The Liverpool Thread

[Theatre of Dreams83]

Liverpool FC

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Rio Ngumoha has signed his first professional contract with the Reds

Congratulations, Rio

 

[dilakh2]

Now that ive calmed down a bit I want to officially apologize to you scouse because I remember in the summer you saying that we could upgrade on Konate and that he wasn't all that. It feels like deja Vu and watching peak Martin Skrtel with the fake physicality be bullied and spend half the game fighting the striker instead of just focusing on the ball.

Konate currently is Skrtel reincarnated because for someone so huge he gets bullied so easily. He wasnt even the worst on the pitch that could easily have been Salah who had a stinker and the manager who fell into Palace trap with the lack of width in the 1st half. Anyway rant over. New contract my ***. Without Virgil holding his hand he is bambi on ice.

 

[dilakh2]

International break couldn't have come quicker. Slot has to figure it out otherwise we could be on a bit of a spiral. 3 losses in a row.

 

[Theatre of Dreams83]

International break couldn't have come quicker. Slot has to figure it out otherwise we could be on a bit of a spiral. 3 losses in a row.

I know he’s a new signing but he needs to start getting a tune out of Wirtz. Hes looked like a 10m signing since joining not 100m +. You don’t look as balanced or fluid since he’s joined at all

 

[dilakh2]

I know he’s a new signing but he needs to start getting a tune out of Wirtz. Hes looked like a 10m signing since joining not 100m +. You don’t look as balanced or fluid since he’s joined at all

Its lazy talk to point the finger at wirtz as we look objectively better whenever he plays. Not saying he is great but my god when he is taking the ball the off Konate that deep then something is clearly wrong. For me its a combo of a slow laboured tactics from Slot that doesn't suit the players and a lack of chemistry as expected. I have faith he can turn it around but **** its not a good watch.

 

[Theatre of Dreams83]

Its lazy talk to point the finger at wirtz as we look objectively better whenever he plays. Not saying he is great but my god when he is taking the ball the off Konate that deep then something is clearly wrong. For me its a combo of a slow laboured tactics from Slot that doesn't suit the players and a lack of chemistry as expected. I have faith he can turn it around but **** its not a good watch.

I’m not pointing the finger. He’s just been pretty average and there’s no denying that. Barca few nice passes and touches here and there. He’s not influencing matches or anything. I’m sure he will gel better after some time. But like I said the balance isn’t there from last season after you 3 big signings. The players are not suiting the tactics.

 

[Scouseinthehouse]

*A different match missive this week more of reflection and perspective.

Football supports funny isn’t it? On the one hand, L’pool’s had a terrible week on the pitch. On the other, I’ve had a brilliant, if excessively tiring travel week with boss mates,that I would never have had without L’pool being the reason to do that. Swings and roundabouts that gives you a completely different perspective on things.

Yesterday’s admin-

Title Defence Countdown:
5 wins down/ 22 to go.
15 points down/ 74 to go.

I reckon all told, we must have done somewhere between 2-2.5 k miles the past 7 days. Travelling by car, train, plane, boat (although was an optimal choice), metro and tube. Getting up at silly o’clock for early rattlers to that there London bookending a similarly early start last Sunday for a flight to that wondrous, if now mad silly expensive, City by the Bosporus. To say I’m goosed is an understatement and this mornings lazy lie-in was heaven. (Side-note- Apologies for no match missive after Palace. <I rarely do on when away in Europe.>. Too busy last Sunday to think about that. ). This International break honestly is really welcome from all standpoints. WE need it as much as the players and manager do to refresh and replenish finances. They need it to get away to a different environment and forget the current dip. Perfect timing for once and real welcome.

But it’s the different perspective actually going through that gives you to being at home and ONLY having the Reds to focus on, that strikes me reading across SM as I lie in bed typing this. IE, you are on the road with yer mates, and once the games done, you are back on it and having a laugh and making the most of the rest of your day together. Even more so In Europe when you are on holiday experiencing different cultures with great food and beverages. The actual football is the very last thing that is ever going to spoil your trip. Were we P off and confused by a lot of things during the game yesterday? Absolutely. Did it ruin a convoluted , and very late, trip home? (Thank you Aviva! Useless bleeps! .). Not one jot.

