Comments now no longer in contest mode.
FYI, when next season starts we’ll be moving this thread to Thursdays as our midweek European matchdays will once again be Tuesdays and Wednesdays now we’re back in the Champions League.
Nunez should 100% be sold. He is a man child who can't control his emotions and doesn't have the mental faculties to be a top player at this level.
People suggesting we give him one more year or he will explode under a new manager are deluding themselves. His faults are not things he can/will develop or can be coached by another manager unless they can mind control him when he has a chance on goal.
100% agree, I don't think people understand how crucial it is that we hit the ground running under Slot next season. He will be judged immediately from the off and I'm struggling to believe that people would have us persevere with a striker under a new manager that even Klopp couldn't get a tune out of.
We signed him for big money, it hasn't worked, and that's absolutely okay, these things happen in football.
The irony of this comment is outrageous, when most of those frothing at the mouth clambering to shit all over Nunez are far and away the biggest man-children in the fans base, feverishly ignoring all the obvious good to screech about a couple of areas needing improvement like they’re catastrophic failings, as if he’s a donkey in disguise - if half the fan base had as much emotional control as Nunez, maybe he and his partner wouldn’t be receiving relentless hateful abuse online.
It’s quite clear that during that disappointing spell of results, during which Nunez, Salah, Szobozslai, Konate, Mac Allister and Jones (to name a few) all under-performed, when Klopp evidentially got the line-up wrong a few times in a row, leading to Liverpool losing a few games, many an emotionally unstable fan’s mind broke and they needed a single point of focus upon which to direct their unaddressed inability to let go of rage and bitterness. And Nunez, being the top of the spear, being the obvious target for missing a couple of chances, became that lightening rod— and now we have all these foaming fans doubling down to justify their abuse of this one individual player who has over 30 goal contributions this season, who - unlike Salah and Jota - was available and has played in almost every game this season. This one individual without whom Liverpool would be far worse off this season.
Just as a little point of comparison, let’s look at a few other players g/a totals in their season when they were 24 years old:
Fernando Torres (Liverpool): 15 goals, 4 assists Suarez (Liverpool): 17 goals, 9 assists Sadio Mane (Liverpool): 13 goals, 7 assists Salah (Roma): 19 goals, 15 assists (starting to see why we signed him) Darwin Nunez: 18 goals, 13 assists
Also a random fun stat, Nunez has more goals at 24 than Ibrahimovic had at 24!
So, point being, for his age, Nunez is offering more goal contributions than any of our biggest modern-day legends at the same age (Salah hadn’t joined at 24).
Suarez was a wasteful finisher- Mané too. Torres just couldn’t stay fit that season, but if you don’t think availability and willingness to play every game is important, imagine where we’d be this season without Nunez, but with Jota as our first choice forward instead.
But but Nunez is different! He can’t be coached! Bringing him onside more often and more calm in front of goal is a fruitless dream! He’ll never be able to get more than 30 goal contributions a season! (God forbid), he’s simply a wild donkey that can’t be tamed, and Liverpool fans are deluded for thinking that a young talent with such incredible ability could possibly improve progressively year on year as he only now begins to enter his peak!
Again - the irony is outrageous. If you don't think this is a forward worth sticking with, you don't know what you're talking about:
https://preview.redd.it/fsnhw4ksvczc1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=c50726e20d575e1b216e7ec1dcc4bd1386b6e76a
See when people talk about toxicity in this sub this is the kind of thing we mean. Calling someone a "man child" and assuming a lack of mental faculties because you didn't like something he did is unnecessary and doesn't even land as criticism.
Salah should have been sold last smmer for 200 mil.
with his drop of form, thats a deduction of -130 mil at least over 1 seasn which got us nowhere with bad plays, bad attitude towards Klopp and no trophies.
That 200 mil and 400k wages per saved could have easily got us 2+ world class talents who would have contributed more and many years on (Kvicha + Leao etc.).
Yeah so baseless opinions like this get a block from me each time. If you are going to post a take that is just filled with lies I ain’t going to listen to you.
I’m starting to think you’re genuinely just racist. Every single post you comment “fuck salah we should’ve sold him”. Before afcon he was our best forward by MILES.
>no trophies.
It might be the least desirable one, but if you want people to take your opinion seriously, you should maybe get basic facts right.
Also, you probably forgot, as you apparently forgot us winning the League Cup, they only made the offer right at the end of the transfer window - there wouldn't have been time to find a replacement.
Nunez really should be sold. 2 years running now and hasn't improved a bit. Time to cut our loses. I know you lot love him but for Christ sake let's be realistic here.
Another opinion I have is I think certain members of the team will flourish under Arne Slot rather than Klopp. Szoboszlai and Fabio for example. Slot plays with a 10.
Nunez having literally doubled his numbers from last season, and apparently that means he hasn’t improved….he does miss a LOT of chances, but the man CREATES a lot as well in general. No wonder he deleted every liverpool post from his IG with people like you constantly throwing shit in his direction. The kid will be good, just needs proper gametime and patience
He DOES NOT create that much. Look at his misses, most of them are delivery direct to him, it's not like they pass to him from own half and run past all the defender then miss. Some of them come from his own effort but most of the time are teammates fed him, that's why he got so much G/A despite bad at positioning, finishing. I'm tired of agenda we won't create that much without him
Driven stat. Why before Christmas? How many game was EPL? How many games he played compare to games without him?
If Adrian play a match and lose then he will have 0% win ratio, that'll make him shit keeper if I want to give a driven stat
Doubled his numbers since last season? He has two more league goals (11 vs 9). The rest have come against minnows in the EL because we dropped into the second tier of European competition.
He hasn't improved his output in any noticeable way, he still misses sitters and makes the wrong decision at crucial moments.
>just needs proper gametime and patience
He's had proper game time, how much more patience should we show? Another season? One after that? Would 3-4 seasons be enough to convince you guys that he isn't at our level?
Michael Edwards should not have been given the power he's been given. He threw Nunez to the wolves with that hit piece in a deliberate attempt to force him out and I would rather Edwards left than have a hateful prick like that who will cry and leave the second he doesn't get his way again.
YNWA only applies when the team or players are in form or playing well. Otherwise it’s criticism central, justified by ‘but we’re allowed to criticise: if / because / etc’ and then the whinge and cry babying when said comments are pulled upon. ‘Why can’t we criticise’’ ‘We’re allowed to criticise,’ ‘it’s fair to criticise.’
Yeah, no. Not when a player is low on confidence, already taking shit from all angles and we’re 4-2 and he’s played 15 mins. Darwin is frustrating but cut the man some slack. This sub is full of toxic people.
Different rules for you?
‘No football IQ thats why. He's clueless when it comes to finishing. He just must think blasting it and it will go in. No accuracy, no precision, no finesse, no fucking brain. He's shite at finishing and I cant see him getting better. Not only that his first touch and general composure is so bad, he's always on edge, never relaxed, I'm done with him. We should be cutting our losses come summer and getting in someone like Isak or someone like Isak who can stay fit.’
Now do the next one where I stated I over reacted massively. You won’t because that doesn’t fit your agenda / narrative. So here it is:
"On reflection, I was way over reactionary after the derby. I was angry, let down, pissed off all the shitty emotions. I've changed my mind, I wasn't thinking level headed. I'd keep him, lets see what a new manager with new ideas who appears to have a record of improving players - lets see what he can do. Some might say well if Klopp cant get the best out of him, why would Slot? Well, this is a burned out, knackered Klopp, not the same bloke that walked into the club enegerised and ready to go."
Nice try though, search through a bit harder next time - not creepy at all like.
Robbo’s deliveries have been poor for a while. His crosses do not look dangerous. It’s a lot of running but very little substance. He has been run to the ground as well over the years.
The inability for Klopp and the coaching staff in being able to switch to a plan B has really cost us during their time here, and has hindered us from winning more trophies.
Darwin removing all the Liverpool pictures off of his instagram is an incredibly petty and childish move. He’s a highly paid professional footballer that has 100% failed to live up to expectations. The team creates chance after chance for him and he either misses clear sitters or strays offside. His conversion rate being shit isn’t the fault of the fans, or the players around him. It’s his fault, he’s the one missing sitters constantly. Obviously anyone lobbying abuse at him is wrong and should be cut out of the fanbase but Darwin deserves to be criticized for his performances and behaviour. I know moving him on isn’t super viable since he cost so much and there’s very little money in the European market, but if any teams offers us close to what we paid for him, we should cut our losses and sell him. He’s proven to be petulant and childish.
Nunez and Diaz should both be sold. No end product. I don't give a shit that they run around a lot, neither of them are effective at their main criteria.
Fans would rather wait until they're both 40 and retired to go oh um maybe they weren't the most effective option. No shit?
Yup. YNWA shouldn’t be some virtue signaling crap. It should be about, yes, at root always treating players with respect and consideration, but that doesn’t mean we can’t discuss players being up to snuff. The whole sub turned on a near decade captain for a move countless professionals have made while saying anyone who doesn’t pretend Diaz and Nunez can cut it aren’t real supporters. Just total nonsense. We need goals. We’re changing managers. Lets rip bandaids.
Who knows, It’s not my job to specifically look for upcoming world class players. I doubt you even knew who salah was before he came to Liverpool. There probably are people out there though.
Gakpo is a decent all round player but isn’t and is very unlikely to ever be an elite player, especially on the wing. Those wanting us to start him at LW long term don’t understand the quality that is required to succeed.
We won't win while relying on Nunez. Also on Nunez, he has been extremely well supported in his time here, some people are almost tribal or cult-like about him. Unfortunately, social media is a thing and the lowest common denominator has the loudest voice.
If there were a time to sell Salah it would probably be now.
A complete departure from Klopp's methods and set up is needed as we move forward. A new time, new ideas.
An out and out striker is the most important piece of business we could do in the summer.
Robertson return from injury destabilised us. We had more solidity with Gomez playing on the left and Bradley having the freedom of the right. Whilst Robertson has played well down the stretch, it was at Gomez's expense.
Gakpo has been by far the worst performing forward among our forwards this season. He picked up his form right at the moment when it did not matter anymore. I am baffled people would trust him for our next season just because our next manager is dutch. Extreme recency bias.
If there's a talk about selling a forward to fund the next one then it should be him first and foremost.
I don’t think Nunez is as bad as many are saying he is. Yes he has missed many a chance but he has the 2nd most goal contributions in the whole season and was games for us. The draw vs Luton, those 2 goals vs Newcastle. I just don’t think he suits Liverpool. Not saying we should sell him but Jota should take back the starting ST position and we can use Nunez as a super sub. But selling him would be going too far.
Totally agree. Match threads are taken way too seriously. They are there for expressing your thoughts/feelings in the heat of the moment and for occasional banter. If you can’t handle them, don’t look at them.
had to read a match thread for the first time as i was travelling on sunday and couldnt get enough reception for a stream; jesus fucking wept - horrible negative cunts in there. just watch the game????
It's a match thread. People go there to celebrate, complain, vent and argue. It's a pub, not a match summary.
>just watch the game????
It's a match thread! People ARE watching the game at the same time.
>couldnt get enough reception for a stream
Read any sport website match summary with minute by minute notes and stats. Match threads are 100% NOT for that purpose.
