Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

Such a bittersweet feeling after the match yesterday. Proud as f*ck for the team but also feels like a massive opportunity missed. The second half is the best Liverpool have played this season by a mile against the best team in Europe, who for the first time in i can't remember how long, looked rattled.

Even Pep knew it and acted accordingly with subs. We're still in the fight but a win yesterday would have been massive.

Ps I wouldn't sleep on arsenal as some on here are. They are winning pretty and ugly which is something they didn't do last year. This is a three way race and I can't see anything other than a draw between city and arsenal being good for us.

If one of city or arsenal win that game they'll most likely go on and win the league imo.

You sure?

You sure it's not the usual exaggeration in order make an 'I told you so' point"?

You could come in here and call Mo and Alien and in a year's time someone will remember 95% of the forum saying it.

The one that came off Foden that hit the bar came off his arm so would have been ruled out.

OK result yesterday but Diaz fluffed a few changes that jota or a fit salah would put away, pity but they could have had another goal too from docu, mcallister and endo were brilliant and Elliott too, it's a pity he lacks speed but he is a great worker, Bradley very good and I'm thinking he is better than trent already and twice as good defending, just win our next 2 games at home and see where we are as city play arsenal next

Just back home from the match, superb 2nd half performance Endo, Mac and Elliot all class yesterday. Anfield was rocking super atmosphere.

It was unbelievable. Best atmosphere in a long long time. Need more of those now with the limited remaining home games - only 5 to go!!

Quoting because the thanks function is still kiboshed. That's pretty infuriating. Mike Dean said yesterday during the match that Doku was very, very fortunate. But everyone else seems to be brushing it off. Galling.

No Mike Dean said it was a penalty then when VAR said it wasn't a penalty Dean turned around and said yes that's not a penalty. Man flip flops more than a fish out of water.

The Forest thing was blown up to insane proportions, can’t believe it actually got as much attention as it did. Fair enough that there was a ref error in there but the main reason they conceded is that they didn’t defend afterwards.

I can’t imagine what the reaction would have been had they been denied a last minute penalty.

Providing we beat Brighton first you can really put a positive spin on any result in the City/Arsenal match.

If Arsenal drop points then we're back in the driver seat, if Arsenal win then we're 4 points ahead of City and tied on points with Arsenal who have a much tougher run in.

I think it was one of those decision where VAR wouldn't have overruled the on-field decision in either case.

I'm trying to think about it more calmly this morning. I think the ref knows, that given the time on the clock, the decision to award the penalty effectively decides the game so he has to be 100% certain. Whether that thought-process should come into it is debatable but either way, I suspect it does.

Did I think it was a penalty? - yes, on balance I think it was. I think MacAllister's (inadvertent) 'turn to the side' movement to try and avoid getting kicked square-on in the chest saves Doku and it probably shouldn't have.

Would I have been pissed off if that was given at the other end - yes, I probably would have been.

I do think Liverpool should have won the match either way yesterday with the chances we created. I've never seen a team, especially one missing so many key players, do that to City before - it was incredible to see.

I'd love to see this team win the PL - they deserve it but, and I hope I'm wrong, I suspect we'll fall just short again.

It's the fact that it was a 10 second check and the ref didn't even go to the monitor that's killing me, as you said in the 98th minute of a potential title-decider you want to be 100% sure of your decision....so go take a look at it yourself!

You can see what teams are left for each of the 3 here

All 3 clubs have to play Villa, Spurs, Brighton, Wolves and 1 team currently in the bottom 3.

Arsenal play Brighton & Wolves away, but Liverpool play them at home. City have 1 home, 1 away.

Arsenal & Man City play Villa at home, Liverpool play them away.

Arsenal & Man City play Spurs away, Liverpool play them at home.

Given what has happened in his personal this season it's too much to expect of him at present but one thing is for certain he gives his heart on the pitch.

The dash up the pitch was in the 81st minute and he left Walker and Rodri in his wake. Rodri was on a yellow card and tried to pull him down with a rugby tackle and Walker took a wild sweep at him on the edge of their area. Had Rodri not tried to pull him back, Diaz would have made it into the area before Walker got near him.

Even though he's out of form, Diaz still terrified Man City. If he had gone down to Rodri's tackle, City would have been reduced to 10 men. Rodri was willing to take that risk.

Arsenal going to Spurs, when they'll likely be fully fit, is a tough ask.

Arsenal have had their easy run now. People are forgetting that amongst all the 'brilliant football' talk. They're absolutely in with a huge shout for the league, but they've more to prove to make me believe them than Klopp or Pep. They've never done well in the squeaky bum time of the season under Arteta.

You have too much faith in the officials. Earlier in the game when Walker had followed through on Salah, he was off of the ground, had his studs up and was out of control. The incident was ignored.

We are a point ahead of City with ten games to go. 😀

Mixed feelings after some time to reflect on that:

On the positive side:

 - We are still very much in a title race with the two other teams who have to face each other next time out

 - We've reached this point after suffering significant injuries, and we will hopefully get stronger for the run-in

 - Kelleher, Quansah and Bradley coming into the team and doing so well in a game like that is a real testament to their quality and temperment. 

 - Luis Diaz - amazing workrate and threat as a ball carrier. To turn City inside out is no mean achievement

On the negative

 - That second half was a real chance to put City away, and get ahead in the title race. Neville was dead right when he said that not many teams will put City in that position between now and the end of the season. 

 - In the four fixtures against City and Arsenal this year, we got 3 points in total. That's not great.

 - Luis Diaz - unfortunatly he just isn't clinical at taking chances when he gets them. Similar to Darwin there's a composure lacking there that is just holding him back. 

We really wanted Villa to win that game yesterday to open up a big gap to Spurs in 4th place.

One other thing to note that Liverpool v Villa will take place the weekend after the European semi finals 2nd leg. So hopefully Villa progress in Europe and have eyes on that too.

Performances like yesterday's and the League Cup Final are the ones I'll miss the most when Klopp leaves. We'll see comebacks, late winners, and big scorelines under any manager but the way Klopp inspires belief in every single member of the squad is something we may never see again.

This team is running on fumes, we've been missing some of our best players for a lot of this season and those who are fit have been having to put in a tonne of minutes to cover.

City are missing Grealish but are otherwise fully fit, they put out their best team yesterday, arguably the best team in the world, and we were better than them.

In the Arsenal thread earlier, I saw some posters mention that they know LFC fans who'd rather City win the league than Arsenal (if we can't win it obviously). I mean, I find that staggering that any Red would want City winning ahead of Arsenal. Any posters here rather City win it (just so I know who to stick on ignore 😉)?

James Pearce has reported that the Egyptian FA have decided not to call up Salah for the international friendly against New Zealand.