Topic: Chasing the Title

[The G in Gerrard]

Anyone think Spurs have a chance?

No.

[Sharado]

Some of your heads have well and truly fell off.

A little nose around the top 5 or so threads on here today and you'd think we'd just lost 6-1 to stoke in the dog days of Rodgers.

[Dubred]

We could win the league & people in this thread will still moan.

Well really we should have won it by now with all the chances we've been given........

[jillc]

Maybe so mate, maybe I'm panicking.

Why are you panicking though? There is no reason for it, five points ahead before the start of the season we'd have taken it in a heartbeat before the season. Just because some games are tricky that's just the normal ebb and flow of football matches.

[Dubred]

F*ckin hell folks......we're 5 points clear........5 points clear!!  Whats not to be happy about?!

We dropped a couple of points, but arguably we racked up some lucky points in other games so I guess it evens itself out.

Massive difference this season is even when we're going through a lull, we're still most of the time getting something out of a game.  How is that not a massive improvement on where we were?

I'm absolutely chuffed so far this season and personally as a fan I've been waiting a long long time since I saw the last league trophy raised.

And ironically I've never been calmer in all the challenges we've made for it since then.

I dunno.....maybe something to do with that fantastic manager and team he's put together.

Full faith.

[baffled]

Felt like the crowd absolutely shat themselves last night in the bit I saw. Miserable night and performance probably didn't help on that front.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

The problem with some of you is that you cant formulate your own objective opinion, because you're too caught up with what the media is saying and what supporters of other clubs are saying [whether its on social media,forums or lot you know in your lives]

The lack of bottle? Really, do tell how a lack of bottle has us sitting 5 points ahead of City? For us to have such an advantage we would have had to taken advantage of previous slip ups by City. Oh wait, we did.


I was disappointed last night as much as the next person on here, but its like some of you just can't wait to say ''I TOLD YOU SO, WE CANT DO IT, ''

I said before the match the season isn't over, the only thing that has changed is that we've extended our lead by a point. Here's another shocker, we won't win every game until the rest of the season either. Neither will City

[Fitzy.]

Suck on that.

hmmm

[deFacto please, you bastards]

We lack experience on the pitch to achieve big things. I was hoping to sign some experienced midfielder or forward who knows how to deal with pressure and difficulties. Red Nose wasn't that stupid when he signed Van Persie, or Bayern when they signed Alonso. We need someone like that in order to fight for the title till the end.

So explain to me how signing Robin Van Persie helped United deal with pressure and difficulties? Is this the same Van Persie who in his Arsenal career had only won 1 FA Cup? [2005] and hadn't won a thing in ages before he signed for United? Is this the same United who had won the league in 2010 and 2011, lost the title in 2012 on GD in the last seconds of the game before they won it with Van Persie in 2013?


Explain how Alonso helped a Bayern Munich side deal with pressure and difficulties when they had won the double prior to his arrival and had won the treble  a year before that?

Clearly he was the catalyst in their success ......... 

[Sharado]

Looking at the upcoming fixtures it feels like we'll have a really clear picture of our chances by the end of feb. Two difficult aways to united and west ham, two fairly winnable homes against Bournemouth and Watford, with the champions league tie with Bayern popping it's head in too. We should have trent back soon-ish, Milner back from his ban in the meantime and hopefully Gomez by the latter half of the month, as well as Virgil back to 100% and Lovren/Matip both able to provide options that'll allow us to ideally see Fabinho and Henderson back in midfield.

So let's all get our heads on a swivel and move on from last night. When Liverpool win we all win. When Liverpool draw we don't need to panic. Up the reds.

[Fitzy.]

The irony of lads screaming 'bottlers' while simultaneously showing absolutely no stomach for the fight.

[Alisson Wonderland]

The term “bottle” in relation to football has to be one of the most annoying words thrown about. 

Losing to Man City away is not “bottling it”, drawing to Leicester at home is not “bottling it”.  They are just results that aren’t wins.  If we were 9 points clear with 3 games to go and ended up losing the league on goal difference, that might be seen as “bottling it” but a couple of games that we haven’t won in January does not mean we are “bottling it”.

[jillc]

The irony of lads screaming 'bottlers' while simultaneously showing absolutely no stomach for the fight.

