Supremolad

Great job, Dave. I'm guessing Salah and Keita won't be getting invited to dinner anytime soon.

Seriously though, your articles are the main reason I keep coming back here. Brilliant, funny and very often insightful. Let's do it all over again next season.

Jota didnt make us worse. He did better than Diaz. I think Firmino was bright too. Keita was the bad one.

Klopp has a far better record at good substitutions than many care to remember. In fact, I'm sure I've seen an article which compares goals or points won by subs with Klopp right up there among the very best. It's just a lazy criticism to claim he is shit at making subs.

2 hours ago, ZonkoVille77 said:

 

Jota did the grand sum of fuck all when he came on. 

He forced a full length save from Courtois leading to a corner. Got in threatening positions between the posts and not out on the wing. What he did in 30 odd mins was more than Diaz managed all game, when he was running down blind alleys or getting dispossessed.

I think Diaz being taken off for Jota was the right call. At that stage, we needed more guile and penalty box poaching which are attributes Jota has over Diaz.

11 hours ago, John102 said:

This is where I am at. He looks exciting and I really enjoy watching the sort of player he is but some of the talk around him has been way over the top. People talk about him being the first name on the team sheet and some, perhaps tongue in cheek,  have said its him rather than Salah than should be asking for 400k.

 

The lad has 4 goals in 13 games in the league and 6 in 26 in all comps. Hopefully his underlying numbers are much more encouraging as if we are to enjoy similar success over coming season that has to improve massively.

 

 

Spot on.

I've been a bit cautious about him right from the start. He obviously is talented and very hardworking. He also brings a bit of directness into our attack which is good. But I think many people are sold on the idea that he is a threat. The problem is how often does he deliver on the threat to score or assist? 

As mentioned previously, his finishing often lacks finesse and he can be a bit predictable. Hopefully he does improve to the level where we genuinely have a world class player on our hands. At the moment, he is simply a very good player with potential to hit the heights Salah or Mane have.

15 hours ago, TheDrowningMan said:

I expect us losing will only increase his desperation to get away, perhaps for one of the guaranteed trophy clubs. The last nine months or so suggest that he isn’t really one for introspection. 

He was quite clear in the press conference before the Madrid game that he was staying at Liverpool next season.

I don't think they go down next season. They would let this season serve as a warning. They'll probably end up around midtable. This season was the best chance for them to be fucked out of the premier league. It's a pity there were three teams even worse off.

10 minutes ago, Rick Sanchez C-137 said:

OK the commentator keeps refering to the potential red. Does anyone here, bias aside, think that should have been a red?

Closer to a red than yellow in my view. But it was absolutely hilarious that Ayew then went on to score a couple minutes later.

6 minutes ago, Reckoner said:

I enjoy Pickfords goalkeeping 

 

He's just a busy flappy cunt. No composure whatsoever. Running to the center circle to shout at the ref for not giving a red card to Ayew. And then fucked up a couple mins later to hand over the 2nd goal.

11 hours ago, Baltar said:

As much as I hope that Real defeat will crush their spirit and cause them to collapse in the league, their fixtures are just too damn easy to expect them to drop anymore points. None of the teams they will face have anything to play for, whereas City will be going all out to win.

Wolves still have a chance of making it into Europe. They're at home to City next week in a game which is their last chance to get into that conference league spot if they win.

And West Ham after being knocked out tonight would also need a result against City to get back into the Europa. They are also at home in that fixture.

So Wolves and West Ham definitely have something to play for. Doesn't guarantee they would take points off City but they certainly aren't on the beach at this stage.

Brilliant work, Dave.

You're right about Diaz. Hopefully he would eventually add more goals to his game. He can be a little too predictable with his finishing when he gets in those one on one situations with defenders on the left flank. Cutting in and shooting the way he does usually results in either a block or the keeper making a save. A bit more finesse required.

That said, Diaz, Mane and Salah would still be my most preferred front 3 for most of the remaining games.

5 hours ago, Simbo said:

Ahhh Lucy Pinder

She's definitely got two penaltitties.

Great report, Dave. Agree with most of it. We certainly controlled majority of the 2nd half. They created chances in that half but so did we. 3-2 flattered them. Thought we also did well to take the sting out of any momentum they could have gotten from their first goal.

Which is probably why Pep didn't bother throwing on any subs for most of the game. He knew that at 3-1, we were mostly in charge of that game. The only sub he made was Mahrez for Jesus due to injury. It's great that even in the periods when we were outplayed by them in the first two games, we never got blown away like they did by us on Saturday.

Which is why I previously stated that Pep hasn't really figured us out per se. It's now 2 wins each and 3 draws from 7 games in the past 3 seasons. If City had racked up 4 or 5 wins from those 7 games against us, then I would have truly believed they had our number.

For me, the biggest positive to take away is this -

In the previous games this season against City, in the first halves when they've completely dominated Liverpool, they didn't have enough in them to take the game beyond us.

Today, we got the chance to dominate the first half and made it count emphatically by knocking in 3 unreplied goals. The final scoreline flattered them just like it did when we beat them 4-3 at Anfield in 2018.

