Szumi

6 minutes ago, Colly said:

The only person you could sack him for that would have any impact on this season would be Pep.

It blew my mind when I started seeing a fair amount of people calling for him to be sacked. It's insane! By all means he deserves criticism too because he has gotten his starting XIs and especially substitutions wrong a lot these past 6 weeks, but to say he should be sacked is crazy person talk. We've been shit, but we're still 3rd!

Just now, lanky316 said:

Give it to Gerrard to the end of the season. 

Naw, he's still in Saudi Arabia, would be too difficult to work out.

Woy is available though!!

9 minutes ago, Hobo said:

Klopp out

The deranged thing is that there are people who genuinely think we should sack him right now!

Every single one of these Liverpool players should be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves. They have been out hustled and out performed by every single one of their Evertonian counterparts.

Full credit to Everton. They've clearly wanted this more from the opening whistle. You'd think they are the team in a title race! 

15 hours ago, Colly said:

I just can't figure out why they think that having their employee double down on their already ill advised tweet is a good idea. If the league don't massively punish them I'd be stunned, and they deserve it.

The best line is "if I was head of the referees organisation" which he now absolutely will never be.

Now seen them. First two aren't pens, third one I'd love to hear the audio as the ref clearly thinks Young gets the ball, the VAR should surely disagree. That one's a pen, and at very least needed review. Doesn't change any of the above though.

The funniest part about their moaning about Atwell being a Luton Town fan is all they had to do was file the request with PGMOL about their concern, and it's very likely Atwell would have been reassigned! But Forest did nothing, so nothing was changed!

I know a lot of people on social media hate Dale Johnson for always trying to explain the VAR decisions, but I thought he was spot on with the explanations for the calls. The first and second incidents are the subjective shades of grey we've seen all season, and the classic "VAR was always going to back the on field call" because it's hard to determine a clear and obvious failure. If the ref called either/both a penalty, VAR would have backed the referee and agreed it was a penalty. 

The third call, I agree that VAR should be over turning the call on the field. The ref is saying no penalty because Young won/played the ball, but he very clearly didn't. That's a clear and obvious error to me.

But Forest are so terribly ran & Marinakis seems to think rules should apply differently to Forest so I have no sympathy for them 

I'm not saying any of them should have been a penalty, but Ashley Young alone has committed 3 potential penalties in the opening hour. I don't think the hand ball is a penalty with how close his arm is to the ball, but I have no idea how Everton have escaped from the other two challenges. Both times it looks pretty clear Young goes right through both players.

I fully expect Maye and McCarthy to go the way of Darnold or Rosen than a Josh Allen. McCarthy especially I think is ridiculously being overrated.

Wolves 1-2 Arsenal (Sat 7.30pm, Sky)

Everton 2-1 Nottm Forest (Sun 1.30pm, Sky)

Crystal Palace 1-1 West Ham (Sun 3pm)

12 hours ago, Hobo said:

The injury earlier this year is probably still affecting him in some way

Liverpool are in a place where there's a number of key players  coming back from injury just a little too late and the second choice players are flagging

 

Oh absolutely! What you and David both said are spot on. I've said before that he's just never been right since coming back from that injury. He's just played so poorly, and he's not alone in that. Jones especially has been really bad since coming back, and Trent and Jota as well. Which I can't really blame them for. It's really tough to come back and hit maximum levels of performance when you have no rhythm or fitness built up, but you're in the run in where every match has huge consequences to them. 

The crazy thing is that Liverpool I think I saw from the United draw, Atalanta loss, and Palace loss, Liverpool scored the 2 goals from over 9.0xG! They created loads in all 3 matches, but man they're just a really bad finishing side!

The guys who helped us get through the injury crisis are definitely exhausted and it shows. Virg, Endo, and MacAllister all look spent, and I can't blame them.

It sucks that what had so much promise 5 weeks ago, is going to end so meekly. I don't think a single Liverpool fan is expecting us to win the title at this point, sadly.

This has been a frustrating one to watch. Liverpool pretty much have just resorted to kick it long and hope for the best. They haven't really made Atalanta work for it at all. It doesn't help that Trent was asked to play when he's clearly not fit or has any rhythm, and that Mo Salah is pretty much a net negative for Liverpool right now. I don't think I've ever seen him play this poorly in his entire Liverpool career.

22 hours ago, Kaney said:

Imagine losing to a side with Eric Dier in it smh

I can only imagine Tuchel is purposely taking the piss continuing to start him over both Upemanco and Kim Min-Jae. 

Also, for as much talk as there was on social media on Monday for the Osasuna player taking the worse penalty of the year, Bernardo Silva's penalty was freaking hilarious to see.

2 minutes ago, Lineker said:

Perfect start for Liverpool...

Origi scored in the 7th minute vs Barca in 2019. Salah's penalty was also in the 7th minute...

MLS has a significant issue with VAR in terms of having nowhere near enough cameras to determine offsides. They're using cameras from midfield, don't draw lines, and repeatedly make terrible calls because of it. The Union were eliminated in the playoffs last year because of it, and today had a goal ruled out for offsides that has universally been said to be onside by fans from both teams, and MLS pundits. Our manager Jim Curtin just had an all timer in the post match in response to how VAR uses clear and obvious to determine offsides or not.

2 hours ago, Hobo said:

at the same time Liverpool are one of the highest scoring teams in Europe

Can't be both bad at scoring goals and also score a lot of goals.

But you can run out of steam a bit, have one too many players injured/coming back from injury and find yourself overly relying on players who weren't meant to be relied upon this much (Kelleher, Endo, Bradley, Quansah).