Absolutely Fitzy, if this team is a bunch of bottlers what does it make some of the others? 

[DelTrotter]

The problem with some of you is that you cant formulate your own objective opinion, because you're too caught up with what the media is saying and what supporters of other clubs are saying [whether its on social media,forums or lot you know in your lives]

The lack of bottle? Really, do tell how a lack of bottle has us sitting 5 points ahead of City? For us to have such an advantage we would have had to taken advantage of previous slip ups by City. Oh wait, we did.


I was disappointed last night as much as the next person on here, but its like some of you just can't wait to say ''I TOLD YOU SO, WE CANT DO IT, ''

I said before the match the season isn't over, the only thing that has changed is that we've extended our lead by a point. Here's another shocker, we won't win every game until the rest of the season either. Neither will City

Spot on. Some have probably had their "bottlers" posts saved up since about September yet have had to wait all the wait till near February to use them as we've been so good. Not bad for chokers!

It was never sustainable to keep beating everyone outside the top 6 every single time, most of the time sure but every time nah, Leicester, Wolves, etc all have some good players and a fuck up isn't the end of the world.

And if we are bottlers then it doesn't say much about the teams trailing us including City who couldn't even beat Newcastle and their reserve midfield in the week.

Also, as much as I love mocking Spurs etc how annoying is it that every sportsman/woman/team who loses a game is now apparently a choker? Seems to be the buzz word everywhere now.

[El Lobo]

I'm just going to pick on you because you're the most recent post here saying this stuff, but this is bull. Napoli and Red Star away this season were worse than last night.

We need to stop with the "worst player ever to play for us / worst performance I've ever seen.." absolute horseshit that's getting spouted by fans.

We're 5 points clear and there are people losing their heads. We beat Cardiff 4-1 earlier this season, and there were people losing their heads because it was 2-1 at one stage.

As a fan base, we need to grow up. Because we've not won the title in 29 years isn't an excuse to go to a game and sit on your hands bitching and moaning at every missplaced pass.

I always remember on here a few years back, we lost to Fulham and there was a huge thread with people saying Benitez should go and that he doesn't understand the league. That was in October 2005. 5 months after winning the European Cup. We won our next 10 games in a row. We'd finish the season with 80+ points and the FA Cup.

We've won 13 of our last 15 games.

Sort your fucking lives out.

Word

[disgraced cake]

As I sat there last night throughout the 2nd half, all I could think about was what if this turns out to be one of those games you look back on in years to come, where you come away trophy-less and think, 'what if we'd have just beaten Leicester?' It'll sting especially with how poor Atkinson was. Forget the penalty claims, if Maguire walks Leicester might as well have walked off and been thanked for coming.

It was vital we reacted well to the City loss, and to be honest, we haven't really played exceptionally well at any point against Brighton, Palace or Leicester. In fact it was pretty vital that we took all 9 points regardless of how we performed. Unfortunately we only took 7, but end the month a point clearer than we did on the 3rd of January, not a bad consolation.

Little bit of pressure on now for us to beat West Ham, but if we play a level above how we have this month I think we'll be alright there.

[vicar]

Shame about last nights result I think a win would have hit City psychologically, so it really important to win the next two now.

Can't see Man City dropping points in the next three games. Hope they do but Arsenal will try and play and come unstuck. Everton are, well Everton and Chelsea are having a crisis at the moment. So we need to keep the points gap through this next set of fixtures.

[meady1981]

Man I'm going on a self-imposed social media Liverpool related hiatus until at least April.
Can't be doing reading the utter bed-wetting, negative, reactionary, whopper, turgid shite a good section of our internet fans spew out on a constant basis. We're 5 fucking points clear. We should have won last night, but so should have Man City.
Fucking lightweight twats all of them. So happy most of them are never anywhere near to being actually at the match (there's still a fair few). You don't deserve nice things and you should be made to stay in your mums basement with no wifi when we're lifting the trophy in May.

[Roger Federer]

I’m pissed off today as are most people and when people are pissed off they tend to say things they don’t mean, or exaggerate things they do mean. We also haven’t won 13 of our last 15 matches, if you’re talking all competitions then we’ve lost 2 and drawn 1 this month and if you’re talking league games then we drew at Arsenal, lost at City and drew last night, all of which were in the last 15 matches. We’re obviously having a great season; and now I’m splitting hairs, but as a fanbase we have every right to be sceptical as weve continually failed at the final hurdle.

