Topic: Ever the Optimist.

[SerbianScouser]

We have the best front 4 in the league, with a little bit of luck with impact injuries we'll have them all available to dominate this league this season.

Our depth isn't great but if we focus on two major competitions we'll have more than enough freshness to compete till the end. Exciting times ahead, we are on a cusp of greatness there's no doubt about that.

[FlashGordon]

We're quite good at football.

[ToneLa]

The Klopp era seems to be kicking in bigtime.

Champions League. Being able to say No to Real Madrid and Barca, luring players we want, spending what we want, but bringing youth through while other managers toss around monopoly money.

Klopp makes my old man nostalgic for the Shankly days of "run through a brick wall for the team". I see it. He is a spiritual manager, a motivator, a legend in the making,

A cult of personality.

Teamwork is defined by adding up to more than the sum of its parts. To me, Klopp excels at drawing strengths out of players and seeing where new recruitment is needed.

Buying isn't what he does, he recruits for a project. He steers the ship, and he isn't after mercenaries.

Red is becoming his colour. When you see our trophy cabinet at Anfield, you just feel it - destiny. The method begets the results.

Football as a sport may be a quick, lazy cash grab business, but when it comes to boots on grass, I'm excited. It's a buzz feeling jigsaw pieces falling into place. It's a lovely satisfying feeling understanding club decisions and the delight of seeing them pay off.

It is especially pleasurable seeing a commitment to ideals which are a sanctuary from the easy and quick shortcuts of much of modern culture.

I believe we have found The Way.

[FlashGordon]

The Klopp era seems to be kicking in bigtime.

Champions League. Being able to say No to Real Madrid and Barca, luring players we want, spending what we want, but bringing youth through while other managers toss around monopoly money.

Klopp makes my old man nostalgic for the Shankly days of "run through a brick wall for the team". I see it. He is a spiritual manager, a motivator, a legend in the making,

A cult of personality.

Teamwork is defined by adding up to more than the sum of its parts. To me, Klopp excels at drawing strengths out of players and seeing where new recruitment is needed.

Buying isn't what he does, he recruits for a project. He steers the ship, and he isn't after mercenaries.

Red is becoming his colour. When you see our trophy cabinet at Anfield, you just feel it - destiny. The method begets the results.

Football as a sport may be a quick, lazy cash grab business, but when it comes to boots on grass, I'm excited. It's a buzz feeling jigsaw pieces falling into place. It's a lovely satisfying feeling understanding club decisions and the delight of seeing them pay off.

It is especially pleasurable seeing a commitment to ideals which are a sanctuary from the easy and quick shortcuts of much of modern culture.

I believe we have found The Way.

Agree with all of this. I don't know how you can be anything but positive looking forwards from here. Don't care if we sign anyone else to be honest I'm happy to go in to the season with what we have. Yes one or two more would be great but we've got the most important part of the solution. His name is Jurgen Norbert Klopp.

[Djozer]

Don't care if we sign anyone else to be honest I'm happy to go in to the season with what we have. Yes one or two more would be great but we've got the most important part of the solution. His name is Jurgen Norbert Klopp.

Yup. I'm still going to get giddily excited at all the links, but ultimately we've got the makings of a fantastic team and squad right here and our manager's an awesome, awesome bloke.

There's a good chance I'm going to get to go to Anfield for the first time in 8 years and I know that if I make it, I'll be watching some of the most exhilarating football that has ever existed on God's earth.* How can you not love that?


*_{I'm choosing to ignore the fact that the game I get to will probably be one of those frustrating 0-0 draws that still occasionally happen.}

[SerbianScouser]

Seriously what a time to support this football club.

I've been a fan for over 20 years I don't remember the last time we were in this good of a shape in so many different aspects.

We've got the world class manager, our first XI is good as anything in the league while playing some spectacular attacking football, in Phil and Mane we have two of the finest players around, young superstars in the making like Solanke, Trent and a certain welsh wonderkid who looks as talented as anything we've produced last two decades.

