Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

SlickRic

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Salah is only 8 goals behind Drogba the top premier league goalscorer from Africa.

Drogba 254 games 104 goals.

Salah 155 games 96 goals.

Mane 226 games 93 goals.

I'll never stop saying it.

The most criminally underappteciated player in PL history.

plastic glass

SlickRic wrote: »

That's the first time I've ever genuinely thought a decision was corrupt.

I think he looked at it, knew he'd just booked him, knew what it meant, and just decided not to make the decision.

I can't think of another explanation.

Should cavani not also been booked for his handball? I think that would have put him on a 2nd yellow

PhuckHugh

Bad season that may still end horribly but stuffing those gee bags in their own back yard is always nice.

Bowlardo

Joe Don Dante wrote: »

I know he's top class, where did I say he wasn't? he's excellent, he'd be one of the first names on any teamsteet but he's gone to **** with the ball at his feet. sloppy passes straight to attackers. it's constantly happening.

100% agree with you he installs panic in stressful situations anyway.

Girly Gal

Who'd have thought at the start of the season that we'd have won at Old Trafford with Philips and Williams as our CB pairing. If there's a lesson to be learned from this season, it's to play players in their best positions; Fabinho and Henderson in midfield and play CBs at CB even if it means Philips & Williams.
Now on to Burnley, WBA and Palace, teams that will set up defensively, the type of games we have struggled in this season. Winning at Burnley is always difficult, the WBA game Big Sam would love nothing more than taking points off Klopp if it means us missing out on CL and Palace will have the 7-0 thrashing on their minds and will not want a repeat. It's finally in our hands again, so no excuses now, but, it's definitely not a done deal yet.

ben.schlomo

Girly Gal wrote: »

Who'd have thought at the start of the season that we'd have won at Old Trafford with Philips and Williams as our CB pairing. If there's a lesson to be learned from this season, it's to play players in their best positions; Fabinho and Henderson in midfield and play CBs at CB even if it means Philips & Williams.
Now on to Burnley, WBA and Palace, teams that will set up defensively, the type of games we have struggled in this season. Winning at Burnley is always difficult, the WBA game Big Sam would love nothing more than taking points off Klopp if it means us missing out on CL and Palace will have the 7-0 thrashing on their minds and will not want a repeat. It's finally in our hands again, so no excuses now, but, it's definitely not a done deal yet.

Not a done deal is an understatement. It's three very difficult games based on how we've been against these types of teams this season.

Potential Underachiever

I know people will play it down but it will be a disaster not to win the last 3 games now, no excuse not to. We are playing 13th, 15th and 19th in the league, who all have nothing much to play for, we are desperate for the wins and must be high in confidence after the win last night, I would sort of expect us to roll these teams pretty comfortably. The hard part was done last night, would be criminal to chuck it away now.

fyfe79

Agent Coulson wrote: »

Salah is only 8 goals behind Drogba to be the top premier league goalscorer from Africa.

Drogba 254 games 104 goals.

Salah 155 games 96 goals.

Mane 226 games 93 goals.

PEA 112 games 64 goals.

Phenomenal.

Leading scorer this season.... though he's not good enough for Carragher and Neville's team of the season so that's the real worry.

Fitz*

Potential Underachiever wrote: »

I know people will play it down but it will be a disaster not to win the last 3 games now, no excuse not to. We are playing 13th, 15th and 19th in the league, who all have nothing much to play for, we are desperate for the wins and must be high in confidence after the win last night, I would sort of expect us to roll these teams pretty comfortably. The hard part was done last night, would be criminal to chuck it away now.

Each game will have it's own narrative too, and reason to want to win.

WBA will have Big Sam just wanting to get one over on Liverpool.
Burnley will have home fans in their stadium for the first time in over 12 months.
Palace will probably be Hodgson's last game in football.