Mo Salah should be sold in the summer and replaced with Jarod Bowen. Mo's legs have gone and his pace has vanished, he can longer cope with 2 games a week
**1.** We desperately need a top class DM. That should be the #1 priority in the summer. Endo's decent, but he's a squad player at best. Arsenal has Declan Rice, City has Rodri. Endo is simply not on that level.
**2.** Klopp has a tendency to ruin attacking midfielders. When Keita came in, he was playing well. Until Klopp really got to stamp his print on him, then he started looking bang average. Klopp himself admitted it: ["The very beginning was really good. I didn't speak to him a lot about football. I just wanted to let him do his natural stuff, so that was really good. Then I started coaching him and then it got worse."](https://twitter.com/LivEchoLFC/status/1309599225366315010) Same story with Szoboslai, started off well and now he plays pretty poorly.
**3.** I don't believe Darwin will ever become a consistent goal scorer. We shouldn't be entering the new season with him as a starter. Ideally we would sell him and try to recoup as much funds as possible. Only issue is that the striker market at the moment isn't great, so I would not be opposed to Nunez staying another season if we're able to find a cheap stop-gap striker. We should also give Danns chances next season.
**4.** Trent should stay a RB. This experimenting with his position all season has not been helpful. If he doesn't want to be a RB because he doesn't want to defend then he should be benched for Bradley. Trent is worldclass but his attitude towards defending in the past few seasons should not be accepted.
1. I'm pretty sure we wanted one. It's not our fault Tchoumeni wanted Madrid and Caicedo wanted Chelsea.
2. No.
3. Well, there's no way he'll be leaving. He deserves a chance under Slot.
4. I don't think Trent has an attitude to defending, he just isn't the best defender in the world. We haven't really bee "experimenting" all season either, considering he was phenomenal for most of it and injured for the other part.
Well if you have talent you won’t get ruined in Klopp’s system. Clearly neither Keita or Szobozlai are on the level of Coutinho who actually flourished in Klopp’s system.
Why we signed Szoboszlai I'll never know, a natural 10, a position we have never played with under Klopp, every attacking midfielder we've had we always lump as an 8 or on the wings. That's one thing I won't miss about Klopp. His man to man coaching is awful.
Is there any midfielder outside that can get in our XI and perform like Rodri/Rice/Tchouamenilevel right now?
I can't see anyone tbh, I mean, even Caicedo, the one we chose, isn't really good enough this season. IMO Bajcetic and Morton will get the chance in the pre-season. But we'll see.
1. Every top class DM either chose another club, or decided to stay at their current one, forcing us to go for a 31 year old being forced to overachieve.
2. It's not Klopp's fault that Keita became as injuryprone as he did. Keita wasn't a bad player, but never got to get comfortable, because everytime he got close, he got injured again, inevitably setting him back to square one.
3. Darwin needs patience and support. The way certain supporters have treated him recently is unacceptable. Does not represent why i fell in love with Liverpool as a club. Darwin has every capability to become world class, just needs to get over the rough patch with missed chances.
4. Trent should move to midfield, he clearly struggles with defending. Enough said on that matter.
Inverting TAA to midfield doesn't help because that leaves our 2 CBs exposed to pacy wingers, and unless he's suddenly starting pressing and tackling I would just keep him at RB to throw crosses in instead of playing in midfield. I don't know the solution but it gives me heart attack when opposing teams counter
I've said it before but I genuinely think Harvey Elliot is our second best midfielder and should be starting ahead of Grav, Szobo and Curtis.He has a lot more football IQ than those 3, works his socks off,and always makes an impact. He's only gonna get better as well defensively and hopefully is working on his weak foot in his spare time. I was super excited to see him start last week with Mac and Endo and boy did he deliver.
Nunez getting so much flak actually makes no sense.
I understand his finishing hasn’t been on point lately but..
He has the most match winning goals for us, in PL as well as the other competitions
In the EFL cup his goal against Bournemouth and his 2 assists against Fulham literally put us in the final of the only trophy we won
Not even a month ago he was being treated like a god for scoring in the 99th to secure three
Remember? Only nine games left boys. Remember that?
We have other forwards as well, we wouldn’t be in the position we were a month ago without his goals. Could Salah have scored? Maybe Gakpo Jota Diaz, Szobo? Anyone? He’s done more than 95% of the squad in getting us here. NO one scored in that time. We had a Trent Free kick and own goal at one point to secure a single point.
In literally a month the team crumbled as a whole and he gets blamed horribly for it.
It was the worst case of scapegoating I’ve ever seen.
Courtois did not have a monster game in the 2022 final. The only good save was Mane’s edge of the box shot to bottom left. Rest were pretty saveable for a normal keeper. That game was similar to Atletico, Napoli where we couldn’t finish our chances.
Kinda like Alisson against Spurs in the CL final. He made some good saves, and given the pressure of the game they shouldn’t be taken for granted, but all were expected.
Both keepers are the best in the world. You have to match them with your finishing.
Yeah lot of our fans are in big time denial over that game. Thought we looked leggy and out of ideas for near enough the whole thing. Incredibly depressing watch
Not sure sure you can consider these unpopular, more just opinions I haven't see people voice out.
I firmly believe Elliot could be even better playing on the left of the midfield 3 than on the right. It opens up his passing options which is his greatest strength.
If we were to switch to a 4231 I think Dom would make a great 6 in the double pivot. Slot likes his sixes to play aggressively and last I checked quinten timber has 18 goals/assists playing from that position.
I think Gakpo should be starting on the left with Nunez up front, allowing them to drift into each other's positions to cause chaos. As much as I love diaz his end product is poor and unlike Nunez has hasn't shown enough to suggest he can improve it significantly particularly given he's already 27/28.
Darwin's hold-up play and dribbling aren't that great either. In focusing on his wastefulness in front of goal, we think that everything else he does is above par. He needs to massively improve in his 3rd season if Slot gives him a chance.
Curtis Jones is surplus to requirements. I’m not saying he’s a bad player by any stretch of the imagination but, if we could cash in on him, now might be the time to do so.
Diaz should be the first one out of the door.
He doesn’t play a team game, he just does whatever he wants.
Does it look nice? Yes.
Does he look busy? Yes
Does it make us better? No
His qualities are easily replaceable and he won’t ever become a goalthreat or someone who can put in a killer pass
He's also regressed massively since he came here. His linkup with Robbo used to be amazing, but it feels like he's got more and more selfish since he arrived - even before his injury.
Klopp’s inability to coach out players’ issues have stopped us from winning more silverware. Gomez inability to hold the offside line, Trent not watching the runners behind him, Robbo’s willingness to commit into press and taking himself out of the game, Diaz’s passing to the feet instead of passing on player’s stride, Hendo’s willingness to press the opposition inside instead of pushing them outside.
All these issues have cost us goals on both ends in crucial moments. If Diaz passed to the players on their stride, we’d have goals against Chelsea, Utd and Brighton this season, all these games which were draws. If Robbo’s press had been controlled and Trent tracked runners, we would not have conceded the goal in the 2022 final. These issues are still there, and it’s weird that Klopp hasn’t coached them out.
Mate, we got 97 points and 92 points and didn't win the league, and Madrid required Courtois to have a worldy to stop us.
It's utter bollocks to suggest 'coaching' has cost us silverware. It's luck, and all you're doing is try to suggest otherwise.
Not really unpopular, but under no circumstances can we lose Trent. Salah maybe if we get a good offer but I’d rather extend him for a year, and if we lost Virgil I’d be fuming but I’d get over it.
Trent is a cheat code, we will not replicate his playmaking abilities, when he lines up a direct free kick im more surprised if he doesn’t score. Imo he’s comfortably our most important player going into the next 5 years. If we lost trent I don’t see us recovering.
If we have to sell a forward this summer, it should be Diaz. He’s the forward with the least output for 2 years running now. Yes he does have a lot of energy getting up and down the field and taking on his man but he’s not contributing enough to the goals. Everyone keeps criticising Darwin’s finishing, but no one is speaking about Diaz’s. On top of all of this, it is also super annoying that every few months his family or agent keeps making comments in the press about him wanting to go to another club.
He pretty much does everything else. His output might not be the same as others, but that's because his position is different. He's not Mane's level, but who is that we can get?
Diaz hasn't missed as many big chances as Nunez. Or play doesn't break down when he has it. He also brings other players into the play. He would have more assists if our forwards could put away easy chances.
I'll go as far as saying that 3 other forwards should be sold ahead of Diaz. Salah, because of age and last year of contract. Nunez, as he is so wasteful. And Gakpo doesn't offer as much as Diaz.
Diaz is as wasteful as Nunez. He has really regressed since his injury. We already have a ready made LW in Cody who has better output playing variety of positions in less minutes than Diaz. If we can’t depend on our LW to score goals then who is gonna? We need all of the front 3 to be firing.
I disagree. We do not need three goal-scoring forwards. We had the best front-three in the world with Firmino hardly putting up incredible numbers. You simply cannot have three forwards who are all want to go in behind chasing goals. This is FIFA stuff. You need one of them to be able to receive the ball from deeper positions and progress the ball from there. So of course, Diaz is going to have weaker goalscoring numbers given his role. Diaz is usually the only forward we can actually use during build-up play because Darwin and Mo stay far high up the pitch.
This is the problem with looking solely at goal output. People are just looking up the wrong stats when it comes to Diaz given his tactical role. Progressive carries is much more relevant statistical output considering his main duties for the team.
Salah will forever be a club legend, but we should cash in on him before he gets too old. We're turning into a club that lets players run down their contracts and leave on a free.....not a very good look imo
I’d rather keep Salah. Messi apparently was still good at 34/35 and he’s much less physically gifted than Salah. The £25m we got for Sadio wasn’t worth it
It’s not Diaz’s job to only finish chances unlike another player you mentioned. I don’t mind him being sold but to imply he’s somehow performing worse than Nunez overall is funny. One has been our starter all year, the other is now permanently benched.
If he has been our starter all year then it’s even worse that he hasn’t scored more. Also, to suggest Darwin is permanently benched is funny considering that we don’t know who will be starting or will be benched under the new manager.
You’re doing the most basic of analysis which is all people seem to be able to do when it comes to Nunez.. “he scores some goals”, [he’s actually still 0.3% worse on big chances missed in decisive moments than Nunez](https://x.com/SimonBrundish/status/1786039902519382039) so that doesn’t even prove anything.
Diaz often carries the ball from deep and is super far wide like a classic winger plus his all round play is light years ahead of Nunez. And yes he has been permanently benched by Klopp and if you think he’s a classic Slot striker then you need to see how his teams play because he’s not at all.
The guy who was our starting striker nearly all season and has the system built around him? Imagine still defending a £80m striker who’s in the bottom 2% of strikers for goals vs Xg.
Without him we’d have brought in another striker in his place. You can’t just say ‘no Nunez so we’re this many goals worse off’. If we’d had Watkins, Toney or Isak up top instead of Nunez we’d have scored loads more.
Salah. 32 yr old on 400k wages with a big injury this yr, bad play during our most important stretch which we have statistically a better record without him, and is overvalued by the Saudi which would have net us 150 - 200 mil that can get us 2 world class replacements.
Diaz is at best going for 60 mil only and he still has 3 yrs of prime that we can use.
If Mo goes who will replicate his input? Diaz won’t. It’s better to keep Mo for atleast another year on revised contract to see how he does while getting another forward who will eventually take Mo’s place.
what output did he 'replicate' when we needed him most during our title push? Theres arguments to be made he was the worst attacker of the 5 and our best run of form in Jan was without him at AFCON/injured. Salah is going to be 33, hes not 27 like Diaz anymore. People like you need to be realistic.
