Topic: FT: Newcastle 1 v Liverpool 1

[RK7]

4th isnt good enough.

4th would be great, you've got to be realistic.

[TheShanklyGates]

There doesn’t appear to be though does there?

People were slagging the team before we started the season, that’s why some people were trying to remain positive. A negative, bile filled fan base isn’t healthy but here we are. Seven league games in and bringing up the same shit day after day about how ‘I can’t believe Klopp/Edwards/Henry/Pat Mustard/Mr Poon from Button Moon didn’t think there was a CB to improve us’. We have what we have, the solutions until January are what we have, so literally the only purpose people bragging about how their ridiculous negativity in pre season has been proven right is to make them look like they’re revelling in it. Rightly or wrongly. As a club, this is when we’re all meant to pull together. But we don’t, we slag the manager, slag the captain, slag the players, bring up shit that literally no-one wanted five games ago (like a ‘20 goal a season striker) and harp back to shit that no-one can change. And then go ‘oh I don’t want the manager out but I’m just going to slate every decision he’s making’

Again, you're looking at this in absolutes. In your view people either think Klopp is infallible or or they think Klopp should be sacked. I suspect the vast majority don't think either of these things however. It's perfectly possible to think Klopp will get it right eventually and should have time to do so but that at the moment things are not going well and mistakes are being made they need rectifying.

And again because it seems to be difficult to grasp - criticising the manager or his decisions doesn't mean you think you know better than Klopp. Nobody on this forum knows more about football than Klopp. Ultimately my opinion, your opinion and everybody else on here's opinion means absolutely fuck all. This club has been so starved of success though that you can't blame people for being frustrated with how things are going. That's not Klopp's fault but impatience is a natural symptom of waiting 5 years for any trophy and the best part of 3 decades for the trophy we all want above any other. The frustration is only compounded when so many saw the problems that needed to be fixed in the summer and they weren't. Of course there's fuck all we as fans can do about it but venting on an online forum is a pretty harmless way of expressing those frustrations in the grand scheme of things.

[BazC]

7 points behind Utd and City now and its October 1st.

Wouldn’t worry about them, they’re going for the title and will drag each other to the end, at the top of the table. We just have to hope we’re better than at least two of Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal. At the moment we don’t look better than any of them. Things need to change quick. Next game’s a massive one, and if we get a win there it might just jolt some life back into the season.

And Lallana. The midfield needs him. In fact, at this moment, I’d think about sticking Coutinho back in the front 3, and i guess against Man Utd we will have to.

[John C]

I can't make up my mind if it's sarcasm or what, but if not I agree.

Even if only for the fact that it's your not you're.

It wasn't sarcasm at all Shazz

[sms1986]

Yeah, you''ll be saying that on December 1 when the gap is 12+.

If, not when. Yes, we're in poor form and they're in great form, but you're talking about a lot of matches.

City has a better bench than half our lineup for fucks sake.

Very easy to have when you're backed by oil money.

We're not closing down 7 on them. Will finish 15-20 points off them and United.

Might as well give up now, then, eh?

[TravisBickle]

4th isnt good enough.

 4th was good enough last year. We secured it and now we should be pushing on. But we aren't, as per fucking usual. We're stuttering around with no identity and the first two thirds of our team utterly inadequate for the places we should be aiming for.

 It's not Brendan Rodgers bad yet but it's a few results away from that stage.

[Giono]

15 passes ... christ. It has gotten to the point where he should probably be out of consideration for away games. I think there's something psychological going on there. Newcastle fans had the same criticism.

Your judge of a player?

[stockdam]

United will sit deep against hoping for an error at the other end

Probably and they'll also lob the ball in the box for Elbows. It's not hard to work out how to beat us.

[vicar]

Mane was also fucking awful. Yedlin had him in his pocket.

Yep, agree.

Thought Salah looked dangerous but his touch was awful.
Sturridge hardly got on the ball and the one chance he got he snapped at.

We should be winning games like that, but its a familiar story.

I think this team has a huge confidence issue at the moment.

[Crosby Nick]

We're not at our best at the moment, or close to it but people have short memories.

This is clearly not as bad as Hodgson, it's not as bad as Brendan's last (or first?) season, or the second half of Kenny's return, or dare I say Rafa's last season. It's not great but some perspective is needed.

International break is no bad thing now, let's hope players return unscathed and we put a dent in Ubited's record. Do that and things will feel a lot better.

[Oddball]

I've just got home and have to say that I thought that a point each  as a fair result and one I'm\more than happy with.  I thought that you had some good players and good pace up front but we were able to keep our shape for most of the goal.  Your goal was really really good and a goal that deserves more than a point.  I thought that Ritchie was once again our stand out player and again covered every blade of grass, my car doesn't cover as much in 90 minutes as he does.  Yedlin made a massive difference for us in defence as his pace stopped you from getting at us so many times.  We were able to get the point today because of Rafa and the way he has us so well organised.  We're not as bad as some on here thought and we could do with a bit more class but we'll stay up this season and we'll take points off better teams than us, at least by that I mean teams with better players because there is nothing wrong with our team.  We're probably as good or better than the sum of our parts.

