Supremolad

The defending was always going to be a bit ropey. Has that exact back four even played together at all? I think the good thing to know is we made 7 changes and still got the job done with something spare in the tank. I don't get why people expected a fluent performance from start to finish from a much changed side. Benfica ain't entirely mugs. Teams in the Qfinals of the CL usually aren't. We didnt get beat, we got through. Let's stop being so fucking spoilt.

That's a shite performance? You are having a fucking laugh. They got a bit complacent because they were 4 goals up on aggregate. Give your head a fucking wobble.

Spot on. Some of the critical comments on here have been plain crazy. No sense of perspective whatsoever.

Just wanted to be sure if I missed some epic level of sarcasm in your initial post. Or if you were truly posting that initial comment in full seriousness.

So there are actually people reading meaning into the conceding of 3 goals, 2 of which came when we were clearly cruising and a bit complacent after going 6-2 up on aggregate. We used a defence which wasnt even our first choice. Some people would never recognise context if it walked up to them to smack them in the face.

This had better be a joke post.

People whinging that Klopp has rested too many players for this seem to forget that after the Man City game on Saturday, we have Man Utd on Tuesday. Utd may be shite but they would definitely raise their game on Tuesday to try and wreck our title ambitions. Tonight is our best chance to rest some key players ahead of the FA cup semis and another very big game 3 days after. Especially considering that we are 3-1 up to Benfica from the away leg.

Nice attempt at stoking the dying embers of the Salah v Mane "beef" though.

Also, City got caught offsides 5 times during the game. There were 2 or 3 other times the linesman didnt even raise his flag which were also offside decisions. So I think they shouldnt be given too much praise for getting in behind on a few occasions. Our high line still did a decent job to catch them out at least 7 or 8 times. They dont relish playing us, the same way we dont relish playing them. Guardiola repeatedly says we are an annoying pain in the ass for him. Let's not go overboard with credit to them, Dave. Yes our first half was poor but they still failed to put us away while we were more clinical with our chances.

Meant to post this here instead of the other thread - I dont agree with the narrative that Pep has figured us out. In the last 6 games we've played against City, they've won 2 and we've won 1. The others being 3 draws. Yes, they were probably the better team across the two draws this season but they still didnt beat us. We caused them enough problems each game. The two they won in the last 6 include the 4-0 after we had won the league (some of our players still looked hungover). The 2nd win was at an empty Anfield with us missing Van Dijk and a couple other key players. 6 games and only 2 wins which have an asterisk. That doesnt qualify as "Pep has us figured out" in my opinion. Hope I'm not jinxing the FA cup semifinal now though.

I dont agree with the narrative that Pep has figured us out. In the last 6 games we've played against City, they've won 2 and we've won 1. The others being 3 draws. The two they won include the 4-0 after we had won the league and some of our players still looked hungover. The 2nd win was at an empty Anfield with us missing Van Dijk and a couple other key players. 6 games and only 2 wins which have an asterisk. That's not being "figured out" in my opinion. Hope I'm not jinxing the FA cup semifinal now though.

Mo has done it many times throughout his career at Liverpool including this season. He was the best player at Anfield where he scored a worldie against City and set Mane up in the 2-2. His pass for Mane's goal yesterday is also being underestimated. It was a perfect defence splitter. Football's best players dont play their best in every single big game. Even a freak like Messi never managed it at his peak.

I think we'll have more in the tank than City by the time we play them in the FA cup. They were a bit knackered in the 2nd half and have to go away to Atletico. They would likely go through in that CL game but it certainly would take more energy out of them compared to Liverpool taking it a bit easy at home to Benfica.

Absolutely. Mentioning Gini is a shithouse thing to do. True, he was a very good player. But he did play in some big games which we lost. The fact that we are still in the hunt for a quadruple without him is evidence that we as a team have moved on quite well.

Yep, the other options were interesting and thought provoking. The final option is just a convenient get out of jail card for some people who probably don't like thoughts being provoked .

I believe him when he says the contract thing isnt affecting his play. He is simply looking mentally jaded and not as sharp as usual because he has played too much football in the past few months. 4 times, he has played 120 minutes. In games for Egypt, he is generally running a lot chasing shit long balls. And still ended up losing the AFCON final, also failing to qualify for the world cup after blazing his penalty over the bar. It's all simply too much.

I'm sure Sky specifically requested for him. You can see Foden was also interviewed. I reckon they have it as part of their deal to request players or managers for pre-match interviews, for big games especially. I think managers even get fined if they dont show up for post match interviews on Sky. Either way, it is an extended interview and it wasnt organised solely for questions about Salah's contract. As you can see, he is trying hard not to talk about it. He literally says he doesnt want to be causing distractions by talking about it during this stage of the season. But the interviewer just kept on digging away at the issue.

A majority of the "chances" listed in that article were actually offside, including the two Watford had on Saturday. However, it's great that he keeps his concentration levels high even during those situations.

This is a much better stat than that Frank Lampard one in which they deliberately skipped Liverpool's 2020/21 season to make a tenuous comparison.

Sincere condolences to you, your Mrs and your families. May you all find strength to bear the losses. Take care.

"Shit 3 months of form". Interesting take. So we are including the 6 weeks he was away with an atrocious Egypt side which he dragged to an unmerited AFCON final. So we are ignoring some of his great performances in some matches since he came back from AFCON. And we are meant to lump in a few average games into the mix and come to the conclusion that he has had a "shit 3 months of form". Nice.

InStat studied over 100,000 shots in thousands of penalty shootouts. The chance of missing the 5th kick is higher than the first. So statistically speaking, it's better to put your best kicker on the 5th instead of the 1st. The argument I recall people making here in February was that Salah should have taken the first kick in the AFCON final. However, he has taken 5th kicks for Egypt and Liverpool (multiple times) and scored. On Tuesday he goes to take the 1st kick and misses. At the end of the day, there isnt any set formula.

If we are accusing Salah of being greedy, then the owners are also greedy. They didnt buy Liverpool out of pure love. They bought the club for 300m and would sell for at least 3 billion pounds. In fact, they are probably holding on because they believe they can get up to 5 billion if things go well over the next few years. They keep looking for ways to maximise revenue, same way Salah is looking to maximise what might be his final big contract. The club has been great at getting in record deals for revenue. Giving Salah an increase wont completely destroy everything. By the time some of the other key players theoretically start demanding an increase, we would have a sponsorship deal for official cutlery or some shit, which cover wage increases.

His agent should simply blame it on the experts we have on here who were adamant he was wrong to have waited for the 5th penalty kick in the AFCON final. He goes first in the WC qualifiers and skies it, while Mane goes 5th and wins the game again. There simply is no guaranteed formula to these things in a shootout.