Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118936682#Comment_118936682

Why?

We’ve won one, final of another, semi final against the weakest team remaining, we’ve just beaten the strongest team in the other semi, and we are one point behind in the league, with a fully fit squad, why would the quadruple not be “on”?

gimli2112

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118936758#Comment_118936758

the league's unwinnable, every team hates us, none of them have a history of being humiliated by City, like their quiet neighbours. they'll roll over them all

martyos121

The only competition that’s out of our hands is the Premier League. I firmly believe we can, and will, win the other two because it’s down to this special group of players and manager, and nobody else. As long as we have two big performances in us for Villarreal and one more for each final, that’s enough. If we drop some points in the league along the way, so be it. All we can do is hope City drop more than us but there’s no point stressing over that.

As for the fear of playing City in the UCL final? There isn’t any tbh. They’d start that game as favourites, all the pressure would be on them and we know what that does to Pep in big games. I’d still fancy us to beat them at any ground in the world that isn’t the Etihad.

So yes, I think there’s a great chance of us winning the cup treble this season.

gimli2112

the first half was frightening because everyone knows City are so far ahead of everyone and we we're so far ahead of them, I genuinely believe if we could only play City we'd win the quadruple easy

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118936753#Comment_118936753

Matip and Henderson in I'd say, Ibra and Thiago out. He'll probably bring Jota back too before Bobby, just seems to be the pecking order at the moment. United will try on Tuesday, they are actually dangerous in a one off game like this.

retalivity

Mo was absolute dogsh1t today, had hardly any ball and when he did have it, he was greedy as hell. The man needs a break, i'd happily drop him completely vs United, and put him on the bench vs Everton - Mane/Diaz/Jota/Firmino and one of Minamino/Origi should be plenty to handle those.

Agent Coulson

Thaigo plays the game on a totally different level to everyone else.

We are so lucky to have him at the club.

https://twitter.com/Tactical_Times/status/1515350170866790419?s=20&t=Td0-o54Uz3k0UDnxbd4xDQ

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118936824#Comment_118936824

They did outplay us only a week ago though... there's a big difference between facing their full strength best 11, and the 11 they put out today. Fernandinho is the same age as Milner for instance - if we started Milner at the base of midfield we'd expect to lose control, and for him to probably get sent off, as Fernandinho perhaps should've been from all his yellow-card-worthy tackles.

Brilliant win today, fully hugely deserved. But a full strength City is a different beast..

jones

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118937006#Comment_118937006

Totally agree with this - i don't think we should get ahead of ourselves. Last week a full strength city really should have beaten us. They were all over us for 70% of that match and we did very well to get a point.

On form City and Liverpool are the two best teams in Europe why would you want to face the only other team that is on a par with ours? Give me Real any day over City and of course we need to at our best to beat Villareal. They didn't beat Juventus and Bayern by being crap they keep getting underestimated and know how to play knockout football.

eigrod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118936979#Comment_118936979

I love watching him. Fabinho too today broke up the play so well.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118936731#Comment_118936731

Comfortable favourites to win the FA CUP (1.44) Slight favourties to win the champions leagie (2.20 with City at 2.25) and needless to day, comfortable second favourites for the PL. At least according to Parry Power.

It's on until we get knocked out of a cup or cant catch City mathematically. Don't think any team has gotten this close to it before.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118936779#Comment_118936779

The league is only unwinnable if MC don’t drop points between now and the end of the season.

BorneTobyWilde

Next 3 are at home, chance to rest salah, no traveling to contend with, but he'll want to play those games to try get some goals. What to do, he won't win the golden boot on the bench, and his play is fine even if he's not scoring he's contributing, Jota , Firmino, and Mane are banging them in, so we're not relying on goals from Salah.

If you take penalties out of it, Salah only has 11 more goals than Mane for the club. And Mane is chipping away at that 11

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118937402#Comment_118937402

Be inclined to start him in only 1 of those games, and bring him on for 30 minutes in the other two. Gives him a bit of a rest, while also giving him the chance to get goals against tired legs.

He really looked tired today I thought, kept being very predictable in his attacks and runs and made life easy enough for Ake.

tinpib

When Liverpool were 3 up against the might City at HT yesterday I checked the PL scores and saw that Norwich had come from 2 down to draw 2 all against United and for a few glorious minutes football had given me the greatest happiness that you could imagine.

Later on I peeped over the wall to find out that Maguire had kicked Pogba in the head, accidentally but pure slapstick but more concerning for United fans was Pogba being booed and then "fu*k off Pogba" chants from the crowd, he then cupped his ears at them when he walked off the pitch.

This coming hot on the heels of Ronaldo smashing the fans phone, and then you had Maguire's arrest.

It got me thinking of Liverpool's downward spiral from 1990 on, it is so funny to see history repeating.

I was racking my brains for similar incidents that happened Liverpool, and I dont mean bad results/performances but other stuff.

