Liverpool 0-1 Chelsea - Thursday 4th March, 2021

[carefreeluke]

I've been banging on about Mount for two years now and saying how good he is, easily our player of the season last season and now it seems he's finally winning over the last remaining doubters. We spent a bomb in the summer and despite all those players we brought in, Mount is still at the heart of everything good we do and that's been the case now for two seasons. I think his end product still needs some work but yeah future captain.

[LFCMike]

Think we needed to avoid defeat tonight but the league season would have still depended on getting back to beating the mid to bottom half teams in this league even if the best outcome happened tonight. Only Man Utd to play from the top 8 now so start winning the games you should and top four is still possible despite tonight's result. 

[Lucas]

Wonder if this is why Salah came off?

At least this would make a little more sense given how bizarre it seemed at the time.

 

[Scouse_Mouse]

7 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

Nah Tyler is fucking awful, can tell he's desperate for the opposition to score every time I watch a Liverpool game with him commentating. I always try to get the DAZN stream working with them on the site I use but it kept freezing tonight

Drury was in fine form today, we were almost 3 minutes into the game before the unoriginal cunt brings up Stevie's "slip", he then spent the rest of the game waffling on about consecutive home defeats or lack of goals at Anfield, Jimmy Beglin is just as bad, he actually groaned when Chelsea had their first goal ruled offside.

3 minutes ago, Lucas said:

Does Klopp get a pass this season irrespective of Champions League qualification or not?

He does for me. As bad as it is for them, he deserves the chance to put it right next year.

afaic yes.

 

[Rick]

1 minute ago, Lucas said:

Wonder if this is why Salah came off?

At least this would make a little more sense given how bizarre it seemed at the time.

 

I mean, that’s very annoying, but Mane was hardly getting back to help either. Taking off your main goal threat when you’re chasing a goal is still a very poor decision. 

[Burning Gold]

4 minutes ago, Lucas said:

Does Klopp get a pass this season irrespective of Champions League qualification or not?

He does for me. As bad as it is for them, he deserves the chance to put it right next year.

Define pass? Doesn't get the sack by any stretch of the imagination. You'd have to be dangerously stupid to think that

But I'm a little disappointed he hasn't been able to get more of a tune out of the world class players we've got. I know it's been ridiculously hard with the injuries we've had all over the pitch... but still

[Devil-Dick Willie]

Historically Klopp will leave of his own volition. 

[Smiley Culture]

If you’d have stuck £10 on Burnley to beat Liverpool and then put all your winnings on Brighton to beat them and then did the same process for their games against Man City, Everton and Chelsea, you’d have just under £41,000. 

[carefreeluke]

I still have no faith in Christensen and Rudiger, the system offers them a lot of protection and Christensen is just left to do what he's very good at and that's reading the game and sweeping up. Put Alonso, Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Christensen in a back four and they go from Ferrari's to looking like Ford KA's. 

[Cicero]

1 minute ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Historically Klopp will leave of his own volition. 

Been saying this. He will leave on his own accord. It’s whether or not he wants to rebuild Liverpool or move on. 

[RandoEFC+]

17 minutes ago, Burning Gold said:

We got denied a stonewall pen today, and no one batted an eyelid. We got denied a stonewall pen against Everton, and then they got one for kicking Trent in the back of the head. No one batted an eyelid. I think the "no fans" excuse is generally a bit pathetic but no home crowd would let players get away with meekly accepting that

All I'm reading is excuse after excuse I'm afraid, which can be forgiven shortly after a defeat but none of these complaints are really tangible. There might be an element of these things affecting Liverpool worse than others but if you honestly analyse the majority of your recent performances, none of your players are in good form. Some of them like Robertson and Salah are maintaining a reasonably good level of performance but at some point Klopp and his staff are going to have to face up to the reality of what's happening on the pitch. Alexander-Arnold looks useless, Thiago has been an absolute flop so far and shows no sign of improvement. I forgot he was on the pitch 4 separate times tonight. At some point you have to change something if you expect to get more from him. Your fans are starting to lose patience with Firmino. Yes you have problems you can't do anything about but there's still 6-7 of the Champions League winning and record breaking side on that pitch where the majority have suffered a major drop off in performance and none are at their best.

