Liverpool 2-0 Crystal Palace - Sunday 23rd May, 2021

[Cicero]

I've been advocating for months that the standard of football atm is shocking. 

[LFCMike]

7 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

That's how poor the rest of the usual contenders have been. Chelsea and Spurs both had to sack their managers mid-season and Arsenal just a non-entity for the top six all season. Don't forget that Liverpool were still pretty much in the box seat to win the league again up until November/December so they had given themselves a pretty big head start before the 2-3 month capitulation.

We were top at Christmas but not by much at all I don't think? And even the top at Christmas thing, there was only about 14/15 games played at that point. Then we lost Matip and fell to pieces

[DeadLinesman]

3 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

We were top at Christmas but not by much at all I don't think? And even the top at Christmas thing, there was only about 14/15 games played at that point. Then we lost Matip and fell to pieces

I remember that stint when you lost every game at home.

It was fantastic.

[LFCMike]

Just now, DeadLinesman said:

I remember that stint when you lost every game at home.

It was fantastic.

I'm sure it was for you

[DNA]

This season has been about the downfalls of others at the top end and this top 4 race, West Ham & Leicester so close yet so far, you have to wonder now if both clubs can keep their respective midfielder generals, Rice & Tielemans.

[RandoEFC+]

32 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

We were top at Christmas but not by much at all I don't think? And even the top at Christmas thing, there was only about 14/15 games played at that point. Then we lost Matip and fell to pieces

That's still way ahead of where Chelsea were though. I'm not surprised to see you get back into form at the end. Most of your defeats looked like individual mistakes and individual loss of form to me. That poor run was more of a perfect storm of specific things that wouldn't usually all happen at the same time than any fundamental problems with the team's shape or balance. The main thing I think was underlying was the rest of the team lacking confidence because they weren't used to being leaky at the back. That was never going to last forever though. 

[LFCMike]

 

[Rick]

Shout out to Nat Phillips this season. Whether he ends up staying or finds himself somewhere else, he has done really well considering he was playing in the German second division last season. 
 

Whether or not we ultimately rate either him or Williams highly, both have walked into a bit of a shitshow this season and they’ve not hid away from it. For that alone, they deserve a lot of credit. 

[LFCMike]

4 minutes ago, Rick said:

Shout out to Nat Phillips this season. Whether he ends up staying or finds himself somewhere else, he has done really well considering he was playing in the German second division last season. 
 

Whether or not we ultimately rate either him or Williams highly, both have walked into a bit of a shitshow this season and they’ve not hid away from it. For that alone, they deserve a lot of credit. 

Absolutely. Both, Phillips in particular, have done better than expected and have allowed us to play Fabinho in midfield.

Sick of seeing people saying Phillips should be starting alongside VVD next season though

[Rick]

2 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

Sick of seeing people saying Phillips should be starting alongside VVD next season though

Haha, probably reds in their 50’s that are of the mindset that “he doesn’t mess about” at the back.

[LFCMike]

30 minutes ago, Rick said:

Haha, probably reds in their 50’s that are of the mindset that “he doesn’t mess about” at the back.

Tbh it tends to be the LFC Twitter fam. The LFC forum I go on is full of older reds and most on there aren't having him.

I don't want to come across like I'm always slagging Phillips off. He's done really well and I hope he gets a good move that basically sets him up for life, but if we're going to challenge City next season, he can't be playing

[Mel81x+]

3 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

Tbh it tends to be the LFC Twitter fam. The LFC forum I go on is full of older reds and most on there aren't having him.

I don't want to come across like I'm always slagging Phillips off. He's done really well and I hope he gets a good move that basically sets him up for life, but if we're going to challenge City next season, he can't be playing

I think MadLad bought up a good point the other day when he was talking about our options post the first three and out of the first three the only one who has stayed the most consistent is VVD. Then you've got Gomes and Matip who are terribly injury prone and then the list starts to get into a territory of choosing between Kabak, Nat, Rhys, etc and you have to ask yourself whether protecting the first three would happen if we kept Nat around to play the games where you dont want to risk VVD starting or giving Joe and Joel a break. 

[LFCMike]

32 minutes ago, Mel81x said:

I think MadLad bought up a good point the other day when he was talking about our options post the first three and out of the first three the only one who has stayed the most consistent is VVD. Then you've got Gomes and Matip who are terribly injury prone and then the list starts to get into a territory of choosing between Kabak, Nat, Rhys, etc and you have to ask yourself whether protecting the first three would happen if we kept Nat around to play the games where you dont want to risk VVD starting or giving Joe and Joel a break. 

Sign another CB and Matip can be fourth choice. That simple for me

[Dave]

From a Crystal Palace perspective I thought the line up, the substitutions made and the timing of the substitutions were poor today.

I'll always be grateful for the way Roy stabilised the club, but today was enough evidence for everybody's sake that now is the right time for everybody to part ways.

[Dr. Gonzo]

This image truly sums up how it feels to finish 3rd