NabyLadistheman

I will never tire of Salah going through unopposed in injury time to seal the win against that shower

SlickRic

SlickRic wrote: »

.......... There is no reason we shouldn't have won more games like that this season. The defence dictates that we'd have never challenged City, but goals really should've flowed more often................

You're a bit slow to that realisation, most of us have thought that since Christmas but too many were happy to go with the "injuries innit" spiel.

citytillidie

Last night was good, exposed United's defence and their fans exposed themselves, those the protests were not about the ESL. Any support they had from Liverpool fans I say is also gone.

Ken Tucky

Last nights match was so different from the crap we have watched all season.
The two teams just went for it...even if we didnt come out on the good side of that, it would still have been the best match i watched this season.
Sick of looking at teams playing with 10 outfield players sitting 30 yards from their goal. We havent handled playing teams who do that well...and that is the majority of teams this season.

Two of the threee remaining matches are against teams who play like that but because their seasons are finished we may see a more attacking game from them. Well, apart from Burnley.

We are back in the mix, really be a sickner if we dont win our three matches but i wouldnt be suprised if there is another balls up..

fyfe79

fyfe79 wrote: »

Phenomenal.

Leading scorer this season.... though he's not good enough for Carragher and Neville's team of the season so that's the real worry.

Didn't Neville have Rashford in ahead of him?

rob316

Potential Underachiever wrote: »

I know people will play it down but it will be a disaster not to win the last 3 games now, no excuse not to. We are playing 13th, 15th and 19th in the league, who all have nothing much to play for, we are desperate for the wins and must be high in confidence after the win last night, I would sort of expect us to roll these teams pretty comfortably. The hard part was done last night, would be criminal to chuck it away now.

I agree, given the experience of this team and the amazing position we find ourselves in after doing our best to throw away every opportunity we have it would be a massive failure to not get over the line with 3 games to go against far inferior opposition. That Burnely game is going to be especially difficult though with fans back in the stadium.

Daemonic

Maybe fans being back will help against Burnley. Might tempt them into trying to play a bit more. No fans has made it easier for teams to play stifling tactics without enduring any grumbling from the stands.

Calvin

6 wrote: »

Didn't Neville have Rashford in ahead of him?

Even more criminal, Carra had Foden ahead of him. Foden. Salah has triple his PL goals this season.

If we win the next 3 that's 5 wins in a row .......... 2 draws and a win before that 5...................... 20 pts from 8 games, a run well deserving of a top 4 finish :cool:

ebbsy

Thiago is some player.

Never get bored of watching him play.

MD1990

Potential Underachiever wrote: »

I know people will play it down but it will be a disaster not to win the last 3 games now, no excuse not to. We are playing 13th, 15th and 19th in the league, who all have nothing much to play for, we are desperate for the wins and must be high in confidence after the win last night, I would sort of expect us to roll these teams pretty comfortably. The hard part was done last night, would be criminal to chuck it away now.

I would agree if we didnt have such an unproven CB partnership.

Kabak back would be a huge boost.
Phillips is a good CB. Williams done better last night but is very shaky,

noodler

ebbsy wrote: »

Thiago is some player.

Never get bored of watching him play.

He's a fine game last night.

I have to say though, he did have me pulling my hair out again by holding onto it too long and getting dispossessed in our own half.

But his passing was great.

mosstin

Potential Underachiever wrote: »

I know people will play it down but it will be a disaster not to win the last 3 games now, no excuse not to. We are playing 13th, 15th and 19th in the league, who all have nothing much to play for, we are desperate for the wins and must be high in confidence after the win last night, I would sort of expect us to roll these teams pretty comfortably. The hard part was done last night, would be criminal to chuck it away now.

Indeed. It would be most un4-2nate.

Riesen_Meal

Daemonic wrote: »

Maybe fans being back will help against Burnley. Might tempt them into trying to play a bit more. No fans has made it easier for teams to play stifling tactics without enduring any grumbling from the stands.

