The OFFICIAL Liverpool FC thread - Arne to Slot right in?

[laoislad]

Didn't see the game last night. Not surprised they dropped points again though. Haven't been playing well at all lately.

Maybe Everton will do us a favour Wednesday night .  

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/english-soccer/injury-ravaged-defence-means-liverpool-not-in-shape-to-win-it-clean-1.3782654

Injury ravaged defence means Liverpool not in shape to win it clean


Since St Stephen's Day Liverpool have kept just one clean sheet in seven games
28 minutes ago
Barney Ronay

0


Liverpool's James Milner brings the ball back to halfway after West Ham score. Photograph: Reuters
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Strap yourself in. It looks like it's going to be a little hairy from here. For all their energy going forward Liverpool have begun to creak in the same places they were so brutally crisp and decisive for the first half of the season. It's a cliche because it's true, or true enough anyway: a top-class attack might get you to the Champions League final; an unforgiving defence wins league titles. And something has shifted here for Jürgen Klopp's team.
Since St Stephen's Day, and including this slightly angsty evening at the London Stadium, Liverpool have kept one clean sheet in seven games. This is hardly a surprise. Three key players are missing from the defence: the superb Joe Gomez, the impressive Trent Alexander-Arnold and the actually-not-bad Dejan Lovren.
Tricky night
Joël Matip started here and had a tricky night. Elsewhere James Milner's ankle-chomping authority was missed in midfield as he filled in at right back. Naby Keïta continues to look like the incomplete central midfielder.
More to the point there were periods where the league leaders made West Ham look like a team of attacking terrors. The same West Ham who had scored one league goal in three games before last night had seven shots at goal in the first half alone. At times they looked viciously effective on the break, with Felipe Anderson parading his lovely, easy range of skills on the left. Ten minutes into the second half Anderson dropped deep and turned away from Matip like a man absent-mindedly swerving a discarded traffic cone. Matip pulled him back and was booked. Right now this is not a defence to ease your way gently into a title run-in.
Klopp knows it better than anyone, of course. Before last night Liverpool's manager had promised his team would simply attack from here, press the pedal, look to go forward without breaking a step in all competitions. They might just have to because right now Liverpool are not in the shape to win it clean. It is going to be a little messy, a little raw, from here. And perhaps that tension is starting to bite just a little.
!
!

Blue Billywig Video PlayerKlopp's response to the draw with Leicester was to open up his team, bringing in Adam Lallana to start in midfield for the first time since October, a player who is all soft touch and clever movement, with the ability to spin and divert the ball at high speed with a nudge of the rudder. He is a strange, likeable sui generis footballer, his actual "goal involvements" no real reflection on his craft, his poise on the ball.
Finding another way to win, another way to score can be vital at moments like these and Lallana may well have a hand to play, as he did in Liverpool taking the lead on 22 minutes. It must have felt sweet. All the more so, perhaps, as it involved a huge stroke of good fortune for an unlucky footballer. Lallana took the ball way out on the right touchline, with his back to goal and two defenders close. He swayed and rolled the ball around with his toe, then back-heeled a ball between two defenders into James Milner's run.
Milner was miles offside. He didn't hesitated. His low cross was finished neatly by Sadio Mané. The game could have gone one way from there, but West Ham had come here to play. The sense of injustice was soothed almost instantly as Michail Antonio ran away from the wall at free-kick, took a cute slid pass and spanked the ball hard and low into the corner. Keïta had simply watched him go. It was an embarrassing goal to concede.
On his touchline Manuel Pellegrini stood and barely flinched, features betraying just a glint of some ancient weathered joy. And as the second half wore on West Ham continued to pull that defence out of shape in between the Liverpool attacks, to press at some tender points that have opened only as the season enters its final straight.

[screenexile]

City have lost 4 of their last 10 games.

Interesting statistic...

They've also lost 4 of their last 25 games in the PL . . .

[north_antrim_hound]

To many injuries and not a strong enough bench.

1 defeat this season. On course for a 94 point tally.

Why does any slight blip in performance engender such nonsense?

City lost to Newcastle last week, and they're applying the exact model you're after.

Imagine Liverpool has 25 worldies and won 4-0 every week. How long until you tune out from boredom?

Who took the jam out of your doughnut, that was brutal last night and they have been poor since Christmas. Man City have a stronger pool of players and might just cost us. Bobby is of form and so is salah. It's all a bit worrying if your a fan.

[seafoid]

City have lost 4 of their last 10 games.

Tottenham are 18/1 and 5 points off Liverpool

[trailer]

If Liverpool fail to win the league from this position would it be a worse bottle job than the 13/14 season?