I honestly think you've got fundamental problems to solve. The way Liverpool played to achieve success in the last 2 years always had a shelf life. There's no reason to believe that this team can't find that level of performance again, but the question mark remains over how to restart the engine. I said this at the start of the season. What's the motivation now? Winning the Premier League after two seasons of striving for it and always finding a way to grind out the three points takes its toll, and "let's do it again" just isn't enough to keep the fuel tank full in comparison, no matter how good your mentality is.

I'm not saying it won't happen. People always said Guardiola's sides burn out after 2-3 years and now they're saying the same about Klopp and referencing his Dortmund downfall as evidence. Well Guardiola and Man City found a way to go again and now Klopp needs to do the same.

[DNA]

Tired of the pointing arms to indicate where you want the ball being ‘offsides’, surely it has to get revised for next season, surely.

[Scouse_Mouse]

 

1 minute ago, RandoEFC said:

All I'm reading is excuse after excuse I'm afraid, 

I reckon another 25 years or so before we catch up with you lot Rando.

2 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

which can be forgiven shortly after a defeat but none of these complaints are really tangible. There might be an element of these things affecting Liverpool worse than others but if you honestly analyse the majority of your recent performances, none of your players are in good form. Some of them like Robertson and Salah are maintaining a reasonably good level of performance but at some point Klopp and his staff are going to have to face up to the reality of what's happening on the pitch. Alexander-Arnold looks useless, Thiago has been an absolute flop so far and shows no sign of improvement. I forgot he was on the pitch 4 separate times tonight. At some point you have to change something if you expect to get more from him. Your fans are starting to lose patience with Firmino. Yes you have problems you can't do anything about but there's still 6-7 of the Champions League winning and record breaking side on that pitch where the majority have suffered a major drop off in performance and none are at their best.

I honestly think you've got fundamental problems to solve. The way Liverpool played to achieve success in the last 2 years always had a shelf life. There's no reason to believe that this team can't find that level of performance again, but the question mark remains over how to restart the engine. I said this at the start of the season. What's the motivation now? Winning the Premier League after two seasons of striving for it and always finding a way to grind out the three points takes its toll, and "let's do it again" just isn't enough to keep the fuel tank full in comparison, no matter how good your mentality is.

I'm not saying it won't happen. People always said Guardiola's sides burn out after 2-3 years and now they're saying the same about Klopp and referencing his Dortmund downfall as evidence. Well Guardiola and Man City found a way to go again and now Klopp needs to do the same.

I replied to you above, it's not just the absence of 3 CBs that have hurt us so much, it's the domino effect on the rest of the side.

I don't know if Thiago is going to be a success, I'm kinda inclined to wait and and see how he fits into a team that has players playing in the positions that we bought them to play in.

 

[Scouse_Mouse]

5 minutes ago, DNA said:

Tired of the pointing arms to indicate where you want the ball being ‘offsides’, surely it has to get revised for next season, surely.

We seem to say that every year mate, and then we "revise" another rule which makes things even more confusing.

[RandoEFC+]

1 minute ago, Scouse_Mouse said:

 

I reckon another 25 years or so before we catch up with you lot Rando.

I replied to you above, it's not just the absence of 3 CBs that have hurt us so much, it's the domino effect on the rest of the side.

I don't know if Thiago is going to be a success, I'm kinda inclined to wait and and see how he fits into a team that has players playing in the positions that we bought them to play in.

 

Yes I know you love talking about Everton and how obsessed we are with you but this thread is actually about Liverpool so let's stay on topic.

How does the absence of Van Dijk and maybe Gomez and Matip too make Firmino, Thiago, Mane, Alexander-Arnold, Wijnaldum, Alisson look half the players they were a few months ago? Are you genuinely convinced that's the only reason and that they'd all have been still playing at last season's levels if there weren't injuries on other parts of the pitch?

There's definitely damage to the defensive midfield position in the loss of Fabinho and Henderson is a big miss too but for my money almost all of your other players should be performing better. Players like Robertson, Mane, Wijnaldum, Firmino and Salah earned their transfers to Liverpool in the first place by putting in top class performances in lesser teams when they weren't surrounded by world class players so where are they now?