We are able to keep our best player if we're not willing to sell; next year one of the finest young midfield talents in the world will join us ready to give us his peak years, players are now routinely choosing us over Chelsea and City which is something fans on here laughed at even this summer and on and on and on.

Usually when you have this many good things happening at the same time it's difficult to imagine that the glory days are that far off.

Onwards and upwards.

[BabuYagu]

Seriously what a time to support this football club.

I've been a fan for over 20 years I don't remember the last time we were in this good of a shape in so many different aspects.

We've got the world class manager, our first XI is good as anything in the league while playing some spectacular attacking football, in Phil and Mane we have two of the finest players around, young superstars in the making like Solanke, Trent and a certain welsh wonderkid who looks as talented as anything we've produced last two decades.

We are able to keep our best player if we're not willing to sell; next year one of the finest young midfield talents in the world will join us ready to give us his peak years, players are now routinely choosing us over Chelsea and City which is something fans on here laughed at even this summer and on and on and on.

Usually when you have this many good things happening at the same time it's difficult to imagine that the glory days are that far off.

Onwards and upwards.

Hear, Hear!

All sources indicate Lemar is holding out for a move to Liverpool too. Even Wenger hinted at this with his own comments. I said before but we do look like the best project to jump on in europe right now for a young player. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the coming windows. Also they don't get much credit but our scouting/analysis people are so fucking on point it's ridiculous. The one I took issue with was Klavan as he looked crap last year. I went back and watched some of his time at Augsberg and saw pretty much exactly what I hoped we would scout for. He just didn't ajust well to the league here. Hope he has got his Otamendi first year out of his system.

[Djozer]

Bump. Because why the fuck not, eh? Maybe it's a bit early to be diving straight back into this thread, but for me it's a thousand times more preferable than the post-match ragefest, cathartic though some might find it.

Call me delusional, but I'm pretty sure today's result was a one off. No one had a good game, our best player got sent off (perhaps debatably) when we were already one down, we were playing a team with the best attacking options in the league, the ref didn't seem to fancy us much and it's bloody hard to turn a game around when you're a man down, and that man just happens to be your best forward. It was the perfect storm of shiteness.

Yeah this one hurts, physically almost. 5-0 is a real shitter of a scoreline to lose by. Mind you, up until the sending off we were holding our own, against the favourites for the league. That's probably the only positive I can draw from the match really, but I genuinely thought we'd get back into it up until Mane went all acrobatic.

On to Sevilla. The substitutions already suggested Klopp was thinking that way and hey, Mane's going to be super-fresh for that game, so hopefully he'll bag a couple as he tries to make amends (if amends are even needed. If we lose that one 5-0 too then I promise to never, ever bump this thread again. But we won't, so it's all good. Sort of.

[skipper757]

Get a win against Sevilla, and put Burnley, Leicester, and Newcastle to the sword, and we're rolling again.

A combination of bad defending and red card made this a brutal day at the office, but the players have to get this out of their heads quickly.  Luckily, wouldn't have anyone other than Klopp leading them in this situation.

Champions League night at Anfield.  One of the toughest teams in the group.  Revenge for the Europa final.  Mane fresh and Coutinho maybe playing a part.  Need a nice rip-roaring start (see Hoffenheim) and get the CL campaign off to the right start.

As for Burnley, maybe Phil replaces Mane or maybe Sturridge is in the lineup?  Put them to the sword.

[SerbianScouser]

My belief in the team hasn't waned one bit after today.

to be honest, our record vs Top 7 up until today was so ridiculous that something had to happen just to even things out, things had to conspire just so we could finally lose, we can now go on another great run against top teams. Heavy defeats happen to almost everyone - Mourinho got thrashed by Chelsea last season, Pep by Everton etc.

Our midfield will very soon get a boost of a world-class player which will give us a lift in a perfect moment when players might potentially started to doubt themselves a little bit. Our front 4 will absolutely light up the league this season.

[McrRed]

Conte got a couple of bad results that prompted him to switch to three at the back last season.

Hopefully we have a similar epiphany.