So 12 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss (away to City) in fifteen games. 38 out of 45 points, 2,53 points/game, slightly below our current average of 2,54/game over the whole season. If we win 11, draw 2 and lose one more game in our final 14 games we'll finish on 96 points. City must remain unbeaten from here to match that and can only afford to drop points in one of their games.

I don't know what some expect, our points total at this point in the season has only been bettered by City last year and Chelsea in 05/06. We wont win every single game, so I don't know what exactly it is you are sceptical about?

[Charlie Adams fried egg]

Has the defence been good in the month of January?

Do you think "the defence" thinks Oh It's January, let's be shit?

Fucking hell, some of the rubbish in the last couple of pages, I really despair. Thank fuck the players and manager have a bit more about them than some of our "fans".

[jillc]

I do, the defence we’ve seen in past seasons hasn’t been anywhere near as good as this season and now it’s looking leaky again like past seasons.

Suck on that.

We have defensive issues at the moment but the players are on their way back now. Conceding three goals in one game is hardly the end of the world is it?

[Bobinhood]

Were doing fantastic. Like, as good as anyone ever has, more or less. Last nights draw i put down almost entirely to the pitch and have already moved past. In any season you will get peaks and valleys and if a home draw to a best of the rest side in leveler conditions to move a point further clear is as valley as it gets, long live the valleys.

Anaconda baby. Believe.

[Mighty_Red]

Just thought I'd add something positive - just read on the post match thread someone highlighting Clyne getting a clean sheet against Chelsea. Think about that - he helped beat one of our rivals and fitness permitting, will play against all of our rivals, including City at home. Hope he is already irreplaceable for them.

He won't be in their line up against us in 9 days time.

[ChaChaMooMoo]

Has the defence been good in the month of January?

Do you care about points or how many goals you leaked in?

[Ipcress]

The irony of lads screaming 'bottlers' while simultaneously showing absolutely no stomach for the fight.

Sums it up perfectly.

[Alan_X]

Maybe so mate, maybe I'm panicking.

You are mate.

Personally I'm not going to tell anyone what to feel this season. We have been fantastic in general as our record shows and doing the 'win even when we're playing poorly' thing that champions do.

But the difference between this season and any season I can think of is we are up against a Man City side that won the league with 100 points, backed by loads of cash, a lot of great players and Pep Guardiola as manager.

If any team can win every game between now and the end of the season it's City. They may not (as Tuesday night showed) but the assertions by some on here that 'City will definitely drop points' is based on nothing but 'the Law of Averages' (which doesn't actually mean anything) or 'it stands to reason'.

What we need more than anything else is for our defensive injuries to ease up. We have three of the best attackers in Europe as our front three and our midfield is fine as long as our best midfielders aren't having to play right back or centre back.

We brought in Fabinho and Keita at the start of the season and both have taken time to settle, Keita more than Fabinho. Bringing in a random midfielder, however good, at this stage of the season makes no sense.

[El Lobo]

Are we allowed to just openly laugh at people saying stuff like ‘I can’t see City dropping many points now’?

[meady1981]

Are we allowed to just openly laugh at people saying stuff like ‘I can’t see City dropping many points now’?

They're going to drop 9 in their next 3 games.

[vagabond]

If any team can win every game between now and the end of the season it's City. They may not (as Tuesday night showed) but the assertions by some on here that 'City will definitely drop points' is based on nothing but 'the Law of Averages' (which doesn't actually mean anything) or 'it stands to reason'.

I think there are better reasons than this. Their key midfield players in Fernandinho and D Silva are 33 now and one year less effective than they were last season, they seemed lethargic and tired in the last game coming into an incredibly busy period for them, they will inevitably have one eye on the cl and may even sacrifice performance and key players in the pl if they progress deep into that competition, and as is often the case with nearly every team they will struggle to replicate the strength of performances from last year (it's always harder to defend than to challenge). Of course they may win every game from now on out, but I think there are good reasons to think they will not.

