Perspective

[BG1973]

When the news came out that VVD had done his ACL, all of my expectations and hopes for the season evaporated. Never expected us to challenge after that.

But then the rest of the contenders results were still worse than ours.. we were looking good for it at that point.

Sadly though... when you would expect fortunes to change... they haven't...

Players are playing too many games because we can't rest them and they're either injured or shot. Most of it is bad luck.... The Jota one is something I hope Klopp learns from.

[Venton]

but that's not the case.

We started this season well. Beat Arsenal and Chelsea in successive games. After the Chelsea game we were 9 points from 9. Thiago had came in and for 45 minutes looked to have made the best team in the country even better. Souness was already proclaiming us Champions on Sky Sports

After that the injuries started. Alisson out for the Villa game and we conceded 7. Next game was the Everton game where we lost Virgil and Thiago and the injuries just kept coming.

I'd contend that up to and including the Crystal Palace 7-0 game we were in good shape. The wheels came off over the Christmas period when, as many others have pointed out, the injuries and constant disruption to our starting XI finally caught up with us.

I think it's an anathema to suggest that our poor form harks back to last season.

We definitely went off the boil towards the end of last season. We haven't been consistently convincing since. We've been talking about our drop of form on the forums going back to then.

[Kenneth]

I didn't think we could come back from the villa result, and that was before VVD's injury confirmed it.

[spud_gun]

Go back through the results mate. For every Arsenal/Chelsea win there is a draw to Fulham/Brighton. We have not been able to hit a consistent run of form for a while. We were being proclaimed champions more due to the fact the other teams around us weren’t playing well. That has now changed.

From when the 19/20 season restarted in June until the wheels fell of spectacularly at Christmas of this season we'd won 15, drew 6 and lost 3 of 24 games played.

[Doc_Piptorious]

but that's not the case.

We started this season well. Beat Arsenal and Chelsea in successive games. After the Chelsea game we were 9 points from 9. Thiago had came in and for 45 minutes looked to have made the best team in the country even better. Souness was already proclaiming us Champions on Sky Sports

After that the injuries started. Alisson out for the Villa game and we conceded 7. Next game was the Everton game where we lost Virgil and Thiago and the injuries just kept coming.

I'd contend that up to and including the Crystal Palace 7-0 game we were in good shape. The wheels came off over the Christmas period when, as many others have pointed out, the injuries and constant disruption to our starting XI finally caught up with us.

I think it's an anathema to suggest that our poor form harks back to last season.

I do agree that we were more than just in it right up to the Xmas period and would argue that had we won last night then we would still be saying we are right in it rather than having a bit of a mountain to climb.

However I do think that comments saying our form or rather our results dropped off from that Watford game onward are technically pretty much on the mark.

Our form in terms of points per game from the Watford game to the end of last season would be 1.81 PPG.

Our PPG return this season after 22 games is also 1.81 ppg.

So our current form in terms of points return is pretty much identical to how we were for the final ten games of last season and as such I can see why people would argue that it is a continuation, even though my own take is the 1.81 PPG run that ended last season was a result of the collective taking their feet off the pedal as the league was won, whereas this season's 1.81 PPG return is more nuanced as it was a gradual reducation of our PPG average that kept reducing pretty much in correlation with each additional injury/positional change.

But whether one wants to argue it is a continuation of form or that that the two runs of games produced the exact same ppg average for very different reasons, the end result is still the same PPG average.



Oh and always love when I see the word Anathema. Brings Liverpool's finest Goth Doom Band to mind

[spud_gun]

We definitely went off the boil towards the end of last season. We haven't been consistently convincing since. We've been talking about our drop of form on the forums going back to then.

We won 26 of our opening 27 games last season.

Pretty much any form in comparison will be seen as a drop off.

[spud_gun]

I do agree that we were more than just in it right up to the Xmas period and would argue that had we won last night then we would still be saying we are right in it rather than having a bit of a mountain to climb.