What came to mind was Grobbelaar/McManaman bust up in the derby in 93/94, then Grobebelaar's match fixing stuff was Nov 1994, he left the club in summer 1994. You also had the Spice Boys FA cup final 1996 which for me was a real sliding doors moment. I think if Liverpool had won that things could have been different. Then later on of course you had Hicks/Gillette, and on the pitch you had Roy Hodgson.

Can people think of any other low points during that time?

As I say it's easy to pick out bad defeats but other stuff. It seems like United are producing incidents like this at a far higher rate than Liverpool did. Of course we are talking from 32 to about 8 years ago which is a long time and mainly pre-widespread internet use.

With United, Arsenal and Spurs all doing a spursy... would be great if West Ham still in for 4th when they play City.

machiavellianme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118937683#Comment_118937683

I don't think John Arne Riise enjoyed his round at the Craig Bellamy school of golf

.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118937812#Comment_118937812

The worry with them is if they get to the EL final they'll have full focus on that for sure. Probably rest players for league game before it which is City.

Riesen_Meal

https://twitter.com/JimmyCully/status/1515374838852075526?s=20&t=QUoebuiiabAu6HJB2vjOAQ

Cool photo from yesterday....

Girly Gal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118937683#Comment_118937683

Even with all that going on, with the exception of a few matches, we still generally made life difficult for United when we played them. I expect a tough match against them the next day, they will be extra motivated after the hammering we gave them at Old Trafford, to also derail our league challenge and with how their own fans have been on their backs lately. Remember we need the win, all they need is a draw to effectively derail our league hopes so they will do all they can to do that as we often did during their dominant era. Expect the same from Everton for much the same reasons next weekend.

Ottoman_1000

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118937999#Comment_118937999

If West Ham get to the final we can forget about them taking anything off City. The final is fixed for the Wednesday. 4 days after they meet so they will have the youth team out. Worry is now with that fixture, if it does come downtown to score difference that will be a massive opportunity for City to rack them up!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118937999#Comment_118937999

I was going to add... and get knocked out at the semi... but didn't want to be a cynical bastard 🤔 🤣

tinpib

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118937969#Comment_118937969

Ha ha, good example. Ya, that's exactly the type of thing I was thinking of.

Electric Nitwit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118937969#Comment_118937969

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118938267#Comment_118938267

Although they both scored in the Camp Nou the next match 😀

El Hadji Diouf was pretty desperate in general, but the spitting incident against Celtic was a bad day

theoneeyedman

All about squad management for these few weeks, and we've gotten better at that in the last 18 months or so as the squad has gotten stronger. We need to just concentrate on our own results and pass no heed on what City are doing for now. I said on Monday half joking, that City will regret not beating us on Sunday last when they had the chance, and I wonder......

Pep made some strange selection decisions yesterday, with the goalie for one, but also Mahrez, Gudogan were available if he wanted to rotate, and why change Cancelo from left to right instead of just changing at right back, and I'm not convinced De Bruyne is altogether that injured either, looked lively when warming up after they scored. 3 games without a win for City, will it tempt Pep to tinker around too much? Maybe I'm putting too much into it, but maybe, just maybe....

tinpib

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118938320#Comment_118938320

El Hadji Diouf another good example. I clearly remember reading about him in the newspaper (remember them?) being the star man in one of his early games, from Wiki it would probably be his Anfield debut where he scored 2 goals. Then it all went sour, his personality/character was all wrong.

Was reading about Collymore earlier and his main off the field problems seemed to happen after he left Liverpool but there were question marks around him during his Liverpool time too. Think we were blessed to get 7mil from Villa for him, would remind you of getting 25mil for Andy Carroll.

Robbie Fowler was beaten up in a loo whilst allegedly snorting coke, the next game he scored he celebrated by pretending to snort the end line.

tinpib

Was thinking of that incident too, never heard of the background to it though. Dont see anything after a quick google. What did pop up was Fowler mooning Grame Le Saux, I kinda remember that after reading it again. Different times I guess, Fowler's head would be on a spike if he did that now.

Agent Coulson

Gerard Moreno injured yesterday and looks like he will miss the semi finals.

tinpib

There was also Gerrard's assault/affray court case, which he was cleared in.

Thinking back over the incidents it shows that in general the culture of Liverpool was a bit off in the 90's. Similar seems to be happening at United now. But also if the players still produce on the pitch, that they can be forgiven, for example Fowler, Cantona, Keane.

Diouf is a great example of getting a player with terrible "character" and that can only be bad for dressing room harmony. We saw how quickly Klopp booted Sakho out the door.

In recent years we seem to have brought in players with all the right attributes and character, we don't have any dark clouds hanging over us at the moment in that way. I know Ferguson signed some howlers over the years but my memory is off him hitting home runs nearly all the time n the transfer market.

It's nice that the roles seem to have reversed in that regard.