[Bergersrightwingviews]

Big Virg is right. We all need to calm down a bit. If we had beaten Leicester to go 5 points clear we would be delighted. 5 points clear is 5 points clear.

I repeat, we are 5 points clear of possibly the best side to ever play football in this country. That is incredible frankly.

The crowd needs to get a grip on the nerves. The only thing we need to be concerned about is injuries really.

[Alan_X]

Which I think we will because we’re not playing well and the defence has reverted to type.

What the fuck does that even mean?

What 'type' are you referring to? Do you mean the players are 'reverting to type'? If you mean that we concede more goals with a makeshift defence that's not the back five that was so good at the start of the season then thank you for stating the fucking obvious.

If we were conceding shedloads of goals with Van Dijk and Gomez at centre back, Robertson on the left and Arnold on the right then I would understand the comment to some extent. Except that wouldn't be 'reverting to type' because they aren't the same back five that used to concede shed loads of goals.

[Ski]

Agree totally with VVD. The nerves were there too much in the stands last night and almost certainly filtered through to the players.

I know it's hard 'cos we all want to win so badly but we have to try and stay behind them and give them the backing they need vocally rather than passing on our nerves to them. Didn't help last night and won't help going forward.

Back them all the way and sing them home. They need us to stay with them more in games like last night than when we're winning comfortably (I know I'm stating the obvious, but you get the point).

[Jm55]

Hope the fanbase have a listen at Van Dijk's words today. If there was any doubt the players can feed off nervous energy, then his words show that they can.

The crowd needs to get a grip of themselves. The state of some of the faces in the crowd last night. Still can't get over that one guy with his hands clenched on his face as if a loved one was going into theatre for live saving surgery. It's the 24th game, there was half an hour left and you have fans like him in absolute despair. They need a good slap.

Neutrals like to mock Claude from Arsenal TV, but our regular crowd is full of moaning old gits like him. If Redmen TV had the same propaganda machine behind them like AFTV do, you can bet there would be a ton of celebrities to be made on our side of the crowd.

Feel like Klopp needs to send a statement out to our crowd because if it carries on like this, it's going to hinder us big time, and nobody can convince me otherwise. Countless cases of it applying at other clubs. Wenger and Arsenal over the last few years, you saw the anxiety in the crowd and it never helped them and they suffered in certain games because of it. Example close by with the bitter lot who never give any of their players any peace. Yes they're shite but it sure as hell effects them in countless number of game when their players need a helping hand.

Seriously just enjoy the ride and support the team. If we fuck, we fuck up. We'll try again next year, then the year after that, and the year after that. And if it ends up 40 years, so let it be. 29 years wah wah wah. Yes we haven't won it for an eternity but what can you do about the past, we were plainly never good enough. This is a season of it's own. The present. That's how you live life. In the now. The past is the past. It's an image in your mind. A moment that doesn't exist. Carrying our past and how long it's been is fucking no use to us. What did Klopp say in his first press conference? You can't carry your past in a backpack. Moaning gits obviously didn't take heed.

For the first time this season, we dropped points against one of the average or shite sides, and we hear crap from our own fans about it being awful and we bottled it. You can't just roll in for the whole season and beat every single shite side there is. What the hell is this? A console game. It's real life. What we were doing against the shite sides was absolutely otherworldly and unprecedented. Do any of these moaning gits on here realise this? Have a look at Juve and PSG who dominate their leagues like nothing else. Juve couldn't even get into November before dropping points against shite like Genoa. PSG the soft gits dropped their first shite points at Bordeaux. In November. City last season, the greatest PL side ever statistically couldn't even get out of August before dropping points to Everton. And here we were in January yet to drop any stupid points, and what the fuck do you know, it happened to be last night. And do you know what? It's going to happen again. It'll be Burnley at home when all the moaning gits will be feeding their shite onto the pitch again.

Get a grip you useless gits. Fuck me.

The thing is it’s not just the lack of a league title, is it?

Since 2005 we’ve been involved in;

3 European Cup Finals
2 FA Cup Finals
3 League Cup Finals
1 UEFA Cup Final
2 title races (not including this one)

And from that, we’ve won 3 trophies. Out of 9 finals we’ve won 3 and out of 2 seasons where we’ve had a genuine shot at the title we’ve won neither.

