Yeah - one of my Arsenal friends - who has always been ‘Liverpool are good enough to win the league, but MC has just been a bit better’ suddenly became ‘wow, start to complain about referees and now they’re gifting you penalties’ My response? ‘Nine points clear - I just enjoying where we are’
Who has been our player of the season so far? I think we have 5 contenders who have all been consistently brilliant. All 5 have been putting in man of the match type performances game in and game out. Salah Gravenberch Van Dijk Konate Diaz Anyone that I’m leaving out?
in almost all our games this season, you could make a strong case for 4-5 players as motm. this list is the same. if you put a gun to my head I'd say Virgil or Mo. if you then cocked the hammer I'd say Mo. edit: you'll have to pull the trigger, I can't decide. read this: Van Dijk’s performance was entirely in keeping with his season so far. This is the other thing about Liverpool’s progress under Slot, the obvious improvement of individuals, including mature Klopp-engineered parts. Van Dijk has been quietly sensational. He has the most passes of any player in the Premier League so far this season, although this is as much a reflection of Slot’s influence, the added air in the system, time for the players to breathe in between the surges. He is equal second in the league for interceptions alongside Kenny Tete and Mario Lemina but in a team that always has the ball. This is someone who really is very good at interceptions. Van Dijk has also attempted only 11 tackles all season (158th in Europe’s top five leagues, fewer than Marcus Rashford). Tackles are weakness. Van Dijk doesn’t tackle. He politely intervenes. Even more startling, he has committed only seven fouls – total, period, that’s it – all season and picked up one yellow card. These are sensational non-numbers, fiercely assertive passivity. This is a footballer who is literally taking the football out of every opponent he faces. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/dec/02/virgil-van-dijk-liverpool-keystone-spirit-animal
He certainly is holding his own, and I have started to wonder if Alisson might have some trouble getting his starting position back. You'd think he'd have been available this last week against Man City...
Counterpoint: he inherited the greatest player in history and promoted what, 3-4 more top 100’of all time players from La Masia that were ready? Let’s not pretend he tore it down and rebuilt it. They had won the damn CL in 2006!
no big disagreement frm me there, but he did comprehend and institute that style, and Messi didn;t play that pass-bamboozle style either before Guardiola, or after he left barca (where they still tried to retain it (post-xavi) to some degree) when he went to PSG....
It's not a logical view. Basically - if a player slides and misses the ball and trips a player with less than 5% of his body (his foot usually) everyone then says it's a stone, nailed-on penalty. The attacker isn;t usually asked - "why didn't you just jump clear and not get tripped" in that situation, so why the fvck would he be asked to jump clear of an even bigger tripping obstacle - i.e- approx 50% of the keeper's entire body impeding his running direction? Human perception is odd sometimes.....
Nah! Diaz leapt over Ortega could have easily cleared him but just had to dangle his foot. Hey I’m happy we got the pk.
Yeah I say Virg. Best defense in the prem. Arguably in Europe, by the performances? He's kept everything calm, everyone tuned in. His influence cannot be overstated.
Unbelievable, really! I've been following LFC since 2003 and have never seen a trainer in his first season succeed so dramatically so fast. Even Klopp's 1st season wasn't this good but to be fair, Klopp didn't have the squad quality that Slot has. Under Slot, almost every player is having their best season at LFC. It's as if he's turned on a switch within our club that was turned off after the Utd loss in the FA Cup last season.
I was gonna suggest Kell but - great as he has been - I'd find it hard to say his performances have had the biggest influence on our success so far. At this point I think it's totally impossible to select between Mo and Virgil, so I'm gonna go with two (yes, Pep - two. TWO!!) players of the season. nothing to say we can't do that
They should have arrested their whole f.ucking team for chanting about Hillsborough and Sean Cox a few years back.
I think this current thinness of squad is due to them actually trying to compete within FFP rules since 2019 (the year after their final FFP breaches occurred). The problem is they had already screwed up their wage system, and so have had to pay much higher wages than are easily sustainable. Hence, the lack of depth in an aging squad. They tried to shortcut building up their club with financial doping, but as with all forms of doping there are consequences.
Nearly all. Not for Trump. He just gets dopier and dopier and getting away with everything..... while people dope themselves down to believe in it... Still - i suppose it would be funny if there was a God waiting after all.....
Can you please just restrict the political comments to the Random Thoughts thread? We know the next 4 years are going to be a shitshow at the governmental level - dont need to see it pervade the regular football threads.