2 out of 3 finals in a season isn't bad. This team has won every available trophy in the last few years. We beat a very good Chelsea side in both domestic finals. Chances were those games were always going to be decided by a single goal or penalties. We weren't playing bums that we were just going to blow away. Ok it was Spurs in the last final and maybe they weren't the most fearsome final opponent, but they had a very good team that year and were there on merit. Tonight was disappointing because I really think this is an extremely average Madrid side and I didn't think we were at our best, but it still needed their keeper to get motm and a goal completely against the run of play for us to lose. They came into the game completely fresh as they'd won their league weeks ago (1 advantage of not having to compete with a team with endless wealth who ignores all the rules), whereas we'd been playing important game after game every 3 days or so right up until last Sunday. That fixture pileup also contributed to our 2 best midfielders also being injury concerns going into this game and may have impacted on their performances. Lots of little things went against us in both the buildup and during the match. Chances are if we continue to make loads of finals then we'll also unfortunately continue to sometimes lose some of them because the margins between winning and losing are so slim. On another day Mendy saves 1 of the other penalties and we lose the FA Cup. On another day Mane's shot hits the post and goes in rather than bouncing out straight back to Courtois.

I didn't think Mo did much wrong with his chance near the end. Would have been enough to beat most keepers. Courtois just made an incredible save unfortunately. Great save from Mane as well but the way it just bounced straight back to him rather than going in off the post or into the path of one of our forwards for a tap in seemed to sum up how everything seemed to run their way all night. Mishit shot goes straight to their one player in the box for a tap in for their goal. Even the goal they had disallowed seemed to require about half a dozen ricochets all going their way to end up at Benzema's feet.

He did win 2 other finals this season though, plus the champions league final before this one. It's not like we're hopeless in every final we play. Small margins were involved in determining all 3 finals this season, which is what you'd generally expect in finals. We got some luck in the 2 domestic finals. We got absolutely none tonight.

I think there would be interest but not for the sort of fee we'd want. We seem to be pretty rigid in setting valuations for squad players, and if those valuations aren't met then we seem to choose to instead keep them here as part of the squad.

Jesus, that bloody shot from the edge of the box with 10 minutes left when he had all the time in the world. Can't really blame him for tonight when he only came on as a late sub but also just frustrating that he can't ever have even 1 big moment in an important game. Unfortunately, I think due to lack of interest in him from other clubs (at least at the sort of fee we'd be looking for), I think he'll end up with him signing a new contract and we'll be stuck with him underwhelming us for years to come.

I think tonight was a mixture of bad luck and our own failings. Madrid were largely shit but they took their 1 chance and yet again in a final we missed loads of chances. 3 finals and not 1 goal in any of them despite creating numerous chances. And in truth we've needed way too many chances to score for quite a while now. We can get away with it in most league games, but not in cup finals. Courtois had a fine game, the ball seemed to bounce their way every single fucking time, and we had a ref who you just knew was going to be utter shite the moment he gave them a freekick for 1 of their players falling over in the 1st minute. I'm genuinely sick to fucking death of these clowns not being able to conduct basic timekeeping as well. 5 minutes went up for injury time, there were stoppages in that period, and he blows up dead on 5 minutes after awarding us a freekick that we didn't get to take because 1 of their players hoofed it into our goal. The final tonight reminded me of the 2007 final in so many ways. Loads of trouble with fans getting into the ground already taking the gloss off the occasion, a really shit ref (I remember the one back then being a biased cunt all night and blowing up early as well), and a really mediocre opponent who just seemed to have their name on the trophy. Their goal seemed to be way too easy. It looked like we had 2 players who should have cut out a simple pass on the halfway line and once it had bypassed them we were in trouble. It looked very close to offside but there didn't seem to be much of a check for it. Our set pieces were utter garbage all night. Every one of them seemed to be easily cleared. Half of them didn't seem to even clear the first man. The delivery into the box was also largely poor all night from open play. Trent had a real stinker of a game, Mo mostly looked like the player he has done since coming back from the African Nations (although I didn't think he did too much wrong with that late chance. It was just a great save), Mane was really frustrating and Diaz couldn't get into the game at all. I actually thought Jota did pretty well when he came on. Thiago seemed a bit off all night. He's so much better than the other available options that I think it was worth risking him, but he certainly wasn't anywhere near his best. He made a complete mess of several passes that he'd normally play with his eyes closed. A very long season that has produced a couple of domestic cups and been a pleasure to watch for the most part, but the last week has certainly been really shitty. A bit more luck and we could have had the quadruple. As it is we miss out on both of the big trophies and right now it's hard not to feel a bit crap about it all. I probably need a break from footie for a bit so I'm kind of glad it's summer. I'm tired of us having to compete with City's sportswashing and all the greed and corruption in football - which has directly led to a world cup being played in the middle of next season, which has already removed a lot of my enthusiasm for next season.