You can mitigate all of those defeats and have a valid point, but collectively it explains why people are anxious. It’s human nature. Obviously anyone screaming ‘bottlers’ at the players last is behaving like an idiot, but to be apprehensive because we’ve squandered the opportunity to go 7 points clear (from a winning position,) does not de facto make you an entitled internet fan or whatever.

With all due respect to Virgil, it’s his error that results in the equaliser last night. The reason the crowd were nervous is because the players we’re giving them reason to be, Leicester squandered a few opportunities to score before they eventually did. Was anyone nervous just after Mane scores and we looked like getting another? No.

I take your point and you’re not wrong but it’s not as simplistic as that for me.

[Sharado]

Of course they may win every game from now on out, but I think there are good reasons to think they will not.

It's in a sense backed up by evidence too - long cup runs traditionally damage league campaigns due to fatigue. They have a squad as good as any out there to try and mitigate against that, but like us there's a definitive drop down in quality between first and second choice. Imagine we drew them in the champions league for a moment - would you prefer them to start Aguero or Jesus? Or Mahrez ahead of De Bruyne? It's football, and mad things are possible and with respect to city they have absolutely shown they can pull a string of wins together but it seems unlikely to me given what's come before that they won't drop a single league point between now and May.

[spider-neil]

You could say that City bottled it much much worse than us - they were 1 nil up heading into the last 25 mins or so, and somehow lost the game.

We played almost as poor a game as them, but the difference was we were up against a far superior opponent, with the weather negating our home advantage.

For me the issue was the defence where we have leaked bad goals recently. We just need to get some continuity back and that will hopefully come when TAA and Gomez return.

The difference is they were away and we were at home.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

And from that, we’ve won 3 trophies. Out of 9 finals we’ve won 3 and out of 2 seasons where we’ve had a genuine shot at the title we’ve won neither.

You can mitigate all of those defeats and have a valid point, but collectively it explains why people are anxious. It’s human nature. Obviously anyone screaming ‘bottlers’ at the players last is behaving like an idiot, but to be apprehensive because we’ve squandered the opportunity to go 7 points clear (from a winning position,) does not de facto make you an entitled internet fan or whatever.

With all due respect to Virgil, it’s his error that results in the equaliser last night. The reason the crowd were nervous is because the players we’re giving them reason to be, Leicester squandered a few opportunities to score before they eventually did. Was anyone nervous just after Mane scores and we looked like getting another? No.

I take your point and you’re not wrong but it’s not as simplistic as that for me.

So the solution to that is to be anxious in the stands and create a negative and tense atmosphere during the match when the sole purpose of a supporter is to create a positive atmosphere and a hostile atmosphere for the opposition?

It's football. It doesn't need to be more complicated than that. We all know how close we've gotten in the past in various competitions. But if you're going be wetting your bed [not you specifically] at the thought of potentially failing, then you should in all honestly stop watching football all together

I know that the atmosphere yesterday would be absolute turdesque. People can't enjoy themselves and spur the lads on when it's not a European night or when it's not a big club that we're playing against. If you're that bloody anxious, don't go to the match. Stay home and watch it on the telly, you'd be  more useful there then in the stands wetting the bed [again not aimed at you specifically]

[Sharado]

The difference is they were away and we were at home.

They were away to a relegation threatened side, we were at home to the champions of a few years ago.

False equivalence bullshit.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

The difference is they were away and we were at home.

Ok so we were both home at Palace, they lost we won.

Them being away to Newcastle against that quality isn't an excuse.

They got the lead in 28 seconds.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

Sums it up perfectly.

Exactly. Why on earth are you going to the match if you're that scare that we will fail. Stay at home then

[jepovic]

Up until about a month ago, our defense gave us no reason to be nervous. Rock solid.
Lately it's been a bit shaky though, and yesterday we probably had more unprovoked errors than in any PL game this season. Yes, I get nervous when it's 1-1 and we leave Maguire completely alone at the back post. Not sure what is going on, but it's obvious that we have lost some stability.
It's easy to blame injuries, but Henderson was probably our best defender yesterday while the previously super solid Becker and Robinson were erratic.
Ah well, I think we'll get back on track soon.