[jillcwhomever]

A good win on Wednesday and this will soon be forgotten. Philippe returning to the team hopefully as well, can only be a good thing, and Sadio can make up for his disappointment by bagging a goal or two.

[NaivetyinBlack]

So this is where the stoners hang out. 

[Djozer]

So this is where the stoners hang out. 

 

Get to fuck 

Though I'd kill for some weed right now, actually. The good ship alcohol is sufficing though, she is a kind mistress though will turn crueler by the morn, I shoudl imagine.

We're an amazing team with the greatest defence there could possibly be.

Also, Ragnar rocks and anyone who says different will get my boot to the face and it'll be a booking, not a red, acording to the rules of the game.

[BabuYagu]

Genuinely not bothered by the performance today, just result. Away at Etihad is where most teams drop points. We didn't lose because we were tactically inept, we pretty much matched them, arguably had the better chances with Salah, up until the red card. They were not creating too much of note either until Can went missing in midfield making us uncompact with De Bruyne goalside. Once the red card happens, you can write off everything after that as "shit happens". Our entire system is about compressing spaces which becomes a serious problem against a City side with so many needle players who will take a mile if you give them an inch.

It's a setback, but nothing more.

Positives? We will have fresh legs in midweek for the next three weeks in Mane Firmino & Salah both will be well rested for Sevilla. Solanke was good. Moreno continued to look dependable at left back. Salah looked dangerous and got in good positions. Burned past Otamendi and Mendy a few times. Great experience for TAA - they say you learn 10 times as much in defeat as you do in victory about yourself.

[Trendisnotdestiny]

Genuinely not bothered by the performance today, just result. Away at Etihad is where most teams drop points. We didn't lose because we were tactically inept, we pretty much matched them, arguably had the better chances with Salah, up until the red card. They were not creating too much of note either until Can went missing in midfield making us uncompact with De Bruyne goalside. Once the red card happens, you can write off everything after that as "shit happens". Our entire system is about compressing spaces which becomes a serious problem against a City side with so many needle players who will take a mile if you give them an inch.

It's a setback, but nothing more.

Positives? We will have fresh legs in midweek for the next three weeks in Mane Firmino & Salah both will be well rested for Sevilla. Solanke was good. Moreno continued to look dependable at left back. Salah looked dangerous and got in good positions. Burned past Otamendi and Mendy a few times. Great experience for TAA - they say you learn 10 times as much in defeat as you do in victory about yourself.

Someone tell AOC that he should never turn his back to the play.  And if he gives any lip, tell him a player who has lost the last two games 9-0 should do more listening than turning his back

[FlashGordon]

Said I'd call in here again to try and get a bit of a break from the lunatics in the Leicester thread. Saw someone calling for Klopp to be sacked, we've finally jumped the shark as a site. If he gets hounded out of here i'll jib it all in. Last few games haven't been great but it's only 4 games and two of those are draws and one of them was in the league cup. Looking for a big reaction on Saturday, can see us winning, but it might be a tough physical battle.

How good is Mohamed Salah by the way?

[BabuYagu]

Said I'd call in here again to try and get a bit of a break from the lunatics in the Leicester thread. Saw someone calling for Klopp to be sacked, we've finally jumped the shark as a site. If he gets hounded out of here i'll jib it all in. Last few games haven't been great but it's only 4 games and two of those are draws and one of them was in the league cup. Looking for a big reaction on Saturday, can see us winning, but it might be a tough physical battle.

How good is Mohamed Salah by the way?

All sides have peaks and troughs during the season. The lows are good for rooting out the spineless c*nts who just tag along waiting for glory to appear again. Fair weather fans. Entitled. Shit themselves when we lose. Care more about winning the banter on twitter than supporting the club. Natural born cowards. Will shout for the manager to be sacked just to have change for change sake. Haven't the first idea about tactics, team building and the like. Morons. Basically.