.red.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118938476#Comment_118938476

No truth to that story.

Not a hope in hell that happens and doesn't make front and back page on every paper in the UK. The *** would have creamed themselves and paid big money for an exclusive.

The snorting the line was fantastic scouse humour to all the bullshit rumours the blue nosed fans were spreading.

Plus, if I remember correctly, it was actually a Cameroonian grass eating celebration he picked up off Rigobert Song.

eigrod

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118937683#Comment_118937683

El Hadji Diouf’s time with Liverpool. Spitting at opposition fans. Been following Liverpool since 1975/76 and he’s the only player deserving of disdain from the fans.

.G.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118938641#Comment_118938641

🤣 that excuse Houllier came up with for it was brilliant. You are correct, the blues love nothing better than spreading rumours about our players and that one was particularly rampant at the time. Fowler has commented on it many times to this day. Their favourite rumour these days is all our lads are on performance enhancing drugs as its the only thing that could explain our running stats and powers of recovery.

boosabum

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118938649#Comment_118938649

Don't forget the young Liverpool players who were laughing and joking at the Hillsborough memorial one year, the lad with less of a chance of a future was binned immediately and the other hung on for a bit longer

Agent Coulson

I can't believe someone actually thinks the Fowler story is true lol

TitianGerm

https://twitter.com/Irish_Barca/status/1515656565898244096?s=20&t=VG9v04F_mwhLLAvR2HIgrA

Thiago stats for the season. What a player he is.

Agent Coulson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118938683#Comment_118938683

Yet you will still see some Liverpool fans say he offers nothing to the team.

ShamoBuc

I remember opposition fans laughing at him following a poor performance and saying that he was finished and that Bayern don't get rid of good players.

Remembering that and seeing him at the moment certainly puts a little 'smug' look on my face.

Staying fit can be an issue, but .... he sees and executes some passes that are simply sublime, while being under pressure in big games.

He has such a lovely touch, must be a bit of a nightmare for opposition players.

TitianGerm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118938733#Comment_118938733

Our own fans were questioning him as well.

He's been an excellent signing, added another dimension to our midfield and oozes class.

ltd440

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118938683#Comment_118938683

Johnny Giles was on off the ball the other night saying he's a bit of a flop, that he's missing all game and makes one good pass per game.

Makes me wonder does he even watch the games.

He basically said Fabinho was just about average a couple of months ago

dirkmeister

“Squad player” according to Kenny Cunningham.

Thiago is the man.

BorneTobyWilde

Diaz was on 25k a week at Porto, now on 60k a week at Liverpool on a long term contract. While City got Grealish, a flop so far, on 400k a week.

This is why we not only compete with City, but outdo them on a lot of fronts.

BorneTobyWilde

Mane still hasn't signed on, you'd assume the offer is on the table by now. Mane is finally trying to get a wage reflective of his status. It needs to be at least 180k - 250k

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118938641#Comment_118938641

Of course it was a Cameroonian grass eating celebration, wasn’t it obvious. Google is your friend in relation to the assault, if you google the snorting celebration, it mentions the assault outside a nightclub and rumours of coke abuse. Of course we do not know if they are true considering none of us shared a line with Robbie, but the controversy was there, and that was what the poster asked about.

ltd440

Ruddock also gave Fowler a black eye, my memory might be a bit fuzzy but I think Fowler cut the ends off all of razors shoes ( toes sticking out 🤣 )at the hotel for some away match.

Girly Gal

We signed razor Ruddock and Julian Dicks in the 90s, enough said!

Agent Coulson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118938767#Comment_118938767

He also thinks Henderson is a better DM than Fab and does see what Fab adds to midfield and that Jones has more talent than Thaigo.

Cartman78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118938951#Comment_118938951

Was going to post this as well.....two clowns not fit to wear the jersey I'm every sense of the word.

Don Hutchinson was another one that springs to mind - have a vague recollection of him getting caught acting the eejit in a pub or something.

The sight of David Speedie in a Liverpool jersey will haunt me for another few years I suspect 😂

And overpriced dirge like Collymore, Saunders, Mark Wright, Paul Stewart etc who just never met the standards required.

And Kyriakos....became a cult hero for being shyte

Girly Gal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118939215#Comment_118939215

We signed some dire players in the 90's and early noughties, remember Sean Dundee, would have been better off signing Mick Dundee!

yourdeadwright

Thaigo is truly absolutely world class.

Probably the only world class player we have bought in the last 35 years, Yes we have signed other who have become world class or nobody knew where world class but Thaigo was ready made,

I remembered last season people saying he was a flop and then we went to Old Trafford with, Phillips and Williams as our CB amd Thaigo absolutely ran the show and a lot of people shut up,

People forget ge broke his legs what 2 games in and came back to a **** show so it took him a few matches to get going but he was vital on the run that got us champions league football and has just got better since