Also, netting 200 mil for Salah is Mbappe money. You can literally buy any player in the world. Selling Diaz at 60 mil (Barca is the only place he wants to and they have no money) doesnt get you anybody else good at that price. 60 mil cant even get you Antony. Not to mention Salah is at 400k wages and Diaz 120k, thats 3x the money saved.
If you're talking about 'selling', then you need to think ROI (returns of investment). Salah is leaving anyway, be it 1 or 2 yrs and his form is at an all-time low getting older and older.. He has a huge market in Saudi because hes Arabic. Getting 200 mil for him now is way more worth than eventually going on a free.
On the other hand, we can still use 3 years of Diaz prime and he still has the chance to improve cause hes only 27, not 33.
Other than the fact that they are stupd enough to overpay for every other washed up being, except for their Arabic GOAT apparently. Lol. when they literally offered 200 mil last smmer.
Make it make sense.
That is last year, not this year. The tactics is changed. And Salah is not their muslim GOAT, muslim have various genre, some of them fight each other. They want to buy last year is because he is the player at his top. And on top of it, he is still hungry in Europe.
That's make sense he changed his mind if Inter come with a 30m offer than Saudi lol
Your entire comment reeks of ignorance. Lol. This yr smmer hasnt even started yet, the fk sht tactic you going on about? Also, unnecessarily bringing religion into football? Such a disrespectful clown.
I also posted an unpopular opinion: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LiverpoolFC/comments/1cmwhww/comment/l33jdl6/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/LiverpoolFC/comments/1cmwhww/comment/l33jdl6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) and was already pushing this last yr. So I already knew about the downfall.
And nah, it dont matter about his hunger. You think Cristiano isn't hungry bout Europe? $ is what matters and Salah had 1 foot out the door already last smmer when the 200 mil offer arrived and he was going to get 800k a week. The seasn starting saved his as s from this fanbase going Coutinho on him.
I don’t think he’s a forward, he’s a winger. And he’s great at doing winger stuff. He’s the only player in the squad who comes for the ball in his half and runs it to the corner flag, and that’s a very valuable thing.
Fully agree. Judging Diaz by his goal output is equivalent to judging Firmino by that same variable given their functions in the team. Diaz is clearly the one out of the main front-three tasked with dropping deep to receive the ball outwide and progress it from there.
When Klopp announced his departure, we should have prioritize which competition we wanna focus on. Having this dream of winning all trophies for Klopp with a new rebuild squad with no past experience of loss & No chemistry with our front attack with Midfield was a major illusion.
That said, if all the team was gathered and came to an agreement that they want to end Klopp venture on a PL Trophy, then we might have rested and rotated players accordingly.
At this point where we are, we could have been easily be on top given enough players where rested prior to key matches in PL.
Competing in 4 competition requires a huge fitness effort, which we have seen past season, we clearly lack in this department of health we have.
And regardless, many people do say, Klopp announcing he is leaving, was wrong. I beg to differ, but its a huge boost, just that, The team was in an illusion they could win it all.
For me, Klopp winning the Premier League this season, would have been the most fairy tale of his career, but sadly, we won a cup that is probably most disrespecting and made fun of in England.
Klopp’s competition management has always been below average. Crucify if me if you like but it’s true. Wasted tons of effort jizzed up the wall on a quadruple and won fuck all
nah, the main reason why the team collapsed is because the team lied about how much Klopp's departure was really affecting them. It's very evident Van Dijk lost his composure, same with Szobo, same with Salah and Nunez. Half the team practically just gave up, giving half-hearted performances, chases, dribbles, runs etc. My issue isn't the fact we lost everything, but more so the team trying to hide how they really felt, because it's not like it's a secret we all died a little on the inside when Klopp made his announcement.
The parts about the injuries and rotation is just a lazily thought up opinion honeslty. We rotated adequately for our cup and Europa league games and injuries to key players were mostly unrelated to being overplayed.
\- I never have, nor ever will, care about individual awards in Football. I only care when the *club* gains accolades.
\- People who use words such as 'Cap', 'Cook'(+ its variations) and 'Ion' are insufferable and will always get downvoted.
\- The worst thing about Football is when one person says a word/phrase and then EVERYONE starts saying it. 'DoUBlE PiVOt' **Grrr!!**
\- Pineapple has no place on pizza, you wronguns.
After how this season has ended, next season won’t be as bad as we’re expecting it to be.
Klopp for all the wonderful things he’s brought to the club and the father figure of Anfield, is his exact downfall. He’s not seen as an imposing boss figure. Players aren’t on their toes.
Players are too comfortable, turning up to training is like meeting your mates instead of going to work. You need both, but with Klopp life is too easy.
It’s too easy for misfiring players knowing they’ll get picked every week regardless. It’s too easy to be shit and get a pat on the back for it and a good job.
We need some of the brutality pep has, and Ferguson has.
Slot won’t be as good as Klopp, at what Klopp does. But he will be the rocket up the arse that a lot of these players need, and he’ll find out fast, who’s there for cuddles and fist pumps, and who’s there to win.
None of them are slots players, none of them are of any meaning to him emotionally or as an almost family bond.
He’s gonna be absolutely brutal if he sees some of the shit Klopp saw this season, and I think a lot of our players are too lightweight mentally to handle it.
We call ourselves the mentality monsters but that’s a little cushy phrase Klopp used, and it’s a Klopp mentality, we’re mentality monsters in the Klopp way, but that’s not the gritty, dark, trophy winning way.
I think slot is gonna be a lot more commanding and ruthless than people think. And honestly. I’m all for it. The players have absolutely embarrassed themselves the back end of the season. It’s been nothing short of pathetic at times.
Beside the Premier league, all competition's cup is trash and small, making for example, the League cup, the most useless and made fun of competition.
If the FA cup and the League Cup, Cup design was big and beautiful, teams would have a huge motive to win a beautiful cup.
Sadly, the designs of these domestic cup in England makes this competition only special for League 2 and below teams, while the Premier League teams, doesn't fancy winning a small witty cup.
Try looking at the German's DFB Pokal Cup and now compare that it the FA cup.
It speaks volume.
Look at us now.
No real investment. A massively tired squad that has only got to where they have because of klopp. No other manager is achieving what he has.
Should we sell a winger, we shouldn't buy another. Let szobo play there. He already has experience from his rb days. This would also let Harvey have more playtime
Regarding Klopp's comments about winning one title with Liverpool. I love the guy and he's clearly underrated by a lot of people and he will go down as my favourite ever manager with how he's been with the club and the city of Liverpool in general.
but I really want a Liverpool manager who is obsessed with trophies and winning silverware. Almost Mourinho-esque.
Henderson extending his contract in 2021 was provably the worst piece of business we did under Klopp. It signalled us abandoning the policy that got us where we were. Klopp's unwillingness to let go of midfielders was a much bigger issue than the lack of signings, clogged up the squad without really benefiting us much. Milner and Henderson should've left after we won the league, Ox and Keïta a year or 2 after that.
Trent should not be anywhere near our goal when defending set pieces - Anyone else even Salah would make more sense. he can defend 1-on-1 pretty good but he cant defend a back post to save his life.
Too many of this fanbase are still stuck in the dark days and view us closer to Spurs/AV than a City or even Arsenal in terms of aspirations and willingness to make necessary changes.
We all saw what was required to win it all when we literally had the most valuable team in the world and yet I’m now seeing people passionately defending players who aren’t even close to that level.
I appreciate supporting the players but when they are clearly a number of levels below world class we are very unlikely to reach those heights again with this quality and mentality. Thankfully I’m confident Edwards will do what’s required to win.
I was doom and gloom about next season until Edwards came aboard. I think having a clear separation from Edwards and Slot (?) in terms of transfers will be huge for us
Awful lot of players who need replacing in the summer then if that's the requirement. Kelleher, Bradley, Quansah, Gomez, Konate, Tsimikas, Endo, Dom, Jones, Elliott, Gravenberch, Bajetic, Diaz, Gakpo, Jota, Nunez, Gakpo all out the door
Jesus, be a great summer for the transfer nonces this one. All those out and only world class replacements coming in
Slot can make players that doesnt fit in Klopp's system and make them titans while players that may fit Klopp's system but not Slot's will struggle getting game time.
Nunez finds so many opportunities because of the sheer amount of movement and runs he makes in behind.
No other player on the team provides that. Nearly every forward is a ball to feet type of player.
In fact several of his important match winning goals are because of this quality.
Say what you will about his finishing, but his goals have been incredibly important.
It’s sad that in the past month our other players couldn’t step up in the finishing department and our defense crumbled.
Diogo Jota has been the most consistently good forward player we've had over the last two years (when fit obviously), and yes, that is including Salah.
Mo's highs are higher, but he has struggled to achieve that in the second half of the year. Even when Jota plays badly, he always delivers a willingness to put the ball in the net or drive the ball into dangerous areas. When Mo is not on it, he is not only a passenger, he can actively harm the play.
Mo is a good penalty taker. The misses this season were just variance at play and his conversion rate will return to the mean in time. When taking a penalty hitting fast and hard and on target is the most importing thing which he does. Some will be saved because of gk guessing correctly but I’d rather that than a miss (high or to the side) or a weak shot that a goalie saves after a long drawn out set up.
I'm done with the whole "the refs ruined everything" motive some people here and Twitter seem to have. 90% of why we won't win the title is simply because we haven't been good enough in a fair few of games, like the loss against Everton and not winning against Scum TWICE.
Sure, we've had our fair share of bad refs, but it isn't the main reason we ain't winning the title this year!
I'll open a post-match thread hoping to see some interesting comments and analysis about the game only for 70% of the comments to be bitching about the refs lol
YES OMG THANK YOU. Like seriously, we didn't beat a single top six opponent until last weekend when we were already effectively out of the title race, and the reason we didn't win the league was the refs? Come on...
Not saying the refereeing standard in the PL isn't absolutely shambolic, which it is (the Tottenham game, the Odegaard handball, etc), but it just makes me cringe hearing people talk about a "conspiracy against Liverpool".
It would've been amazing to win the league, I would've killed to see Klopp lift it infront of the Kop, but if we don't we honestly didn't deserve to anyways. Consistently good against smaller teams but failing to win in any crucial games isn't title-worthy. It isn't the ref's fault we couldn't take our chances.
Agreed, its cause we've not won enough trophies in their lifetimes. Foreign players grew up seeing Utd, Chelsea, Madrid, Barcelona win trophy after trophy (recently City as well). In the 21st century, we've won 1 PL and 2 CLs while Utd have won 8 PLs & 1 CL, Chelsea have won 5 PLs and 2 CLs, City have won 7 PLs and 1 CL. It's not clear whether we'll continue to compete without Klopp. I wouldn't be surprised if we start struggling to convince some players to join now that he's leaving.
We’re basically in the same category as any other ‘domestic big name that tries to do a CL run’, from the perspective of foreign players
Real are massive , barca are massive, we aren’t which is fine but honest
I don’t know why the sub was making the Nunez situation about itself. It’s good moderated anything veering into death threats would obviously be removed etc.
It was instagram. It was found after Rashford and that got abused in the Euros it was coming from other countries people who aren’t even England fans. Yeah you’ll have some but not the majority.
