Liverpool FC Forum

[7_Kewell]

I've not seen us this bad since the Rodger's era. And klopp looks very subdued, compared to his usual and buoyant self.

It really feels like something is off behind the scenes.

[kazza]

ManUre winning, Newcastle thrashing West Ham, I think the writing is on the wall and this team will probably not catch up. The players will know this and will inevitably not give 100% (which they haven’t been anyway) and it will probably just get worse. Worried about how things are shaping up and I think there will be big ramifications. End of a dynasty and we were not clever enough to evolve, so far anyway.

[redshade]

We just have to accept that there will be no Europe next season, unless we stay in a Europa place.

It is too many points to overturn things now. We won't go on a run and won't have Alli scoring a last min winner

[red till i die!!]

We will be in Europe next year as we aren't going to finish 8th. If we can't get our act together it will be that conference league which will be a nightmare. All those long trips to the ar$e hole of nowhere playing in poor stadiums as well.

After Arsenal its Leeds A, Forest H, West Ham A, Spurs H,  Fulham H, Brentford H,  Leicester A,  Villa H and Southampton A.

That's a good run of winnable games with 6 at home and 3 away.  I concede that CL is gone but we are going to take a good run of points from those games.

[red till i die!!]

I've not seen us this bad since the Rodger's era. And klopp looks very subdued, compared to his usual and buoyant self.

It really feels like something is off behind the scenes.

It feels exactly like Rodgers last season.  Didn't start the next one brightly either.

Whatever is going on with the players needs sorting out. They are the only ones who can get us out of this mess. Have a team day out, go golfing, Archery, Zip lining or just tug each other off. I couldn't care how they do it but they need to raise it up.

[Penguins]

I don't like that fact that the team overall is OLD and on massive wages. A team that must run within it's means can't behave like the club has. You ALWAYS sell players when they approach 30, both to to sell high and not lose all the value AND to not give them the retirement. Salah is the worst example. Club has little money, he has very little value anymore, almost unsellable with an insane wage and he will just get worse and worse.
Terribly run club with no worklable plan.

[Reg]

Daily Telegraph

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says his club are trying to escape a “whirlwind” which has drained the life out of their season as they seek to reverse the dreadful form which has left them eighth in the Premier League.

A 23-point lead over Arsenal at the end of last season has turned into a 29-point deficit before the teams meet on Sunday, with Klopp admitting his side are caught in a spiral of underperformance.

“You get in this whirlwind and it sucks you in that direction.  And all of a sudden it's like, ‘wow, where are we?’” said Klopp.

“I am not a worse manager than last year, definitely not. It doesn’t mean the outcome is good enough, not at all. But I'm not worse – and the players are not worse players. They just play worse. That's definitely the case.”

Arsenal’s transformation over 12 months proves missing out on Champions League football need not be a calamity. Klopp will be looking for similar improvement when he adds new signings this summer. 

He said: “We cannot make 24 changes and say ‘here we go'. Not even 10 [changes], but it is just that we have to make changes – smart changes – and then we go again. We have other moments to think about what will happen next year, but this is not the moment.

“But yes, with smart recruitment we will improve – definitely. That is the plan.”

Analysis: When you walk through a storm... how Liverpool were ‘sucked into a whirlwind’ and how they can get out
Poor planning after narrow failure of 2022 quadruple bid
The grey clouds began to descend on the opening day of the Premier League season when Liverpool were outrun and outplayed in a 2-2 away draw with newly promoted Fulham. A week after a high-class win over Manchester City in the Community Shield, Klopp’s side looked like they were tanked at the end of an arduous campaign, poorly conditioned for a fresh assault on four competitions.

Liverpool's Joel Matip reacts after conceding their second goal at Fulham – here’s how they get out of it
Joel Matip reacts as Liverpool's season gets off to a difficult start at Fulham - Liverpool are in the eye of a storm CREDIT: Reuters/Peter Cziborra
It is impossible to avoid the conclusion there was a significant miscalculation regarding how much the previous 63-game campaign took out of the players, and a suspicion that pre-season preparations for a unique campaign involving a mid-season World Cup compromised general fitness levels. The core of Klopp’s team have been a yard off the pace for eight months, most notably away from home, where they have been unable to feed off the kinetic energy of a partisan home crowd.

The loss of vigour exposed Liverpool to accusations they erred in failing to revamp their ageing midfield, the tried-and-trusted central three of Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Thiago Alcantara unable to maintain the standards which had convinced Klopp he could wait another season to reinforce his central zone.

End of stellar run when new signings hit the ground running
After the summer of 2016, Liverpool embarked on an extraordinary sequence in which every major signing who was not called Naby Keita instantly looked sensational. The most recent recruits must be filed under the category ‘works in progress’. Darwin Nunez, Fabio Carvalho and Cody Gakpo have earned a free pass for their inconsistency as they learn the ropes in a struggling team. There have been enough glimpses – certainly in the case of Nunez and Gakpo – to suggest they will prove their long-term value.

The latest additions are not the problem. Far more was needed from the back-up players who have not been so exerted for the last four years and needed to emerge from the shadows. Instead, the likes of Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain look like they have been going through the motions to see out fat contracts. If they had contributed more, the vacuum in midfield would not have been so obvious.

The drop in level between left back Kostas Tsimikas and Andrew Robertson is also too vast, while the deputies for Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk have also been inconsistent.  Injuries to Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota meant the sale of Sadio Mane had a bigger impact than initially imagined as Nunez and then Gakpo absorbed the unenviable task of instantly replacing the irreplaceable. Thus, rather than the anticipated year of steady Anfield evolution, this has been a season of torrid transition.