We are away to Burnley, might help Burnley!

steve_r

Just a quick work on Rhys Williams
It can’t have been easy for him after that disaster of an FA Cup game and as a young player it must have dented his confidence

To come back into the team and play as well as he has is very impressive. Delighted for him on a personal level.

Fitz*

It's mad what a win can do in terms of outlook. I know it's easier to say after a win, but there were some big positives to take from last night.

The forwards, Firmino in particular, being more clinical than in recent times. Salah's celebration showed more to me than any interview he will give. Jota taking his chance instead of fluffing his lines, while at the same time could have had a hattrick only for a good save & hitting the post.

Thiago with another excellent performance. He's actually had a few of those in his time, which does not suit the narrative at all of course. Thiago has now started 6 games alongside Fabinho in midfield -a draw against Everton in that game, and then 5 wins against Arsenal, Man United, Leipzig, Wolves, Southampton. It just goes to show what can happen when you are able to play midfielders in their natural positions.

Trent has been having a good run of form, and another top performance from him again last night. He actually got nominated for PL player of the month last month so this whole narrative of him having a terrible season is another one of hyperbole. He might have had some bad moments in games this season, yes, but his overall form is not exactly the worst ever. Is he replicating the last two seasons? No, but to be fair he was hitting 9/10s every week over those 2 seasons. If he drops to a 7/10, it's still a decent season like. Great to see him hitting form again when he is needed.

Potential Underachiever

Joe Don Dante wrote: »

I know he's top class, where did I say he wasn't? he's excellent, he'd be one of the first names on any teamsteet but he's gone to **** with the ball at his feet. sloppy passes straight to attackers. it's constantly happening.

Yeah, Goalkeepers are normally the first name on team sheets, failing that he'd do quite well alphabetically speaking also.

Fitz*

steve_r wrote: »

Just a quick work on Rhys Williams
It can’t have been easy for him after that disaster of an FA Cup game and as a young player it must have dented his confidence

To come back into the team and play as well as he has is very impressive. Delighted for him on a personal level.

While all of what you said is true, he was very poor for the 2nd United goal.

He got too sucked into the ball, twice, and was all over the place. He got dragged over and back by the movement of Cavani & Rashford. Now to be fair, getting dragged out of position by Cavani can happen to the best CBs too. But this is something that he has to iron out of his game, and you'd expect him to do that with more experience.

He also had a rocky 5-10 mins spell just after their 1st goal too. I think the incident with Alisson and the backpass kinda rocked him and then he needed a bit to get his head back straight. United forced him to play on his left foot and kicking the ball long over the sideline then too. But then after that, he hit a lovely long range cross field pass to Salah's feet and he seemed to settle down again after that.

Fitz*

Fitz* wrote: »

............

Trent has been having a good run of form, and another top performance from him again last night. He actually got nominated for PL player of the month last month so this whole narrative of him having a terrible season is another one of hyperbole. He might have had some bad moments in games this season, yes, but his overall form is not exactly the worst ever. Is he replicating the last two seasons? No, but to be fair he was hitting 9/10s every week over those 2 seasons. If he drops to a 7/10, it's still a decent season like. Great to see him hitting form again when he is needed.

He played himself out of bad form months ago, the rest of the team should look to him as an example IMO.

Demosthenese

What a difference a week makes eh? I'll admit i couldn't see that coming. I felt we'd concede and then it was a case of could we outscore them - based on recent times - i didn't think we had it in the locker.

To go to OT and play like that was impressive. The character - even Nat Phillips at the end - his interview - he was brilliant in how he felt they were never in any doubt that they didn't start well but they KNEW it was going to improve - WE HAD GEARS. For a kid that just scored a horrible OG in the biggest game of the year, that is something to be proud of - his mental strength to come back from that - assist the opener. Take 1 off the line when we needed it. Superb - delighted for him.