 

That's kind of my point though. Liverpool will ultimately score goals eventually because they're an elite chance creation side. Either through shot volume, poor goalkeeping, or a Liverpool player eventually having a good shot, they will eventually score goals. But, when it matters most/in the big matches/against the other big sides/etc, Liverpool have been pretty poor at being clinical. Both Manchester United draws, home to Arsenal, and home to City all stand out as matches where Liverpool should have easily won the matches, but their profligacy cost them.

The only teams to have a worse negative Goals-xG is Everton, Brentford, and Chelsea.

Leverkusen did it. Won 5-0 just now, with Wirtz bagging the last goal to complete a hat trick in the 90th minute. Match ended there because the fans invaded the pitch early.

Neverkusen, Never Again.

We never fixed the issue from last season of where we start out terrible, and concede early. Plus our biggest issue: we are an elite chance creation side full of players who are below average at chance conversion. We do not have a single forward who is above average at being clinical, and all but one are below average. In the moments that have mattered most, we have not taken our chances. Today being an obvious prime example, but especially the home draws to Arsenal and City. Would have won the league easily if we could just be good at being clinical.

I have no idea how Liverpool have made 4 substitutions so far, and Curtis Jones is still on the pitch. I love him, but he's been awful since coming back. No idea how he started after how bad he was on Thursday, and how in a match we need to win, down a goal, Klopp thinks he should stay on the pitch instead of Diaz. 

Just an embarrassing set of performances from the whole side pretty much since the international break. No energy, no passion. Just so frustrating to see the Klopp era end so pathetically.

Wrexham are officially promoted again as well, going to League One. I would imagine they're not going to be able to get promoted again next season, as I don't think financially they'll be able to spend like they'd need to in order to get promoted. But who knows!

Newcastle 1-3 Tottenham (Sat 12.30pm, TNT)

Brentford 1-0 Sheff Utd (Sat 3pm)

Nottm Forest 1-2 Wolves (Sat 3pm)

Bournemouth 2-1 Man Utd (Sat 5.30pm, Sky)

Arsenal 2-1 Aston Villa (Sun 4.30pm, Sky)

@Baddarmade a last minute change to Spurs/Newcastle that will probably mean my original score ends up the actual result, but wanted to make sure I let you know of the change.

4 hours ago, DavidMarrio said:

Least the two games against United was piss poor finishing. 

That was just piss poor all round. Possibly the worst performance in a few years that. It's weird cause I've not come away from the ground thinking we've been outplayed here. Thought they were solid and that's it.

Instead I've come away feeling all 3 goals were avoidable, no one was making any movement and the tempo was slow and thay we just couldn't kick a ball to anyone in a red shirt properly

Yeah that was an embarrassing performance today from far too many players. Gomez, Virg, and Konate especially. Gomez seems to love all the SHOOT chants he gets now, so it's all he does. Dude should get fined a week's wage everytime he shoots from now on 🤣 I feel bad criticizing Kelleher at all because yes he was very bad on the first goal, but the two saves he made in the first half were excellent. He was severely let down by his defense.

Think the last two matches have shown one of the biggest issues for Liverpool. We're typically an elite chance creation side, but don't have a single elite chance converter. Jota could maybe be classified as one, but he's unfortunately always getting hurt (often through just rotten luck)

Definitely a lot of luck to it, but Kelleher saving a point blank shot with his face is both amazing and painful. Had to hurt!

12 minutes ago, DavidMarrio said:

It is mad when really you have the Barca/Bayern/Liverpool jobs available and then potentially Man Utd, Juve if Allegri does go this summer as rumoured. Its not often you get so many big name clubs having jobs available (in terms of statute not necessarily where they are atm) especially if people leave other clubs to pursue any of the above

 

Allegri is not leaving. Juve genuinely cannot afford to sack him because of how much he makes, and he's too arrogant to ever step aside on his own. It's insane how poorly run Juve are. Highest paid coach and by far the highest payroll, only to play awful, Mourinho like football, with just a shade better of results from modern day failure Mourinho 

3 hours ago, FestiveJack said:

It will be interesting to see what kind of figures come out about the compensation Sporting will get for Amorim. When he moved to Sporting from Braga, they set a then record for a manager's compensation/transfer fee at 15-20 million euros. That's only since been beaten by Potter to Chelsea and either Tuchel or Nagelsmann, in one of their moves.

It's been reported his buyout clause is only €10m recently

3 hours ago, Hobo said:

I suppose its representative of the present field when it comes to available managers.

I know next to nothing about him. It's probably a better option than Alonso or De Zerbi in that he's presently managing one of the biggest clubs in Portugal, in a city with two big clubs, and could very well go out having won them two league titles.

I  can't remember if it was Edwards or Julian Ward who were big into Portuguese football but it also tracks with Liverpool's recent frequent forays into buying from that league.

 

That would be Julian Ward! I agree he's better than De Zerbi, and stylistically he's a much better fit than how Xabi Alonso sets Leverkusen up. Hopefully it is a success. 

1 hour ago, METALMAN said:

I guess the other thing is any summer the Liverpool job would be a huge vacancy but this summer it will just be one of many and perhaps not as alluring as Real or Bayern jobs

Real Madrid is not an open job this summer, nor is Carlo expected to get sacked this season. He's done a really good job managing all their injuries this season. 

Crystal Palace 0-2 Man City (Sat 12.30pm, TNT)

Everton 2-1 Burnley (Sat 3pm)

Luton 2-2 Bournemouth (Sat 3pm)

Brighton 1-2 Arsenal (Sat 5.30pm, Sky)

Man Utd 1-3 Liverpool (Sun 3.30pm, Sky)

The passes from Szoboszlai and MacAllister to set up that Salah goal were phenomenal. MacAllister especially hit a great reverse pass