Topic: Chasing the Title

[deFacto please, you bastards]

One game at a time, is all we can do.And the biggest game of them all this season, in a couple of days another test for the lads

[Floydy]

Just a win in the next game please that will do nicely, if we don't manage to pick up any points then we dust ourselves off and go again.  It's in our hands good place to be but means nothing at this stage of the season.

[meady1981]

‘We’ll fight to the end,
We’ll fight to the end,
You scouse bastards,
We’ll fight to the end’


They’ve turned into Chelsea now apparently.

[Red Beret]

To be fair, after we beat them at home in 13/14 they went on a 6 game winning run to wrap up the league.

Yeah, I should clarify: I think City have gone a bit soft, especially after last season.  They've become a bit complacent and taking results for granted.

Remember all those times we complain about mediocre teams rolling over for City and then pulling worldies against us?  When you become used to fighting for every point, as we have, it toughens you up.  Of course we can still fluff it up, but right now the attitude of this team is just so absolutely spot on.  They just don't seem capable of that kind of collapse because every game we play with the same grit and resilience.

[PaulF]

I don't think it matters if we have had a ten point lead or whatever before. Remember we are up against a team that broke the points record last season . We could go unbeaten and still finish second.  Which will make winning it even sweeter yet!

[jepovic]

Yep, it's done if we win, they'd need to go at a crazy 95+ point pace and we'd need to drop to like top 4/5 pace for any chance of them catching us and that's just not going to happen.

Just cant imagine us having it so easy though. Us with a history of mental finals and games strolling to a title a zillion years after we last won one. No chance, we'll be 2-0 down at half time v Wolves on the final day when we need to win, eventually win 3-2 with Coady gifting us a last minute penalty and the world will fume 

Injuries could definitely hurt us enough to allow them to catch up.
If december has taught us anything, its that things can go south very quickly even for a seemingly invincible team. Confidence is a precious thing.

[Fordy]

To be fair, after we beat them at home in 13/14 they went on a 6 game winning run to wrap up the league.

True but they wasn't equipped to win the CL then.

They've every chance like us and about 6 others that can win the CL this season.

[norecat]

I think psychologically drawing or preferably winning at The Etihad would be massive for us. I see it as our last truly tricky hurdle. Remember winning the league in 1990. Glenn Hysen was my favourite player. Never thought we would go so long without winning the league. This is probably as good a chance as we will ever have. Really hope we do it. It shows the importance of a manager being  a good judge of player. Can't think of a bad buy Klopp has made. He's only moved on Klavan. Thursday night is huge. Exciting times to be a Liverpool fan!

[CN23]

The line I've heard most is "We'll never hear the end of it if Liverpool win the league" and they're right, they won't. Newcastle fans came to Anfield last week and sang about Gerrard's slip. Newcastle! A club who haven't won the league title since 1926. They know we're not going to shut up about it because they know they've spent 29 years ripping the piss out of us. Clubs who don't have anything to shout about telling us we live off our history, still singing songs 4 years on about our last title challenge. They're freaking out now because they think it's going to catch up with them and IF we do win the league it really, really will.

...and despite not having won it for 29 years, we only need 3 titles to be record winners again. This is what they all fear most, our bad spell is over and another good one starts and we are off running the gap bigger and bigger...

[Stussy]

...and despite not having won it for 29 years, we only need 3 titles to be record winners again. This is what they all fear most, our bad spell is over and another good one starts and we are off running the gap bigger and bigger...

that's the spirit

[spider-neil]

I think psychologically drawing or preferably winning at The Etihad would be massive for us. I see it as our last truly tricky hurdle. Remember winning the league in 1990. Glenn Hysen was my favourite player. Never thought we would go so long without winning the league. This is probably as good a chance as we will ever have. Really hope we do it. It shows the importance of a manager being  a good judge of player. Can't think of a bad buy Klopp has made. He's only moved on Klavan. Thursday night is huge. Exciting times to be a Liverpool fan!

To be fair, Klavan wanted more game time. I think he'd still be here otherwise.