It's great to have a manager who earns his wages, we haven't had many of those.

Think Sky gave Ritchie MotM and think he had a good game. Who was it who came steaming over to Salah in the first half to block any forth coming shot pretty early on? That was a great bit of intelligence, helping out his defensive partner and seeing where the danger was. Just a shame neither of our CB's had that  today for your goal.

LOVE your manager mate, would love him back here one day. So much respect and love for him. Your in good hands there and rumuors of a takeover. Some prominent lady whos name I forget who deals in takeovers was in the crown. You need to get shut of Ashley.

Good luck for the rest of the season mate

[Funky_Gibbons]

4th would be great, you've got to be realistic.

Realistic? With the right strengthening in the right areas we should have been up there. How we've decided a defence that conceded 42 goals last season could cope without any additions is unbelievable.

To add to that we've further weakened our defence by losing Clyne and adding Moreno.

[Fordy]

Wouldn’t worry about them, they’re going for the title and will drag each other to the end, at the top of the table. We just have to hope we’re better than at least two of Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal. At the moment we don’t look better than any of them. Things need to change quick. Next game’s a massive one, and if we get a win there it might just jolt some life back into the season.

And Lallana. The midfield needs him. In fact, at this moment, I’d think about sticking Coutinho back in the front 3, and i guess against Man Utd we will have to.

Starting to think we need to stop with the front 3 myself.

Our midfield and defence are too poor.

We need an extra body or 2 in midfield.

[Pistolero]

This is clearly not as bad as Hodgson,

fuck me, talk about damning with faint praise...

[Rush 82]

That was a beautiful goal from Coutinho

[RK7]

Realistic? With the right strengthening in the right areas we should have been up there. How we've decided a defence that conceded 42 goals last season could cope without any additions is unbelievable.

To add to that we've further weakened our defence by losing Clyne and adding Moreno.

So why the ?....What your realistic evaluation of our most likely outcome looking at our current squad?

[OOS]

One dimensional football. We only play at one pace.

[sms1986]

That was a beautiful goal from Coutinho

It really was, he really does have a talent for the spectacular.

[killer-heels]

Dont knock it, fifth or sixth are possible as well.

5th or 6th would be a disaster. We should be pushing on, we have a good squad. Somethings not going right there. Either Klopp isnt getting his message to be implemented or the players have just dropped their heads.

[JD.]

If we got 4th now it would be a miracle. We are worse than last year. By some distance.

Really sad isn't it?

First half of last season we were so good. I thought it was a matter of time till we won a title under Klopp. We were getting better and better. We've been pretty bad from the very start of this year though. Literally our first game we dropped points to a shocking Sunderland team.

We kept getting results against the good teams but our ppg against teams outside the top 7 must make awful reading since January 1st.

[jillcwhomever]

That was a beautiful goal from Coutinho

It certainly was. He also pinged a delightful pass, that Salah almost managed to put away in the second half too.

[Shazz]

It wasn't sarcasm at all Shazz

Oh well, I agree with him then.

[Red_Rich]

Words I said in anger during the match but I'm sticking with now: I wish we'd kept Joe Allen.

Christ. Why do people do this. Digging backwards for solutions and comfort.

We'll be fine. We're going through s slump. We'll come out of it. Might be too late for a title challenge but then again I didn't think we were seriously in one anyway.

Knowing us we could come back after the break and destroy united and spurs. That's how daft we are!

[skipper757]

Damn, seven point leads in October can never be overturned!

It's not that as much as us not being off to a fast start.

Our top 4 finishes recently (16/17, 13/14, and 08/09) all had fast starts. 

In the other years, we almost always get off to slow starts and are playing catch up the entire season.  We're always just a bit off but never make a run and then we're out of the top 4.

Not saying that's what's going to happen this year, but some people are getting a bit antsy.  A sense of deja vu for some, especially when you factor in the unlucky nature of our results.

Of course, it's very early, but there are worrying signs, especially with a lot of dropped points due to our poor defending.

[goalrushatgoodison]

Yep, agree.

Thought Salah looked dangerous but his touch was awful.
Sturridge hardly got on the ball and the one chance he got he snapped at.

We should be winning games like that, but its a familiar story.

I think this team has a huge confidence issue at the moment.

Yes massive - you could see it even after we scored.

[Alonso_The_Assassin]

We're not at our best at the moment, or close to it but people have short memories.

This is clearly not as bad as Hodgson, it's not as bad as Brendan's last (or first?) season, or the second half of Kenny's return, or dare I say Rafa's last season. It's not great but some perspective is needed.

International break is no bad thing now, let's hope players return unscathed and we put a dent in Ubited's record. Do that and things will feel a lot better.

The fact that you need to reference Roy fucking Hodgson tells us about the state of modern day football.

[El Lobo]

If we got 4th now it would be a miracle. We are worse than last year. By some distance.

Fucking brilliant, you’ll hook some with that as well mate.

