Me too. I could live with the Madrid loss, I expected it. But this... this would be a bad, bad loss even though I respect Spurs and Pochettino.
If We Win - Its a Beautiful Dawn,Vindication finally for all the near misses for Us(& Klopp) and could potentially fuel our title charge next season as 'European Champions'. If We Lose - 'We just dont know to get over the line' rhetoric will rear its ugly head again..We'll still be back at the races next year but Winning just makes the world a better place no? Klopp mentioned in an interview that he tried twice but failed cruelly to get Mainz promoted and it happened at the third time of asking and he might need the same luck on the 1st of June in Madrid. Will be gutted beyond belief for the Players and Klopp if this project that started almost 4 yrs back doesn't kickstart into over drive with that Elusive first piece of Silverware (which like I've mentioned earlier could quite literally open the floodgates to many many more) YNWA.
It should be a good match and we should win. Alas, "should" has never actually won a damn thing, so go out there and annihilate them boys!
I presume folks have seen the FB meme about Liverpool beating the champions of various countries en route to the final. It is actually impressive, especially when matched up against Spurs' journey which included only 1 champion (City) and saw them getting tonked at home to Barca in the group stages. But it should also be remembered that our journey included a skin-of-your-teeth, breath-taking save by Alisson to get past Napoli 1-0. Granted, we have improved by leaps and bounds in the knock-out rounds and Spurs' overall record recently has been spotty. Though don't take anything away from back to back aggregate wins over City and Ajax. Simply, if we see the Liverpool of 4-0 over Barca and the Spurs of 0-1 (h) of West Ham, then this is going to be a very one-sided final. In truth, we should have too much for them, with our back 4 in majestic form and the front 3 brimming with confidence. First up, the team. I'd go with the usual back 4 (TAA rather than Gomez), the usual front 3, assuming a fit Firmino. If not, then Origi, but I could see Shaqiri. The midfield has to see Fabinho start and it'll be difficult to leave out Wijnadum after his Barca heroics. If this were last season, I might be inclined to start Milner ahead of Henderson, but Henderson has shown too much value at both ends of the pitch especially in the back end of this season to be sat down. Milner, AOC, Lallana or Shaqiri might all be in with a chance, but Henderson is the best pick of that bunch. Keita has traveled to Spain for the warm weather training, but I wonder of that's not more for unity and camarderie than present ability? Even if fully fit, I still think Henderson gets the nod. That training squad, by the way, is: Alisson, Mignolet, Kelleher; Alexander-Arnold, Gomez, Lovren, Matip, Moreno, Robertson, Van Dijk; Fabinho, Henderson, Keita, Jones, Lallana, Milner, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaqiri, Wijnaldum, Woodburn; Brewster, Firmino, Mane, Origi, Salah, Sturridge. In the final itself, both sides are permitted 23 players; the above list has 26, so 3 to miss out. So to Spurs. What about them? The most obvious personnel observation is the injuries to Dele Alli, Vertonghen and Kane. All will probably be in the squad (and maybe even the team come kick off), but match fitness has to be a very real concern. Kane has been out since April 9th (53 days come kick off) and Dele Alli took a knock on the last day of the season. Vertonghen was injured in the away Ajax leg. Still, as Lallana showed last season, the Champions League Final is not the place to be hawking your wares when not fully fit. I think we might see Kane start on the bench. But Moura's Amsterdam heroics aside, the key man for Spurs is Son. A superb player, he would make this Liverpool side and has really stepped up in the absence of Kane. I see him as a Firmino type - prepared to track back and often on the end of moves. Moura played very well against us at the back end of March and there was an inevitability about his name appearing on the score sheet, such was his play and persistence that day. As he showed in Amsterdam, when he's on, he is quite the handful. Eriksen is a class player, but too often goes missing, especially when the going gets tough. I would expect Henderson, Fabinho or Wijnaldum to put in a few choice tackles there early on, though hopefully without a yellow. Rose and Trippier are really good attacking full backs in the TAA/Robertson mould, but perhaps, like TAA, questions have been asked of their defensive prowess. There has been a few pundits and observers who think beating a team 3 times in one season is quite the ask and I suppose there's a nugget of truth there. But in reality, I think having beaten Spurs home and away so far, this should allow Liverpool to believe and understand. This Spurs side is not invincible, they do have a soft underbelly, you can get to