GWT: EPL week 29

Burner Account

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Feb 14, 2008
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I think in any given season, Goodison is one of Liverpool’s toughest non-top six fixtures. With that said, I’m usually ok with a draw.

Optimistic as I’ve been, this is a blow. Big picture, City has two more wins than Liverpool and every Premier League title has been won by the team that won the most games. We’ve seen champions with different combinations of W/D/L but at the end of the day, the champions win the most games and City is very clearly the favorite IMO.
 

YNWA14

Onbreekbaar
Dec 29, 2010
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Right, okay. Not outwardly targeting your players in the media is completely normal.

The wind thing, which is what was being discussed, is insane and has nothing to do with protecting his players, though.

Van Dijk was the only Pool player that showed up today.
Yes to all of this.

Unfortunately van Dijk being the only outfield player to show up is not an overly uncommon occurence for us this season.

Also a few of the players on the team aren't as good as some think. It also looks more and more like some teams are just learning how to smother certain players and take them mostly out of the game and our plan B is non-existant.
 

Havre

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Well. Considering Liverpool would be miles ahead of everyone for most years in the PL era with 70 points after 29 games we shouldn´t pretend they have had all that many games with only VVD showing up.

I don´t mind setting the bar high, but that is just too simple and quite frankly borderline disrespectful to the rest of the players.

I don´t expect City to have another December, but things could turn around again.
 

Evilo

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Nothing's done for either team.

I wonder who those players who "aren't as good as some think" are.
 

Live in the Now

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Nothing's done for either team.

I wonder who those players who "aren't as good as some think" are.

Yeah I'm curious too. Probably the league's second leading scorer or some stupid shit.

I will admit that I am concerned, but this is a proper title race and anything can happen in the remaining games. What we needed today was a player like Benayoun who would score from nothing like at Fulham 10 years ago. I am pleased with the progress Liverpool made to get to this position but a failure would be very difficult to swallow.
 

Evilo

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Can't be, he said just last week he was an elite player.

As I've said many times, Klopp has made this team look like an allstar team collectively, but they're not all stars offensively.
And blaming Salah seems weird to me. He's been an offensive catalyst, which is the most you can expect from him. He won't redo his last year most likely.
 

Savant

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Yeah I'm curious too. Probably the league's second leading scorer or some stupid ****.

I will admit that I am concerned, but this is a proper title race and anything can happen in the remaining games. What we needed today was a player like Benayoun who would score from nothing like at Fulham 10 years ago. I am pleased with the progress Liverpool made to get to this position but a failure would be very difficult to swallow.
Liverpool had players like that on the bench today, but Milner and Lallana went on instead.

This summer their offensive depth, at forward, wing and midfield needs to be overhauled. This has been needed since Klopp has been there and been neglected because of Klopp's reliance on the old guard, and unwillingness to keep a big squad.

Personally I am done with all the Rodgers era players. Go find more Fabinhos
 

Stray Wasp

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I agree, it's an absurd comparison, as Longstaff is nowhere near Rice's level today. And yet...a not-so-insignificant number of Newcastle supporters felt fit to make the claim. I'd say it's certainly pretty telling that Rice, a year plus Longstaff's junior, has been getting PL appearances for a year and a half, while Longstaff has just made the jump on a thinner Newcastle side a month ago.

To be fair to those Newcastle fans, Martin Keown, a man never to be confused with the smartest person in the room, made the original comparison and they just ran with it.

Well, when you take into account that in the previous five years the NUFC's academy's product of greatest note was Paul Dummett little wonder that some souls are thrilling to Longstaff's successes.

As you say, there is most certainly a reason Longstaff has taken so long to break into the team - he's neither physically imposing nor blessed with inordinate skill.

Coincidentally, Rice's midfield partner, Noble, is an illustration that a player can lack both those things and endure at EPL level. However I think that means, like Noble, Longstaff will prove more dependent than most on having a balanced midfield around him to help bring the best out of him once clubs around the league have scouted him.

Noble, incidentally, is a reminder that NUFC fans don't have the monopoly on becoming overexcited about prospects who subsequently crash their heads off a modest ceiling.

As for Rice, he deserves plenty of praise of his performance yesterday. But caution is the best path, not least when the Hammers have taken one point from their previous five away games, and if the hype increases, so will the expectation that he dominates beyond his back yard. Whisper it, but the present fuss surrounding Rice - a mixture of acclaim for his performances, sunny predictions for his future, and debate about whether centre back or central midfield will turn out to be his best position - carries echoes of a young Jack Rodwell.

Mind, given his performances for sunderland post-August 2016, Jack Rodwell is someone I won't have a word said against.
 

Cassano

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Neglecting Pickford's blunder and Mahrez penalty miss, the gap would be at 6 points. To be quite honest, that is the fair difference between the two teams.
 

Live in the Now

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Can't be, he said just last week he was an elite player.

As I've said many times, Klopp has made this team look like an allstar team collectively, but they're not all stars offensively.
And blaming Salah seems weird to me. He's been an offensive catalyst, which is the most you can expect from him. He won't redo his last year most likely.

I think he can actually redo last season. The problem is that the midfield has not been as creative as last season, which is why Alexander-Arnold and Robertson have so many assists. If the midfield was linking up correctly with him things could be much different.

Neglecting Pickford's blunder and Mahrez penalty miss, the gap would be at 6 points. To be quite honest, that is the fair difference between the two teams.