Your perspective and, for want of a better word, tolerance, of things is markedly different when you are watching and support them live.

Now let’s not get this skewed. We have a lot of issues going on back-to-front right now. Some self inflicted. And we’ve just come off a really poor week. Although I thought there were some positive green shoots on display yesterday amongst the dross. Particularly Wirtz who had his best league game by some distance when he came on. You’ve been able to see just what he’s trying to do most games. Just things haven’t quite been coming off for him as the other lads aren’t quite up to his ‘couple of steps ahead’ wavelength. But that second half yesterday, it was far more coming together for him and he was finding pockets of space all over. Just they never found him enough to cause the havoc he did when he was on the ball. And having a defender that can actually pass out from the back and break lines coming forward, when the continued farce that Konate currently is, went off and Ryan dropped back there, made a massive difference to the balance of the side. The major thing that has really narked me Palace and Chelsea is, after being absolute dogin both games, to then get back in them, take the point and move on. To throw both away so late is ridiculous and proper frustrating. Play the percentages when things aren’t quite firing and take the point.

But then most of the current issues anyone realistic had to be expecting with the turnover of players/ Isaac not having a pre-season/ the slight tweak in style to the set-up to now accommodate the best #10 bar none in World football/ AllyMacs fitness issues (Although he was far better yesterday which was another positive to take forward)/ Mo missing Trent (Nobody had more combinations in any PL team than those two) et al. And not least the lad we continue to remember on 20 every game. That can NEVER be understated how they they are still dealing with that loss.

So as poor a week as this one has been, I really aren’t that concerned that it will affect the overall season and retaining our title. It’s just natural, initial teething problems to work through. We know how good the existing players are. We know the best in class quality we’ve added this past summer to a squad that was already well ahead of anyone else. And we know we have one of the best coaches leading us in World football with what he’s shown in his young career to date. He just needs to tweak a few things, which he’s consistently shown to be his forte, and work out the best combo of players to currently get best out of what we are trying to evolve into. To continue to keep us right up there whilst everything else works itself out.

Again, this International break is coming at the perfect time. And we come out of it with the perfect game. To have them at half 4 Sunday avvy, after a week like this, guarantees a wild, European atmosphere at the arl’ place. With the majority in the ground on a 4/5 drink minimum haha. We’ll play our part. And I fully expect the team to play there’s and get out of their current funk.

A lot to work on and rectify going forward. But to be doing that from the brilliant position the early results have left us in is to be doing it from a position of real strength.

We’ll be sound.

Up the Reds!

 

[Scouseinthehouse]

Oh yeah, I’d be remiss to not note what a continued, absolute disgrace Anthony Taylor is. He takes base incompetence to a whole other level. The Isak elbow was shocking enough to miss. But the later stonewall foul on Gakpo, Slot got booked for, was even worse.

Shockingly bad officiating display.

 

[Scouseinthehouse]

 

[Scouseinthehouse]

Biggest club game in World football bar none. Arsenal might currently be sat clear. But Arsenal pale in significance when it comes to us and them. Only one game matters around the World this weekend.

Straight into these Manc bleeps Redmen!

 

[dilakh2]

That game and lets be honest the majority of games this season has been on Slot and his current tactics. Won't go into how slow and laboured we play or how the same players out of form get to stink it up every game. I could go on and on but this is the first time ive questioned Slot because this is a rot now and 4 games on the spin, the first in more than a decade, is panic stations. two or three with poor performances you can say okay but when its a whole team and the players coming off the bench then you gotta look at the manager.

 

[Scouseinthehouse]

As it was against them, that was definitely a game to sleep on to reflect in a much more rationale way than yesterday’s raw emotion.

Yesterdays admin-

Title Defence Countdown:
5 wins down/ 22 to go.
15 points down/ 74 to go.

