Liverpool FC Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 2018 Mod warning post 9350 and 9421

SlickRic

yourdeadwright wrote: »

Id really love to hear Friend explain how he did not give it , I cant find any rational explanation that doesnt make him unfit for the job ,

Easier not to give it. Bottle job.

If Lovren had done that same action, I'd bet my house it's a penalty.

How do you explain Ings not getting a penalty against West Brom, but Lovren gives that one away against Everton where he barely touched the lad?

How do you explain Mané not getting one against Roma, but Lamela wins his in front of the Kop, and Roma get both theirs against us over the course of the semi?

How do you explain Salah not getting his today when Duffy took him out? Anywhere else on the pitch it's a clear foul.

We've been on the end of horrendous calls in the penalty box this season.

Hopefully the universe evens itself out and we get 3 in 2 weeks' time.

MD1990

Do think there is an agenda against Liverpool from referee's.

Impossible to get a penalty it has happened on too many occasions. Hopefully VAR is brought in after next season will be probably get us at least an extra 6 points.

5starpool

MD1990 wrote: »

Do think there is an agenda against Liverpool from referee's.

Impossible to get a penalty it has happened on too many occasions. Hopefully VAR is brought in after next season will be probably get us at least an extra 6 points.

Of course there isn't an agenda against Liverpool. That isn't to say that refs don't decide not to award penalties to Liverpool in front of the kop just to not appear biased, but go the other way, but it could well be similar for other teams where the crowd can supposedly pressure a ref into giving decisions.

That's not the same as an agenda against Liverpool though.

On a separate note, 'agenda' is up there with 'narrative' as an overused, inappropriate word in football.

~Rebel~

5starpool wrote: »

Of course there isn't an agenda against Liverpool. That isn't to say that refs don't decide not to award penalties to Liverpool in front of the kop just to not appear biased, but go the other way, but it could well be similar for other teams where the crowd can supposedly pressure a ref into giving decisions.

That's not the same as an agenda against Liverpool though.

On a separate note, 'agenda' is up there with 'narrative' as an overused, inappropriate word in football.

Exactly, certainly not any sort of mass conspiracy. Think a big part is the fact that Liverpool have been scoring so many goals this season, so it gives them a bit of a let off... why put your neck on the line, when 'Pool are likely to score a few from play anyway.

Widdensushi

~Rebel~ wrote: »

It would be, if we didn't just secure CL football next season, and have a chance to win this years in two weeks

As it stands, I'm grand and happy for the auld lads to do their thing.

I suppose, at least the Liverpool fans aren't still claiming them as there own, man u fans claiming Ronaldo will be their hero to beat Liverpool in the final.

gimli2112

luckily we're traditionally **** at penalties, except for shoot outs

TitianGerm

MD1990 wrote: »

Do think there is an agenda against Liverpool from referee's.

Impossible to get a penalty it has happened on too many occasions. Hopefully VAR is brought in after next season will be probably get us at least an extra 6 points.

Not just against Liverpool. I've watched quite a few United games as well this season and they've had lots of penalty shouts turned down as well.

Knex*

MoTD kicking off there now

Fromvert

The refs are just terrible, every single one of them is rubbish. The only competent ref I've seen this season is the German who reffed the first leg against City. And even knowing how **** they are I don't want VAR.

noodler

Didn't think the Duffy handball was a pen.

The tackle tho, jesus H.

GotTheTshirt

Talisman wrote: »

It's not a case of reminding him - it would be interesting to hear what exactly happened at Liverpool because of the incident.

I thought my relationship with him was implied from my initial mention of him.
It's more of a 'Nice one Vigs, great result last night' thing rather than 'let me put the kettle on for another cuppa while you tell me about the lowest points in your career'.

If we become any closer I'll be sure to ask him.