[demain]

Other way around. Klopp does traditional periodization, getting players fit for the first part and using rotation to make it last in the second half. This comes from having the winter break in Germany. I think there might have been some tweaks this season though.

Did Brendan pursue the inverse i.e. the players were fitter for the second half of the season ? I remember that being the case in both 12-13 and 13-14.

[redk84]

Have heard a few shouts about City being weak mentally etc. (I may even have said it in the past?  )

But I don't know....they fought back to win on the last day against United, fought back in 13/14 to win it after losing against us....and many of those players are still there so they have it within them.

Granted, in some one-off games in CL they crumbled against us, but even last season when they got torn apart at Anfield they came back strong in the league. In the past couple of weeks though, losing three times.....especially to Crystal Palace at home and Leicester away....is the first time ive seen them properly rocked when you wouldn't think they would be. Was it enough damage done?

We will do our thing, one game at a time....but I wouldn't say they are not capable of putting a lot of wins in a row to pressure our lead right to the end, especially if they beat us on Thursday night.
If they lose however....

[Mighty_Red]

Did Brendan pursue the inverse i.e. the players were fitter for the second half of the season ? I remember that being the case in both 12-13 and 13-14.

He did, which is usually the right way to go. Klopp was able to do it differently in Germany because the schedule is that little bit less gruelling than here and the winter break sorts out most issues. He has made adjustments to his approach every season (remember the rotation for the fab 4 last December?) leading to the slightly reserved "tyre management mode" style we've seen in many matches this season.

It's actually amazing how full throttle we have been in December considering the number of games we have had - it's almost as if we planned to do this in the toughest period of the year 

I'm guessing one more full throttle performance then we will dial back a bit again for the next 5 weeks to recover.

[Fluke]

We are in an amazing position, no matter what happens on Thursday, but those saying a win and it's all over I think are going too far.  City were 8 points behind in April and still managed to come back and win it.  We will be 2 games in to a whole half of a season.

Optimism is great, so if that's your jam go for it.  But it'll be a bit early for me to start printing champions banners...

[Red Beret]

Have heard a few shouts about City being weak mentally etc. (I may even have said it in the past?  )

But I don't know....they fought back to win on the last day against United, fought back in 13/14 to win it after losing against us....and many of those players are still there so they have it within them.

Granted, in some one-off games in CL they crumbled against us, but even last season when they got torn apart at Anfield they came back strong in the league. In the past couple of weeks though, losing three times.....especially to Crystal Palace at home and Leicester away....is the first time ive seen them properly rocked when you wouldn't think they would be. Was it enough damage done?

We will do our thing, one game at a time....but I wouldn't say they are not capable of putting a lot of wins in a row to pressure our lead right to the end, especially if they beat us on Thursday night.
If they lose however....

I know what you mean.  My answer is when they beat United to the title they were a lot leaner and hungrier for the success; United were a bit jaded.  Now it's City who have become a bit jaded - last season may in retrospect have been the worst thing for them because too many teams just rolled over and didn't offer them a fight.

I think they can rediscover that fighting form; the question is whether they will in time?  In 13/14 we found incredible form but the damage had already been done really; in the end we pushed ourselves to breaking point and our quality was just lacking.  City certainly have the quality, but they'll be counting on us to slip up.  If we don't then that's it, but hell it could be a real battle between us and them next season.

*

But that's thinking too far ahead.  If we want to think about what it might take for us to win the title this season, the closest analogy I can see is 87-88.  In a 40 game season we were W26 D12 L2.  That included a 29 game unbeaten run, finishing 20 points above 4th placed Everton and 9 points above 2nd place Man United.

So do the math - 18 games remaining and we need to win at LEAST 9 and go the whole season unbeaten to get 90 points, our 87-88 total.  In all honest though, I'd say we need 12 wins from our last 18 games.

[Rush 82]

We are in an amazing position, no matter what happens on Thursday, but those saying a win and it's all over I think are going too far.  City were 8 points behind in April and still managed to come back and win it.  We will be 2 games in to a whole half of a season.