I've been critical of Thiago in weeks gone, but his pressing last night bore fruit in nearly everything he did. I seen a stat that Trent won most interceptions but Thiago surely was up there.

I'm shocked that United tried to go toe to tow with us - with Ole resting his players, conceding the league i felt that he would go for the low block and simply frustrate us when trying to counter attack. Eventually getting in for a goal. But they were so open after they scored. Have we ever opened them up at OT like that before? We could have had 7.

Karma finally did us a turn this year. The injuries, the position in the league, the bus scandal, protesting, targeting the bus ,Leicester being handed 3 points ... it was so much sweeter to win it like that. It felt huge!!!

Next few games will be tense. We watch the Leicester/Chelsea game with interest. Anything can happen in that and i'd fancy Chelsea to win - but for us maybe a Chelsea result would be better?

3 huge games coming up. You can be sure we'll be sweating over them. Burnley are a nightmare for us to play against. Dyche and Allardyce will be loving the attention they'll be getting.

SlickRic

Salah is a funny one.

I've always thought that his style of play actually doesn't lend itself to being liked by people easily.

He's direct to a fault.
He almost never plays the safe pass.
He's often losing the ball as a result.
He can be selfish on occasion.

The media have also developed the narrative around him where he's a selfish prick. During or after the game against Southampton, they were running through a ream of clips of him during the game, and were almost giggling at the shots he was trying - all legitimate shots. they also scoffed that the cross to Mané might have been a shot.

that narrative doesn't help.

he's not as silky as Henry.
He's not as brutally efficient as Shearer.

but he is just about as elite as any forward the Premier League has seen. the numbers do not lie.

case fúcking closed.

SlickRic

The only way to judge a striker / forward IMO is goals per games.
Salah scores consistently regardless of his form and regardless of the form of those around him.
Bobby was deemed to be key to Salah and Mane scoring so the fact he didn't score much himself was accepted......... this season Bobby and Mane were largely dogsh1t and contributed fnck all really...... Salah still scored consistently.

He's up there with the best of them worldwide and the best in the PL.

ticks everybox a forward should......

SlickRic wrote: »

.........
He's direct to a fault.
He almost never plays the safe pass.
He's often losing the ball as a result.
He can be selfish on occasion.

.............

ebbsy

I was like a dog with 2 mickeys this morning.

Akabusi

Augeo wrote: »

He played himself out of bad form months ago, the rest of the team should look to him as an example IMO.

I would term him as being inconsistent. He was terrible in the first Madrid game which is recent.

Akabusi

Akabusi wrote: »

I would term him as being inconsistent. He was terrible in the first Madrid game which is recent.

Meh, the 11 of them were terrible for half that game.
He's been decent for a couple of months, recently.

Fitz*

SlickRic wrote: »

He can be selfish on occasion.

I want Salah to be selfish.

The best forwards are selfish. They have an unbelievable confidence in their own abilities to score when they get the ball. This is what distances them to the rest and what makes them are so good, having top mental strength. Backing themselves to score every time they shoot. If they didn't have that confidence, they wouldn't be shooting and they wouldn't get half the number of goals they do.

I'd much rather Salah took 4 shots and scored 1, rather than not score because he passed to teammates while he was in good positions himself. Jota's goal last night actually comes from a passage of play resulting from a Salah shot in which he backed himself to score from the edge of the box.

If Firmino had Salah's elite mentality & confidence, he would have taken a shot in the 2nd minute, instead of trying to pass to a teammate across the box.

Confidence and mental strength can make such a difference in a player - just look at Iheanacho & Lingard over the last 3 months alone. If Mane got some of his confidence back, he would be twice the player again.

gimli2112

I was quite surprised that was Klopp's first win at OT on the basis some of the recent Utd teams have been the worst I've seen ever, even going back to the eighties.