I think Hodgson has created this belief that it is okay to want the manager to be sacked. This somehow vindicated those who wanted Rafa sacked - it's fine, acceptable, look you are asking for Hodgson to be sacked, you are no better. Get off your moral high horse. Then the same thing with Dalglish. Then Rodgers. Now we are at Klopp.

It just shows me that as with Brexit, Trump and all the other instances where the public get given a voice for change - the idiots are winning. Society, by and large, is THAT stupid now. That entitled. Successfully dumbed down to the extent that the media can easily push them in whatever direction they want. Whoever makes the most noise wins. Doesn't matter how obnoxious, racist, homophobic, sexist, stupid or destructive the noises are either - the vacuous, ignorant hordes will lap it up, embrace the stupidity as their own opinion and then spew it anywhere they go.

[FlashGordon]

All sides have peaks and troughs during the season. The lows are good for rooting out the spineless c*nts who just tag along waiting for glory to appear again. Fair weather fans. Entitled. Shit themselves when we lose. Care more about winning the banter on twitter than supporting the club. Natural born cowards. Will shout for the manager to be sacked just to have change for change sake. Haven't the first idea about tactics, team building and the like. Morons. Basically.

I think Hodgson has created this belief that it is okay to want the manager to be sacked. This somehow vindicated those who wanted Rafa sacked - it's fine, acceptable, look you are asking for Hodgson to be sacked, you are no better. Get off your moral high horse. Then the same thing with Dalglish. Then Rodgers. Now we are at Klopp.

It just shows me that as with Brexit, Trump and all the other instances where the public get given a voice for change - the idiots are winning. Society, by and large, is THAT stupid now. That entitled. Successfully dumbed down to the extent that the media can easily push them in whatever direction they want. Whoever makes the most noise wins. Doesn't matter how obnoxious, racist, homophobic, sexist, stupid or destructive the noises are either - the vacuous, ignorant hordes will lap it up, embrace the stupidity as their own opinion and then spew it anywhere they go.

Sums up my feelings perfectly. 4 games does not a season make. We win 3 on the bounce and the whole place will be shouting about how good we are, lose one then the weekend after and we'll be the worst side to ever grace Anfield.

[Johnny Foreigner]

All sides have peaks and troughs during the season. The lows are good for rooting out the spineless c*nts who just tag along waiting for glory to appear again. Fair weather fans. Entitled. Shit themselves when we lose. Care more about winning the banter on twitter than supporting the club. Natural born cowards. Will shout for the manager to be sacked just to have change for change sake. Haven't the first idea about tactics, team building and the like. Morons. Basically.

I think Hodgson has created this belief that it is okay to want the manager to be sacked. This somehow vindicated those who wanted Rafa sacked - it's fine, acceptable, look you are asking for Hodgson to be sacked, you are no better. Get off your moral high horse. Then the same thing with Dalglish. Then Rodgers. Now we are at Klopp.

It just shows me that as with Brexit, Trump and all the other instances where the public get given a voice for change - the idiots are winning. Society, by and large, is THAT stupid now. That entitled. Successfully dumbed down to the extent that the media can easily push them in whatever direction they want. Whoever makes the most noise wins. Doesn't matter how obnoxious, racist, homophobic, sexist, stupid or destructive the noises are either - the vacuous, ignorant hordes will lap it up, embrace the stupidity as their own opinion and then spew it anywhere they go.

Interesting angle.. MayI ask you one question; and no problems if you dont want to get personal; how long have you been around ?

[BabuYagu]

Interesting angle.. MayI ask you one question; and no problems if you dont want to get personal; how long have you been around ?

In Life (mid 30's) or On RAWK? I've been a lurker since pre-Rafa. Then signed up around 2009 I think when I binned off the official forums because they are shite

fatherjack, Mutton Geoff, Hal and a few others remembered me from over on there and pmed me when I joined. I actually moved over because I got tired reading great threads like the Level 3 thread and some of the quality posters on here and then skimming through 20 pages of shite for 1 gem on the official forum.

I was a commie on here for a long time too, but had to give that up when streams became more and more a problem. Now I rarely see a game the same day it's played nevermind live. Unless it appears on TV here in Brazil on the channels I get free, which is rarely. Usually only European games or the odd random FA Cup game.

