Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

If VAR brings more money into the game directly or indirectly (drama, controversy, debate, increasing tv audience, social media exposure) it will stay. If it starts to cost money (fan frustration, loss of interest, disengagement) it will go eventually.

Klopp Short interview

When the player is nearly 31, it's really not.

He's a body to play 6 in the non-important matches, which is exactly what he had done and will continue to do this for the rest of the season. That's his ceiling though and his role in the squad will always be to allow our better players to have a rest. He's been grand for what we need this season.

He was subbed off at half-time, not sure I'd call that fine. But it's not like he was head shoulders the worst out there either. But his main role in the squad is to allow our better players have a rest, he really didn't dona great job of that tonight.

Given the lack of depth at 6 I'd expect a player to start very quickly tbh. When we signed Fab we had Henderson, Millner and Wijnaldum. I'll be surprised if Endo is a the club next season.

Very worrying performance. Hoping for better against Brentford. But they’re a tough side to break down

That's awesome

He's 30, at his peak, and is an established pro with seasons of consistently good performances - exactly what we were crying out for along with our high-ceiling kids. He doesn't particularly need to get better as a player, he just needs to be acclimated to our system. DM is entirely a system's position, and has been for quite a while now. The most important aspect of it is total awareness of what everyone else is going to do, so they can be in the right place all the time... sort of like how a QB needs to know everyone else's job as well as their own.

To be honest i'm getting mixed messages from ya; "Time won't help Endo. He simply isn't good enough and never will be." and "He's been grand for what we need this season." - those are two very different statements for the same person to say only a few posts apart 😅. No-one thinks he was bought to be 'the guy' - he was bought to be the depth that every squad needs, for which he's a great option. I'd not be surprised to see him come into the team more over the next while in games where we need a more defensive base, particularly based on his strong recent performances.

As for tonight, I'm surprised you'd try to use that as some slight on him - we were chasing a goal, so brought on an attacking midfielder for a defensive midfielder. With him already being on a yellow, it was a no-brainer. I think it's also very fair to see we looked a lot more defensively suspect after he went off too - were reasonably grand and solid defensively first half, aside from Tsimikas individual fck up, whereas we looked incredibly fragile in the second half.

As for Fab's first season - I seem to recall some lad on here saying Fab would never be good enough after the Arsenal game, in November 2018 😅. Milner and Henderson in midfield together were absolute poison that season, horrible to watch, and a total creative void causing big problems. It was only once Fab eventually came in that we started looking more cohesive - but Klopp wanted to wait until he was ready with the system, same as he's done with every single defensive addition, with Van Dijk the one and only exception. Robertson, Konate, Fabinho, Endo, Tsimikas etc all had to wait a few months. I'd be fairly confident the next lad will be the same as those that preceded him.

(Honestly, I'm a bit baffled this is even a conversation - he's just not been an issue worth complaining about at all)

Is this the first game we have lost that Jota scored in?

yeah I think so.

Mad I guess how people can see such totally different things - Over the past 6 weeks or so especially as he's gotten more comfortable, I've really liked his performances. Good covering positions, loads of energy, and nicking in for little interceptions, and really strong progressive passing from deep. More proactive than some DMs I think, especially aggressive on the opponents 1st or 2nd touch (gives away a foul here a bit too often when he harries, which i think is his biggest issue to work on - he's always looking to turn over possession, instead of sometimes just mitigating danger). How quickly he finds a dangerous pass is actually nuts at times, he's brilliant at taking the ball and with his second touch playing a quick ball to an attackers feet, bypassing a few players. I was very much unsure about his signing, but from his Leicester performance in September onwards he's really impressed me.

Don't get me wrong - he's definitely limited in comparison to what I'd hope for in a long term DM (would like more size and speed than either Endo or Mac offer), but for me he's a properly legit option right now, and better than anything we had last season.

Endo has been absolutely fine of late.

This is one of those 'have to agree to disagree' situations I guess - your description of Endo to me just sounds massively over the top, particularly for a fella who's not actually having bad games.

If bajcetic was fit I'd much prefer to see him get game time. Like I'm much happier Doak and Quansah getting game time rather than signing a couple of 30 year old journeymen to play some of the EL group matches and some fringe cup games. Quansah, Doak et all aren't going to reach their potential by sitting on the bench.

Also, it's not that having Endo in the squad is a negative, it's having Endo as the only recognised DM in the squad is a clear negative. If Endo played the role of Adrian, where there was was an elite DM ahead of him and a decent young DM prospect I'd have no issues with that.

This is the first time I've ever tried to embed a video on this site so hopefully it works but this popped right into my head after reading your post.

Any chance of getting this chanted from the stands??