Iused2likebusts

Top 4 again is great and a big step forward. Klopp has now laid the foundations to really push on. He has done a brilliant job in reestablishing the club. Players will want to sign and the club now has the money to sign those players. Its all down to klopp and he has done it by balancing the books. We really are lucky to have him . Big bonus that the football is great to watch.

ricero

Gerard Houllier was in attendance again today. I reckon the Fekir deal will be wrapped up soon

Daemonic

Just looking at the final table, 12 draws is way too many. Turn half of those into wins next season and it'll be an exceptional points haul.

mosstin

The Salah goal they chose as a contender for GOTS is far from his best, I reckon. The goals against Everton and Watford off the top of my head were better. One of my favourite goals from this season was Bobby's breakaway goal vs Brighton just after Migs prevented them scoring a certain goal.

fyfe79

mosstin wrote: »

The Salah goal they chose as a contender for GOTS is far from his best, I reckon. The goals against Everton and Watford off the top of my head were better. One of my favourite goals from this season was Bobby's breakaway goal vs Brighton just after Migs prevented them scoring a certain goal.

I'd guess that the GOTS contenders are all the Goals of the Month throughout the season, so probably Salah's goals against Everton and Watford were beaten in their respective months by other goals. Not a case of the BBC feeling the need to select Salah's 'best goal' or anything.

Charlie19

I would've awarded Rooney with the goal of the season. Of all the goals from half way line or before I've seen over the years, i thought his was a more difficult technique to pull off. Imo the way the ball came across to him, it really was a sublime connection to keep it on target.

BenEadir

fyfe79 wrote: »

I'd guess that the GOTS contenders are all the Goals of the Month throughout the season, so probably Salah's goals against Everton and Watford were beaten in their respective months by other goals. Not a case of the BBC feeling the need to select Salah's 'best goal' or anything.

I thought the Stoke lads goal was the best GOTS and would probably have had Sissoko's goal against us as the #2 but Vardys was definitely a serious piece of skill and in a World Cup year its hardly surprising an Englishman got the nod.

Interesting that Kane didn't have a contender and neither did Man Utd who also didn't have a contender for any of the player of the year awards.

If only there was an award for the hardest to watch team!!

Hopefully Utd will add the FA Cup to the 2nd place cup and Jose will stay another few years. With a new manager coming into Arsenal and likely new managers in Chelsea and possibly Spurs that should put us in pole position to dethrone City next year.

Osmosis Jones

GOTS this year was shíte, had we not one bicycle kick all year?

Talisman

GotTheTshirt wrote: »

I thought my relationship with him was implied from my initial mention of him.
It's more of a 'Nice one Vigs, great result last night' thing rather than 'let me put the kettle on for another cuppa while you tell me about the lowest points in your career'.

If we become any closer I'll be sure to ask him.

Given that most of the the League of Ireland clubs operate on a voluntary basis, your season ticket could entitle you to the opportunity of becoming the club's tea lady.

Turtyturd

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Exactly, certainly not any sort of mass conspiracy. Think a big part is the fact that Liverpool have been scoring so many goals this season, so it gives them a bit of a let off... why put your neck on the line, when 'Pool are likely to score a few from play anyway.

Maybe because it’s your job to make those decisions?

You could be right though because the opposite also looks to true considering some of the penalties we’ve conceded this season.

Turtyturd

ricero wrote: »

Gerard Houllier was in attendance again today. I reckon the Fekir deal will be wrapped up soon

Putting in some good groundwork here ricero, hopefully you can follow through with the pay off about it being FSG’s fault if it doesn’t happen.

ricero

Turtyturd wrote: »

Putting in some good groundwork here ricero, hopefully you can follow through with the pay off about it being FSG’s fault if it doesn’t happen.

Those days are over hopefully sir. Cautiously optimitic

Turtyturd

ricero wrote: »

Those days are over hopefully sir. Cautiously optimitic

Quoting this for future reference.

Also, Haven’t seen it mentioned but love how Klopp took the sensible approach to yesterday’s game....need a point, starts 4 forwards. :pac:

Tactical masterclass.

gimli2112

seeing Can touted as one of the best free transfers in recent years reminded me of Gary McAllister. Well past it when we signed him, towards the end of the season he scored against Barcelona in the UEFA semi final, just after his 44 yard injury time free kick winner against Everton, came on as a sub in the LC final scoring in the shoot out, came on against Arsenal when losing in the FA cup final and was MOTM in the UEFA cup final.
he only played 55 times for us and is a club ambassador

tinpib

Daemonic wrote: »

Just looking at the final table, 12 draws is way too many. Turn half of those into wins next season and it'll be an exceptional points haul.