Then you throw in all the dives by both teams and some of the goals Liverpool were robbed of and it's basically the same.

You can't neglect individual events in a season because all of those things happened to bring us where we are now, and the table now is the way it should be. Things like even a bad yellow card impact a game through how that player plays to lead to a result, there are hundreds of such events in a season. Pretending any of them didn't happen is impossible, and as you just showed, it can look any which way if you only pick the ones you want to point out.
 
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Cassano

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Then you throw in all the dives by both teams and some of the goals Liverpool were robbed of and it's basically the same.

You can't neglect individual events in a season because all of those things happened to bring us where we are now, and the table now is the way it should be. Things like even a bad yellow card impact a game through how that player plays to lead to a result, there are hundreds of such events in a season. Pretending any of them didn't happen is impossible, and as you just showed, it can look any which way if you only pick the ones you want to point out.
Similar level defenses, but City are a class above offensively. Looking at xG, City do have a 5 pt advantage.
 

YNWA14

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Similar level defenses, but City are a class above offensively. Looking at xG, City do have a 5 pt advantage.
City are better and are rightfully the favorites. Finishing 2nd and making a decent CL run is still a great season especially when you consider the quality they are facing. They will most likely end up with the most points they've ever had and it probably wont be enough. Curses.

Still they aren't completely out obviously and they have 11 games to see how it goes. Miracles happen; hopefully if it does fall short Klopp can still build on it and identify the shortfalls.
 
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Burner Account

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City are better and are rightfully the favorites. Finishing 2nd and making a decent CL run is still a great season especially when you consider the quality they are facing. They will most likely end up with the most points they've ever had and it probably wont be enough. Curses.

Still they aren't completely out obviously and they have 11 games to see how it goes. Miracles happen; hopefully if it does fall short Klopp can still build on it and identify the shortfalls.
I think one point that keeps making the rounds is that it might still be pretty early in this competitive window for Liverpool. As LITN said, failure this season would be very painful but it looks like they'll have this core in place for at least a couple more seasons and that sounds pretty promising.
 

East Coast Bias

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Its a 1 point difference with 9 games to go.........

Anyway, the master of all scorned exes (Jose) has some thoughts on Solskjaer.

"But sometimes in football, and you have the example with my former club (Man Utd hiring Solskjaer), that sometimes changes on the immediate - I don’t believe too much in these changes in the long term - but these changes on the immediate, there are sometimes some positive results."


Piss off. Hope he ends up coaching in MLS and sitting in a room full of local basketball beat writers filling in for the day he thoughts on the world.
 

Chimaera

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I mean, it can’t be Henderson or Gini.

To be fair, some of the players aren’t as good as their best run, but some aren’t as bad. They still need a few parts (attacking midfielder for one, second choice striker for two, healthy CB beyond Virgil).

I don’t know that it’s early in the window, as you never know in football. A good chance is gone (if they don’t pull it off) and we all know City will continue to improve and spend as well. I also can’t think Chelsea, United and Spurs will sit on their hands. I don’t expect the core to go, but it will remain to be seen what happens if big money from Real or PSG unsettled players.

I still have hope, as I think being the chaser not the chased suits Klopp and this team better, but it’s really hard to excuse the collapse.
 

Savant

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I'm done defending Henderson, or any of the other non-Klopp hold overs. Henderson was wretched yesterday. Only played one good ball the entire game.

I do think Henderson would be relatively okay coming off the bench to see put the last 20 min or so, but whenever he starts I cringe. I think all the fancy stats also back up that LFC is worse with him than without him too.
 

koyvoo

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Savant

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Its a 1 point difference with 9 games to go....
Drawn too many games, momentum may be gone, no depth. Doesn't mean it's over, but means its uphill. Too many draws from a winning position too

Just like 08 09 when they lost two games all season, drew 11, and finished 4 points behind an all time PL level team from Manchester. It sucks. Klopp can say it's not Playstation, but when you drop points to Leicester and West Ham, you can't be passive at Old Trafford against a weakened Utd side, and you can't play one half at Goodison. Since 2019 they are hemorrhaging points on the road
 

Halladay

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Drawn too many games, momentum may be gone, no depth. Doesn't mean it's over, but means its uphill. Too many draws from a winning position too

Just like 08 09 when they lost two games all season, drew 11, and finished 4 points behind an all time PL level team from Manchester. It sucks. Klopp can say it's not Playstation, but when you drop points to Leicester and West Ham, you can't be passive at Old Trafford against a weakened Utd side, and you can't play one half at Goodison. Since 2019 they are hemorrhaging points on the road
Im not sure how KDB being banged up will effect them. You also have factor in the champions league. I think they would priortize that over the league as that is why Pep was brought in. This is far from over, but Liverpool doesnt control it anymore and arent playing well.
 

YNWA14

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I'm done defending Henderson, or any of the other non-Klopp hold overs. Henderson was wretched yesterday. Only played one good ball the entire game.

I do think Henderson would be relatively okay coming off the bench to see put the last 20 min or so, but whenever he starts I cringe. I think all the fancy stats also back up that LFC is worse with him than without him too.
Yeah Henderson has been very inconsistent since he got plantar fasciitis. He goes from performing as he did against Bayern to dropping duds like against Everton. He's probably not long for Liverpool, or at least definitely not in a starting capacity.

Most of the core is pretty young though so there will definitely be opportunity moving forward to strengthen and push on for the next couple seasons I would hope.
 

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