Topic: Leeds v Liverpool, 17 April 2023: Match Preview

[lobsterboy]

The only guarantee is even less protection and parity from PGMOL than we usually get, if that's even possible?

[Andy82lfc]

Linesman has now been confirmed for the match...

[tubby]

I'm perfectly fine with a coked up linesman cutting promos on the players as they're running past.

[A Red Abroad]

Post embargo presser...

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/qY_l1YpOljo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/qY_l1YpOljo</a>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY_l1YpOljo

[shank94]

Easy 4-0 win

[Rosario]

Would be good to see us give Nunez a decent run upfront for the final stretch of the season. We don’t really have much left to play for and even if we fix the midfield in the summer feels like him taking a leap forward is imperative to any success we might have next season.

[Black Bull Nova]

Forward line should be strong

         
                      Allison
Alexander Arnold, Van Dijk, Roberston
                         Thiago

Salah, Jota, Firmino. Nunez, Gakpo. Diaz

Who needs a midfield, we've managed without one for weeks

[WhereAngelsPlay]

Weeks ? 

[StL-Dono]

Who feels pretty confident of three points here? 
(Three points for US I mean....)

[Dave McCoy]

Motivation being the key factor here I think. Leeds will be up for it and they are desperate for a win. What are we desperate for? Considering the results sans the Arsenal game seemingly not much other than the season to end.

I'd like to think this should be a straightforward win but I'm expecting a point, dreading that we get nothing and would be amazed if we get all 3.

[farawayred]

Motivation being the key factor here I think. Leeds will be up for it and they are desperate for a win. What are we desperate for? Considering the results sans the Arsenal game seemingly not much other than the season to end.

I'd like to think this should be a straightforward win but I'm expecting a point, dreading that we get nothing and would be amazed if we get all 3.

Bellingham? I know, I know...

[farawayred]

Forward line should be strong

         
                      Allison
Alexander Arnold, Van Dijk, Roberston
                         Thiago

Salah, Jota, Firmino. Nunez, Gakpo. Diaz

Who needs a midfield, we've managed without one for weeks

You may have a point with Alisson leading the line...

[DelTrotter]

Would be dream land to score an away goal (that's not in a 4-1 defeat!), even Europa spot is looking pretty terrible now if we fail to win here. On the other hand go on a good run and you'd say 5th is possible which wouldn't be the worst season ever. Get it done!!!

[redtel]

Leeds will obviously be desperate for points tonight but I’m hoping Klopp and his coaches remind the squad that Leeds Utd are the only team to beat us at Anfield in the PL this season and we should have maximum effort to prevent them doing the double over us.

In fact Klopp has a proud record that no team has completed the league double over us while he has been manager in both home and away games. We lost to Manu and West Ham home and away in the first season of his 8 campaigns but the first early season losses were before he arrived. He was manager for the loss in London and home to Manu.

Klopp and his squad still have two home fixtures ahead against Forest and Brentford where we need to avenge away defeats and avoid the double. Even when we lost six home matches on the spin during Covid we avoided the double loss thanks to our excellent form before Christmas when we were top of the league.

They can win tonight if the home form shown against Arsenal and Manu is repeated but we haven’t shown the same level on our travels in the league. Leeds defence looks suspect but can we take advantage and I wonder if Salah is still on for penalties?

[red1977]

Linesman has now been confirmed for the match...

 

[Jookie]

In terms of Top 4, I think tonight is must win.

I think if we can get 3 wins on the bounce versus Leeds, Forest and WHU then I'd suspect we'll be about 6 points behind 4th going into the last 5 games. That is still something to play for. Personally I don;t see us winning the next 3 on the bounce but if we did I think it would make the last 5 games potentially interesting.

If we lose or draw any of the next 3 games then I think the last 5 or 6 games can be used to experiment for next season. Anyone who isn't going to be part of the squad next season shouldn't be getting into a match day squad on a regular basis. If we want to play Nunez CF next season then let him have a run of games there. If Klopp wants to play TAA in midfield next season, then put him there for a run of 5 games. If there are any young players we want to blood, them get them in the match day squad.

[Knight]

In terms of Top 4, I think tonight is must win.

I think if we can get 3 wins on the bounce versus Leeds, Forest and WHU then I'd suspect we'll be about 6 points behind 4th going into the last 5 games. That is still something to play for. Personally I don;t see us winning the next 3 on the bounce but if we did I think it would make the last 5 games potentially interesting.

If we lose or draw any of the next 3 games then I think the last 5 or 6 games can be used to experiment for next season. Anyone who isn't going to be part of the squad next season shouldn't be getting into a match day squad on a regular basis. If we want to play Nunez CF next season then let him have a run of games there. If Klopp wants to play TAA in midfield next season, then put him there for a run of 5 games. If there are any young players we want to blood, them get them in the match day squad.

Too many teams would need to drop a lot of points. It’s not very realistic at this point. May as well play to win as many games as possible for a little longer though.

[Dubred]

Too many teams would need to drop a lot of points. It’s not very realistic at this point. May as well play to win as many games as possible for a little longer though.

I agree its unlikely but this season has been so topsy turvy outside the top 2, you just never know.  Results this weekend showed that.

We've got a lot to play for, as unlikely as top 4 may seem.

[Jookie]

Too many teams would need to drop a lot of points. It’s not very realistic at this point. May as well play to win as many games as possible for a little longer though.

I agree it's highly unlikely at this point. Based on our away from it feels unrealistic to now win the 4 remaining games away from home (after winning 3 in 15 so far).

However, if we could just win the next 3 (including 2 away) I think we have a chance. We'd have 4 out of 6 games remaining at home at that point. The challenge becomes a little easier.