Yep, I wouldn't mind too much about the recent Everton, West Brom, Stoke draws when there was the Champs Lg distraction. Drawing those games was a high-quality problem.

But it's all those draws before Christmas which did it, and of course, pre-Christmas was pre-Virgil.

I'd expect that to change next season.

Our biggest problem now is squad depth really, and wouldn't you know it, summer is coming.

I think we will be genuine title challengers next season, but we do need Man City to drop more points of course.

yourdeadwright

noodler wrote: »

Didn't think the Duffy handball was a pen.

The tackle tho, jesus H.

How is it not a peno ?

rob316

Favourite Salah goal is the Spurs one. The type of goal you stand up, watch him dance through, and think surely not?! Then boom!

yourdeadwright

My fav to and I seen it live, the place went mental ,
Only for the ref to then screw us with a peno

Talisman

tinpib wrote: »

I think we will be genuine title challengers next season, but we do need Man City to drop more points of course.

I think that will happen.

Last week Huddersfield stood up to them, they didn't have much possession but they had more shots on target than Man City and earned a 0-0 result at the City of Manchester stadium.

Yesterday Southampton frustrated them for 94 minutes.

Roy Hodgson's organised Crystal Palace side were unlucky not to take all 3 points off of them on New Year's Eve when Milivojevic missed an injury time penalty.

Burnley drew 1-1 at home and were undone by a minimal contact penalty in their away game early in the season.

Tony Pulis's West Brom were unlucky to lose their home game 3-2 in October. Fernandinho's goal deflected off of two defenders, hit the post and then trickled over the line.

Benitez also knows how to get at them, their wins against Newcastle were hard fought and the result at St. James Park would have been different if Benitez had better quality forward players.

Koeman, Pulis, Dyche, Hodgson, Wagner, Hughes, Klopp, Mourinho and Benitez - that's 9 Premier League managers that were able to organise their teams against Man City this season. Granted two of them are no longer managing in the Premier League but it gives hope that there will be others in future.

In contrast both Arsenal and Chelsea both played their games against Man City without a plan to get a result from the games. That's 12 points that Man City may not be assured of next season if Conte is replaced at Chelsea.

Klopp delivered a blueprint for frustrating and beating Guardiola's team last month. Other teams may not have the quality forwards to so ruthlessly punish Man City but the whole world has seen that you can frustrate them if your team is properly organised.

gimli2112

we played the greatest premier team ever 4 times this year and beat them thrice, that's kind of cool

marklazarcovic

Can won't be half as good as he purportedly is if he re-signs with us though,that's a given.

MD1990

Wijnaldum has been brillant last few weeks.

Such a well rounded midfielder now physically & technically.

LuckyLloyd

So now is the time to do a season review. Whatever happens in Kiev will happen. Winning or losing is a matter of history, but making the final offers all we need to analyse the achievements of this season, progress under Klopp and outlook for the future.

Klopp's record and progression is now as follows:

League

2016: 8th, 60 pts, +13 (30 games managed)
2017: 4th, 76 pts, +36
2018: 4th, 75 pts, +46

goals conceded has gone 50, 42 and 38 the last three seasons

Europe

2016: Europa League Runners Up (Sevilla)
2017: N/A
2018: Champions League Finalists (Real Madrid)

FA Cup

2016: Fourth Round (West Ham)
2017: Fourth Round (Wolves)
2018: Fourth Round (West Brom)

League Cup

2016: Runners up (Man City)
2017: Semi Finalists (Southampton)
2018: Third Round (Leicester)


The themes of his nearly three year reign are clear, with some solid trends. We score and concede lots of goals with a high octane style, but every year we're scoring more and conceding less. We're a very tough out over two legs in Europe. And we haven't had the depth in the squad to date to handle multiple competitions in parallel, whether that be league form suffering in 2016; or domestic cup form suffering this year, etc.