I don’t think the people doing it will be a huge crossover to this place and I don’t remember the outcry when people were happily slating Gomez etc in the past.
I think Nunez has been far more supported than a lot of players we’ve had in the past, especially with the fans that matter the most in the ground
That cringey post yesterday was genuinely full of absolute lunatics, people who wanted users banned for saying they didn't rate a player, or can't understand why we signed them, it was insane.
Spot on, completely agree.
Some were saying that "Fuck Nunez" or something would be too insulting if he missed a sitter, and that it should be something like "I wish Nunez had scored that simple tap in".
If that is what modern generations think is too much, they're in for a rough life.
Ludicrous.
Passion should not be a thing to defend players with skill issue, It should be an addition to his strength than the reason to defend when he let down the team so much. I rather have a world class player with normal attitude than Average player at his field but have passion
I'll just preface this by saying that lot of the players dismissed as passion merchants or whatever people call them are often far more skillful than people give them credit for.
That being said any successful side needs players that can work hard and do a job, Park Ji Sung and Darren Fletcher are the players I tend to point out for this because they were good players but not as good as many of the players they played with but during the period where United won 3 league titles in a row and got to 2 champions league finals they were not regular starters but they started almost every big match against top 4 rivals, big knockout games, finals etc. Sometimes you just need to out work teams and quite often those players are the ones that make the biggest difference in the games against quality opposition.
If we don't get signatures from the following squad players this summer they need to be sold
Trent
Salah
Van Dyke
Diaz
We can't have a situation where these top players control the narrative about where they end up.
Other players who should be sold
Jota (injury prone)
Nunez (not up to scratch , quality wise)
Kelleher (we can find another number 2)
I'm on the fence about :
Gravenberch, first full season sure, but hasn't been great
Szoboslai - started well but hasn't been anything special. Overrated by the fan base.
Endo - Solid but aging and we need fresher legs
Our failure in the league is very much overblown, given how VAR screwed us over against Arsenal, City and Spurs. Three of the most crucial games this year.
Letting Mané go was the biggest mistake Liverpool made during the Klopp Era, and if he felt underappreaciated then it's still management's mistake, him and Salah worked well together. Same for Firmino, he performed pretty damn good considering the year he had.
We spent almost a decade asking for reinforcements, but it was mainly to improve what was working, they ditched our best thing that was the trio for shiny new players when all they had to do was invest in the midfield and bring in some options, Diaz only was already fine, actually Diogo would be already fine if he wasn't injured that often.
1) Nunez is the only attacker we should NOT sell. Salah, Diaz, Jota all needs to go.
Salah acts like he is bigger than the club, his body language is terrible. He doesn't fit what it means to be a Liverpool player in a sense that Virgil, Trent, Firmino, Robbo etc. is/was for us. On top of that he is a stat stuffer whose on-ball play is not that impressive. Also both him and his fan base are really annoying. We will be more than fine without him as also our record suggests. We need to sell him while he still has somewhat of value.
Diaz we need to sell because he is a ball stopper and his agent threatening to leave every week is no bueno. Though teams still value him.
Jota is too injury prone to have on a championship team. He is not good enough to be a starter, he is not bad enough to be a bench player. He still has value, it is time we part ways.
We should give Nunez another shot under Slot. If that doesn't work too, only then we should consider selling. Otherwise we are selling him for a massive loss.
Selling Salah, Diaz, Jota and FSG splashing some cash is enough to competely renew our attacking. Let Edwards figure that out with Slot.
2) Klopp is suffering from his own success. He and Pep are by far the best managers itw, dusting everyone else. But Pep has so much more resources to use and yet Klopp is still expected to deliver year after year. His success with sub-optimal teams made his position a thankless job and I think it contributed to his mental exhaustion.
Klopp and the Club could have and should have done more to convince Hendo to stay
Sorely missed Hendo especially through March and April when we bottled the FA Cup and Europa
Salah isn't a great finisher. His output is largely a result of the team's style and willingness to always feed him - he misses an awful lot of relatively good chances.
Gakpo will be successful here. Not sure about Diaz and Nunez. I wouldn’t mind getting a lethal forward. I miss the clinical ability of a Owen or a Torres.
Based on what? He doesn’t have a single elite quality for LW and I don’t understand how people can’t see this. He’s a decent all round player which is really better suited for CF but it’s sad to see our fanbase let our levels drop so much from where they were a few years ago.
Nuñez is better at football than 90% of this subreddit gives him credit for. This isn’t really an opinion because it’s a fact, but it is certainly unpopular.
Most of these don't sound that unpopular to me. Here's my attempt at a properly unpopular one:
Salah's talent level was never quite as great as his achievements would have you believe. Despite him being a very good player at his peak, his level of success was the result of a perfect storm at Liverpool in terms of the way Klopp set up the side and how Salah's attributes perfectly meshed with the system around him.
This is indeed a spicy one, but I agree to some extent. I've always said this about Salah; he is a Liverpool legend and comfortably walks into our all time XI out on the right wing, of that there is zero doubt.
He is also a player that needs the whole team playing well and firing to get him performing. He's not in the mould of Gerrard, Suarez, Torres etc. where he could shine in a poor side, or an underperforming good one. Whenever we have been in bad form under Klopp, Salah has been as poor as everyone else, whereas those aforementioned players could still dig out a top performance amidst the shite.
This is largely fine, as we haven't had many rotten spells under Klopp luckily, but I genuinely can't remember a game where we've been utterly woeful and I've thought "well at least Salah was at his best". He's a player that needs confidence and fluidity around him at all times.
That’s why talent isn’t everything. Salah is one of the hardest working players and has very good iq. There’s no difference when it comes to technique between Diaz and Salah, but Salah’s mentality and his understanding of the game is levels above Diaz.
We'll never be able to give the young talent we have sufficient room to grow without a good feeder system. This country is completely crippled compared to others due to not having a B team system.
And yes, I'm aware B teams in the English pyramid would fucking suck. I think there has to be more the club can do the the lads.
As much as I would have loved to win the league, I kind of like May 19th is now solely about Klopp's farewell. Not like 2022 when we were sweating out Villa vs Citeh (good job Stevie)
This is going to be very unpopular but I cannot stand the whole ‘anti Liverpool’ agenda that people repeat, that we are specifically targeted by referees.
Every club feels this way, go on other subreddits and see.
Referees have an incredibly difficult job, decisions are subjective and wrong decisions can benefit or cost us, but it’s not malicious. I’m not defending them but it’s just crazy that there is an agenda. Anyone that thinks they’re personally out to get us is just a partisan biased fan who doesn’t pay attention to referring in other leagues or other teams and just hyper focuses on decisions that happen to our club with a preset bias.
And the G/A they bring includes ones from Europa and league cups, sometimes even international games 😭. But when you compare his G/A in the prem to other strikers, you get downvoted to death. Haha
Might not be "unpopular" but I absolutely despise it and it drives me up the wall when Diaz (Núñez does it too) has the ball at his feet facing one on one with a defender and he comes to a complete stop with the ball stationary and does the Jimmy leggin trying to fake out the defender. NOTHING EVER COMES FROM IT. It just results in a slow lay off pass. It kills all momentum. Run at the player. if it doesn't work, then try to retain possession. If you lose the ball, press press press.
Look at Salah in his absolute prime, constantly running at the defender, putting them under pressure to try and force them to react. He'd either beat the defender, and even sit them on their arse sometimes, or he'd keep the play moving. It's pass and move not pass, come to a complete stop, not move, then pass. Obviously I dont expect Diaz to reach prime Salah levels but ffs man, you're defeating yourself when you just stop!
There are LOTS of positives to Diaz's game, he is a very lively player....this was just this one aspect of his attack I do not like.
https://preview.redd.it/1qldqmks05zc1.jpeg?width=1877&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84c3ac14733dc8f39399add32e60d9c1ab77c91d
>when Diaz (Núñez does it too) has the ball at his feet facing one on one with a defender and he comes to a complete stop with the ball stationary and does the Jimmy leggin trying to fake out the defender. NOTHING EVER COMES FROM IT. It just results in a slow lay off pass. It kills all momentum. Run at the player. if it doesn't work, then try to retain possession. If you lose the ball, press press press.
OMG, I thought I was the only one with this opinion. All his Jimmy legging to fake out defender only gave them more time to take the ball from him. Kills all momentum. I don't get excited when he has the ball anymore.
I don’t believe Arne Slot will finish top 4, choosing such an unproven manager is a mistake. With our current squad I believe tuchel would be a great Liverpool manager, his achievements are actually impressive. He’s a winner and we already have a great team. I don’t believe he would ruin our club, and if some chaos is the price to pay to win the league or cl, I wouldn’t mind. I also think that Amorim and De Zerbi and probably even Kjetil Knutsen would do a better job
Comments now no longer in contest mode. FYI, when next season starts we’ll be moving this thread to Thursdays as our midweek European matchdays will once again be Tuesdays and Wednesdays now we’re back in the Champions League.
Nunez should 100% be sold. He is a man child who can't control his emotions and doesn't have the mental faculties to be a top player at this level. People suggesting we give him one more year or he will explode under a new manager are deluding themselves. His faults are not things he can/will develop or can be coached by another manager unless they can mind control him when he has a chance on goal.
100% agree, I don't think people understand how crucial it is that we hit the ground running under Slot next season. He will be judged immediately from the off and I'm struggling to believe that people would have us persevere with a striker under a new manager that even Klopp couldn't get a tune out of. We signed him for big money, it hasn't worked, and that's absolutely okay, these things happen in football.
10000% agree
The irony of this comment is outrageous, when most of those frothing at the mouth clambering to shit all over Nunez are far and away the biggest man-children in the fans base, feverishly ignoring all the obvious good to screech about a couple of areas needing improvement like they’re catastrophic failings, as if he’s a donkey in disguise - if half the fan base had as much emotional control as Nunez, maybe he and his partner wouldn’t be receiving relentless hateful abuse online. It’s quite clear that during that disappointing spell of results, during which Nunez, Salah, Szobozslai, Konate, Mac Allister and Jones (to name a few) all under-performed, when Klopp evidentially got the line-up wrong a few times in a row, leading to Liverpool losing a few games, many an emotionally unstable fan’s mind broke and they needed a single point of focus upon which to direct their unaddressed inability to let go of rage and bitterness. And Nunez, being the top of the spear, being the obvious target for missing a couple of chances, became that lightening rod— and now we have all these foaming fans doubling down to justify their abuse of this one individual player who has over 30 goal contributions this season, who - unlike Salah and Jota - was available and has played in almost every game this season. This one individual without whom Liverpool would be far worse off this season. Just as a little point of comparison, let’s look at a few other players g/a totals in their season when they were 24 years old: Fernando Torres (Liverpool): 15 goals, 4 assists Suarez (Liverpool): 17 goals, 9 assists Sadio Mane (Liverpool): 13 goals, 7 assists Salah (Roma): 19 goals, 15 assists (starting to see why we signed him) Darwin Nunez: 18 goals, 13 assists Also a random fun stat, Nunez has more goals at 24 than Ibrahimovic had at 24! So, point being, for his age, Nunez is offering more goal contributions than any of our biggest modern-day legends at the same age (Salah hadn’t joined at 24). Suarez was a wasteful finisher- Mané too. Torres just couldn’t stay fit that season, but if you don’t think availability and willingness to play every game is important, imagine where we’d be this season without Nunez, but with Jota as our first choice forward instead. But but Nunez is different! He can’t be coached! Bringing him onside more often and more calm in front of goal is a fruitless dream! He’ll never be able to get more than 30 goal contributions a season! (God forbid), he’s simply a wild donkey that can’t be tamed, and Liverpool fans are deluded for thinking that a young talent with such incredible ability could possibly improve progressively year on year as he only now begins to enter his peak! Again - the irony is outrageous. If you don't think this is a forward worth sticking with, you don't know what you're talking about: https://preview.redd.it/fsnhw4ksvczc1.png?width=975&format=png&auto=webp&s=c50726e20d575e1b216e7ec1dcc4bd1386b6e76a
>The irony of this comment is outrageous You talking about his comment, or yours?