My assumption here is that 9 wins (71 points) or 8 wins and a draw (69 points) gets us 4th. To be fair I'd settle for 65 points at this point and probably a Europa League place.

[Barneylfc∗]

Our 4 remaining away games are Leeds, West Ham, Leicester and Southampton. The 2 worst sides in the division and 2 sides barely any better than them.

We've almost got a full squad of players available, so we really should be winning all of them. There's no reason we shouldn't be winning our home games either given the opposition.
Saudi have a few tough games coming up, as do Spurs and United, and I'd be shocked if we finished behind Brighton and Villa.

[Fromola]

Too many teams would need to drop a lot of points. It’s not very realistic at this point. May as well play to win as many games as possible for a little longer though.

It's not a title race though, teams usually do drop points.

It's highly unlikely we'll win them but 9 wins out of 9 gives us 71 points. That's been enough for 4th place since 16/17 when we needed 76. There's a fair chance Newcastle don't get to 70 points, or will be around that ballpark. We've got no margin for error though.

[liverbloke]

thanks for the top write up sheer

Linesman has now been confirmed for the match...

we should have seen this trouble with lines coming

[A Red Abroad]

Our 4 remaining away games are Leeds, West Ham, Leicester and Southampton. The 2 worst sides in the division and 2 sides barely any better than them.

We've almost got a full squad of players available, so we really should be winning all of them. There's no reason we shouldn't be winning our home games either given the opposition.
Saudi have a few tough games coming up, as do Spurs and United, and I'd be shocked if we finished behind Brighton and Villa.

In theory we should win all of those.

Except... we haven't scored a single goal away to teams in the bottom half of the table. Not one.

That needs to change, starting tonight.

[SamLad]

Linesman has now been confirmed for the match...

good to see the PGMOL updating their training methods so they can subdue all those out-of-control players.

[SamLad]

we haven't scored a single goal away to teams in the bottom half of the table. Not one.

god almighty .....

[anfieldpurch]

god almighty .....

Yeah I saw that stat the other day that we've played in a Champions League final more recently than an away goal to a bottom-half side... hopefully today is the day we change than although Elland Road will be rocking and up for it with their recent form

[Knight]

It's not a title race though, teams usually do drop points.

It's highly unlikely we'll win them but 9 wins out of 9 gives us 71 points. That's been enough for 4th place since 16/17 when we needed 76. There's a fair chance Newcastle don't get to 70 points, or will be around that ballpark. We've got no margin for error though.

Oh yeah of course if we win 9 of 9 we're in with a really good shout. But if anyone thinks we're going to win 9 of 9 they're an insane person. Any points total we can realistically get requires too many teams to drop a good number of points.

Literally scoring a goal tonight would be an improvement on the rest of this season, let alone winning!

[Barneylfc∗]

In theory we should win all of those.

Except... we haven't scored a single goal away to teams in the bottom half of the table. Not one.

That needs to change, starting tonight.

Get to absolute fuck. No way is that legit 

I revise my predictions then. Fuck me we're shit 


Edit - Aston Villa were 12th when we played them on Boxing Day. We scored 3.

[duvva 💅]

Thanks for the great OP Sheer.

Well I’m looking forward to tonight’s game. Think we’ll win. Have we got any new injuries? If not we should be strong tonight.

[Barneylfc∗]

Yeah I saw that stat the other day that we've played in a Champions League final more recently than an away goal to a bottom-half side... hopefully today is the day we change than although Elland Road will be rocking and up for it with their recent form

Having looked at it, it's a bit of a nonsense stat though. It appears that it's the current bottom half as it stands today, and there's only been 6 games against those sides.

I guess saying "Liverpool haven't scored away against the sides currently occupying 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 17th and 18th" doesn't have the same ring to it.

[A Red Abroad]

Get to absolute fuck. No way is that legit 

I revise my predictions then. Fuck me we're shit 


Edit - Aston Villa were 12th when we played them on Boxing Day. We scored 3.

I mean currently in the bottom half. 

[A Red Abroad]

Having looked at it, it's a bit of a nonsense stat though. It appears that it's the current bottom half as it stands today, and there's only been 6 games against those sides.

I guess saying "Liverpool haven't scored away against the sides currently occupying 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 17th and 18th" doesn't have the same ring to it.

It's still not very good though, is it? 

[SamLad]

Get to absolute fuck. No way is that legit 

I revise my predictions then. Fuck me we're shit 


Edit - Aston Villa were 12th when we played them on Boxing Day. We scored 3.

that's so 2022.

[Barneylfc∗]

It's still not very good though, is it? 

Aye, not going to throw up any bunting and celebrate it like 

[Father Ted]

Hope we can finally break this season’s cycle of any vaguely encouraging display being immediately followed by a lethargic shitshow against opposition down the bottom.

With the season winding down, less games per week and players coming coming back you’d hope we might improve on that front.

Be nice to see Jota finally get a goal.

[duvva 💅]

Be nice to see Jota finally get a goal.

Yep a goal for Diogo, some minutes from Diaz and Thiago starting. 3 points would be nice too

[A Red Abroad]

Aye, not going to throw up any bunting and celebrate it like 

 

[A Red Abroad]

that's so 2022.

 

[Yorkykopite]

Great work by Sheer. Thank you

When I was a kid this was the biggest game in English football bar none.

It still sends a shudder down my spine when you read Liverpool v Leeds. Win, lose, or draw you knew it was going to be the hardest 90 minutes of the season.

I reckon I can pinpoint the game where we definitively pulled away from them. I was there. Grand National morning, early kick-off, we beat them 3-0. But it was easy. I think it was '77, possibly '76. Fairclough absolutely terrorised Paul Madeley.

[amir87]

We're going to win today and we're going to get top 4.

Tonight is the night, when two becomes one.