Liverpool FC Forum

Hi All

What a crazy position we find ourselves in this year. Some wonderful European nights and a CL final to look forward to.

However, we have totally run out of steam/interest in the PL. It's still possible that we could fail to qualify for the CL next season.

I personally don't see it happening.  We will either get the win or Chelsea will slip up and it won't matter anyways.

Just playing Devil's advocate here though... If the unthinkable happened, would you consider the season a success or a massive failure?

Small margins in football

We've all been encouraged by our progress in the CL and until very recently we've looked very comfortable in terms of a top four finish

However, if we are unable to secure Champions League football for next term then this season has to be viewed as a failure. 

Would be a failure if we missed out on CL football next season but chances of that happening are very remote. Fully expect us to dish out a hiding to Brighton on Sunday with them safe and having nothing to play for.

I think there's failure and there's failure, if we miss out on CL football it won't be because we have performed badly over the course of the season, if anything it will be because we have massively overachieved, let's face it the only reason we haven't already secured a top 4 place is because our run in the CL has stretched our squad to breaking point.
If we would have got knocked out early in the CL i genuinely believe we'd be 2nd in the league now.
Look at the squads the likes of City and PSG have got, how much money did PSG fork out on Neymar, Mbappe etc? Look at how much money City have spent not just this year but over the last decade in an effort to try and get to a CL final.
Jurgen has squeezed everything that he possibly could out of this squad, he has driven them to the point of collapse and led them to the biggest game in club football.
If we miss out on CL football yes I suppose you could call it failure just like you could call the Spartans who defended the pass at Thermopylae failures or the defenders of the Alamo failures. It will be that type of failure.

Complacency is a massive mistake, regardless of how tired the players are now, we could still finish fifth and not win any silverware.

We still have to win the last two games, Brighton will be tricky if we look tired again, and it will require a mammoth effort to topple Madrid to lift the European Cup.

Is losing in the final a sign if achievement!?? I'm not so sure. Not many people remember beaten finalists. We remember Istanbul, but prefer to forget Athens in 2007 me thinks.

Still a bit of work to do..

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Tue May 08, 2018 10:26 am wrote:I think there's failure and there's failure, if we miss out on CL football it won't be because we have performed badly over the course of the season, if anything it will be because we have massively overachieved, let's face it the only reason we haven't already secured a top 4 place is because our run in the CL has stretched our squad to breaking point.
If we would have got knocked out early in the CL i genuinely believe we'd be 2nd in the league now.
Look at the squads the likes of City and PSG have got, how much money did PSG fork out on Neymar, Mbappe etc? Look at how much money City have spent not just this year but over the last decade in an effort to try and get to a CL final.
Jurgen has squeezed everything that he possibly could out of this squad, he has driven them to the point of collapse and led them to the biggest game in club football.
If we miss out on CL football yes I suppose you could call it failure just like you could call the Spartans who defended the pass at Thermopylae failures or the defenders of the Alamo failures. It will be that type of failure.

Hmm...I don't agree for a simple reason ,we could have a done a much better job at team building/signing/transfer then we have done this year...Actually the current success is in sharp contrast to the mediocrity of the team building done by Klopp and the club management...It's not time to summarize the season yet however i still think we were miserable in the signings we made ,those we released and other decisions..All of those are currently shadowed by the amazing journey we made so far but they need to be considered at the end.

only me » Tue May 08, 2018 11:03 am wrote:

ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Tue May 08, 2018 10:26 am wrote:I think there's failure and there's failure, if we miss out on CL football it won't be because we have performed badly over the course of the season, if anything it will be because we have massively overachieved, let's face it the only reason we haven't already secured a top 4 place is because our run in the CL has stretched our squad to breaking point.
If we would have got knocked out early in the CL i genuinely believe we'd be 2nd in the league now.
Look at the squads the likes of City and PSG have got, how much money did PSG fork out on Neymar, Mbappe etc? Look at how much money City have spent not just this year but over the last decade in an effort to try and get to a CL final.
Jurgen has squeezed everything that he possibly could out of this squad, he has driven them to the point of collapse and led them to the biggest game in club football.
If we miss out on CL football yes I suppose you could call it failure just like you could call the Spartans who defended the pass at Thermopylae failures or the defenders of the Alamo failures. It will be that type of failure.