I've heard enough about injuries and refereeing decisions when it comes to Liverpool. We're all well aware of what's happened, if you want to discuss this honestly like many other Reds already are then you can't keep trying to convince people that all of these problems have stemmed from bad luck and divine intervention. Eventually these players and the manager and his team are going to have to hold themselves accountable for these performances and find solutions.

[carefreeluke]

I will watch the first half back at some point as I missed it because of work but Ziyech and Pulisic still really need to get their asses in gear. Our quality in attack didn't cost us today but it wouldn't be a surprise (the way we're going) if it's the reason we fall short come the end of the season.

Pulisic is a shadow of the player that tore Liverpool apart in this fixture in July last year and Ziyech is worse than Willian at the moment.

[DNA]

13 minutes ago, Scouse_Mouse said:

We seem to say that every year mate, and then we "revise" another rule which makes things even more confusing.

I think that one is so obviously wrong though on the principle of players not being able to give each other very basic tactical instructions, the Bamford one should have cemented the change. 

[Burning Gold]

39 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

All I'm reading is excuse after excuse I'm afraid, which can be forgiven shortly after a defeat but none of these complaints are really tangible. There might be an element of these things affecting Liverpool worse than others but if you honestly analyse the majority of your recent performances, none of your players are in good form. Some of them like Robertson and Salah are maintaining a reasonably good level of performance but at some point Klopp and his staff are going to have to face up to the reality of what's happening on the pitch. Alexander-Arnold looks useless, Thiago has been an absolute flop so far and shows no sign of improvement. I forgot he was on the pitch 4 separate times tonight. At some point you have to change something if you expect to get more from him. Your fans are starting to lose patience with Firmino. Yes you have problems you can't do anything about but there's still 6-7 of the Champions League winning and record breaking side on that pitch where the majority have suffered a major drop off in performance and none are at their best.

I honestly think you've got fundamental problems to solve. The way Liverpool played to achieve success in the last 2 years always had a shelf life. There's no reason to believe that this team can't find that level of performance again, but the question mark remains over how to restart the engine. I said this at the start of the season. What's the motivation now? Winning the Premier League after two seasons of striving for it and always finding a way to grind out the three points takes its toll, and "let's do it again" just isn't enough to keep the fuel tank full in comparison, no matter how good your mentality is.

I'm not saying it won't happen. People always said Guardiola's sides burn out after 2-3 years and now they're saying the same about Klopp and referencing his Dortmund downfall as evidence. Well Guardiola and Man City found a way to go again and now Klopp needs to do the same.

You're misreading. I'm not making excuses, I'm giving evidence that heads have dropped. I'm not arsed about arguing with referees for its own sake, but it's indicative of attitude and will-to-win. We don't have that right now

I agree there's something deeper than attitude going on, but that's no small part of it. It carried us a long way the last two seasons and it's not there anymore. I think the way project restart and then the new season lined up didn't help psychologically either. We came out of lockdown already champions and went through the motions til the end of the season. Then the new season rolled around so quickly and we don't seem to have come out of that gear.

I think the Dortmund downfall/burnout/etc. stuff is total bollocks. We're all bored of hearing it, but Liverpool lost one of our most important players, we lost our cover to the front 3,... do you know what I can't be bothered. We all know Liverpool have been absolutely ruined by injuries. Everyone wants a more interesting explanation than that, but the fact is we just haven't had the opportunity to field a side this season that was good enough to live up to the Liverpool of the last 2 years. Like I say, I've been disappointed that we haven't been able to get more out of the players we have had available, but there's more than enough mitigating factors around this season that we don't have to entertain poorly considered theories that usually centre around the misconception that we've played an intense style of football for the last 2-3 years.

[Scouse_Mouse]

13 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Yes I know you love talking about Everton and how obsessed we are with you but this thread is actually about Liverpool so let's stay on topic.

 

You say this a lot, I don't mention Everton on here any more than you mention us Rando.

Anyway I'll try and not mention Everton so much if it's upsetting, I just couldn't resist replying when you said we were making excuses, jeez you lot are still moaning about a decision Collina made 16 years ago ffs.

13 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

Yes I know you love talking about Everton and how obsessed we are with you but this thread is actually about Liverpool so let's stay on topic.

How does the absence of Van Dijk and maybe Gomez and Matip too make Firmino, Thiago, Mane, Alexander-Arnold, Wijnaldum, Alisson look half the players they were a few months ago? Are you genuinely convinced that's the only reason and that they'd all have been still playing at last season's levels if there weren't injuries on other parts of the pitch?

