The Liverpool Thread

When did these people discover football? :LOL:

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dilakh2 said:
..... Im afraid we have the real fraud Pep as our assman...
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Lijnders? Jesus mate, if you're seriously suggesting Jurgen is being influenced in his decision making, you've joined the ranks of the twitter unhinged.

Legend Incredible said:
I appreciate you lot being the test guinea pigs for this “Gakpo can play CF” belief that has been making rounds among the united fan base for 6 months.

He’s always been a Marcus Rashford-lite player (said this several times) that can do a job at CF when your other options are injured but he’s not a permanent fixture in that position. In a way, I thank you lot for buying him now than have us buy him in the coming summer and assume that’s our CF signing.
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ten Hag didn't make Gakpo his January priority to play him as a CF surely?

I think you can rest easy that wouldn't have been the case mate. And he's not playing as a CF mate for the record. Just centrally. Not that I agree with Jurgen, as Harvey on the left is just proper weird, but I can see what he's trying to do to solidify the middle with Gakpo dropping in deep ala Bobby. He had another really promising outing today doing that.
 
Well that was a long and frustrating day. Leaving the house at half 5 in the AM and not getting back until pushing midnight, all on the back of bowing out of the cup defence in a game they deserved at least a draw from, just adds to that frustration.

But, unlike the absolute shitshow in the league down there, there were more positives to build on after last weeks lil' forward steps against Wolves and Chelsea to encourage you that this is slowly turning the right way again.

That was a proper smash and grab from Brighton that L'pool can feel really hard done to. Yeah, it was self-inflicted madness in injury time that cost the game. But for the first 80 or so (Or until Fabinho came on and continued his utter mess of a season with an absolutely disgraceful, and totally unnecessary challenge he should have walked for), they largely set the tempo and were largely in control of a really good game of cup-tie football against a really good Brighton side. Only to be outdone by a cruel deflection when they deserved to go in 1 up at the break. And then the aforementioned self-inflicted madness for what was an excellent winning goal from the best player on the park. Utterly frustrating as they deserve to still be in the hat for the 5th round draw. But football can be a humbler and you don't always get what your efforts deserve.

The recent solidity being forged from selecting the same XI lead to a team that looked well set-up, setting the tempo and controlling the game for the most part. By no means great and lacking in an attacking output. But 100% improved from two weeks ago down there with lessons learned. Small wins. Small steps forward. It's what this season has become as they slowly start to resemble a smart football side again.

Thought everyone bar Mo was decent and a lot better. Klopp's subs left some ? marks. Not least taking off Trent and leaving Milner against a really talented winger. And the Fabinho change just undid all the good work of the previous 80 or so minutes with a mad last 10 where all the hard work out of position went to pot which culminated in the very avoidable winner.

Really disappointing and frustrating to not be looking at a home replay still in the hat that their efforts today deserved from what was, the ending aside, a really enjoyable cup tie.

But all in all, another little step forward from the rock bottom disgrace the last time down at Brighton.

Today we were on the receiving end of hard lines. It happens. That's football.

Just take more little steps forward into a complete 90 next weekend and beat Wolves.

Up the disappointed, but encouraged, Reds. FTT!!!!!
 
Scouseinthehouse said:
Lijnders? Jesus mate, if you're seriously suggesting Jurgen is being influenced in his decision making, you've joined the ranks of the twitter unhinged.



ten Hag didn't make Gakpo his January priority to play him as a CF surely?

I think you can rest easy that wouldn't have been the case mate. And he's not playing as a CF mate for the record. Just centrally. Not that I agree with Jurgen, as Harvey on the left is just proper weird, but I can see what he's trying to do to solidify the middle with Gakpo dropping in deep ala Bobby. He had another really promising outing today doing that.
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Usually I'd avoid the rambling of twitter but there is some good blogs that detail the play style especially the kind of football Lijnders promotes. He clearly has a massive influence over the side as we've seen our style evolve over the past two years. Right now if I was Klopp I'd take an ear out of Fergie book and move him on and get someone else with fresh ideas in. It's clearly a tactical issue now because I refuse to buy into the same players have lost all their ability over night.
 
Naturally, He’s an assistant manager. But mate, if you honestly believe that Jurgen isn’t doing/ trying what Jurgen wants, then you’ve both gone well down that rabbit hole and the manager may as well leave the football club.

Of all the mad conspiracy theories this season, the Lijnders one, from him seemingly having more of an ego to bring out a sanctioned book rather than coaching the team, to him signing players and determining who play's/ what we do on the pitch et al, has been one of the maddest.
 
Scouseinthehouse said:
ten Hag didn't make Gakpo his January priority to play him as a CF surely?