Anyone still reckon it's just incompetence from the refs? If me and my colleagues made as many blunders as these lot did we would all have been out of jobs years ago. These refereeing performances are utterly unacceptable regardless of whether or not it is incompetence or corruption. VAR is merely a symptom of the problem not the cause of it. Any official who was involved in the Spurs game for example should never ref at the highest level again in his entire career as opposed to being demoted for a few weeks. It's too much of a boys club tho for any of that accountability nonsense, that stuff is just for the likes of you and me...

I'm not even slightly surprised our 3rd goal was disallowed for handball when the rules state it should be allowed, it's something new every few weeks and is par for the course at this stage. These refs should at least be made read a rule book before reffing these games.

Sure Captain Pedantic.

Obviously the implication of VAR is part of the issue.

If VAR wasn't implemented I wouldn't have an issue with it.

A more fundamental issue with VAR is the mistaken belief that you can eliminate errors from football.

You can't.

People, and I include everyone from fans to managers, need to accept that refs will make mistakes.

VAR was a lie from the start because introducing more fallible humans into a subjective decision making process does not eliminate errors.

Quite the opposite.

VAR has added nothing positive to football but it has robbed it of so much.

Well when a decision can be subjective you will never be right in everyone's eyes regardless of the decision so you are correct there of course. But you should be able to eliminate all glaring errors like the ones we have suffered already this season.

I'm not sure I can argue your second point tho tbh. I don't even celebrate goals anymore, it's just more cautious optimism that we may have scored a goal.

I wonder what people actually want with VAR? They can keep the goal line and offside VAR as they are, supposedly, black and white decisions. The ball did or did not cross the line - the player is either offside or not. But the offsides calls are the ones taking time, usually when it comes to a red referral you have a players writhing on the ground and getting treatment so you don't waste time looking at those.

If they get rid of the process of checking for red cards and goals/penalties then, as you say, people have short memories. The first goal that shouldn't have stood due to something obviously missed in an important match that has big consequences and you will have the talking heads that are now calling for its removal shouting that this should not be allowed to happen with so much on the line. A obvious missed red card where the player goes on to score the winner in a final against United (I know...unlikely where they are now) and the likes of Neville and Ferdinand would be apoplectic on just getting it right as it changed the match. Or an obvious missed handball in the box where the player stopped the ball with his hand deliberately from either going in or going to a players in a better position and the pitchforks will be out for assistance to help the referees.

I think they need to re-think how it is used. If they want the referee on the field to make the decision, instead of the "clear an obvious error" ask the referee to check if he is happy with his call as he does not have the angles the VAR has or the time to make the decision and it is something he may have missed. That does not mean someone else is re-refereeing the match as the decision is made by the person on the field instead of some guy in the VAR studio.

I am just thinking now about rugby and the VAR and how people are saying it can work in rugby because it is stop start and you have these breaks. But in rugby you get a "check-check" call if the VAR needs the referee to check something urgently and the game stops. Football does not do this as the game is stop-start with fouls or the ball going out so no need to do this. I have only really seen one team playing with the ball for 2-3 minutes when a penalty should have been awarded and that was City. All other matches you had a break quite quickly to make the check, so people will need to rethink whether football is really this flowing match for 90 minutes. It is just as stop start as other sports like rugby. Players are going down for "injuries" to break momentum all the time so fans and ex-players need to get off their high horse about how wonderful football is compared to other sports when it is more similar than they want to admit.

As for the enjoyment of it, I hate losing but I really hate with a passion when we lose due to a bad call or missed call and would like the calls to be correct rather than have to think about what-ifs if the referee just was in a different position or the linesman did not flag incorrectly for offside. This taking the enjoyment from football is rubbish, I am much happier knowing some of the chance has been taken out of the result because VAR is there. At the moment we are sitting with referee's who are struggling with the laws (remember this is IFAB and FIFA making these laws) as they are not written for VAR. But at the same time the handball law has been a mess for years. When is it and isn't handball has been debated for years before VAR came in so the law is the problem and the thinking heads, the UK nations and FIFA, will need to sort it out. Good luck with that...

Small rant over....

He'll be offered a new deal and I'd imagine it'll be two years but that's only if he indicates he wants to stay. If he says he wants to move on then I'd say he'll leave on a free.

The vast majority of CB's are not Harry Maguire

Sell Trent.

Has there been any update on Gravenberch? One or two talking on twitter that he has his ACL done.

It's a funny olde league, United have lost 5 games already, conceded 16 goals, only scored 13, and are 6 pts from the top, and 3 pts behind Liverpool.

The manager getting slaughtered in the media week in week out is leading the charge.