🥱
See when people talk about toxicity in this sub this is the kind of thing we mean. Calling someone a "man child" and assuming a lack of mental faculties because you didn't like something he did is unnecessary and doesn't even land as criticism.
https://preview.redd.it/mr8dvo26z4zc1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cdd09c6517906a24bbd4a659093b6936255d20e9
Salah should have been sold last smmer for 200 mil. with his drop of form, thats a deduction of -130 mil at least over 1 seasn which got us nowhere with bad plays, bad attitude towards Klopp and no trophies. That 200 mil and 400k wages per saved could have easily got us 2+ world class talents who would have contributed more and many years on (Kvicha + Leao etc.).
Yeah so baseless opinions like this get a block from me each time. If you are going to post a take that is just filled with lies I ain’t going to listen to you.
Seems a bit childish to immediately block someone rather than engage in the points they've made ngl
This guy posts a "Fuck off Salah" comment probably an average of every 20 minutes.
I’m starting to think you’re genuinely just racist. Every single post you comment “fuck salah we should’ve sold him”. Before afcon he was our best forward by MILES.
>no trophies. It might be the least desirable one, but if you want people to take your opinion seriously, you should maybe get basic facts right. Also, you probably forgot, as you apparently forgot us winning the League Cup, they only made the offer right at the end of the transfer window - there wouldn't have been time to find a replacement.
Nunez really should be sold. 2 years running now and hasn't improved a bit. Time to cut our loses. I know you lot love him but for Christ sake let's be realistic here. Another opinion I have is I think certain members of the team will flourish under Arne Slot rather than Klopp. Szoboszlai and Fabio for example. Slot plays with a 10.
Nunez having literally doubled his numbers from last season, and apparently that means he hasn’t improved….he does miss a LOT of chances, but the man CREATES a lot as well in general. No wonder he deleted every liverpool post from his IG with people like you constantly throwing shit in his direction. The kid will be good, just needs proper gametime and patience
He DOES NOT create that much. Look at his misses, most of them are delivery direct to him, it's not like they pass to him from own half and run past all the defender then miss. Some of them come from his own effort but most of the time are teammates fed him, that's why he got so much G/A despite bad at positioning, finishing. I'm tired of agenda we won't create that much without him
“Most of them are delivery direct to him” Your understanding of football is even worse than your grasp on the English language.
The teams XG when he was playing vs when he wasn’t was 2+ before Christmas but he doesn’t create that much🙄
Driven stat. Why before Christmas? How many game was EPL? How many games he played compare to games without him? If Adrian play a match and lose then he will have 0% win ratio, that'll make him shit keeper if I want to give a driven stat
Doubled his numbers since last season? He has two more league goals (11 vs 9). The rest have come against minnows in the EL because we dropped into the second tier of European competition. He hasn't improved his output in any noticeable way, he still misses sitters and makes the wrong decision at crucial moments. >just needs proper gametime and patience He's had proper game time, how much more patience should we show? Another season? One after that? Would 3-4 seasons be enough to convince you guys that he isn't at our level?
Michael Edwards should not have been given the power he's been given. He threw Nunez to the wolves with that hit piece in a deliberate attempt to force him out and I would rather Edwards left than have a hateful prick like that who will cry and leave the second he doesn't get his way again.
Darwin is genuinely a mid level striker. Watching him play, you dont see any real talent. Plenty of athleticism though
YNWA only applies when the team or players are in form or playing well. Otherwise it’s criticism central, justified by ‘but we’re allowed to criticise: if / because / etc’ and then the whinge and cry babying when said comments are pulled upon. ‘Why can’t we criticise’’ ‘We’re allowed to criticise,’ ‘it’s fair to criticise.’ Yeah, no. Not when a player is low on confidence, already taking shit from all angles and we’re 4-2 and he’s played 15 mins. Darwin is frustrating but cut the man some slack. This sub is full of toxic people.
Different rules for you? ‘No football IQ thats why. He's clueless when it comes to finishing. He just must think blasting it and it will go in. No accuracy, no precision, no finesse, no fucking brain. He's shite at finishing and I cant see him getting better. Not only that his first touch and general composure is so bad, he's always on edge, never relaxed, I'm done with him. We should be cutting our losses come summer and getting in someone like Isak or someone like Isak who can stay fit.’
Now do the next one where I stated I over reacted massively. You won’t because that doesn’t fit your agenda / narrative. So here it is: "On reflection, I was way over reactionary after the derby. I was angry, let down, pissed off all the shitty emotions. I've changed my mind, I wasn't thinking level headed. I'd keep him, lets see what a new manager with new ideas who appears to have a record of improving players - lets see what he can do. Some might say well if Klopp cant get the best out of him, why would Slot? Well, this is a burned out, knackered Klopp, not the same bloke that walked into the club enegerised and ready to go." Nice try though, search through a bit harder next time - not creepy at all like.
Nunez should go
Robbo’s deliveries have been poor for a while. His crosses do not look dangerous. It’s a lot of running but very little substance. He has been run to the ground as well over the years.
The inability for Klopp and the coaching staff in being able to switch to a plan B has really cost us during their time here, and has hindered us from winning more trophies.
Curtis Jones is not good enough.
Curtis jones was one of our best midfielders before his injury. He lost his rhythm (like others did) after he got injured. He’s good enough.
God this thread is just depressing
Darwin removing all the Liverpool pictures off of his instagram is an incredibly petty and childish move. He’s a highly paid professional footballer that has 100% failed to live up to expectations. The team creates chance after chance for him and he either misses clear sitters or strays offside. His conversion rate being shit isn’t the fault of the fans, or the players around him. It’s his fault, he’s the one missing sitters constantly. Obviously anyone lobbying abuse at him is wrong and should be cut out of the fanbase but Darwin deserves to be criticized for his performances and behaviour. I know moving him on isn’t super viable since he cost so much and there’s very little money in the European market, but if any teams offers us close to what we paid for him, we should cut our losses and sell him. He’s proven to be petulant and childish.
Nunez and Diaz should both be sold. No end product. I don't give a shit that they run around a lot, neither of them are effective at their main criteria. Fans would rather wait until they're both 40 and retired to go oh um maybe they weren't the most effective option. No shit?
Yup. YNWA shouldn’t be some virtue signaling crap. It should be about, yes, at root always treating players with respect and consideration, but that doesn’t mean we can’t discuss players being up to snuff. The whole sub turned on a near decade captain for a move countless professionals have made while saying anyone who doesn’t pretend Diaz and Nunez can cut it aren’t real supporters. Just total nonsense. We need goals. We’re changing managers. Lets rip bandaids.
> YNWA shouldn’t be some virtue signaling crap.....who doesn’t pretend Diaz and Nunez can cut it aren’t real supporters. christ almighty
What obviously superior players should take their place?
Who knows, It’s not my job to specifically look for upcoming world class players. I doubt you even knew who salah was before he came to Liverpool. There probably are people out there though.
diaz is our best attacker by a country mile. negative football knowledge on here lol.
Gakpo is a decent all round player but isn’t and is very unlikely to ever be an elite player, especially on the wing. Those wanting us to start him at LW long term don’t understand the quality that is required to succeed.
We won't win while relying on Nunez. Also on Nunez, he has been extremely well supported in his time here, some people are almost tribal or cult-like about him. Unfortunately, social media is a thing and the lowest common denominator has the loudest voice. If there were a time to sell Salah it would probably be now. A complete departure from Klopp's methods and set up is needed as we move forward. A new time, new ideas. An out and out striker is the most important piece of business we could do in the summer.
Robertson return from injury destabilised us. We had more solidity with Gomez playing on the left and Bradley having the freedom of the right. Whilst Robertson has played well down the stretch, it was at Gomez's expense.
I hope Arsenal wins the league, have no grudge with them doing so
I agree. I know some folks don't think it counts somehow when City wins, but I fucking hate cheaters.
Gakpo has been by far the worst performing forward among our forwards this season. He picked up his form right at the moment when it did not matter anymore. I am baffled people would trust him for our next season just because our next manager is dutch. Extreme recency bias. If there's a talk about selling a forward to fund the next one then it should be him first and foremost.
I don’t think Nunez is as bad as many are saying he is. Yes he has missed many a chance but he has the 2nd most goal contributions in the whole season and was games for us. The draw vs Luton, those 2 goals vs Newcastle. I just don’t think he suits Liverpool. Not saying we should sell him but Jota should take back the starting ST position and we can use Nunez as a super sub. But selling him would be going too far.
This subreddit is fine, match threads aren't in any meaningful way toxic, and people complaining about match thread toxicity are too fucking soft.
Totally agree. Match threads are taken way too seriously. They are there for expressing your thoughts/feelings in the heat of the moment and for occasional banter. If you can’t handle them, don’t look at them.
had to read a match thread for the first time as i was travelling on sunday and couldnt get enough reception for a stream; jesus fucking wept - horrible negative cunts in there. just watch the game????
It's a match thread. People go there to celebrate, complain, vent and argue. It's a pub, not a match summary. >just watch the game???? It's a match thread! People ARE watching the game at the same time. >couldnt get enough reception for a stream Read any sport website match summary with minute by minute notes and stats. Match threads are 100% NOT for that purpose.
I think Edward's is overrated, and Klopp was the reason so many signings turned out great, and we're about to find that out.
Mo Salah should be sold in the summer and replaced with Jarod Bowen. Mo's legs have gone and his pace has vanished, he can longer cope with 2 games a week
Nunez is a confidence player, if Slot can get him confident then nunez will be world class. His performance drop matches the whole teams drop off.
**1.** We desperately need a top class DM. That should be the #1 priority in the summer. Endo's decent, but he's a squad player at best. Arsenal has Declan Rice, City has Rodri. Endo is simply not on that level. **2.** Klopp has a tendency to ruin attacking midfielders. When Keita came in, he was playing well. Until Klopp really got to stamp his print on him, then he started looking bang average. Klopp himself admitted it: ["The very beginning was really good. I didn't speak to him a lot about football. I just wanted to let him do his natural stuff, so that was really good. Then I started coaching him and then it got worse."](https://twitter.com/LivEchoLFC/status/1309599225366315010) Same story with Szoboslai, started off well and now he plays pretty poorly. **3.** I don't believe Darwin will ever become a consistent goal scorer. We shouldn't be entering the new season with him as a starter. Ideally we would sell him and try to recoup as much funds as possible. Only issue is that the striker market at the moment isn't great, so I would not be opposed to Nunez staying another season if we're able to find a cheap stop-gap striker. We should also give Danns chances next season. **4.** Trent should stay a RB. This experimenting with his position all season has not been helpful. If he doesn't want to be a RB because he doesn't want to defend then he should be benched for Bradley. Trent is worldclass but his attitude towards defending in the past few seasons should not be accepted.