Scary final few minutes. They took so long over that decision that I was scared it was going to be given and the offside rule is so fucked these days that some officials probably would have. Utter shambles from us as it should have been easily cleared before that but our players all got in each other's way. It would have been reminiscent of the 2007 final with Milan had it counted as I remember us completely controlling the first half then and going behind to a suckerpunch goal right at halftime. We looked all at sea in the last couple of minutes after that and it was a relief that halftime came. But before that we were all over them and it was really frustrating that we didn't make it count. Great save from Courtois from Mane's effort but so much luck also involved. It could have hit the post and gone in, bounced back in off the keeper, or rebounded to one of our strikers, but instead it hit Courtois but not with enough pace for it to be an issue. For all our firepower though we've now gone 285 minutes without a goal in the 3 finals combined. Need someone to become a hero and win this.

So there's been no negotiations between us and Bayern but the transfer fee is probably less than 50 million euros. Good to know we apparently have no say in what the transfer fee is.

We'd definitely got in front when that misinformation about a Villa equalizer spread. Just one final cruel tease on an emotional rollercoaster of a day. Whoever started it, seriously why on earth would you start celebrating something like that unless you were absolutely certain Villa had scored? I haven't even seen anything about a disallowed Villa goal or even a near miss at the end so just baffling what started it. Agree how pitiful that was from Villa. So annoying when you see the efforts teams employ to try and disrupt us when we're starting to build up steam in games, yet with City they seem happy to just passively let them do whatever they want until they've scored however many goals they need. Same final day outcome as 3 years ago. Hopefully the way things subsequently pan out also end up being the same and we follow it with a Champions League triumph and a relentless march to the title next year. I'm glad our players have a lot more resilience than me though, as right now I'm just so weary of us narrowly missing out to this bunch of cheats.

Good luck to him. So many big goals. The last minute goals against Everton and Wolves might have been the biggest if we'd ended up as champions either of those seasons, but as it is it would have to be his goals in helping to win the champions league a few years back. I doubt he'll get on the pitch next week, but if he does then maybe he'll sign off with one last big goal. Milan looks like a good move for him.

I remember reading an article after they knocked City out saying that the Madrid players didn't believe they could cope with City's intense pressing after the first leg, and therefore couldn't believe their luck when City played completely differently in the 2nd leg. I think we need to try and stay true to our style despite the injury and fatigue issues. We're a potential matchup nightmare for them. Let them worry about us rather than the other way around.

Can't get my head around any Liverpool fans going on neutral sites to say City are worthy champions. Some of them are probably old-fashioned supporters brought up with with the belief that it is right to be sporting and congratulate rivals who get the better of us. They probably did exactly the same thing with, say, Arsenal when they won the league at Anfield in 89. Normally I'd say it was a healthy attitude to have and much better than the hateful attitudes that have become predominant amongst modern supporters, but it neglects the fact that this City team are not the equivalent of rivals of old. They've not finished top on sporting merit. They've cheated their way to every league title they've ever won and should never be congratulated for anything. And some of those comments will be from people who are pretty much the fan equivalent of Carragher on commentary. They go out of their way to appear all balanced and reasonable, yet all they end up doing is still being called biased by other supporters whilst simultaneously pissing off other Liverpool fans.

Not looking good. We've done well with injuries for most of the season, but they've finally started to catch up to us right at the end and to some of the most crucial players. Maybe it was inevitable with all the games coming thick and fast. Really need Fabinho back for Saturday but even then there's the concern that he often looks a bit leggy after being out for a few games. I think we're going to need the defence and the front 3 to be really at it to win (could we please have pre-January Mo back for this final game?)