1o059k7ewrqj3n

Immensely enjoyed that last night, they played so well. The sight of Ole sagging into himself and staring forlornly out onto the pitch near the end was a joy to behold. They really thought they were going to do a number on us and they got handed a reality check.

gimli2112

gimli2112 wrote: »

I was quite surprised that was Klopp's first win at OT on the basis some of the recent Utd teams have been the worst I've seen ever, even going back to the eighties.

~If they'd parked the bus they might well have done better. Going toe to toe with us didn't work.

SlickRic

gimli2112 wrote: »

I was quite surprised that was Klopp's first win at OT on the basis some of the recent Utd teams have been the worst I've seen ever, even going back to the eighties.

it's only recently that we've become any good at breaking teams down who sit back. Utd, through their decline in recent years, have still been an excellent counter attacking team.

we should've beaten them at Old Trafford when Lallana got a late equaliser, as this team was arguably at its recent peak.

yesterday was also proof that Ole either thinks his team is better than it is, or the players think they're better than they are. Bruno's whining at every moment was one indicator.

but much more than that, their efforts at playing out from the back were laughable, yet they persisted to a fault. what Shaw attempted at the start of the second half just before Firmino scored was hilarious. they got rightly punished yesterday.

So i'm not surprised Klopp hasn't done great against them at OT. yesterday was one of the few times they've opened up at all against us.

gimli2112

actually that's very true now you say it that has been their modus operandi the last few years. they really did expect to beat us yesterday, I know they say the table never lies, I guess it does from time to time

marklazarcovic

Trent isn't just one of the best rb's in the league.. arguably the best..he's one of the best players full stop,already.

Riesen_Meal

Steyr 556 wrote: »

Immensely enjoyed that last night, they played so well. The sight of Ole sagging into himself and staring forlornly out onto the pitch near the end was a joy to behold. They really thought they were going to do a number on us and they got handed a reality check.

I couldn't resist snapping a photo of that off my telly...

gimli2112

I still have Mourinho's face when we went 2-1 up against Spurs in the 91st minute as my screensaver

Eircom_Sucks

we better not mess this up now , in our own hands

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Eircom_Sucks wrote: »

we better not mess this up now , in our own hands

Indeed.

Now comes the tricky bit...

Calvin

Eircom_Sucks wrote: »

we better not mess this up now , in our own hands

Big Sam will be a huge test. Nothing to lose and a point to prove for him.

Gbear

SlickRic wrote: »

Salah is a funny one.

I've always thought that his style of play actually doesn't lend itself to being liked by people easily.

He's direct to a fault.
He almost never plays the safe pass.
He's often losing the ball as a result.
He can be selfish on occasion.

The media have also developed the narrative around him where he's a selfish prick. During or after the game against Southampton, they were running through a ream of clips of him during the game, and were almost giggling at the shots he was trying - all legitimate shots. they also scoffed that the cross to Mané might have been a shot.

that narrative doesn't help.

he's not as silky as Henry.
He's not as brutally efficient as Shearer.

but he is just about as elite as any forward the Premier League has seen. the numbers do not lie.

case fúcking closed.

I think part of it is that he scores very few hattricks.

He has 2 hattricks and he's scored 4 once.

As a player who scores about 2 games in 3 in the league, he mostly does it one goal at a time, and doesn't seem to have much streakyness to his scoring, so he kinda fades into the background. He's scored 2 or 3 goals every couple of weeks since he's signed, and it doesn't seem to matter how he's actually performing during the games, the goals happen at the same rate.

robwen

https://twitter.com/JamesPearceLFC/status/1393144529943937024?s=19

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2021/0514/1221610-fowler-and-carragher-hatch-academy-plan-for-melwood/

RugbyLover123

gimli2112 wrote: »

I was quite surprised that was Klopp's first win at OT on the basis some of the recent Utd teams have been the worst I've seen ever, even going back to the eighties.

Did we not win the Europa League game there or was that a draw. The one where Coutinho scored a beaut.

Pepp1989

Early goal v big sam is huge this weekend