[MolbyLovesGravlax]

Only 4 of the starting 11 are Klopp era buys.
For some reason we are not really a 'pressing' team anymore.
We are also not the comfortable possession team that Rodgers was trying to build.
We are not one thing or the other. We can't defend but we are nota crushing attacking force. We can't kill a game off if we do get the lead or batter a locked door down if a team gets a lead and drops off.
If the game goes to script we are great, but when it doesn't we have no way of just adapting and managing a game in real time.

[sms1986]

Really sad isn't it?

First half of last season we were so good. I thought it was a matter of time till we won a title under Klopp. We were getting better and better. We've been pretty bad from the very start of this year though. Literally our first game we dropped points to a shocking Sunderland team.

We kept getting results against the good teams but our ppg against teams outside the top 7 must make awful reading since January 1st.

We've had a poor run of games, we're hardly languishing in the relegation zone. Half of the year we've had injuries and absences that have badly affected us.

[Funky_Gibbons]

So why the ?....What your realistic evaluation of our most likely outcome looking at our current squad?

It's not about our current squad, we should have been looking to strengthen the areas we were weak last season, we didn't and have in fact made them weaker.

This is a massive missed opportunity.

[Robotforaday]

He's no worse than Wijnaldum and has better defensive brain too. But he's not good enough for us either.

I think he passes the ball better under pressure than Henderson, Can, or Gini. And I'd feel less panicked about our defence knowing that he was screening them. "Good enough" is always a tricky thing to gauge, if you're looking for a Mascherano or an Anelka then fine, he's not in that league. But I don't think we really upgraded on him at all, if anything I think we've taken a step backwards.

[Giono]

Wijnaldum away from home is awful. I barely notice him playing.

Away from home our midfield is generally under more pressure than at home where they sit back a bit more. Our midfield is poorer in general away from home.

Ask yourself: Who in our midfield can operate under pressure? Phil can. Gini can.

Gini didn't have any trouble playing today. He never saw the ball much. It was launched over his head or passed around out on the left. Lallana there would not have seen much of it either.

[Barneylfc∗]

It's his first league game back. He's bound to be a little rusty.

Have the days of giving anyone a break truly passed never to return?

He played last week against Spartak. He wouldn't have played against Leicester in the cup even without the red card. Essentially he missed 2 games. He was woeful today. Easily his worst game in a red shirt.

[Phil M]

Since beating Spurs at home in February to end that awful January we had, Liverpool have lost 4 of 25 competitive games.

Leicester Away (the game after Spurs last season) Palace home (1-2 Benteke - last season)

Then City (5-0) and Leicester in the League cup this season.

We're still a very difficult team to beat. We haven't seen a prolonged spell of high pressing (gengen) high octane football that we saw in that amazing run at the start of last season but it's there in fits and spurts and Salah has clearly been an excellent addition.

However our spine (or lack thereof) and mental weakness at the back keeps costing us crucial points. You can see it etched on Klopp's face, the players aren't always putting his ideas into practice or we fail to execute them in front of goal.

I think we'll see the real Liverpool show up midweek, we have to.

It's not all doom and gloom, but fucking hell some of the players need to step it up.

[Gnurglan]

It's a massive gap at this stage and playing catch up for top four adds more pressure

3-3-1 is not bad. The problem is our results vs Watford, Burnley and now this result vs Newcastle. Three draws and I think all three will be bottom half. We should have had six more points. It's not the end of the world, but it can prove costly.

[aw1991]

4th isnt good enough.

Yes it is.
We are no longer in the 80's, let's be honest.
Our team was absolute shite in the first half of this decade and bar the 13/14 season ended in the top 4 once. Last season. In fact, we finished in the top 5 twice in 9 years.
It will take a while before we'll become true, constant challengers.

[El Lobo]

‘I wish we still had Joe Allen’

Fucking hellfire

[killer-heels]

Wouldn’t worry about them, they’re going for the title and will drag each other to the end, at the top of the table. We just have to hope we’re better than at least two of Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal. At the moment we don’t look better than any of them. Things need to change quick. Next game’s a massive one, and if we get a win there it might just jolt some life back into the season.

And Lallana. The midfield needs him. In fact, at this moment, I’d think about sticking Coutinho back in the front 3, and i guess against Man Utd we will have to.

Thats not good enough im afraid. This season isnt supposed to be a 4th place battle at this early stage. We have enough good players to be challenging.

Ok, maybe the defence and goalkeeper are a bunch of clowns but in front of them?

[RK7]

5th or 6th would be a disaster. We should be pushing on, we have a good squad. Somethings not going right there. Either Klopp isnt getting his message to be implemented or the players have just dropped their heads.

It really wouldn't.

[clinical]

Really sad isn't it?

First half of last season we were so good. I thought it was a matter of time till we won a title under Klopp. We were getting better and better. We've been pretty bad from the very start of this year though. Literally our first game we dropped points to a shocking Sunderland team.

We kept getting results against the good teams but our ppg against teams outside the top 7 must make awful reading since January 1st.

I think it's over looked how the opposition see us. I see these teams rock up against our rivals and look defeated before they start. Against us they know they have a chance. We are a weak side they can bully. No personality, no leaders.

We need ruthless Klopp not "I can turn water into wine" Klopp

Oh and buy a DM.