Title Race 18/19

[BigChief]

It's the style of football. They cant get the ball off city to try and hurt them. I don't think it's not trying. Whereas our style gives teams a chance if they sit deep. We don't have as much creative spark. Imo.

Bingo, a midfield of Gundogan, Silva, Silva, KdB is defensively as weak as wet paper (compared to Fab, Hendo, etc). But they are universally feared across the country. Players like Sissoko, Hendo, Dier, Wanyama, etc, are much favored opposition as they don't really do much / enough.

Klopp playing Hendo, Wijnaldum and Milner against City pretty much rendered our midfield useless against their sitting back tactics. And pretty much lost us the league, though obviously it's hard to criticise these things after the season we just had.

[Tee]

Such a shame we didn’t try and get De Jong before his move to Barca, exactly the type of player our midfield could do with in terms of ball retention, movement and attaching threat. However we are in the fortunate position that pretty much any player in world football would seriously consider joining us

[Liverpool]

Football is cruel

[Buzzo]

...

[Buzzo]

This was the moment.

[ame]https://twitter.com/hackettref/status/1127808328267071488[/ame]

[ame="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FmvrkWHAUhE"]Tackle - YouTube[/ame]

[frank the tank]

I agree that was a huge moment. We win that game and they might have lost more points too......

However, we would also possibly pulled up the handbrake and accepted a draw in other games. The win at home to Spurs being one that sticks in my mind. There is no way we'd have thrown caution to the wind like we did that day.

I think the big improvement in our team has been the defensive solidity. Virgil and Allison have both been amazing additions - both with the potential to be the best ever to play for Liverpool in their positions.

How do you improve a team that got 97 points in the league? First we need to ensure that the reasons we did so well are reinforced. I personally think that if we needed to rely on one of Sturridge, Origi, Lallana, Lovren, Moreno, Mignolet to be starting games non-stop for say 2-3 months of a season, then you can forget about challenging for the league.

Also, we dropped points in the away games against Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, Everton, United and West Ham. I think if we were to add a top striker to the squad, then it is likely that we will still play with a front 3 - but if a truly dangerous player is being added to the team as opposed to the subs we brought on those days, then we can possibly turn a few draws into wins.

It is a great time to be a liverpool fan though.....

[Exiled_red]

I think as has been said we can have a better season next year but end up with fewer points.

For me the main area we need to improve is having a goal threat beyond the front 3, the last few weeks of the season that has started to improve with the lads from midfield starting to chip in, but we need that from the start next year and to carry on throughout the season.

From me VAR is a massive unknown, for me it is a complete cluster **** and anything could happen with it, in it's various implementations we have seen some dodgy pens given, and some clearer ones not, it all still comes down to the official on the day and all officials applying it consistently which won't happen. Also long VAR decisions and pauses in the game will disrupt our rhythm more than that of most opposition, which is something we need to learn how to deal with.

[PTP]

prob the best thread for this post :-)

I've not posted much this past year as we had our baby girl born well, day after the champions league final!

So as you can imagine the past 12 months have flown by

But what a ****ing season it's been

like everyone i'm buzzing with what we have seen, but gutted we missed out on the league because it's been a monumental effort.

I don't think we could have done anything more - 97 points, 1 loss, it's ridiculous.

Next Season


Moving forward - Providing we keep the starting XI, then I only really see a few areas to add to the squad depth - it all depends on who we keep.

GK
Alisson - number 1
Mignolet - if he stays as 2nd choice then great. But if he wants first team football then fair enough, but if he was to go he would need replacing

FB

Trent and Robbo are unbelievable. However the cover not so much, and I seem to remember our 'wobble' when we had a couple of draws, Trent was injured. We need some sort of cover for these guys. I am assuming Moreno will go. As will Clyne. If Milner stays he offers some cover, but ideally I think we need to find someone who can fill in at lb/rb.


CB

Van Dijk is unbelievable - just need to establish his first team partner.....for me, there are question marks over Gomez/Matip/Lovren with fitness....they all seem to have periods out/unavailable.


Personally as a group of 4, I think we are well covered here but I wouldn't complain if we added De Lijt


Midfield
Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Henderson, Keita, Ox, Milner - plenty of options here, providing everyone stays and Ox can get back to his best. If I was being greedy, another top centre mid wouldn't hurt tho :-)


Front three

Well, salah/mane/firmino, can't complain with that.....but we lack other options....Origi has done ok, scored some massive goals, shaqiri too offers some cover, but we lack top quality cover here so a top class attacking player would be nice.