Optimism is great, so if that's your jam go for it.  But it'll be a bit early for me to start printing champions banners...

Is correct.
No race is won at the halfway mark
Heed the boss

[redk84]

I know what you mean.  My answer is when they beat United to the title they were a lot leaner and hungrier for the success; United were a bit jaded.  Now it's City who have become a bit jaded - last season may in retrospect have been the worst thing for them because too many teams just rolled over and didn't offer them a fight.

I think they can rediscover that fighting form; the question is whether they will in time?  In 13/14 we found incredible form but the damage had already been done really; in the end we pushed ourselves to breaking point and our quality was just lacking.  City certainly have the quality, but they'll be counting on us to slip up.

By god I hope you're right!

We agree they have the quality, I am a little less-sure that they lack the fight for it though. Atleast not at the moment, given there are a fair few amount of games to go...as you say they will be counting on us to drop points so hopefully yes, the damage is done and we maintain a form that is good enough to take the title away from any challenger

[the_red_pill]

To be fair, Klavan wanted more game time. I think he'd still be here otherwise.

Wow! I completely forgot about Klavan!
I didn't even have time to think about him.

Anyway, I wish him good luck, the big fella. Did a job when he was asked to, but we have everything we need now.

[spider-neil]

City were 8 points behind in April and still managed to come back and win it.

You are right, City still wouldn't be out of it even was a huge deficit to make up. But, the big difference when City was 8 points off United is they had a game with United which they won. After our game, they won't have the opportunity to directly influence our games as we would have played them twice.
Whatever happens on Thursday there is still a long way to go.

[demain]

He did, which is usually the right way to go. Klopp was able to do it differently in Germany because the schedule is that little bit less gruelling than here and the winter break sorts out most issues. He has made adjustments to his approach every season (remember the rotation for the fab 4 last December?) leading to the slightly reserved "tyre management mode" style we've seen in many matches this season.

It's actually amazing how full throttle we have been in December considering the number of games we have had - it's almost as if we planned to do this in the toughest period of the year 

I'm guessing one more full throttle performance then we will dial back a bit again for the next 5 weeks to recover.

It certainly is staggering given that City and Spurs are looking more and more knackered. I agree with you that we haven't fallen upon this golden formula by sheer luck, it's certainly by design. Of course, it's become rather blasé to state this but the main difference between previous years and this season is that the team no longer have to worry about hijinks in the defence cancelling out the good work by the forward line. We can afford to ease through games after scoring a goal or two.

[Red Beret]

By god I hope you're right!

We agree they have the quality, I am a little less-sure that they lack the fight for it though. Atleast not at the moment, given there are a fair few amount of games to go...as you say they will be counting on us to drop points so hopefully yes, the damage is done and we maintain a form that is good enough to take the title away from any challenger

City are more than capable of going on a run. From a tactical perspective they can either play for the draw and hope we slip up, or play for the win, which could play into our hands?

Regardless of the result against us, they could go on a 10 game winning streak, in which case it's up to us not to crack.

That said, a loss to us would make it four defeats in six games for them. That would devastate team morale.

[Paul1611]

This City are arguably the best team in the premiership era, no way this is over, even if we win.

[the_red_pill]

From the Beeb:

As if all that wasn't enough, Liverpool became the first team to win all seven Premier League games in December - notoriously a particularly difficult month given fixture congestion. Manchester City, who achieved a record tally of 100 points last season, came close in 2017-18 but after six straight victories drew with Crystal Palace on New Year's Eve.

[Djimi Smicer34]

This City are arguably the best team in the premiership era, no way this is over, even if we win.

They are, but what does that say about this Liverpool team?

How many points were we behind them on New Year's Eve last year? 

[DelTrotter]

This City are arguably the best team in the premiership era, no way this is over, even if we win.

Nah, it's over if we win. They'd need to play the rest of the season at around 100 point pace and we'd need to drop to around 4th-5th place pace for them to overhaul us, that's just not happening.

Infact, if we win I expect we'll extend even further away, they'll just quit on the season and go for the CL.