However I do think that comments saying our form or rather our results dropped off from that Watford game onward are technically pretty much on the mark.

Our form in terms of points per game from the Watford game to the end of last season would be 1.81 PPG.

Our PPG return this season after 22 games is also 1.81 ppg.

So our current form in terms of points return is pretty much identical to how we were for the final ten games of last season and as such I can see why people would argue that it is a continuation, even though my own take is the 1.81 PPG run that ended last season was a result of the collective taking their feet off the pedal as the league was won, whereas this season's 1.81 PPG return is more nuanced as it was a gradual reducation of our PPG average that kept reducing pretty much in correlation with each additional injury/positional change.

But whether one wants to argue it is a continuation of form or that that the two runs of games produced the exact same ppg average for very different reasons, the end result is still the same PPG average.



Oh and always love when I see the word Anathema. Brings Liverpool's finest Goth Doom Band to mind

meh...got my sums wrong.

Good point Jaco

[fabinho]

We were battered by Villa with a full squad. There are other factors at play, but no doubt the injuries are causing massive problems.

[Doc_Piptorious]

meh...got my sums wrong.

Good point Jaco

Thing is I agree with you though. I do not see it as a direct continuation in form. I just see it as a bit of a freak coincidence that this season's PPG (which came about imho through a horrific run of injuries that eventually brought down our PPG average) is the exact same as that from the final 11 games of last season.

Our opening 11 games of this season had a higher PPG average than the 1.81 average we had from the Watford game to the end of last season. So we had in fact not continued the form we ended last season on and the PPG from our first 11 games this season was roughly .37 PPG more than the PPG average from our final 11 games of last season or about 14 extra points over a season. So if anything our PPG was on an upward trend if we compare the final 11 or last season and the opening 11 of this season.

[Shaggy]

We were battered by Villa with a full squad. There are other factors at play, but no doubt the injuries are causing massive problems.

I think Mane, Henderson, Thiago and Alisson missed the Villa game.

[Mark79]

I didn't think we could come back from the villa result, and that was before VVD's injury confirmed it.

Won 6 and drew 4 of our next 10 league games to go top at Christmas.
(Probably should have been 8 wins but for very contentious decisions vs Everton and Brighton.)

Also played all 6 CL games and topped the group in that same period.

All with an ever increasing injury list.

We came back from the Villa result.

[Maxiedge]

From when the 19/20 season restarted in June until the wheels fell of spectacularly at Christmas of this season we'd won 15, drew 6 and lost 3 of 24 games played.

It’s more the manner of the draws/losses. There have been some real stinkers where we get outfought, outworked and outclassed by lesser teams. This was something that could not be labelled at us ever in the two years previous. The appetite for the graft in the less glamorous games has dropped since we had a hand on the league trophy.

[Venton]

We won 26 of our opening 27 games last season.

Pretty much any form in comparison will be seen as a drop off.

So it's not really anathema to say our drop in form goes back to last season. There has been a marked change in our performances going back to then. We've looked a different side, even in many of our wins.

[spud_gun]

So it's not really anathema to say our drop in form goes back to last season. There has been a marked change in our performances going back to then. We've looked a different side, even in many of our wins.

During that fantastic run were weren't blowing sides away every game. Plenty of 1 - 0's and 2 - 1's.

13 of the first 27 games last season were won by the odd goal. Those are very tight margins.

The Villa and Sheff Utd away games (1- 2 and 0 - 1) spring to mind as games from last season that we wouldn't have won this season.

[kev776]

I think Mane, Henderson, Thiago and Alisson missed the Villa game.

13 Adrián
66 Alexander-Arnold
12 Gomez Substituted for Jones at 61'minutes
4 Van Dijk
26 Robertson
8 Keita Substituted for Minamino at 45'minutes
3 Fabinho
5 Wijnaldum
11 Salah
9 Firmino Substituted for Milnerat 68'minutes
20 Jota