Liverpool FC Forum

Disgraceful performance.. its nowhere near good enough. Everyone looks deflated, and City are toying with us.

Hard to watch this,. In the past a result and performance like this would trigger a clear out but we have FSG in charge so we'll probably get a lecture on sustainability instead.

Thought we'd do well but we've had our y fronts pulled down here again. We are too easy to score against

Should have snuck out of the dressing room at half time and ran home! Pathetic performance, can't believe I actually watched the whole thing.

We've needed proper investment since we won the league.. we've continued to make excuses and it's come to a point where its too late now. Barca let their side run to its death and we've done the same. No way can we fix this for next season.. we've left it so long that it's gonna take 2/3 of proper investment to rebuild. I'm absolutely fuming!!

To me the biggest change is our ability to put pressure on teams when they have the ball, 4 or 5 years ago it was actually one of our biggest weapons, teams struggled to get out of their own half and the amount of goals we scored from winning the ball high up the pitch was off the charts. This team is so easy to play against and to pass through it's frightening.

Problem is we are not pressing with intensity yet we are playing a high line, I thought those two came hand in hand.

Watched Salah walk or slow jog his way around the defenders, how we miss Mane and Firmino (the old Firmino) as those two won us so many balls up high that turned into counterattacks, now they just seem to be going through the motions with a half hearted press, better no press than a half hearted press.

At some point we need to adapt the way we play to the personnel available because this isn’t working. We have a worse away record than the worst team in the league, there is something wrong there that has nothing to do with the owners. Finally our winning mentality has become as strong as wet tissue paper, this from the former mentality monsters.

Can't believe how many times we were caught out with a deep ranging diagonal ball from one side of the field to the other, suddenly in the blink of an eye our defence was no where to be seen  .

Thought we might have learned from a few early threats of that nature but obviously we didn't.

F*ck it, today Man City were the better side in all departments. Just have to swallow this and move on.

We look so disjointed right now, some individual flair still being shown here and there but overall, team wise, we're just not at it.

woof woof ! » Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:28 pm wrote:Can't believe how many times we were caught out with a deep ranging diagonal ball from one side of the field to the other, suddenly in the blink of an eye our defence was no where to be seen  .

Thought we might have learned from a few early threats of that nature but obviously we didn't.

F*ck it, today Man City were the better side in all departments. Just have to swallow this and move on.

We look so disjointed right now, some individual flair still being shown here and there but overall, team wise, we're just not at it.

We can’t seem to move on though, we seem stuck.

No my personal opinion of Grealish is he is over rated and a mid table team player, he just runs with the ball until he clatters into someone and gets the foul or complains he should have got the foul, his final ball is generally *****. Today he was MOM purely due to his intensity, passion, commitment or whatever you want to call it, even to the point that his final ball became good towards the end. He was fired up and running all over the joint…. Didn’t see that from any of our players. Amazing what a little passion can do for an average player.

This a worrying thing to me because when the players stop giving 100% of everything they have, in a system like ours, we will be ripe for a beating as we were today. Until we start to see the same passion from the players that we used to, this is how it is going to be. Two seasons ago we went through a long blip mid season but we got it together and played better, no one ever questioned our desire or mentality though. This season has been bad from the start with a few good wins scattered around to paper over the cracks. It could still come good since teams are taking points off teams but without that intensity back we won’t make it. We have a worse away record than Southampton at the bottom, something is fundamentally wrong with that. We have five away matches left.

There'll be a few players at the training ground on Monday realising their time is over. Them or Klopp.

The gegen press works just fine when you have the players to do it but we don't anymore. That level has been dropping for at least 2 years till it went off a cliff back in August. We have always played the same way and the entire squad trains the same way so they know what is required on the pitch to be effective at it.

It comes down to quality at the end of the day and that is where we are really struggling. I personally can't see any world class players in there at the minute other than Ali. Washed up, poor or struggling is how I would describe most of them.

The pressure is building on Klopp now and if he isn't backed in the summer those players will have him gone by Halloween. What fans need to realise above anything else is that our main aim every year is 4th. We won't spend money to compete with the best so the fact that we have done is down to Klopp. He goes and we slip into mid table mediocrity but I guess it will take that for some to see just how good he is.  Could be a long time before we get someone of his quality again.

As we all know, this team has required serious investment over the past couple of seasons but now it is major. Everyone knows Klopp can build a world beating team with the right investment and was able to do that with world class purchasers of VVD and Alli but they were bought with the funds from selling Coutinho and we do not have a 100+m pound player to sell but anyone expecting FSG to fund Klopp to the 150m level is going to be disappointed. FSG have done a lot for the club but they cannot live off them saving us from H&G forever. If they are not going to fund a proper team investment then they should sell.

FSG have gone as far as they can- good job getting Klopp was their one and only great move.. the success was 100% down to Klopp.

If FSG don't sell they will get Klopp fired with results reflecting how weak our first XI and not fit for purpose re Gegenpressing .

Still, a good manager gets the best out of what he has. I cannot understand how we still hold a high line yet don’t press, especially against City. Surely parking the bus and hitting them on the break was a better tactic than keeping a high line without any meaningful press. It was too easy to play through us. Their first two goals were counter attacking goals, we were one nil up 

kazza wrote:Still, a good manager gets the best out of what he has. I cannot understand how we still hold a high line yet don’t press, especially against City. Surely parking the bus and hitting them on the break was a better tactic than keeping a high line without any meaningful press. It was too easy to play through us. Their first two goals were counter attacking goals, we were one nil up 

What Klopp has is what FSG have allowed him to have- a tired out MF who no longer have the legs to press effectively anywhere near what is required- certainly not on a regular basis. The other options in MF are too young and too lightweight to play heavy metal football.

In terms of trying to change tactics, that is something for the medium to long term . Trying to change a mindset and methodology of 7 years in a week or two isn't likely to work any better. Again this catch 22 is down to FSG's non interest in being perennial winners and rather looking at the top 4 every year as their gravy train.

The quicker they sell up and we get owners with real ambition and funds the better.