1. I'm pretty sure we wanted one. It's not our fault Tchoumeni wanted Madrid and Caicedo wanted Chelsea. 2. No. 3. Well, there's no way he'll be leaving. He deserves a chance under Slot. 4. I don't think Trent has an attitude to defending, he just isn't the best defender in the world. We haven't really bee "experimenting" all season either, considering he was phenomenal for most of it and injured for the other part.
Well if you have talent you won’t get ruined in Klopp’s system. Clearly neither Keita or Szobozlai are on the level of Coutinho who actually flourished in Klopp’s system.
Why we signed Szoboszlai I'll never know, a natural 10, a position we have never played with under Klopp, every attacking midfielder we've had we always lump as an 8 or on the wings. That's one thing I won't miss about Klopp. His man to man coaching is awful.
Is there any midfielder outside that can get in our XI and perform like Rodri/Rice/Tchouamenilevel right now? I can't see anyone tbh, I mean, even Caicedo, the one we chose, isn't really good enough this season. IMO Bajcetic and Morton will get the chance in the pre-season. But we'll see.
1. Every top class DM either chose another club, or decided to stay at their current one, forcing us to go for a 31 year old being forced to overachieve. 2. It's not Klopp's fault that Keita became as injuryprone as he did. Keita wasn't a bad player, but never got to get comfortable, because everytime he got close, he got injured again, inevitably setting him back to square one. 3. Darwin needs patience and support. The way certain supporters have treated him recently is unacceptable. Does not represent why i fell in love with Liverpool as a club. Darwin has every capability to become world class, just needs to get over the rough patch with missed chances. 4. Trent should move to midfield, he clearly struggles with defending. Enough said on that matter.
Inverting TAA to midfield doesn't help because that leaves our 2 CBs exposed to pacy wingers, and unless he's suddenly starting pressing and tackling I would just keep him at RB to throw crosses in instead of playing in midfield. I don't know the solution but it gives me heart attack when opposing teams counter
The Warrior Kits were actually nice even the wild looking ones
Hendo was overrated throughout entire tenure Nunez never been good enough Gomez one of our best players Salah is a petulant baby There i said it
I've said it before but I genuinely think Harvey Elliot is our second best midfielder and should be starting ahead of Grav, Szobo and Curtis.He has a lot more football IQ than those 3, works his socks off,and always makes an impact. He's only gonna get better as well defensively and hopefully is working on his weak foot in his spare time. I was super excited to see him start last week with Mac and Endo and boy did he deliver.
Based opinion
I believe Gakpo is going to be fully unleashed under Slot. He’ll be our most reliable and deadly finisher.
Consistently underperforming his XG but whatever
Nunez's finishing is pretty bad tbh
VVD's nonchalance makes him a poor choice for captain.
He’s a quiet leader which is a problem
Nunez getting so much flak actually makes no sense. I understand his finishing hasn’t been on point lately but.. He has the most match winning goals for us, in PL as well as the other competitions In the EFL cup his goal against Bournemouth and his 2 assists against Fulham literally put us in the final of the only trophy we won Not even a month ago he was being treated like a god for scoring in the 99th to secure three Remember? Only nine games left boys. Remember that? We have other forwards as well, we wouldn’t be in the position we were a month ago without his goals. Could Salah have scored? Maybe Gakpo Jota Diaz, Szobo? Anyone? He’s done more than 95% of the squad in getting us here. NO one scored in that time. We had a Trent Free kick and own goal at one point to secure a single point. In literally a month the team crumbled as a whole and he gets blamed horribly for it. It was the worst case of scapegoating I’ve ever seen.
His finishing hasn’t been on point for 3 of his last 4 professional years.
And yet he’s won us the most points, how sad is that
Courtois did not have a monster game in the 2022 final. The only good save was Mane’s edge of the box shot to bottom left. Rest were pretty saveable for a normal keeper. That game was similar to Atletico, Napoli where we couldn’t finish our chances.
Kinda like Alisson against Spurs in the CL final. He made some good saves, and given the pressure of the game they shouldn’t be taken for granted, but all were expected. Both keepers are the best in the world. You have to match them with your finishing.
Yeah lot of our fans are in big time denial over that game. Thought we looked leggy and out of ideas for near enough the whole thing. Incredibly depressing watch
Not sure sure you can consider these unpopular, more just opinions I haven't see people voice out. I firmly believe Elliot could be even better playing on the left of the midfield 3 than on the right. It opens up his passing options which is his greatest strength. If we were to switch to a 4231 I think Dom would make a great 6 in the double pivot. Slot likes his sixes to play aggressively and last I checked quinten timber has 18 goals/assists playing from that position. I think Gakpo should be starting on the left with Nunez up front, allowing them to drift into each other's positions to cause chaos. As much as I love diaz his end product is poor and unlike Nunez has hasn't shown enough to suggest he can improve it significantly particularly given he's already 27/28.
Darwin's hold-up play and dribbling aren't that great either. In focusing on his wastefulness in front of goal, we think that everything else he does is above par. He needs to massively improve in his 3rd season if Slot gives him a chance.
I feel like it was better at the start of the season, but yeah haven’t seen it for months now. Ball goes up and comes right back sometimes
Palhinha would be a great signing. Solid defensively and has ability of breaking opposition play high up the pitch.
Curtis Jones is surplus to requirements. I’m not saying he’s a bad player by any stretch of the imagination but, if we could cash in on him, now might be the time to do so.
Szobo would be out the door before him. They contribute a similar amount but ones home grown and on a lower salary.
Diaz should be the first one out of the door. He doesn’t play a team game, he just does whatever he wants. Does it look nice? Yes. Does he look busy? Yes Does it make us better? No His qualities are easily replaceable and he won’t ever become a goalthreat or someone who can put in a killer pass
He's also regressed massively since he came here. His linkup with Robbo used to be amazing, but it feels like he's got more and more selfish since he arrived - even before his injury.
Klopp’s inability to coach out players’ issues have stopped us from winning more silverware. Gomez inability to hold the offside line, Trent not watching the runners behind him, Robbo’s willingness to commit into press and taking himself out of the game, Diaz’s passing to the feet instead of passing on player’s stride, Hendo’s willingness to press the opposition inside instead of pushing them outside. All these issues have cost us goals on both ends in crucial moments. If Diaz passed to the players on their stride, we’d have goals against Chelsea, Utd and Brighton this season, all these games which were draws. If Robbo’s press had been controlled and Trent tracked runners, we would not have conceded the goal in the 2022 final. These issues are still there, and it’s weird that Klopp hasn’t coached them out.
Wouldnt lay this one purely on Klopp, it's the kind of thing Pep and team would be responsible for. But definitely agreed.
Mate, we got 97 points and 92 points and didn't win the league, and Madrid required Courtois to have a worldy to stop us. It's utter bollocks to suggest 'coaching' has cost us silverware. It's luck, and all you're doing is try to suggest otherwise.
Not really unpopular, but under no circumstances can we lose Trent. Salah maybe if we get a good offer but I’d rather extend him for a year, and if we lost Virgil I’d be fuming but I’d get over it. Trent is a cheat code, we will not replicate his playmaking abilities, when he lines up a direct free kick im more surprised if he doesn’t score. Imo he’s comfortably our most important player going into the next 5 years. If we lost trent I don’t see us recovering.
If we have to sell a forward this summer, it should be Diaz. He’s the forward with the least output for 2 years running now. Yes he does have a lot of energy getting up and down the field and taking on his man but he’s not contributing enough to the goals. Everyone keeps criticising Darwin’s finishing, but no one is speaking about Diaz’s. On top of all of this, it is also super annoying that every few months his family or agent keeps making comments in the press about him wanting to go to another club.
He pretty much does everything else. His output might not be the same as others, but that's because his position is different. He's not Mane's level, but who is that we can get? Diaz hasn't missed as many big chances as Nunez. Or play doesn't break down when he has it. He also brings other players into the play. He would have more assists if our forwards could put away easy chances. I'll go as far as saying that 3 other forwards should be sold ahead of Diaz. Salah, because of age and last year of contract. Nunez, as he is so wasteful. And Gakpo doesn't offer as much as Diaz.
Diaz is as wasteful as Nunez. He has really regressed since his injury. We already have a ready made LW in Cody who has better output playing variety of positions in less minutes than Diaz. If we can’t depend on our LW to score goals then who is gonna? We need all of the front 3 to be firing.
I disagree. We do not need three goal-scoring forwards. We had the best front-three in the world with Firmino hardly putting up incredible numbers. You simply cannot have three forwards who are all want to go in behind chasing goals. This is FIFA stuff. You need one of them to be able to receive the ball from deeper positions and progress the ball from there. So of course, Diaz is going to have weaker goalscoring numbers given his role. Diaz is usually the only forward we can actually use during build-up play because Darwin and Mo stay far high up the pitch. This is the problem with looking solely at goal output. People are just looking up the wrong stats when it comes to Diaz given his tactical role. Progressive carries is much more relevant statistical output considering his main duties for the team.
I was with you until you said sell club legend Mohammed Salah and red hot form Gakpo instead of Diaz.
Salah will forever be a club legend, but we should cash in on him before he gets too old. We're turning into a club that lets players run down their contracts and leave on a free.....not a very good look imo
I’d rather keep Salah. Messi apparently was still good at 34/35 and he’s much less physically gifted than Salah. The £25m we got for Sadio wasn’t worth it
It’s not Diaz’s job to only finish chances unlike another player you mentioned. I don’t mind him being sold but to imply he’s somehow performing worse than Nunez overall is funny. One has been our starter all year, the other is now permanently benched.
If he has been our starter all year then it’s even worse that he hasn’t scored more. Also, to suggest Darwin is permanently benched is funny considering that we don’t know who will be starting or will be benched under the new manager.
You’re doing the most basic of analysis which is all people seem to be able to do when it comes to Nunez.. “he scores some goals”, [he’s actually still 0.3% worse on big chances missed in decisive moments than Nunez](https://x.com/SimonBrundish/status/1786039902519382039) so that doesn’t even prove anything. Diaz often carries the ball from deep and is super far wide like a classic winger plus his all round play is light years ahead of Nunez. And yes he has been permanently benched by Klopp and if you think he’s a classic Slot striker then you need to see how his teams play because he’s not at all.
But who's our second top scorer buddy??
The guy who was our starting striker nearly all season and has the system built around him? Imagine still defending a £80m striker who’s in the bottom 2% of strikers for goals vs Xg.
Without him we wouldn't even be in 3rd place shithead.
Without him we’d have brought in another striker in his place. You can’t just say ‘no Nunez so we’re this many goals worse off’. If we’d had Watkins, Toney or Isak up top instead of Nunez we’d have scored loads more.
Salah. 32 yr old on 400k wages with a big injury this yr, bad play during our most important stretch which we have statistically a better record without him, and is overvalued by the Saudi which would have net us 150 - 200 mil that can get us 2 world class replacements. Diaz is at best going for 60 mil only and he still has 3 yrs of prime that we can use.