Overall I'm extremely satisfied with how things are going. To maintain our league performance two years in a row while handling a European Cup challenge is an excellent step forward; to do it while losing Coutinho and not yet having a deep squad is all the better. It's a triumph of motivation and tactics fitting the players available. VVD has proved well worth waiting for and every signing to date ranges from excellent to positive in terms of outlook. This is the first time in 9 years that we have qualified for the European Cup in successive seasons. That is a very important stepping stone.

Keita coming in is a very welcome addition. If Lallana and Ox successfully return to health then we might say the midfield is sorted overall. At which point all we're really looking for as must haves are a center back and better depth for the front three. The goalkeeping situation is tricky, and we might be best served giving Karius the gig for another year.

Ultimately it's just a great time to be a Liverpool fan. Klopp has a firm view of the game, of the players he wants and of the standards he wishes to attain. FSG have learned from various mishaps and have created solid financial foundations. In the modern transfer environment they are making it as difficult as possible for Real and Barca to take our players and the investment in fees / wages are there to improve on what we have. It all comes down to a key question of being able to start the first 8 games well and push a ppg average that would get 80 - 85 points. That's where it will become interesting as City won't garner 100 points next year, and if we're in the race coming up to Christmas we'll have our next opportunity to find out about what Klopp might be capable of. But maintaining this base, building out the squad and winning midweek / cup games on top of it would be very acceptable too. I, for one, am happy to let this play out over a few years.

gimli2112

yeah I said somewhere we need a new GK but my mind's not totally made up on Karius. My watershed moment with Migs was Arsenal's equalizer at the Emirates, tbh I probably gave him longer than most.

gafferino

gimli2112 wrote: »

we played the greatest premier team ever 4 times this year and beat them thrice, that's kind of cool

Yep for sure but beating the big teams has never been a massive problem for us. Its consistency of results over the course of a season i.e. 12 draws for example. The trend is going in the right direction though and I fully expect us to have a better league campaign next season.

I am absolutely delighted with this season as a whole and am very interested to see our summer transfer business. We shouldnt expect to lose any starting 11 bar Can and definitely expect 1-2 starting 11 canditates (not including Keita) as well as good squad players.

citytillidie

From the beeb

Liverpool have gone unbeaten at home in a top-flight season for the seventh time, more than any other side
They have finished in the top four in consecutive Premier League seasons for the first time since a run of four campaigns between 2005-06 and 2008-09
Salah has scored against 17 different opponents in the league this season; a Premier League record
He has scored in 34 different club games in all competitions this season, at least four more than any other player in Europe's big five leagues (Paris St-Germain's Edinson Cavani, 30)

GBX

Just saw this on the Tweet machine:

https://twitter.com/MaddockMirror/status/995730015936532480


He is a class act. Love having him as our manager.

Luckycharms_74

5starpool wrote: »

Conceded 38 this season, only the top 3 have less conceded, and spurs only 2 less. Improvement on early in the season for the r sure.

Harry Palmr wrote: »

17th clean sheet of the season.

I'm going to do the stats later unless someone beats me to it but apart from the points tally 75 v 76 all of them are arguably better esp in the context of the Champions League progress.

From twitter :

Liverpool finish the season with the joint-4th best goals against record in the PL.

After game 9 (Spurs away) they were the sixth worst.

For the 29 games since, they've been the best.

5starpool

gafferino wrote: »

Yep for sure but beating the big teams has never been a massive problem for us. Its consistency of results over the course of a season i.e. 12 draws for example. The trend is going in the right direction though and I fully expect us to have a better league campaign next season.

I am absolutely delighted with this season as a whole and am very interested to see our summer transfer business. We shouldnt expect to lose any starting 11 bar Can and definitely expect 1-2 starting 11 canditates (not including Keita) as well as good squad players.

This season was the first in a while we have generally done badly against the rest of the (current) top 6 teams, but it was balanced by beating the rest more often.

Whatever happens in Kiev it has been a good season. It can become a great one though.

Knex*

Klopp also said playing for a point means you're half way to losing, which I thought was a great quote.

LuckyLloyd

Also, you could see the positive effect of the week’s rest yesterday. It was such a superior performance to the previous three games. Everything was back rocking and rolling and it could have been 8 or 9. Very positive indicator for the final. The unknown of course is how they deal with the occasion...