I think you can rest easy that wouldn't have been the case mate. And he's not playing as a CF mate for the record. Just centrally. Not that I agree with Jurgen, as Harvey on the left is just proper weird, but I can see what he's trying to do to solidify the middle with Gakpo dropping in deep ala Bobby. He had another really promising outing today doing that.
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Most of his promising plays have come when he drifted towards the left with a few deft touches. He drops deep however, he makes the most obvious pass possible. If defenders go tight on him, he just passes it back to your defender or lose the ball.

One thing I loved about Firmino is (or rather was) his ability to do something completely unorthodox that catches defenders by surprise. Even when he dropped deep, he timed it so intelligently to drag a defender with him, creating space for Salah/Mane to run into. His hold up play was also top class as well.


Could you coach this into Gakpo? Sure. He is 23 after all but I doubt he hits the heights Firmino once did in that aspect.
 
Legend Incredible said:
Most of his promising plays have come when he drifted towards the left with a few deft touches. He drops deep however, he makes the most obvious pass possible. If defenders go tight on him, he just passes it back to your defender or lose the ball.

One thing I loved about Firmino is (or rather was) his ability to do something completely unorthodox that catches defenders by surprise. Even when he dropped deep, he timed it so intelligently to drag a defender with him, creating space for Salah/Mane to run into. His hold up play was also top class as well.


Could you coach this into Gakpo? Sure. He is 23 after all but I doubt he hits the heights Firmino once did in that aspect.
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You’re reading way too much into him positional wise right now mate. The false 9/10 role if you like is just a needs must to try something different to hopefully get that missing spark and add more solidity to the midfield.

We’re at the point of little building blocks game-on-game to slowly getting back to being a smart side once again. And tightening up the middle on back is a major building block toward that.
 
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Sean Dyche at the Champions League Final last May to see his beloved Liverpool FC.

How long into the first half do we give them Sat’day before they are baying for the red shites blood? 🤣🤣🤣
 
The more I watch Liverpool these days, the more I realize how much I underrated Michael Edward’s brilliance.
 
I was chatting to my brother in-law tonight who's been a Liverpool supporter since the mid 70's and it got quite interesting.
Now... bear in mind, he's not a real supporter. He can only go to matches once or twice a year (kids, job, other country and all that).
He has enjoyed bantering me over Manchester United's shortfalls over the past few years, compounded by the fact that Liverpool have faired a bit better under Klopp. BUT!!

He is actually worried by what he see's at United :unsure: He freely admitted that we are progressing and new ownership could see United return to contender status (and he doesn't like it).

It was a great conversation.
No nonsense!! Just two honest opinions from football fans (not real ones).
 
The good thing about an away **** show is alcohol and quickly forgetting/ not letting the game ruin your day and having a laugh with your mates coming home. Maybe it’s a Scouse thing inherent in our nature, but you can’t keep us downbeat for long.

The bad thing about Wolverhampton is its a grimmer than grim **** hole you don’t want to spend any more time in than you have to. (Which looked even grimmer in daylight again after the weird darkness in the streets the Cup-tie down to the power-cut.). And its only an hour and a half down the line on the rattler so you’re home way quicker and less bevvied. And I’ve been a bit under the weather so staying out in town last night wasn’t happening.

The less said about the actual game the better. For all the, albeit incremental, positives to be taken over the last three games and the solid base to work from Jurgens slight tweaking systemically and formation wise had brought about, yesterday completely undid that again and felt like a massive step backwards.

Confidence is a really funny, if integral, thing in top level sport. And ours is so fragile and at rock bottom right now, as exemplified by Wolves fast start and everything falling apart from back-to-front so rapidly, that I just don’t know what more the manager can do? In the last two games alone we’ve shifted formation at least 3/4 times. Along with subtle changes in how we press/ the off the ball shape et al. And absolutely nothing he’s tried has worked. Which has been his story this season. Reading SM comments this AM saying he’s too stubborn and won’t change ….. I’ve never known a season under Jurgen where we’ve tried SO many different things! Often multiple times during games to get a spark. But absolutely nothing is working as confidence across the whole squad is at rock bottom. Just something we have to endure and support them through it. If one horrible season is the pay off for 6 exhilarating previous ones (I still refuse to acknowledge the jarg COVID season we weren't in the ground) where we’ve won absolutely everything and been among the 2 best sides in the World, then I’ll HAPPILY take that all day long! And only a naive fool would discount this football club on the biggest stage of all, Europe ….,

And less said, yet again, about the low life meffs that fellow Wolves with their standard ditties about death/ poverty/ social deprivation/ singing the National Anthem and actually thinking that would nark us. 🤦‍♂️

As we concluded on that aforementioned, fun journey home, if getting walloped 3 at Wolves helps in the long game of 4D Chess in sending Everton down, then those horrid 90 minutes would have been MORE than worth it. As bad as we are, knowing our defeat to Wolves dumped the blues straight back into the bottom 3, dampening their earlier joy at Dyche the Reds opening gambit, made everything balance out again. 😎

It will be an interesting Derby week and then some.

UTR! FTT!!!!!
 
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