[the_red_pill]

This City are arguably the best team in the premiership era, no way this is over, even if we win.

While they may be the "best team in the premiership era", let's not forget that over the last 38 games, we're level with them on points at 88, with them edging it on a 2-goal GD.

We're on a par with them and we're not even as strong as them individually. Now that, is what I call the best team in the premiership era.

[gjr1]

Where is this chasing pack this thread speaks of?

Let’s look at the evidence after Thursday

[harleydanger]

A win for us means they need a 4 result swing over the next half a season. That's big in the context of this season.

[harleydanger]

While they may be the "best team in the premiership era", let's not forget that over the last 38 games, we're level with them on points at 88, with them edging it on a 2-goal GD.

We're on a par with them and we're not even as strong as them individually. Now that, is what I call the best team in the premiership era.

I'd argue we have a better back 5 individually, it's pretty even up front and their midfield is better, but ours seems to be deeper.

[LFCsupporter]

Nah, it's over if we win.

No it isn't. It's over when it's mathematically impossible for them to catch up.

[the_red_pill]

I'd argue we have a better back 5 individually, it's pretty even up front and their midfield is better, but ours seems to be deeper.

Yeah what I mean is overall. We don't have the quality of a Fernandinho or Silva, although we have players who can come close.
Also in reserve, we're not as strong as them individually. Take Jesus for example- and that's only 1.

At the back, we piss all over them, but that's it.

[Lotus Eater]

This is interesting because with my admittedly unlearned eyes, especially at the game, I always felt the team was particularly ‘leggy’ in the opening months of this season... in fact the zip and fizz in our play has only returned in recent weeks. The apparent slowness and legginess didn’t effect results but it was certainly tangible. Perhaps this was tactical or maybe conditioning?

It's a fair point.
I feel maybe that derby win was the turning point; that injection of belief that helped our performances afterwards (winning every league game & beating Napoli)

[Tony19:6]

This City are arguably the best team in the premiership era, no way this is over, even if we win.

I think the point is we'd have to lose 3 and draw 1 / or draw 5 more than City in the last 17 games (also assuming they overtake our GD).

I don't see that happening - hopefully!

[deFacto please, you bastards]

Every game is vital and important, but we've played most of the tough away fixtures already in this first part of the season. We have City[A],Everton[A],United[A], left. I am sure all of other other clubs fighting for relegation will be difficult to play against away from home but the toughest ones for the most part we've already played which is great considering our home record.

[an fear dearg]

One game at a time. Simple as that. One game at a time. A win or a draw in Manchester and that’s a big step but it is still only 3 points. I try not to look at the fixtures. A positive result and we have gotten a step closer but that’s all.  Once we get this game over us we can worry about the next one. One game at a time. 

[Brian Blessed]

Simon Brundish has been mentioning all season how much less we are running this season up to this month. Almost every team were outrunning us and by quite a margin too.

Has he thrown up any stats? I'd like to see the difference for the team/certain players.

[KissThisGuy]

One game at a time. Simple as that. One game at a time. A win or a draw in Manchester and that’s a big step but it is still only 3 points. I try not to look at the fixtures. A positive result and we have gotten a step closer but that’s all.  Once we get this game over us we can worry about the next one. One game at a time.

It's not just one game. If we get the 3 points on Thursday it would be massive. We can lose and still have a great chance, but if we win we are 10 clear of City, 9 clear of Spurs with 17 games left. This is probably our most important league game in the last 30 years for what it could mean if we win.

[an fear dearg]

It's not just one game. If we get the 3 points on Thursday it would be massive. We can lose and still have a great chance, but if we win we are 10 clear of City, 9 clear of Spurs with 17 games left. This is probably our most important league game in the last 30 years for what it could mean if we win.

I agree. I’m more saying about future games. Focus on one game at a time and we will win it and that’s a fact. If we win on Thursday we won’t be handed the trophy. We are closer but there’s still not title won. As someone posted above City were 8 behind in April before and won the title. We need to be in the one game at a time mindset and look no further than that

[Lotus Eater]

This is definitely not just another 3 points