them. Liverpool have found out how. Granted the Anfield game was last-gasp stuff and maybe Lloris is due a world class game, but I don't rate the Spurs defense as a cohesive unit. They've lost 5 of the last 8 in all competitions, shipping 12 goals, while scoring 9. Their end of season form in the League of 1 win, 3 losses and a draw is a reminder of how fragile they can be. Yes, undoubtedly, they pulled off heroics beating both City and Ajax, but both those ties were close run things, both on away goals and not the emphatic wins of Liverpool. For all the form book, pretty much anything can happen in a one-off final. Salah/Ramos last season? No one predicted that, nor indeed Bale's wonder strikes. Form doesn't exactly go out the window, but perhaps it's not as important an indicator what with a month or more for both sides to prepare. Had the final been a week after the season's end, I think Liverpool would have been prohibitive favorites; but with a month to rest injuries and focus the teams, I think that'll stand Spurs in their stead. Not to say it won't also help Liverpool, as the last few weeks of our season were particularly frenetic, so a pause, a break and a regroup should work wonders. But the huge plus Liverpool have on their side, probably even more than form, is experience. They were in touching distance last season, almost there, they could taste it. That defeat left a personal debt the players and the team want to repay. The depth in the respective squads favors Liverpool - a half fit Lallana is now not the only option if Salah gets injured. Yes, Spurs do have decent replacements, probably better than we had last season, but I can't help feeling Spurs are more the team of 6 wins in the last 17, since the back end of February, rather than a team purring with class and oozing confidence. Like most games, it'll be won and lost in midfield and as good and energetic as Spurs' midfield is, Liverpool's is better.
well, obviously There are a couple of ways, but let's say we go out and play a devastating game and don't give spurs the chance to find any of them... how about that....???
I didn't expect it- but I feared it.... and I didn't like the starting midfield as much as I would have with AOC in in place of one of them, and of course, with the likes of Bale and Ronaldo anything can happen.... We did, nonetheless, run Madrid ragged for the firs t25 minutes until that spawn if Satan that is Sergio Ramos did his first bit of sabotage... but this year we have a stronger midfield flexibility, and spurs are not Madrid.
The only team choices are in midfield - rest of the team picks itself (assuming Bobby is fit enough and he is in training). I love Milner, but would go with Fabinho, Henderson and Wijnaldum. Milner can come off the bench and fill any role and so I see him as first sub barring injuries. Hesitate to give predictions but I do really think we need to press high and cause them problems. They play through the midfield impressively and even at Anfield caused us problems and had us on the back foot at times. I just think our forwards have too much for them.
agree 100% my main concern is that (after learning how to do it watching us vs Barca) their result vs Ajax has given them more mental toughness and they will want to repeat that kind of performance. that, and Moura's confidence is at an all-time high.
I agree they will be on a high as we will be - should be a cracking match but we must win the midfield
This is key. Liverpool normally come of the blocks and does remarkably well at the start of games in terms of pressing. Over the season there has been times where the press is not intense and this maybe game management or a lack of fitness/energy. For this game we need the fitness and skills that the club has been working on since pre-season. Every advantage every joule of energy needs to be made use of. Tottenham are known to lose their rag, get hurt, get violent and be emotional when things don't go their way. Case in point when things don't go their way while playing against Chelsea (not sure if it was during the leicester winning season), and Alli. Get them to this stage. Let the emotions get the better of them. That is half the battle.
Klopp has lost once to Spurs in 9 games since he arrived. We are clearly the better team, so as long we don't shit the bed, we should come out on top.
my 2 cents here ..... I'd say if we play to 90% of out spectacular best we will outscore them and dominate. It's up to us not to be at 75% and allow them to make it a tight contest, where anyone can win near the end...
I agree. It's down to how we play, but its likely to be a tight on regardless as that is how pretty much all our games with them are.
I don't know. The last time we beat them was before Salah returned to really electric form.. With him playing like he played the last few league games (before Wolves) we prob would have been 3-0 up at half time at Anfield.... I want to see Mane, Firmino and Salah really having a slaughter run at them...........