Liverpool FC Team Talk, Gossip, Rumours 2024/25

Ok. Christ. Hugely annoying game. A few small positives - Gravenberch showed there's a real player there, really used his strength, dribbling, and some properly brave passes that we've been so shy of recently. In general, some of our passing was more direct and incisive.

Gakpo worked well at 9, holding the ball up and keeping moves going - if Nunez stays, I'd much rather him wide with Gakpo being the fulcrum in 9. Quansah with a good game too.

Saw Elliott getting some stick, but ultimately he was far more involved in the game from that position than Mo has been. He doesn't have the pace to threaten, but he at least wasn't the cause of things breaking down as much as Mo has - Elliott definitely better deeper in midfield though. No pace, but has the quick acceleration and agility over short bursts to get out of trouble and find a man.

Now - Taylor. What the absolute fck. That's one that should have consequences. There is absolutely no grounds for him doing what he did. He doesn't blow his whistle to stop play when Areola goes down (who isn't fouled anyway), and the 'advantage' line is completely implausible. Aside from there being no advantage, so much time elapses - with the entire area clearing out - that we've moved well past the time when you can call it back. It was a goalkeeping fück up that Taylor personally decided to stop from being punished. I don't have any fault with Gakpo not finishing though - once the ref blows his whistle then it doesn't matter if everything is cleared up after, the goal won't stand. We already know that from things like incorrect offside calls that VAR can't correct because the ref has blown - if the ref blows, the play is dead, and there's no going back.

Yep, there’s one angle showing him signalling play on, blows his whistle for no reason and then panics trying to give himself justification.

******* infuriating. And there won’t be any consequences.

Goal keepers socks had a loose stitch, instant medical assistance was required

https://x.com/footytone/status/1784215717379764502?s=46

Didn’t think much about it during the game, but really looks an odd thing now.

Link from above

Also if it was a free kick, what is the keeper doing trying to take it 10 metres from where the foul happened? I think Taylor probably saw the keeper go down and was thinking of blowing for treatment, keeper stood up and seemed ok, made the mistake and Taylor blew the whistle when he shouldn't have. There was no foul there and the player, if he was injured, should have asked for treatment himself and not the referee.

Villa drawing means Liverpool need 1 more point to secure top four unless there is a 20 goal swing between Liverpool and Villa in 3 games

Jesus, don't worry about top 4 you hypochondriacs!

I think the stress of knowing Klopp is leaving has got to the players, and Klopp himself, he knows his time is up, and maybe he has regrets he'll never admit to, and fact he's getting replaced while he is still in the job probably feels a little weird, reality hitting fast for everyone, wish they had left it till summer, all this Slot and Ruben talk has been a huge distraction, summer was the time to do it, not on a title run in! SO STUPID

In fairness that is the only objective left for the season. You would think we are safe but we play Spurs and Villa and if we lose both and they win out then it is Europa League again next season. If Spurs loses today against Arsenal then we are good, our goal difference should be good enough to not be overtaken as they are only able to score 75 points if they lose today. If they draw, then as per above, we need one more point to be secure for 4th.

The most points needed to qualify for CL was 75. You need to look at what 5th place finished in the past and add one more point to ensure qualification, not look at what the team in 4th finished on. So you would think we are safe but until we are mathematically, then we are going to be talking about it.

On a side note and related rant, looking at how the amount of points needed to finish in the top 4 has gone up since the early 2000's, where mid 60's would be more than enough, it makes a mockery of the statement that any team can beat the others in the Premier League. I guess those following the league remember the upsets, but the top teams lose less than they did before. I am sure if you look back at the Bundesliga or Serie A and La Liga, you will find instances where teams in the bottom half take points off teams at the top. We don't follow them so we don't care, we follow the Premier League so we see when it happens and think it is unique.

Basically, the days of every team being able to take points off any other team is over. The big teams will win most of their matches against the smaller teams and it is the matches against each other where they lose points. Looking at how Everton and West Ham played the last 2 matches, you can see why. We are out on our feet and not playing anywhere near our potential and should have won the West Ham match. We got sucker punched against Everton and they were better than us on the day, but they do not keep that up for 28 matches in a season, never mind 38, so having their day once in 13 years against a tired and battered Liverpool is not the key to success long term.

I heard on the Gab and Juls podcast they were talking about Slot and how they don't know how he is going to fare against teams where they can take points off Liverpool at any match and I am thinking…that is not true. The old days of the PL being like that has been over for a long time. I wish more pundits would see that instead of just remembering the past. Just look at how many more points the top 6 score these days compared to the past and you will see that teams lose less than they did.

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That organisation is to be expected. Klopp was given a greater influence over transfers and it disrupted the development of the team.

Arsenal have lost more games than us. Just like with Rafa in 08/09 it's the draws that kill us.

1-1 vs Luton FFS.

It really shows we're 3rd best in the league behind city and arsenal (which I suspect we all would have taken at the start of the season). But the opportunity was really there to win it.

For completely irrational reasons I want city to win it now, even though arsenal are more deserving IMO. This is purely because I feel like city winning it again means nothing whereas arsenal are much more comparable to our own situation.

Arsenal hang on, lucky there, throwing away a 3-0 lead, dam.

I don't understand why anyone would want to see City win it? You just stated that Arsenal winning it is a more comparable situation to ours. That's exactly why we would want Arsenal to win, because if they're in a comparable situation to us, then it's something that we can emulated surely?

Agreed, but its not for us to emulate them, they are emulating what we have done the last 6 years or so.

Yeah to be fair to us, we've broken them once and took them to the last day twice.

If Arsenal keep City going until the last day then I'll be very impressed. They'll get called this, that and the other but we'd appreciate how hard it is

Hopefully his most recent managerial appointment is as astute 🤞

Yeah I'm in the city saving football camp this year for reasons above

Yes it's probably jealousy but City winning AGAIN is meaningless. But Arsenal winning it seems like a more direct threat to Liverpool because we are in similar financial positions (although Arsenal seem more likely to spend big than we do).

I want city to win precisely for the reasons above that it's basically all fake with them and if nothing else it highlights how crazy the situation is and with state backed clubs in general.

Arsenal winning would be a real success and I'm sure they'll build on it again next season (again unlike what we did after winning the league).

So there's my reasons, as petty as they are 😜

Exactly.

Nobody is talking about how Arsenal can take a 72 million pound hit on Pepe and still be ok.

Or 56 million pound on Aubameyang and still be ok.

As you say, Arsenal are not the poor men they are being portrayed to be.

If we weren't lucky to get that financial hit in selling Coutinho and then spending it wisely on VVD and Allison I don't think Klopp would have had the run that he had.

Citys game in hand is spurs away. It's over no chance Spurs try a leg in that game.

Salah would be mad to throw away 4 more seasons at the top level to go to Saudi, if he did leave it will be to City, Real, PSG.

PSG need to replace Mbappe, so that's most likely.

Hopefully he stays though, he owes Liverpool nothing money wise, you don't win all we've won without him, he has generated far more than his cost in wages