How will Klopp lead the club back towards a golden sky?
Klopp has recognised the underperformance, admitted last summer’s recruitment errors and, far from being fatigued by the challenge, is emotionally invested in the rebuild.

His prime summer targets are no secret and if he can use his famed motivational powers to convince Jude Bellingham and Mason Mount they are the means by which to revive Klopp’s ‘gegenpressing’ it would lift the mood at Anfield in the same way as Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko at Arsenal last summer. 

Nunez and Gakpo should be fully acclimatised to Klopp’s methods and the weekly demands of English football by the start of next season, and Liverpool also possess exciting youngsters such as Harvey Elliott, who have grown up in front of some of the most demanding spectators in the world. Such experiences should be invaluable in making the next steps.

If the last pre-season saw a weary team dusting itself down and trying to find the fuel to go again, Klopp’s mood and the conditioning work in the summer of 2023 will be focused entirely on reinvigoration.

“There will be a new start naturally because it's a new season,” he said. “This club has a chance to go through this in a classy way.”

[Reg]

From The Athletic

For all the comparisons to Klopp’s previous two managerial stints at Mainz and Dortmund, which both lasted seven years and ended on a disappointing note, maybe a comparison to a fellow Premier League club is also valid.

Arsene Wenger took charge of Arsenal in 1996-97 and his side peaked roughly seven years in, with the ‘Invincibles’ of 2003-04. But then there was a steady decline: Arsenal won the FA Cup the next season and reached the Champions League final in 2006, but their league placings, a better measure of their true level, never recovered. Wenger was still an inspirational figure but was also steadily less of an asset to the club.

But the Frenchman had become so powerful at Arsenal that, for a period, it was considered sacrilegious to even question his position. It just wasn’t a debate. Later on, there was a bitter divide between supporters who were ‘Wenger In’ and ‘Wenger Out’ and eventually almost everyone accepted it was time to go.

Wenger’s popularity at Arsenal slowly decreased over a number of years
But there was also a spell when probably nobody felt they had the right to question Wenger’s position. And maybe the only person who has the authority to question Klopp’s position is Klopp himself.

[kazza]

Fact is Arsenal completely fell off the map when they got rid of Wenger, only now after years do they look decent again. Losing a great manager like Klopp will have an effect on the team for years, it won’t be painless.

We could easily have broken that seven year cycle had the team been smarter in recruitment.

[red till i die!!]

Smart recruitment is the key    It's always been smart recruitment since they took over but yet here we are!! Letting so many leave for free was also a top move and really clever not to mention smart!!

The club has no money as shown in the accounts so will more than likely try to achieve smarter recruitment this summer. That will mean more wheeling and dealing like get one name in and see what other clubs will accept what we want to give them over several years.

[7_Kewell]

Jota isn't Mane.

Nunez isn't Bobby.

Jones isn't Henderson.

Fabinho isn't Fabinho.

Our key players aren't being replaced with equal quality and some of our key players are past their best. That's why we are so poor.

Mane would not have missed that 1 on 1 Nunez had. And that's our problem.

[Doeboy]

Mane would not have missed that 1 on 1 Nunez had. And that's our problem.

Must admit, I was thinking the same thing when Nunez missed that chance. Mane in those situations always seemed so electric and fluid and more often than not put the ball in the back of the net.

With Nunez, when he is in on goal in those wider positions, something doesn't look quite right in terms of his body position/coordination. Looks very clunky and as though he needs an extra second or two to sort his positioning and feet out and when he doesn't get that, often snatches at things. It's happened too many times this season for it just to be unlucky and think its clearly a weakness of his.

Still young and has time to improve but get the feeling he is someone who is best when everything is done instinctively and he doesn't have time to think about things.

[kazza]

Mane would not have missed that 1 on 1 Nunez had. And that's our problem.

Must admit, I was thinking the same thing when Nunez missed that chance. Mane in those situations always seemed so electric and fluid and more often than not put the ball in the back of the net.

With Nunez, when he is in on goal in those wider positions, something doesn't look quite right in terms of his body position/coordination. Looks very clunky and as though he needs an extra second or two to sort his positioning and feet out and when he doesn't get that, often snatches at things. It's happened too many times this season for it just to be unlucky and think its clearly a weakness of his.

Still young and has time to improve but get the feeling he is someone who is best when everything is done instinctively and he doesn't have time to think about things.

This

He is instinctive and fluffs a lot of his one on ones but has a lot going for him. No doubt with time he will learn to control his emotion and slow time down. Remember we are comparing Mane at 28 and Nunez at 23, that 5 years is huge especially for a player unused to the hustle, bustle and speed of the PL.

[woof woof !]

He is instinctive and fluffs a lot of his one on ones but has a lot going for him. No doubt with time he will learn to control his emotion and slow time down. Remember we are comparing Mane at 28 and Nunez at 23, that 5 years is huge especially for a player unused to the hustle, bustle and speed of the PL.

He's been with us for a year now, how long will it take before he gets used to the "hustle and bustle" of the premier league ?
He's got a lot going for him, he's a big unit with pace and determination. Unfortunately his finishing v opportunities presented is abysmal.
Sorry lads, had my doubts when we signed him but I still just don't see a fella with any clinical finishing here.
He might do better if we just stick him in the middle of our front three ?
We live in hope .

[Reg]

All 20 EPL Clubs Ranked By Net Transfer Spend Across Last Five Seasons: Man Utd Just €79m Behind Chelsea

https://www.si.com/fannation/soccer/fut ... -5-seasons