Overall - if we could ship out and massively upgrade on Moreno/Lallana/Sturridge and pretty much keep everyone else, then i'd be happy.

[PTP]

One other thing

rival fans - bar probably Crystal Palace, have been utter utter cunts this year.

I know they'll laugh it off as "BANTZ" but my god, I don't if it's me getting older, having a family etc, but I am at the point now where I'm hardly looking at social media, watching Sky Sports or reading newspapers/listening to radios. I am even cutting out "friends" from other clubs.

I can't be arsed with it - i'm happy with my family and my close circle of mates who are all reds.....everyone else can **** off

Whilst I understand and have no issues with a bit of pisstaking - it's the genuine 'celebration' I've seen from other fans that's just ridiculous....

I admit I have bias - but we should be getting nothing but praise/thanks from every team in the league (bar City) for saving the premier league. If it wasn't for us, we'd be in massive danger of the "BEST" league in the world ending up like most of the leagues in Europe were one team wins it every year.

City have outspent and therefore outperformed everyone. Expect us, who somehow, with overall, a lesser squad, have pretty much matched them for the whole year. It's ridiculous.


And what do we get...….we get United fans cheering City goals!....We get Everton fan's singing Blue Moon.....We get Wolves - -****ing wolves! - singing "you ****ed it up"


Seriously - get a grip.

[Rafa Justice]

One other thing

rival fans - bar probably Crystal Palace, have been utter utter cunts this year.

I know they'll laugh it off as "BANTZ" but my god, I don't if it's me getting older, having a family etc, but I am at the point now where I'm hardly looking at social media, watching Sky Sports or reading newspapers/listening to radios. I am even cutting out "friends" from other clubs.

I can't be arsed with it - i'm happy with my family and my close circle of mates who are all reds.....everyone else can **** off

Whilst I understand and have no issues with a bit of pisstaking - it's the genuine 'celebration' I've seen from other fans that's just ridiculous....

I admit I have bias - but we should be getting nothing but praise/thanks from every team in the league (bar City) for saving the premier league. If it wasn't for us, we'd be in massive danger of the "BEST" league in the world ending up like most of the leagues in Europe were one team wins it every year.

City have outspent and therefore outperformed everyone. Expect us, who somehow, with overall, a lesser squad, have pretty much matched them for the whole year. It's ridiculous.


And what do we get...….we get United fans cheering City goals!....We get Everton fan's singing Blue Moon.....We get Wolves - -****ing wolves! - singing "you ****ed it up"


Seriously - get a grip.

That's what hurt does to you. Took myself off Facebook in March, only use Twitter to view certain things people post on forums and the people I follow.

Don't know if I'm thinner skinned or the abuse is genuinely getting worse. Could be us all getting into our own echo chambers, like people on Twitter or Facebook do. We like what we want to hear and nothing else? **** knows, all I know is that this is an incredible team that will win a title one day and hopefully #6 in June.

[The_weatherman]

Overall - if we could ship out and massively upgrade on Moreno/Lallana/Sturridge and pretty much keep everyone else, then i'd be happy.

This! I agree, I wouldn't say no to De Ligt, but it's not a priority, I really want another forward though, someone like Pepe or Lozano, maybe even Depay, at least that ilk, pacey who can play in two positions.

[Helios Creed]

I cannot get my head round them losing 4 games and finishing ahead of us.

THEY LOST 4 GAMES. 4 TEAMS BEAT THEM. 4 TEAMS WERE BETTER ON A GIVEN DAY THAN THEM. IT ONLY HAPPENED ONCE TO US.

It just makes no sense to me.

[kingfunk]

Wouldn’t mind a cheeky bid for Aubameyang!

[Yozza]

I cannot get my head round them losing 4 games and finishing ahead of us.

THEY LOST 4 GAMES. 4 TEAMS BEAT THEM. 4 TEAMS WERE BETTER ON A GIVEN DAY THAN THEM. IT ONLY HAPPENED ONCE TO US.

It just makes no sense to me.

We drew too many games like we did under Rafa in 2008–09...

It's totally gutting

[Charly]

This! I agree, I wouldn't say no to De Ligt, but it's not a priority, I really want another forward though, someone like Pepe or Lozano, maybe even Depay, at least that ilk, pacey who can play in two positions.

I think a top class centreback would not provide vfm... at this stage we only need solid cover for Gomez and Matip... it only makes sense if we sell Lovren, and nobody is going to shell out on him, not on his wages... maybe the Mancs will be that desperate???