I think the only thing that softens the blow today is that we were never actually ahead when it mattered. I expected both teams to win comfortably before kickoff. When it was 0-2 in their game and 1-1 in ours I was starting to sense a real doomsday scenario where they lost and we failed to take advantage. That would have been far more gutting. And in truth we weren't looking much like scoring at that point. In fact, Wolves probably should have been ahead. Can't remember which of their players it was, but all they had to do was square it to Hwang for a simple tap in and they completely overhit the pass. By the time we scored City had already completed their comeback. It would have been far more gutting if we'd been cruising and City had been losing 0-2 and then come back. I saw a few people earlier say maybe City's comeback wouldn't have happened if they'd known we were winning. But we'll never know if that would have been true or not. City certainly would have been playing under the assumption that sooner or later we'd have gone in front. Then there was that one last fleeting bit of hope when parts of the crowd started celebrating after some misinformation about a Villa equalizer. Don't know how many people heard it in the ground or how long before it became apparent it wasn't true, but watching it at home the commentators debunked it before I even had chance to get my hopes up (and I'm just glad it wasn't Martin Tyler on commentary today as I'm sure he wouldn't have been able to hide his delight when delivering the news). Didn't a similar thing happen 3 years ago when the crowd all thought Brighton had gone 2-0 up against City, when in fact it was actually a City equalizer?

The home game with City will always be a frustrating one as we had the lead until very late on. Still, 2 draws against them so it's not really what decided the title. We dropped 4 points against Spurs, but one of those included some disgraceful officiating and Spurs also had the quality to beat City twice. The 2 draws with Chelsea were pretty costly considering City beat them comfortably both times. For whatever reason they seemed to easily have the beating of Chelsea this season, whereas we didn't. Quite surprising considering Chelsea did so well against them in cup competitions at the end of last season. But when you get to 92 points it's hard to be too critical of any single games. In any other era this team would have won their 3rd title in 4 seasons with the points totals they've achieved.

If it couldn't be Everton then probably better that it was Burnley being relegated than Leeds. At least Leeds can be entertaining to watch sometimes. Arsenal hammering Everton was probably the most predictable result of the day other than City winning. Current Arsenal are the kings of the meaningless win when they've already blown it, and current Everton are a team you just know would have been patting themselves on the back since clinching safety and would put in the bare minimum of effort in this game. No doubt Arsenal's players were celebrating every goal as though they'd just won the league. Annoying that West Ham couldn't win at Brighton after being a goal up. Could have condemned United to the ignominy of playing in the Europa Conference League for a season. Not really a surprise that United didn't seem to have much interest in ensuring they avoided that date themselves as they lost yet again.

I'd rather City had just been the usual 2 goals up after 15 minutes than have that happen. Soul destroying to lose out in that way. Robbed of yet another title by those cheating cunts. Fuck Villa for such a pathetic collapse and fuck whichever prick was refereeing that game. I turned over when we went 3-1 up and saw a City player stay down for over a minute when 4 minutes of injury time had already been called, and then the ref blew up with Villa on the ball at 4 minutes and 20 seconds. Their chances of scoring were probably about 0.000001 percent at that point but it was still better than the complete zero percent chance it became because of an incompetent/bent official not adding on the proper amount of time. At least we won our game. Not a particularly good performance, but as we usually do we managed to find a way to win. Shame the City comeback had already taken away any joy the goals might bring at that point. Let's hope Thiago is okay for the Champions League final but it's not looking good on that front.

Frustrating evening. Saw the scores at halftime and thought at the very least it would be going down to the final day for Everton. Hopefully the promoted teams are better next season. Watford and Norwich have been so bad that Everton ultimately only had to avoid 1 available relegation place in the end. But this did feel like a golden opportunity to get rid of them. I genuinely think they'd have gone if Chelsea had even managed a draw at Goodison. They were so deflated going into that game after Burnley had scored 2 late goals at Watford the previous day, that I don't think they'd have recovered if momentum hadn't instantly swung back in their favour. United and Arsenal deserve their fair share of the blame for keeping them up, but for those 2 teams you could at least say that their performances at Goodison weren't exactly atypical in comparison to various other performances this year. Chelsea, on the other hand, would have won comfortably if they'd produced a performance that had even vaguely matched their general standards.

Frustrating as Brentford were all over them. We'd still be hearing about it this time next year if we'd got a penalty as soft as that.

Guardiola seems intent for some reason on trying to spark some sort of feud with Klopp with all these weird little passive aggressive comments he keeps making. Problem for him is Klopp doesn't appear to have any interest at all in getting involved, which is starting to make Guardiola look like a right dick (or an even bigger dick than he already looked).

I didn't agree with people who thought the defeat at Leicester in December was our costliest game of the season. I just saw it as one of those off days even really good teams endure occasionally and considered the draws with Brighton and Brentford to be more damaging because we had both of those games won. However, after watching that shambolic first half performance from them, it really is mystifying and infuriating that even on an off day we couldn't score against that defence.

League: Alisson coming up for a corner in the final minute. FA Cup: Thiago 30 yard screamer. Champions League: Has to be Salah. He's been waiting 4 years for this rematch.