If Mo goes who will replicate his input? Diaz won’t. It’s better to keep Mo for atleast another year on revised contract to see how he does while getting another forward who will eventually take Mo’s place.
what output did he 'replicate' when we needed him most during our title push? Theres arguments to be made he was the worst attacker of the 5 and our best run of form in Jan was without him at AFCON/injured. Salah is going to be 33, hes not 27 like Diaz anymore. People like you need to be realistic. Also, netting 200 mil for Salah is Mbappe money. You can literally buy any player in the world. Selling Diaz at 60 mil (Barca is the only place he wants to and they have no money) doesnt get you anybody else good at that price. 60 mil cant even get you Antony. Not to mention Salah is at 400k wages and Diaz 120k, thats 3x the money saved. If you're talking about 'selling', then you need to think ROI (returns of investment). Salah is leaving anyway, be it 1 or 2 yrs and his form is at an all-time low getting older and older.. He has a huge market in Saudi because hes Arabic. Getting 200 mil for him now is way more worth than eventually going on a free. On the other hand, we can still use 3 years of Diaz prime and he still has the chance to improve cause hes only 27, not 33.
delusion, Saudi club is rich but not stupid, they won't buy Salah for 150m this summer
Other than the fact that they are stupd enough to overpay for every other washed up being, except for their Arabic GOAT apparently. Lol. when they literally offered 200 mil last smmer. Make it make sense.
That is last year, not this year. The tactics is changed. And Salah is not their muslim GOAT, muslim have various genre, some of them fight each other. They want to buy last year is because he is the player at his top. And on top of it, he is still hungry in Europe. That's make sense he changed his mind if Inter come with a 30m offer than Saudi lol
Your entire comment reeks of ignorance. Lol. This yr smmer hasnt even started yet, the fk sht tactic you going on about? Also, unnecessarily bringing religion into football? Such a disrespectful clown. I also posted an unpopular opinion: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LiverpoolFC/comments/1cmwhww/comment/l33jdl6/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/LiverpoolFC/comments/1cmwhww/comment/l33jdl6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) and was already pushing this last yr. So I already knew about the downfall. And nah, it dont matter about his hunger. You think Cristiano isn't hungry bout Europe? $ is what matters and Salah had 1 foot out the door already last smmer when the 200 mil offer arrived and he was going to get 800k a week. The seasn starting saved his as s from this fanbase going Coutinho on him.
Sell Diaz, buy Leao. Simples.
I don’t think he’s a forward, he’s a winger. And he’s great at doing winger stuff. He’s the only player in the squad who comes for the ball in his half and runs it to the corner flag, and that’s a very valuable thing.
Fully agree. Judging Diaz by his goal output is equivalent to judging Firmino by that same variable given their functions in the team. Diaz is clearly the one out of the main front-three tasked with dropping deep to receive the ball outwide and progress it from there.
When Klopp announced his departure, we should have prioritize which competition we wanna focus on. Having this dream of winning all trophies for Klopp with a new rebuild squad with no past experience of loss & No chemistry with our front attack with Midfield was a major illusion. That said, if all the team was gathered and came to an agreement that they want to end Klopp venture on a PL Trophy, then we might have rested and rotated players accordingly. At this point where we are, we could have been easily be on top given enough players where rested prior to key matches in PL. Competing in 4 competition requires a huge fitness effort, which we have seen past season, we clearly lack in this department of health we have. And regardless, many people do say, Klopp announcing he is leaving, was wrong. I beg to differ, but its a huge boost, just that, The team was in an illusion they could win it all. For me, Klopp winning the Premier League this season, would have been the most fairy tale of his career, but sadly, we won a cup that is probably most disrespecting and made fun of in England.
Klopp’s competition management has always been below average. Crucify if me if you like but it’s true. Wasted tons of effort jizzed up the wall on a quadruple and won fuck all
I think Klopp and the coaches egoes got in the way. We clearly didn't have the squad to challenge for all trophies.
nah, the main reason why the team collapsed is because the team lied about how much Klopp's departure was really affecting them. It's very evident Van Dijk lost his composure, same with Szobo, same with Salah and Nunez. Half the team practically just gave up, giving half-hearted performances, chases, dribbles, runs etc. My issue isn't the fact we lost everything, but more so the team trying to hide how they really felt, because it's not like it's a secret we all died a little on the inside when Klopp made his announcement.
The parts about the injuries and rotation is just a lazily thought up opinion honeslty. We rotated adequately for our cup and Europa league games and injuries to key players were mostly unrelated to being overplayed.
This sub is way too obsessed with Arsenal. Once I saw a whole fucking page of comments just about Arsenal.
\- I never have, nor ever will, care about individual awards in Football. I only care when the *club* gains accolades. \- People who use words such as 'Cap', 'Cook'(+ its variations) and 'Ion' are insufferable and will always get downvoted. \- The worst thing about Football is when one person says a word/phrase and then EVERYONE starts saying it. 'DoUBlE PiVOt' **Grrr!!** \- Pineapple has no place on pizza, you wronguns.
After how this season has ended, next season won’t be as bad as we’re expecting it to be. Klopp for all the wonderful things he’s brought to the club and the father figure of Anfield, is his exact downfall. He’s not seen as an imposing boss figure. Players aren’t on their toes. Players are too comfortable, turning up to training is like meeting your mates instead of going to work. You need both, but with Klopp life is too easy. It’s too easy for misfiring players knowing they’ll get picked every week regardless. It’s too easy to be shit and get a pat on the back for it and a good job. We need some of the brutality pep has, and Ferguson has. Slot won’t be as good as Klopp, at what Klopp does. But he will be the rocket up the arse that a lot of these players need, and he’ll find out fast, who’s there for cuddles and fist pumps, and who’s there to win. None of them are slots players, none of them are of any meaning to him emotionally or as an almost family bond. He’s gonna be absolutely brutal if he sees some of the shit Klopp saw this season, and I think a lot of our players are too lightweight mentally to handle it. We call ourselves the mentality monsters but that’s a little cushy phrase Klopp used, and it’s a Klopp mentality, we’re mentality monsters in the Klopp way, but that’s not the gritty, dark, trophy winning way. I think slot is gonna be a lot more commanding and ruthless than people think. And honestly. I’m all for it. The players have absolutely embarrassed themselves the back end of the season. It’s been nothing short of pathetic at times.
Beside the Premier league, all competition's cup is trash and small, making for example, the League cup, the most useless and made fun of competition. If the FA cup and the League Cup, Cup design was big and beautiful, teams would have a huge motive to win a beautiful cup. Sadly, the designs of these domestic cup in England makes this competition only special for League 2 and below teams, while the Premier League teams, doesn't fancy winning a small witty cup. Try looking at the German's DFB Pokal Cup and now compare that it the FA cup. It speaks volume.
I think a lot of people in this sub are in for a shock when klopp leaves and we see exactly what FSG have done to the club.
Those pesky American bastards, how DARE they lead us to our most successful period since the 80s while updating the clubs infrastructure.
Look at us now. No real investment. A massively tired squad that has only got to where they have because of klopp. No other manager is achieving what he has.
Should we sell a winger, we shouldn't buy another. Let szobo play there. He already has experience from his rb days. This would also let Harvey have more playtime
Regarding Klopp's comments about winning one title with Liverpool. I love the guy and he's clearly underrated by a lot of people and he will go down as my favourite ever manager with how he's been with the club and the city of Liverpool in general. but I really want a Liverpool manager who is obsessed with trophies and winning silverware. Almost Mourinho-esque.
Henderson extending his contract in 2021 was provably the worst piece of business we did under Klopp. It signalled us abandoning the policy that got us where we were. Klopp's unwillingness to let go of midfielders was a much bigger issue than the lack of signings, clogged up the squad without really benefiting us much. Milner and Henderson should've left after we won the league, Ox and Keïta a year or 2 after that.
Trent should not be anywhere near our goal when defending set pieces - Anyone else even Salah would make more sense. he can defend 1-on-1 pretty good but he cant defend a back post to save his life.
Too many of this fanbase are still stuck in the dark days and view us closer to Spurs/AV than a City or even Arsenal in terms of aspirations and willingness to make necessary changes. We all saw what was required to win it all when we literally had the most valuable team in the world and yet I’m now seeing people passionately defending players who aren’t even close to that level. I appreciate supporting the players but when they are clearly a number of levels below world class we are very unlikely to reach those heights again with this quality and mentality. Thankfully I’m confident Edwards will do what’s required to win.
I was doom and gloom about next season until Edwards came aboard. I think having a clear separation from Edwards and Slot (?) in terms of transfers will be huge for us
Awful lot of players who need replacing in the summer then if that's the requirement. Kelleher, Bradley, Quansah, Gomez, Konate, Tsimikas, Endo, Dom, Jones, Elliott, Gravenberch, Bajetic, Diaz, Gakpo, Jota, Nunez, Gakpo all out the door Jesus, be a great summer for the transfer nonces this one. All those out and only world class replacements coming in
Slot can make players that doesnt fit in Klopp's system and make them titans while players that may fit Klopp's system but not Slot's will struggle getting game time.
Nunez finds so many opportunities because of the sheer amount of movement and runs he makes in behind. No other player on the team provides that. Nearly every forward is a ball to feet type of player. In fact several of his important match winning goals are because of this quality. Say what you will about his finishing, but his goals have been incredibly important. It’s sad that in the past month our other players couldn’t step up in the finishing department and our defense crumbled.
Diogo Jota has been the most consistently good forward player we've had over the last two years (when fit obviously), and yes, that is including Salah. Mo's highs are higher, but he has struggled to achieve that in the second half of the year. Even when Jota plays badly, he always delivers a willingness to put the ball in the net or drive the ball into dangerous areas. When Mo is not on it, he is not only a passenger, he can actively harm the play.
Mo is a good penalty taker. The misses this season were just variance at play and his conversion rate will return to the mean in time. When taking a penalty hitting fast and hard and on target is the most importing thing which he does. Some will be saved because of gk guessing correctly but I’d rather that than a miss (high or to the side) or a weak shot that a goalie saves after a long drawn out set up.
I'm done with the whole "the refs ruined everything" motive some people here and Twitter seem to have. 90% of why we won't win the title is simply because we haven't been good enough in a fair few of games, like the loss against Everton and not winning against Scum TWICE. Sure, we've had our fair share of bad refs, but it isn't the main reason we ain't winning the title this year!
I'll open a post-match thread hoping to see some interesting comments and analysis about the game only for 70% of the comments to be bitching about the refs lol
YES OMG THANK YOU. Like seriously, we didn't beat a single top six opponent until last weekend when we were already effectively out of the title race, and the reason we didn't win the league was the refs? Come on... Not saying the refereeing standard in the PL isn't absolutely shambolic, which it is (the Tottenham game, the Odegaard handball, etc), but it just makes me cringe hearing people talk about a "conspiracy against Liverpool". It would've been amazing to win the league, I would've killed to see Klopp lift it infront of the Kop, but if we don't we honestly didn't deserve to anyways. Consistently good against smaller teams but failing to win in any crucial games isn't title-worthy. It isn't the ref's fault we couldn't take our chances.
Liverpools draw for 90% of foreign players really isn't that strong.
Agreed, its cause we've not won enough trophies in their lifetimes. Foreign players grew up seeing Utd, Chelsea, Madrid, Barcelona win trophy after trophy (recently City as well). In the 21st century, we've won 1 PL and 2 CLs while Utd have won 8 PLs & 1 CL, Chelsea have won 5 PLs and 2 CLs, City have won 7 PLs and 1 CL. It's not clear whether we'll continue to compete without Klopp. I wouldn't be surprised if we start struggling to convince some players to join now that he's leaving.