[north_antrim_hound]

If Liverpool fail to win the league from this position would it be a worse bottle job than the 13/14 season?

Do you follow Liverpool or Man U
It's hard to tell sometimes because the only ones who talk more about LFC than they fans are Mancs

[imtommygunn]

Yes because if you can't hold on to a league leading position from not much more than half way through the season you are clearly bottling it

[Hound]

To many injuries and not a strong enough bench.

1 defeat this season. On course for a 94 point tally.

Why does any slight blip in performance engender such nonsense?

City lost to Newcastle last week, and they're applying the exact model you're after.

Imagine Liverpool has 25 worldies and won 4-0 every week. How long until you tune out from boredom?

Who took the jam out of your doughnut, that was brutal last night and they have been poor since Christmas. Man City have a stronger pool of players and might just cost us. Bobby is of form and so is salah. It's all a bit worrying if your a fan.

Firmino was that bad in the second half, it was unbelievable. Countless times promising attacks fell down at his doorstep.

But as an attacking threat, we haven't been playing that well all season! Certainly it's been relatively rare (maybe 4 or 5 games only) when we've reached the attacking heights of last year. We've been getting away with it all season as we've been keeping clean sheets. Again, if we'd not conceded a poor goal yesterday we probably would have added one on the break. Would have been reasonably comfortable 2-0 win without playing brilliantly (the story of the first half of the season against the non-big 6).

Virgil has dipped a little bit, Robbo has dipped a bit more, no Gomez, all adds up to a weaker defence. In particular, in the last two games the amount of stupid needless frees we've given away has been unreal. Nervy. 

Maybe we need to go second again to re-group and re-energise.
But City back in pole, they're odds on favourites with the bookies again.

[Armamike]

Dropping points the last few games because the back up players aren't up to the level the likes of Gomez, Trent, Winaldum were at. Winaldum is a huge miss - he's the one we need back as quick as possible.

[galwayman]

To many injuries and not a strong enough bench.

1 defeat this season. On course for a 94 point tally.

Why does any slight blip in performance engender such nonsense?

City lost to Newcastle last week, and they're applying the exact model you're after.

Imagine Liverpool has 25 worldies and won 4-0 every week. How long until you tune out from boredom?

Who took the jam out of your doughnut, that was brutal last night and they have been poor since Christmas. Man City have a stronger pool of players and might just cost us. Bobby is of form and so is salah. It's all a bit worrying if your a fan.

Firmino was that bad in the second half, it was unbelievable. Countless times promising attacks fell down at his doorstep.

But as an attacking threat, we haven't been playing that well all season! Certainly it's been relatively rare (maybe 4 or 5 games only) when we've reached the attacking heights of last year. We've been getting away with it all season as we've been keeping clean sheets. Again, if we'd not conceded a poor goal yesterday we probably would have added one on the break. Would have been reasonably comfortable 2-0 win without playing brilliantly (the story of the first half of the season against the non-big 6).

Virgil has dipped a little bit, Robbo has dipped a bit more, no Gomez, all adds up to a weaker defence. In particular, in the last two games the amount of stupid needless frees we've given away has been unreal. Nervy. 

Maybe we need to go second again to re-group and re-energise.
But City back in pole, they're odds on favourites with the bookies again.

Agree on Firmino.
I only saw the second half but lost count of the number of times the ball came into him and he tried to flick it on to somebody else only to give it straight to a West Ham defender.
Literally almost every time the ball came near him it was the same for the whole half.

[Hound]

Dropping points the last few games because the back up players aren't up to the level the likes of Gomez, Trent, Winaldum were at. Winaldum is a huge miss - he's the one we need back as quick as possible.

Wijnaldum played against Leicester. Played quite well too. But he's been mediocre often enough as well.
How many assists does he have this season?
How many times do you say "Great ball Gini"? Once a month maybe, in a good month.

[Gabriel_Hurl]

If Liverpool fail to win the league from this position would it be a worse bottle job than the 13/14 season?

What is this bullshit? f**king hell

[Geoff Tipps]

If Liverpool fail to win the league from this position would it be a worse bottle job than the 13/14 season?

A bottle job is losing the league from being, I dunno, 8 points ahead with 6 games to go!

[J70]

On the bright side (amidst all this despair!), they've been playing fairly average for a month now, but are still clear at the top. In fact, City have only closed the gap by a point in the four games since they beat Liverpool.

Big issue is obviously the very soft goals they're conceding. Six weeks ago, Liverpool would have won that game 2 or 3-0, as they wouldn't have been caught asleep for the West Ham goal and would have another one or two on the break. Same with Leicester.

Need Trent back asap, at least.