2 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

Fuck me people still whining about match threads, footballs evocative a match thread is reacting in real time with over emotional knee jerk moments. If I watch the game at home I'll vent on a match thread so my missus doesnt have to listen to it. If a player fucks up I'll call him a daft cunt it doesn't mean I think he's a daft cunt it's a reaction to a moment. Nobody is entitled or spoiled, if the opposition score a goal you can be pissed off and not zen thinking it doesn't matter when the oppositions scored because we've been brilliant these last few years, you react to the game your watching.  After the game you calm down  and appreciate whats happening.

My issue isn't with those who are emotional in the heat of the moment while the game is going on. I wasn't happy when we conceded that 2nd goal, I was cursing at the TV.

My issue is with those who still double down on their whinging after the game has finished. There are people who havent had a good word to say about the team since the game finished today. Perspective should have started seeping in by now. Yes it's not great we conceded twice but in the grand scheme of things, we are in yet another final and still in with a shout of a quadruple, never before acheived.

1 hour ago, magicrat said:

Hope he gets the nod on Tuesday 

Yep, wont mind seeing him get another go.

4 minutes ago, gkmacca said:

And some of the comments sound like a Norwich fan whose team has just won the Colman's Mustard Invitation Plate in extra-time. Pity you didn't meet Ronnie Moran - he would have smashed you in the face for being so wet. The great LFC teams were hyper-critical, as were the fans, because that's how standards were maintained. Get it? It didn't mean you weren't pleased to win, it didn't mean you didn't celebrate, it just meant you were proud of those high standards, you appreciated that they were HARD WORK and you knew that to keep succeeding you needed to push yourselves on full-time rather part-time. So celebrate how you want, but cut out the sneering at anyone who's being honest about games rather than acting like some happy-clappy drip.

Fuck off with your bollocks. There is constructive criticism and there is whinging and whining because of being a negative cunt. Miss me with your bullshit analysis and nostalgia induced nonsense.

You think we were perfect every game and never conceded some sloppy goals in the 70s and 80s when we were all conquering? Laughable rose tinted glasses you have on mate.

31 minutes ago, m0e said:

This thread is an absolute shit show.

 

Up the mighty fucking Reds!!

Some of the comments in this thread again show how fucking spoilt many of our fans have become.

Our first FA cup final in 10 years but let's whinge and moan instead. And let's ignore how comfortable we were for most of this game and could easily have won with a bigger margin. Why be chuffed, when you can be the "anti-super fan" picking holes in everything because this team should be perfect every single minute of every single game?

The last 7 games between them over the past 3 seasons - 2 wins each and 3 draws. Reports of Pep figuring Klopp out have been greatly exaggerated.

3-2 flattered them. Great to see Pep has truly figured us out like some people kept saying after the 2-2 draw on Sunday.

He figured us out on the way to a defeat and 2 draws this season. Well played, Pep Guardiola!!

Apparently, Kostas has the highest number of shots assisted per 90 minutes. Probably helped by having a smaller sample size though.

I wonder what his assists to games ratio is? Seems he gets an assist almost everytime he plays. His defending is usually good too.

Seems unreal we now probably have the best two left backs in the league after going quite a good number of years with no great options in that position.

8 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

I can barely remember that. Was it "Sugar, Sugar"? What were the words?

 

I like his ABBA song. We need to get Tsimikas's ABBA song up and running to go with it.

Yeah, it was to the tune of sugar, sugar. "Oh Mane Mane". 

The Tsimikas song is great, a bit disappointed that it hasn't taken off properly.

19 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

Some goals you cant avoid. They're either well worked or some twat buys a ticket in the lottery and scores a once in their life time goal against us.

 

A goal's a goal but sloppy goals do grind my gears. Appreciate one's man's well worked goal is another's sloppy one.

 

Like I said elsewhere, Ive no problem with Jurgen's team tonight. I am majorly disappointed we conceeded 3 tonight and 2 on Sunday. One, our best team, the other a second 11 put out to do a job. Funny game football but I wouldnt want a repeat of the goals on Tuesday as the league is still the priority for me.

 

Sometimes I think we still go a bit gung ho, like tonight, chasing goals when we should be making sure we dont conceed in the last 15-20 minutes.

 

How many arses would have been squeaking if another of those offside goals had been legit?

 

Jurgen's done great getting us to be in the hunt for 4 trophies with one in the cabinet. But, it could quickly go tits up if we ship goals like in the last few games and the EFL Cup becomes the only one in the cabinet.

 

 

Fair post. Nothing wrong with offering some constructive criticism. I just feel need proper context needs to be applied. One of the games was away to Man City  who aside from us are the best team in Europe. They were always likely to score against us, as we are likely to do so against them. They had the best defence in the league and still shipped two to us.

The 3 conceded against Benfica has to be taken in proper perspective. Firstly that isnt our first choice defence at all. And more importantly, I wager all the 5 lads in defence tonight have never played together at all. That counts for something. The other thing is the team collectively switched off just a bit after going 6-2 up on aggregate. They shouldn't do so but these guys are human. Even the greatest teams are prone to switching off a bit ovcasionally when they think a game is won 

And finally, Benfica are not mugs. They made it this far because they are decent and us making so many changes was always going to give them a fighting chance of nicking a draw.

This time last year, we were out of all competitions and were wondering if we would even make it into the top 4.

As of today we are still in 3 competitions, having won one other. But we have cunts whinging about a "shite/sloppy/horrendous performance". Being hypercritical of a much changed team which was comfortable enough to go through to a CL semis. 

These are the cunts who would still find something to complain about even if we won all 38 league games in a season.