2022/23 Season

[Fredo]

Your “there’s no reason to believe” gives me every reason to believe, especially knowing we have our forward line almost out at the moment.

[Kenneth]

Okay. But remember that you’re pretty much always wrong.

[BobTheCharmer]

Okay. But remember that you’re pretty much always wrong.

[danperkins]

Okay. But remember that you’re pretty much always wrong.

a solid burn

[SB]

Okay. But remember that you’re pretty much always wrong.

[rudedog]

Not a chance in hell. A tight win in the cup against Wolverhampton and a home nil nil with a struggling Chelsea does not mean we are much closer to the top sides. We are bad, we concede goals like school kids, we are where we deserve to be in the league and there is no reason to believe that we will actually start beating teams easily and put the necessary run of wins together.

There is plenty of reason to believe, this is practically the same group of players that did so well last season. Klopp has achieved incredible successes in his time here, seems a bit myopic to forget all that and forecast the rest of the seasons fortune on current form.

[Buzzo]

Seems we must follow and assume best case scenarios for all of our rivals and worst case scenarios for all of our own.

[Mark79]

That’s not what’s been said, tbf.

[Tribute]

The optimist says we could pull together a decent run until the end of the season as per seasons before.
The realist has watched the Brighton, Wolves replay and Chelsea games and can't see much improvement anytime soon to merit a decent run.

I can't see us getting fourth. I think it will be a tough ask to achieve top six this season.

[Buzzo]

If we can get Jota and Firmino back start to have that variation in attack and start to win games by playing well then I can believe. We've only had a few wins where we have also put in a top performance (City, Spurs) we need more of those, then the streaky wins stick out less.

[danperkins]

That’s not what’s been said, tbf.

[Mark79]

If we can get Jota and Firmino back start to have that variation in attack and start to win games by playing well then I can believe. We've only had a few wins where we have also put in a top performance (City, Spurs) we need more of those, then the streaky wins stick out less.

There has been some improvement in shape and organisation in the past 2 games.

Keep that going and get some of the forwards back and hopefully we can kick on, though I don’t know if they’re going to add instant goals after so long out.

Still though, results wise it’s going to take something approaching title contender form to even have a chance and we’ve been a million miles away from the level required for that all season.

[Buzzo]

We will need to keep improving, and we will need to go on a run.

But, win out game in hand and we are 7 points off third. We obsviously need to make these points up and we need teams to drop off in form. I’m ruling neither out.

It will be incredibly tough.

[Doc_Piptorious]

If we can get Jota and Firmino back start to have that variation in attack and start to win games by playing well then I can believe. We've only had a few wins where we have also put in a top performance (City, Spurs) we need more of those, then the streaky wins stick out less.

Agree with the gist of this, but I would not be relying on Jota, Firmino
or Diaz (who you did not mention) due to how far away all of them may be from returning. I suspect part of why we went for Gakpo early was down to knowing one or more are out for longer than reported.


Jota might be back to full training in four to five weeks time, might be.

Firmino might be back in a few weeks or a month or so.


Diaz might be back in full training in mid March.

We need to start racking up points long before any of those names come back, and we maybe need to be a lot more flexible in how we set the team up.

We were a pressing machine, a relentless unit that could outfight, out run, out press and outright outplay almost any team we came up against.

Now we run less distance, we press less, we certainly do not out fight or out play teams, yet we persist with one or two set ups and try to go out onto the pitch as if we are still that elite pressing running machine.

It seems that we are trying to make the players fit the old system rather than making the system fit the players we currently have and fit the abilities those players have. Then that fails and we try to sort it out by trying the same things again and again.

Think we need to be more pragmatic between now and the end of the season (especially if we do not bring any CMs in this window and if there is any truth that Camavinga is available on loan then going for him should be a no brainer ) and focus on defensive solidity first and then hope the goals start to flow at the other end if we can stop teams running through us.

Maybe the last couple games showed signs of that pragmatic approach and we will see green shoots of recovery coming from those.

Think the next four games will be telling on that front though.


Brighton away (again) in the FA cup
Wolves away (again)
Everton at home
Newcastle away.

All four games now look really tough, real grind out results sort of games, and coming on the heels of that quartet is the first game against Real Madrid.


Right now my gut is agreeing with you a tad in that I think we will see an improvement in form, but I think that improvement might get us a Europa slot rather than a CL one.

[Tribute]

Agree with the gist of this, but I would not be relying on Jota, Firmino
or Diaz (who you did not mention) due to how far away all of them may be from returning. I suspect part of why we went for Gakpo early was down to knowing one or more are out for longer than reported.


Jota might be back to full training in four to five weeks time, might be.

Firmino might be back in a few weeks or a month or so.


Diaz might be back in full training in mid March.

We need to start racking up points long before any of those names come back, and we maybe need to be a lot more flexible in how we set the team up.

We were a pressing machine, a relentless unit that could outfight, out run, out press and outright outplay almost any team we came up against.

Now we run less distance, we press less, we certainly do not out fight or out play teams, yet we persist with one or two set ups and try to go out onto the pitch as if we are still that elite pressing running machine.

It seems that we are trying to make the players fit the old system rather than making the system fit the players we currently have and fit the abilities those players have. Then that fails and we try to sort it out by trying the same things again and again.

Think we need to be more pragmatic between now and the end of the season (especially if we do not bring any CMs in this window and if there is any truth that Camavinga is available on loan then going for him should be a no brainer ) and focus on defensive solidity first and then hope the goals start to flow at the other end if we can stop teams running through us.

Maybe the last couple games showed signs of that pragmatic approach and we will see green shoots of recovery coming from those.

Think the next four games will be telling on that front though.


Brighton away (again) in the FA cup
Wolves away (again)
Everton at home
Newcastle away.

All four games now look really tough, real grind out results sort of games, and coming on the heels of that quartet is the first game against Real Madrid.


Right now my gut is agreeing with you a tad in that I think we will see an improvement in form, but I think that improvement might get us a Europa slot rather than a CL one.

Sadly, The Ev will probably be having that 'new manager bounce' by the time we play them... in a season like no other, so typical!