[BabuYagu]

Sums up my feelings perfectly. 4 games does not a season make. We win 3 on the bounce and the whole place will be shouting about how good we are, lose one then the weekend after and we'll be the worst side to ever grace Anfield.

I looked up Klopp's time at Dortmund - his sides were always slow to get going too.

Interestingly, I was looking at Klopp's start to his 3rd season in Dortmund. He took some shit there also. They were 3-2 down to Karpaty in their first Europa League game then scored two goals at 90 minutes+ to win 4-3. Lost their second game home to Sevilla, drew twice against PSG, beat Karpaty and home and drew with Sevilla away getting eliminated.
While this was going on, he put his first team out in the 2nd round of the cup against Offenbach and they went out in penalties. They also drew some games in the league around the same time also. However, they refocused and ended up winning the league.

Did the domestic double the next season (4) beating Bayern 5-2 in the final. (had a run of 2 wins, 2 draws, 4 defeats at this point of the season)

Finished runner up in the league and champions league, both to bayern in season 5 (had a run of 1 win, 2 defeats and 3 draws around this part of the season).

So it seems early each season he has some struggles early on for whatever reason. It makes some sense that his sides might take longer to get tactically sharp given the complexity & precision of what he is trying to do. Our performances in the main are okay - we are just struggling in both boxes. It's a problem he faced before a few times and turned it around. I trust he knows what he is doing. I also trust that pundits don't know what he is doing. Or couldn't do the job themselves if you literally paid them. Because we have done that several times, they invariably failed spectacularly, now they are pundits.

No reason to panic. He's been here before, he knows how to turn it around and get us flying again

[BabuYagu]

If you aren't going to win the League Cup - going out of it first round is the next best thing so give the side some welcomed midweek breaks and extra training sessions instead of just match prep after match prep.

[Wilbury]

Society, by and large, is THAT stupid now. That entitled. Successfully dumbed down to the extent that the media can easily push them in whatever direction they want. Whoever makes the most noise wins. Doesn't matter how obnoxious, racist, homophobic, sexist, stupid or destructive the noises are either - the vacuous, ignorant hordes will lap it up

It is the safe game you see and it is not just a new phenomenon, this behaviour has and will always be around. If everybody is telling you something it removes the need for us to think about it ourselves.Social proofing does the work for us so we don't have to make the choice ourselves. So when I hear Moreno is shit everyday, my natural instinct is go along with this opinion. Serves us well in most cases.

[BabuYagu]

It is the safe game you see and it is not just a new phenomenon, this behaviour has and will always be around. If everybody is telling you something it removes the need for us to think about it ourselves.Social proofing does the work for us so we don't have to make the choice ourselves. So when I hear Moreno is shit everyday, my natural instinct is go along with this opinion. Serves us well in most cases.

It feels worst now though. Maybe I am just watching too much Black Mirror

[UNSWEETENED_CHUNKS]

Big season for you no doubt. Cannot finish outside the top 4, anything less & it's a backwards step. Spurs & Chelsea won't be as good as last season but City & Utd will be better. Arsenal should also be better depending on how the play the Europa League.

[Qston]

It feels worst now though. Maybe I am just watching too much Black Mirror

I did that a few months ago and was thoroughly depressed about what my kids may face in the coming years !  Brilliant but a little depressing

[BabuYagu]

I did that a few months ago and was thoroughly depressed about what my kids may face in the coming years !  Brilliant but a little depressing

Reminds me so much of Chris Morris. I remember long before reality TV, EdTV, Truman show and the likes, he did a piece on a family with camera's strapped to their heads. I remember my mum turning to me at the time saying "sadly, I think people would watch that". Now she sits there watching every season of Big Brother while also also telling me how crap it is and doesn't know why she watches it.

I agree though. It's terrifying.