There's definitely damage to the defensive midfield position in the loss of Fabinho and Henderson is a big miss too but for my money almost all of your other players should be performing better. Players like Robertson, Mane, Wijnaldum, Firmino and Salah earned their transfers to Liverpool in the first place by putting in top class performances in lesser teams when they weren't surrounded by world class players so where are they now?

I've heard enough about injuries and refereeing decisions when it comes to Liverpool. We're all well aware of what's happened, if you want to discuss this honestly like many other Reds already are then you can't keep trying to convince people that all of these problems have stemmed from bad luck and divine intervention. Eventually these players and the manager and his team are going to have to hold themselves accountable for these performances and find solutions.

Again without wanting to upset anyone, our injuries are a valid reason why we haven't reached last seasons highs, if your lot had had as many I think you would be blaming them too Rando.

[RandoEFC+]

7 minutes ago, Burning Gold said:

that usually centre around the misconception that we've played an intense style of football for the last 2-3 years

I was with you up until this point. It's not about the physical style of play, it's about the mental and psychological toll of winning so many games with such high stakes for such an extended period of time, I've never seen anything like it and I doubt anyone else has, and as ever when it comes to the relationship between our minds and our bodies, this manifests itself physically when it finally cracks.

I accept that I misunderstood your point at first, I responded before reading myself up to date.

[Burning Gold]

3 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

I was with you up until this point. It's not about the physical style of play, it's about the mental and psychological toll of winning so many games with such high stakes for such an extended period of time, I've never seen anything like it and I doubt anyone else has, and as ever when it comes to the relationship between our minds and our bodies, this manifests itself physically when it finally cracks.

I accept that I misunderstood your point at first, I responded before reading myself up to date.

Fair play mate. Maybe jumped the gun because I've been reading about this phantom intense style of play all night on Twitter 

Agree on the mental side. Interestingly, the player who most embodied the drive of last season is the one who's had the biggest drop off this season for me: Mane

[Spike]

1 hour ago, Devil-Dick Willie said:

Historically Klopp will leave of his own volition. 

this reminds me of something i can't quite put my finger on

[Scouse_Mouse]

43 minutes ago, Burning Gold said:

You're misreading. I'm not making excuses, I'm giving evidence that heads have dropped. I'm not arsed about arguing with referees for its own sake, but it's indicative of attitude and will-to-win. We don't have that right now

I agree there's something deeper than attitude going on, but that's no small part of it. It carried us a long way the last two seasons and it's not there anymore. I think the way project restart and then the new season lined up didn't help psychologically either. We came out of lockdown already champions and went through the motions til the end of the season. Then the new season rolled around so quickly and we don't seem to have come out of that gear.

I think the Dortmund downfall/burnout/etc. stuff is total bollocks. We're all bored of hearing it, but Liverpool lost one of our most important players, we lost our cover to the front 3,... do you know what I can't be bothered. We all know Liverpool have been absolutely ruined by injuries. Everyone wants a more interesting explanation than that, but the fact is we just haven't had the opportunity to field a side this season that was good enough to live up to the Liverpool of the last 2 years. Like I say, I've been disappointed that we haven't been able to get more out of the players we have had available, but there's more than enough mitigating factors around this season that we don't have to entertain poorly considered theories that usually centre around the misconception that we've played an intense style of football for the last 2-3 years.

That's it in a nutshell mate.

It's not just VVD, Gomez and Matip it's everything else that has trickledown from that.

I remember having a discussion last year, a mate of mine was saying how hard it was to play against a forward line of Mo, Mane and Bobby, which was true but it wasn't the thing that made us tick. For me it was that centre of the pitch with Virgil, Fab and Hendo. We could tweak the forward line but those three were the engine that powered the whole show.

It's no surprise that we haven't had them since Virgil got crocked by Pickford and even less of a surprise that none of them were around today.

It's not making excuses it's giving reasons why things have gone off the rails.

[Spike]

I do love the weekly Liverpool meltdown. Win 5-0? Go nuclear. Win the league? Go mad. Lose 1-0, shit is hitting a wall.

[Dr. Gonzo]

At least Werner didn’t score