TitianGerm

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

From twitter :

Liverpool finish the season with the joint-4th best goals against record in the PL.

After game 9 (Spurs away) they were the sixth worst.

For the 29 games since, they've been the best.

Nah man... We can't defend.

yourdeadwright

Its crazy to think but it took us half a season to get 3 of the back five playing ,
Since Karius,VVD and Robertson all started together we have been the best defence in the division stat wise,If the 3 of them had of been starting in August we'd no doubt had more points on the board  
Plus we could possible upgrade on Karius and Lovren this summer, .

Gbear

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

From twitter :

Liverpool finish the season with the joint-4th best goals against record in the PL.

After game 9 (Spurs away) they were the sixth worst.

For the 29 games since, they've been the best.

It was always looking like it was going to be massively slanted by those games against City and Spurs.

Overall, though we conceded 38, we conceded 14 in 4 games against City and Spurs. Against the top 6 we conceded 21.
By contrast, we conceded only 8 against them in 16/17. We only earned 1 point away from home against the top 6.

I think these things can swing a bit from one season to the next, and the City game in particular shows how that can happen, but it's an area I'm sure Klopp will be looking to fix again.

We had a very poor September/October, where we won 2 from 7. Trying to avoid that and quickly regain momentum, home draws, and being more competitive against the top 6, particularly away from home, are the sorts of things we need

We've mostly sorted out our game against the bottom 14. There's probably just a small degree of having better options on the bench to kill games off and open teams up. Less feast or famine, where we're either getting shut out or winning 5-0.

On the face of it, I think we have a far more straightforward job ahead of us than, say, Spurs. I'm not sure how they move forward and go up another level, but we have some fairly clear weaknesses.

Bowlardo

Not impressed with the Butland link at all
Allinson or Oblak are th only two keepers I wanna coming in. We are in prime position to get top players and need to spend the money now. no ****ing about.

Potential Underachiever

I'm not sure if it was great management or pure coincidence but it has worked out perfectly for Andy Robertson this season, he couldn't get a game at the start, you had Coco the clown keeping him out of the team which must be tough to take, I remember him saying he was being frustrated at not even making matchday squads at one stage, whether Klopp was purposely holding him back when all and sundry were calling for him to get a chance, even on the brief appearances he was making early in the season he looked solid. I think Moreno eventually got injured so maybe it was luck on Klopps and Liverpools behalf but he took his chance with both hands and hasn't looked back, he's been nothing short of superb the last few months. The very small Moreno fan club has disbanded. Hopefully he goes on to have a stellar career at Liverpool, he looks like a serious bargain and extremely likeable sort of bloke.

Talisman

yourdeadwright wrote: »

Its crazy to think but it took us half a season to get 3 of the back five playing ,
Since Karius,VVD and Robertson all started together we have been the best defence in the division stat wise,If the 3 of them had of been starting in August we'd no doubt had more points on the board  
Plus we could possible upgrade on Karius and Lovren this summer, .

It's never that simple. In fact thinking about it, it would have been a potential disaster - we would have been bedding in an entire new defensive line at the same time with little/no protection in front of them.

GK : Karius (Relatively New)
RB : Gomez/Alexander-Arnold (New to the side)
CB : Lovren/Matip/Klavan
CB : Van Dijk (New signing)
LB : Robertson (New signing)

Only one of the positions would have been occupied by a player that would be comfortable in Klopp's setup. Klopp took the right approach by not changing everything at once, the incremental changes reduced the growing pains of a defensive unit that are getting used to how each other play.

ERG89

Bowlardo wrote: »

Not impressed with the Butland link at all
Allinson or Oblak are th only two keepers I wanna coming in. We are in prime position to get top players and need to spend the money now. no ****ing about.

The fact he's not nailed on to go to Russia at the expense of Joe Hart says a lot. He's been poor since he returned from injury, we have taken players from lower sides and improved them (Wijnaldum, Robertson and to an extent Van Dijk) but goalkeeping has been an issue since Reina dipped in form then left. Mignolet lost us far more points than he ever won and Karius showed against Roma that he still has a lot to improve on even if he has clearly improved in recent months.
We should either go big like we did with VVD or forget buying a Butland type for an inflated fee.