[FlashGordon]

Jesus we were wasteful tonight. Well done on creating that amount of chances but you really need to be winning that game if you want to get anywhere in this comp. Thought a few players were excellent though, the back 4 and Hendo were unreal. TAA's delivery is outstanding, he should be on all corners and wide freekicks. Shock horror Jordan Henderson can actually pass the ball forward, who would've known. Bobby wasn't great but improved a bit in the second half. Some of the finishing and decision making was so lackadaisical though. Klopp was a mirror image of myself for most of the match.

We'll qualify easily and I'm sure we'll forget about the wastefulness in February when we're in the knockout stages.

A special mention to the ref/Spartak. Something needs to be done about added on time for injuries and stoppages whether they're real or not. The ball was in play for about 20 minutes in the second half. Shocking.

[SerbianScouser]

We'll win all the games left in the group.

Sevilla and Spartak had 3 attempts in total and scored 3 goals. This is not sustainable, it's just a freaky streak. We're a level above these teams in the group, as long as we keep creating the amount of chances we do in games we'll be perfectly fine this season. I'd be much more worried if we were not creating these chances but we do.

[sms1986]

Yeah, I can't see us losing out on at least second in the group. We're two games in and both times we should really have won, with Lallana back we'll look much better.

[Reese]

Wow - totally forgot about this thread! Think I'm just gonna hang out in here after every match from now on!

Disappointing after dominating, but away in Europe with a draw. Ok. No excuses not to qualify, that's for sure.

When we start hitting our stride though - wow. Someones is gonna get double digits again them!

[FlashGordon]

Wouldn't be surprised to see us go to Sevilla and win. 1st place is still on as two draws are not two defeats. Think Newcastle are in for a hiding on Sunday.

[FlashGordon]

Wow - totally forgot about this thread! Think I'm just gonna hang out in here after every match from now on!

Disappointing after dominating, but away in Europe with a draw. Ok. No excuses not to qualify, that's for sure.

When we start hitting our stride though - wow. Someones is gonna get double digits again them!

That's the whole idea 

Really should've won the match and it's disappointing not to have come away with the 3 points but you'll take a draw away in Russia every season.

[FernandoTourettes]

Hopefully this thread can remain an oasis of calm.

On any other day, 2 or 3 of those go in and we're all happy.

Some of the vitriol out there tonight is as if we didn't even make any chances.

We're disappointed because we should have easily acquired 6pts from dominating Sevilla and the Russian champions - in the champions league which we haven't stepped foot in for several years. Not a bad place be in if we all take a breath.

Henderson really looks like he has meant business this week. TAA is gaining experience by the minute - huge talent. Mane looks sharp, hope his withdrawal was a precaution.

[FlashGordon]

Hopefully this thread can remain an oasis of calm.

On any other day, 2 or 3 of those go in and we're all happy.

Some of the vitriol out there tonight is as if we didn't even make any chances.

We're disappointed because we should have easily acquired 6pts from dominating Sevilla and the Russian champions - in the champions league which we haven't stepped foot in for several years. Not a bad place be in if we all take a breath.

Henderson really looks like he has meant business this week. TAA is gaining experience by the minute - huge talent. Mane looks sharp, hope his withdrawal was a precaution.

Exactly you have people complaining about how we played shite and moved the ball way too slow and weren't clever enough. In the same post they're complaining about all the chances we missed. You don't creat chances by playing shite and slow.

I think Mane came off as he hasn't played in a few weeks so don't want to overdo it.

[sms1986]

I think Mane came off as he hasn't played in a few weeks so don't want to overdo it.

Yeah, he should be much more effective against Newcastle.

[exiledintheUSA]

The attack will click at some point over the next few games and somebody is in for a right battering.  Hopefully it'll be against the Mancs.

[jillcwhomever]

The attack will click at some point over the next few games and somebody is in for a right battering.  Hopefully it'll be against the Mancs.

I've already said that very thing, can't think of a better team to get such a spanking.

[FlashGordon]

I know they were fairly shite tonight but the defence played really well. Did the simple things well and Luiz Adriano is a competent striker no matter how shite the supporting cast was.