Let us be clear from the outset that L’pool are nowhere near good enough. And Utd, whilst being nowhere near good enough themselves, outfought and out battled L’pool in most every department for the win. Which is criminal in itself as this game, of all games, shouldn’t need ANY motivational team talk from the manager. If you can’t get yourself up for them, and fight tooth and nail for everything, then we have an unacceptable issue.

Yet L’pool should more than take take something from the game. They had more than enough chances. (19-12 total/ 6-4 on target/ 5-3 clear-cut chances.). With a 2.76- 1.26 xG. They hit the woodwork three times. And they had to play twelve men after an absolute officiating S/show from Michael Oliver. Yet L’pool were still nowhere near good enough.

In patches through all of the last three PL losses, L’pool have been more than good enough to earn at least a draw. If not the win. After an abysmal first half at Palace, they dominated the second and had more than enough chances to take something. Same at Chelsea. Dominate the second half in patches after a poor first. Should take at least a point. And yesterday, when they did play in patches, they had more than enough to get something out of the game. In all three games, they’ve shown in patches just how good this can be when it all comes together. Just what can be and what we are trying to achieve. But conversely, in all three games, they’ve conspired to throw the game away, having got back into it, through self-inflicted, silly mistakes. And the patches haven’t been nowhere enough totalled up as a whole. They’ve just been nowhere near good enough to win games of football.

Utd’s opener should never stand. How Oliver can clearly look straight at AllyMac poleaxed with a head injury, and play on, was a staggeringly bad start to a predictably woeful outing from him. The penalty looked blatant but that’s as much on VAR as his ineptness. And the goalie being allowed to drop the ball, then pick it back up, was jaw dropping incompetence. But hard lines mean jack when you stop playing for the opener. And defend as ineptly as they do for the winner. They should be 2 down after a horrid Fernandes miss. Yet should go in at HT level. Come out second half and look very good. Utd being stretched all over and can’t get out their own half. Cody hits the post for the second time the match. The absolutely abysmal Salah misses another sitter, from an almost identical situation to the sitter he missed at Chelsea. You felt then it wasn’t going to be our day. But the deserved equaliser had been coming all half. And then you aren’t at all surprised to see the criminal, schoolboy defending for Utd’s winner that could be seen from space. Ekitike’s miss of the game with the header, just summed up that it wasn’t going to be our day. But regardless of the glimpses in patches, the hard lines with officiating, the copious hard luck stories with woodwork hit and clear chances missed, L’pool are nowhere near good enough.

These are the teething problems we are just currently having to go through. Same on the manager. Some not. His selections and in game-management have been off. How Konate, Mac Allister and Salah alone are starting every game, and the likes of Curtis Jones and Chiesa, two of our best players on form all season, are not, is getting frustrating. Wirtz should be in there every game. And Kerkez looks completely devoid of confidence right now. But he can’t legislate for the mad mistakes we are making to conspire to throw games away. He can’t legislate for the ridiculous amount of clear chances we are conspiring to waste. And he can’t legislate for the woeful officiating going against his team.

Nothing is terminal here for our season by any stretch of the imagination. A 4 point deficit after 8 games is a nothing, negligible deficit. And the sky most definitely ISN’T falling. No matter how it currently feels it is. Made tenfold worse after a defeat to them. But this needs arresting ASAP. They need to turn the patches, the glimpses through games of what they will eventually be, into full 90 minutes. And not just patches here or there. Or just a brilliant half like Everton. They need to turn ‘nowhere near good enough’, back to ‘more than good enough!’ And they need to find a way to that end as soon as. As much as you feel there’s more ups and downs to go as of yet.

Bad start to a massive week but whatcha’ gonna’ do? I aren’t, like many other regulars, getting an early morning flight out of Manny Wednesday, via the ‘Dam, for an overnighter in Frankfurt, to then come home, work Friday, and turn around to that there London, which has to be a drive there and back as the train isn’t doable with the ridiculous KO time, for the fun of it. Our part in getting out of this dip, is to believe in what they are trying to do and SUPPORT! Their part is to repay that and find a way to kick start it again.

Keep the faith.

Up the down, but nowhere near out, Reds!