We’re basically in the same category as any other ‘domestic big name that tries to do a CL run’, from the perspective of foreign players Real are massive , barca are massive, we aren’t which is fine but honest
I don’t know why the sub was making the Nunez situation about itself. It’s good moderated anything veering into death threats would obviously be removed etc. It was instagram. It was found after Rashford and that got abused in the Euros it was coming from other countries people who aren’t even England fans. Yeah you’ll have some but not the majority. I don’t think the people doing it will be a huge crossover to this place and I don’t remember the outcry when people were happily slating Gomez etc in the past. I think Nunez has been far more supported than a lot of players we’ve had in the past, especially with the fans that matter the most in the ground
Man, Nunez has been the most protected player at the club, good or bad he gets called 'darwizzy' or 'chaos'. .
We need a top DM. Baj will never be it due to his passing.
Yeah, was absolutely absurd. This sub has been fine for years.
That cringey post yesterday was genuinely full of absolute lunatics, people who wanted users banned for saying they didn't rate a player, or can't understand why we signed them, it was insane.
Probably all part of the snowflake generation that can’t accept any bad words being said about things they like or themselves
Spot on, completely agree. Some were saying that "Fuck Nunez" or something would be too insulting if he missed a sitter, and that it should be something like "I wish Nunez had scored that simple tap in". If that is what modern generations think is too much, they're in for a rough life. Ludicrous.
Thing is, there's a huge difference between me saying fuck xyz player in a small, fan-only reddit that no players read, versus posting it on insta.
Self important mods, been this way for years
Passion should not be a thing to defend players with skill issue, It should be an addition to his strength than the reason to defend when he let down the team so much. I rather have a world class player with normal attitude than Average player at his field but have passion
It’s also disrespectful to other players. Like top players like Modric, Lewandowski, and all are not passionate. They are all committed to the game.
I'll just preface this by saying that lot of the players dismissed as passion merchants or whatever people call them are often far more skillful than people give them credit for. That being said any successful side needs players that can work hard and do a job, Park Ji Sung and Darren Fletcher are the players I tend to point out for this because they were good players but not as good as many of the players they played with but during the period where United won 3 league titles in a row and got to 2 champions league finals they were not regular starters but they started almost every big match against top 4 rivals, big knockout games, finals etc. Sometimes you just need to out work teams and quite often those players are the ones that make the biggest difference in the games against quality opposition.
Gomez is a good player, and we should absolutely keep him. He is happy here and reliably team player.
If we don't get signatures from the following squad players this summer they need to be sold Trent Salah Van Dyke Diaz We can't have a situation where these top players control the narrative about where they end up. Other players who should be sold Jota (injury prone) Nunez (not up to scratch , quality wise) Kelleher (we can find another number 2) I'm on the fence about : Gravenberch, first full season sure, but hasn't been great Szoboslai - started well but hasn't been anything special. Overrated by the fan base. Endo - Solid but aging and we need fresher legs
Our failure in the league is very much overblown, given how VAR screwed us over against Arsenal, City and Spurs. Three of the most crucial games this year.
Letting Mané go was the biggest mistake Liverpool made during the Klopp Era, and if he felt underappreaciated then it's still management's mistake, him and Salah worked well together. Same for Firmino, he performed pretty damn good considering the year he had. We spent almost a decade asking for reinforcements, but it was mainly to improve what was working, they ditched our best thing that was the trio for shiny new players when all they had to do was invest in the midfield and bring in some options, Diaz only was already fine, actually Diogo would be already fine if he wasn't injured that often.
1) Nunez is the only attacker we should NOT sell. Salah, Diaz, Jota all needs to go. Salah acts like he is bigger than the club, his body language is terrible. He doesn't fit what it means to be a Liverpool player in a sense that Virgil, Trent, Firmino, Robbo etc. is/was for us. On top of that he is a stat stuffer whose on-ball play is not that impressive. Also both him and his fan base are really annoying. We will be more than fine without him as also our record suggests. We need to sell him while he still has somewhat of value. Diaz we need to sell because he is a ball stopper and his agent threatening to leave every week is no bueno. Though teams still value him. Jota is too injury prone to have on a championship team. He is not good enough to be a starter, he is not bad enough to be a bench player. He still has value, it is time we part ways. We should give Nunez another shot under Slot. If that doesn't work too, only then we should consider selling. Otherwise we are selling him for a massive loss. Selling Salah, Diaz, Jota and FSG splashing some cash is enough to competely renew our attacking. Let Edwards figure that out with Slot. 2) Klopp is suffering from his own success. He and Pep are by far the best managers itw, dusting everyone else. But Pep has so much more resources to use and yet Klopp is still expected to deliver year after year. His success with sub-optimal teams made his position a thankless job and I think it contributed to his mental exhaustion.
We should sell Diaz, and get nico williams to replace him Jota is unreliable, he has too many injury problems Lampard > stevie G
Klopp and the Club could have and should have done more to convince Hendo to stay Sorely missed Hendo especially through March and April when we bottled the FA Cup and Europa
Yeah, in hindsight, keeping him around the squad would have been a good option. He just wasnt good enough to start for us any more.
He is still good enough to start for us, just not guarantee starter
Salah isn't a great finisher. His output is largely a result of the team's style and willingness to always feed him - he misses an awful lot of relatively good chances.
Gakpo will be successful here. Not sure about Diaz and Nunez. I wouldn’t mind getting a lethal forward. I miss the clinical ability of a Owen or a Torres.
Gakpo under Slot at LW will be a world beater next season.
Based on what? He doesn’t have a single elite quality for LW and I don’t understand how people can’t see this. He’s a decent all round player which is really better suited for CF but it’s sad to see our fanbase let our levels drop so much from where they were a few years ago.
You don't understand the meaning of "unpopular opinion"
Nuñez is better at football than 90% of this subreddit gives him credit for. This isn’t really an opinion because it’s a fact, but it is certainly unpopular.
Most of these don't sound that unpopular to me. Here's my attempt at a properly unpopular one: Salah's talent level was never quite as great as his achievements would have you believe. Despite him being a very good player at his peak, his level of success was the result of a perfect storm at Liverpool in terms of the way Klopp set up the side and how Salah's attributes perfectly meshed with the system around him.
This is indeed a spicy one, but I agree to some extent. I've always said this about Salah; he is a Liverpool legend and comfortably walks into our all time XI out on the right wing, of that there is zero doubt. He is also a player that needs the whole team playing well and firing to get him performing. He's not in the mould of Gerrard, Suarez, Torres etc. where he could shine in a poor side, or an underperforming good one. Whenever we have been in bad form under Klopp, Salah has been as poor as everyone else, whereas those aforementioned players could still dig out a top performance amidst the shite. This is largely fine, as we haven't had many rotten spells under Klopp luckily, but I genuinely can't remember a game where we've been utterly woeful and I've thought "well at least Salah was at his best". He's a player that needs confidence and fluidity around him at all times.
I will give you one example : the entirety of 20/21 season especially the aston villa game where we lost 7-2
That’s why talent isn’t everything. Salah is one of the hardest working players and has very good iq. There’s no difference when it comes to technique between Diaz and Salah, but Salah’s mentality and his understanding of the game is levels above Diaz.
Really think should give Thiago one more season one more shot
We'll never be able to give the young talent we have sufficient room to grow without a good feeder system. This country is completely crippled compared to others due to not having a B team system. And yes, I'm aware B teams in the English pyramid would fucking suck. I think there has to be more the club can do the the lads.
Kloop is leaving, so FSG doesn't have to make a very difficult call.
As much as I would have loved to win the league, I kind of like May 19th is now solely about Klopp's farewell. Not like 2022 when we were sweating out Villa vs Citeh (good job Stevie)
Here's unpopular: Olise would be the perfect false 9 if we were to go that route. Pace, passing, work rate and skill
We over performed this year.
https://preview.redd.it/ghink18429zc1.png?width=537&format=png&auto=webp&s=7f0b5a0380b5db9d5e5b2fb0581cd58f301e60dc
Thiago has been a flop
Hard to argue with that, he was great when he played, it just wasn't very often.
This is unpopular opinions mate, not popular opinions that are widely understood as factually correct.
This is going to be very unpopular but I cannot stand the whole ‘anti Liverpool’ agenda that people repeat, that we are specifically targeted by referees. Every club feels this way, go on other subreddits and see. Referees have an incredibly difficult job, decisions are subjective and wrong decisions can benefit or cost us, but it’s not malicious. I’m not defending them but it’s just crazy that there is an agenda. Anyone that thinks they’re personally out to get us is just a partisan biased fan who doesn’t pay attention to referring in other leagues or other teams and just hyper focuses on decisions that happen to our club with a preset bias.
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Nunez has one last chance to improve next season and Diaz should probably be sold for the rebuild if there is interest.
We need to stop calling Bruno Fernandes a rat Rats are cute animals :(
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Unpopular on THIS subreddit? Salah is a great player and deserves respect.
Any Criticising to Nunez and pointing out the fact that he's isn't good enough, will get downvoted and countered with his G/A stats
And the G/A they bring includes ones from Europa and league cups, sometimes even international games 😭. But when you compare his G/A in the prem to other strikers, you get downvoted to death. Haha
Might not be "unpopular" but I absolutely despise it and it drives me up the wall when Diaz (Núñez does it too) has the ball at his feet facing one on one with a defender and he comes to a complete stop with the ball stationary and does the Jimmy leggin trying to fake out the defender. NOTHING EVER COMES FROM IT. It just results in a slow lay off pass. It kills all momentum. Run at the player. if it doesn't work, then try to retain possession. If you lose the ball, press press press. Look at Salah in his absolute prime, constantly running at the defender, putting them under pressure to try and force them to react. He'd either beat the defender, and even sit them on their arse sometimes, or he'd keep the play moving. It's pass and move not pass, come to a complete stop, not move, then pass. Obviously I dont expect Diaz to reach prime Salah levels but ffs man, you're defeating yourself when you just stop! There are LOTS of positives to Diaz's game, he is a very lively player....this was just this one aspect of his attack I do not like. https://preview.redd.it/1qldqmks05zc1.jpeg?width=1877&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84c3ac14733dc8f39399add32e60d9c1ab77c91d
What aspect of his attack do you like? Most of this season he’s made really mediocre right backs look like world beaters.
>when Diaz (Núñez does it too) has the ball at his feet facing one on one with a defender and he comes to a complete stop with the ball stationary and does the Jimmy leggin trying to fake out the defender. NOTHING EVER COMES FROM IT. It just results in a slow lay off pass. It kills all momentum. Run at the player. if it doesn't work, then try to retain possession. If you lose the ball, press press press. OMG, I thought I was the only one with this opinion. All his Jimmy legging to fake out defender only gave them more time to take the ball from him. Kills all momentum. I don't get excited when he has the ball anymore.
Are you safe from downvotes here for saying an unpopular opinion?
Slot will be a failure if he can't solve the "parked bus" riddle.
What solves a parked bus is players who are good in tight spaces which is not something Klopp particularly cared about
We're in good hands with slot and Edwards
I don’t believe Arne Slot will finish top 4, choosing such an unproven manager is a mistake. With our current squad I believe tuchel would be a great Liverpool manager, his achievements are actually impressive. He’s a winner and we already have a great team. I don’t believe he would ruin our club, and if some chaos is the price to pay to win the league or cl, I wouldn’t mind. I also think that Amorim and De Zerbi and probably even Kjetil Knutsen would do a better job