Hmm...I don't agree for a simple reason ,we could have a done a much better job at team building/signing/transfer then we have done this year...Actually the current success is in sharp contrast to the mediocrity of the team building done by Klopp and the club management...It's not time to summarize the season yet however i still think we were miserable in the signings we made ,those we released and other decisions..All of those are currently shadowed by the amazing journey we made so far but they need to be considered at the end.

Oh I agree on that score, selling Coutinho halfway through the season left us incredibly short up front, we've seen a steep drop off in quality anytime Ings or Solanke have been involved.
Jurgen has had no other choice really but to run our front 3 into the ground.

Finishing in 4th by the skin of our teeth wouldn't be what I would call success. The club will deem it so because its probably all we set out to do. 2nd place was there for us imo and we had a couple of chances to take it as well. Had we taken it then by all accounts this season would have been a massive success.

The Bonus I suppose is that we are in a CL final which is some achievement considering the squad we have. I still don't know if I would call it success but certainly an improvement in terms of last season that we are able to compete on two fronts.

Pretty simple:

1. Win the CL and finish top 4 (or Win the CL and finish 5th) - Yay!

2. Lose the CL and finish top 4 - Meh...

3. Lose the CL and finish 5th - Booo!

Missing out on CL would be failure 100% it will be like taking a few steps backwards regardless of reaching the champions league final.

What good would it be being runners up when the following season we won't even be in the competition.

However im confident we will get the job done vs Brighton. Similar scenario we are in when we faced Boro last game of the season.

redshade » Tue May 08, 2018 9:55 pm wrote:Missing out on CL would be failure 100% it will be like taking a few steps backwards regardless of reaching the champions league final.

What good would it be being runners up when the following season we won't even be in the competition.

However im confident we will get the job done vs Brighton. Similar scenario we are in when we faced Boro last game of the season.

They (the players) better get their heads out of their *****, I tell you that much. 1 week period between the last game and vs Brighton, they shouldn't have any excuses of being tired as professional footballers...

We have 2 cup finals now! No guts no glory!

If we don't get top four and don't win the CL then I would regard the season as a failure. We have made some great purchases but we have also sold a key player. Our strength in depth is very near an all time low. Klopp has also made some awful tactical decisions during the season that have cost us points.Losing his assistant for whatever reason isn't good and appears to have affected us given our recent run of rubbish results.

Getting to the final of the CL demonstrates progress IMO. We've not been this lethal in Europe since Rafa was here so on that basis alone this season has been a success. We are also playing some of the most attractive football in Europe and it's part of the reason we were able to lure players like Van Dijk and Naby Keita here.

That said, failure to finish in the top 4 would be hugely disappointing, especially considering we were at one point over 10 points clear of Chelsea. Perhaps we could have hung onto Grujic, or bought another player or 2 in the summer/jan to protect us from injuries.

Whatever happens we've improved massively this season.

tubby » Thu May 10, 2018 3:46 pm wrote:Getting to the final of the CL demonstrates progress IMO. We've not been this lethal in Europe since Rafa was here so on that basis alone this season has been a success. We are also playing some of the most attractive football in Europe and it's part of the reason we were able to lure players like Van Dijk and Naby Keita here.

That said, failure to finish in the top 4 would be hugely disappointing, especially considering we were at one point over 10 points clear of Chelsea. Perhaps we could have hung onto Grujic, or bought another player or 2 in the summer/jan to protect us from injuries.

Whatever happens we've improved massively this season.

You've nailed it - PROGRESS.  Even if we lose the CL final and finish 4th, it'll be progress in my eyes.

It's been years since we've dined at Europe's top table and Klopp is the man who's responsible for it. I'm really excited about where he'll take us next 

He needs to win something , its no good dining at the top table unless we bring a cup from it, even if we have to steal it 

Cup finals are there to be won and we will