Football 2015/16

[thetime]

Phil Neville in charge against Barcelona haha.

[Wooderson]

As I said prior to his appointment, to much ridicule on here, Klopp cruises into the top 4 with LFC in this league.

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

Phil Neville in charge against Barcelona haha.

Who knows.  Roberto Di Matteo looked a mad appointment on paper and took chelsea to champions league glory which higher profile/better managers have not been able to match.

[eFestivals]

5 minutes ago, Wooderson said:

As I said prior to his appointment, to much ridicule on here, Klopp cruises into the top 4 with LFC in this league.

and yet there's still nothing to be seen that's better than Rodgers was managing.

[ThomThomDrum]

1 hour ago, eFestivals said:

and yet there's still nothing to be seen that's better than Rodgers was managing.

Dont know about that. Have my doubts if Rodgers' Liverpool gts all 3 points yesterday and I dont think a Rodgers side plays as impressively as Klopps did in the games against Chelski and especially City. But thats all very speculative from me too so.................

[eFestivals]

25 minutes ago, ThomThomDrum said:

Dont know about that. Have my doubts if Rodgers' Liverpool gts all 3 points yesterday and I dont think a Rodgers side plays as impressively as Klopps did in the games against Chelski and especially City. But thats all very speculative from me too so.................

I agree that Rodgers probably wouldn't have got them going as quickly as Klopp has, tho Klopp doesn't (yet) have any of his own rep on show via any of the players, which gives him a little more freedom in what he might choose to do.

Rodgers showed last season that he was capable of twiddling until he found something that worked, so there's no real reason to think he wouldn't have done the same again if he'd been given a little more time.

Rodgers was also, of course, capable of servinig up turds, and Klopp showed he could do that too yesterday.

From what others say (I don't know either way) Klopp will be a fantastic asset to the club and I'm not arguing with that, but I'm not getting swept up in the hype either. Then again, I wasn't swept up in the 'Rodgers must be sacked' hype either, because nothing was as bad as the criticisms said ... which means the Klopp revival is not as big as some are saying either.

There's been at least as much of a change come from some of the players, Firmino not playing-when-injured (as he was) for a start.

 

[thetime]

Liverpool were beginning to be stuck in a rut, Rodgers didn't have the experience or charisma to get them out of it. Liverpool were in a downward spiral under Rodgers, anyone can see that.

Klopp has the experience and its pretty obvious he has given Liverpool a massive jolt of excitement and enjoyment. Klopp has got the pedigree to get people listening, the aura of a manager which has done it.

When you got United fans going misty eyed over a Liverpool manager.....

Edited November 30, 2015 by thetime

[eFestivals]

17 minutes ago, thetime said:

Liverpool were beginning to be stuck in a rut, Rodgers didn't have the experience or charisma to get them out of it. Liverpool were in a downward spiral under Rodgers, anyone can see that.

Klopp has the experience and its pretty obvious he has given Liverpool a massive jolt of excitement and enjoyment. Klopp has got the pedigree to get people listening, the aura of a manager which has done it.

When you got United fans going misty eyed over a Liverpool manager.....

I agree that things weren't as good as they could have been under Rodgers, tho luck didn't roll in his favour either.

If they'd have sacked him at the end of last season I'd have had little issue with it, but as he was allowed to continue I reckon he should have got more time this season than he did - but perhaps there were promises made about how this season would go, who knows.

This time last year you could have said (you prolly did, actually ) all the same things, but he turned that around and got them playing something like the same level of footie they had with Suarez for a while, and without Sturridge too. I think that gets written off a bit too easily.

[Dan R]

18 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

I agree that things weren't as good as they could have been under Rodgers, tho luck didn't roll in his favour either.

If they'd have sacked him at the end of last season I'd have had little issue with it, but as he was allowed to continue I reckon he should have got more time this season than he did - but perhaps there were promises made about how this season would go, who knows.

This time last year you could have said (you prolly did, actually ) all the same things, but he turned that around and got them playing something like the same level of footie they had with Suarez for a while, and without Sturridge too. I think that gets written off a bit too easily.

I thought the real issue with Rodgers was the lack of identity, considering the results weren't actually too bad. The fans were divided and apathetic, and the players looked uncomfortable and nervous. It was great when they managed that run after Christmas but as soon as they lost a game it all fell apart, and that's not a sign of success.

They were in need of a change and some belief, which is what Klopp has managed better than Rodgers so far.

[DomDom1984]

I think it's too early to make any sort of judgment on Klopp at Liverpool given that he's working with what Rodgers has left, but he seems to be doing okay, which is pretty much all you can hope for at this point. The time for judging him will be when he starts putting his own team together.

[eFestivals]

11 minutes ago, DomDom1984 said:

I think it's too early to make any sort of judgment on Klopp at Liverpool given that he's working with what Rodgers has left, but he seems to be doing okay, which is pretty much all you can hope for at this point. The time for judging him will be when he starts putting his own team together.

The players he's left with are far from a shabby bunch of players. Under any manager they stand a decent chance of making top 4.

Whether they make it or not is much the same as with any club, for how the injuries fall and how the replacements step up to the role - and then how those things impact on other clubs too.

Edited November 30, 2015 by eFestivals

[eFestivals]

was just looking at the fixtures till the mid-way point, and see that Liverpool and Spurs share fixtures against many of the same teams - making it difficult for Liverpool to skip past Spurs.

I also noticed that Leicester have a lot of tougher ones, making them perhaps the most likely to be dropping enough points to drop out of the top 4 by that mid-way point, if any of the current four are going to be shifted by then.

[pink_triangle]

4 hours ago, eFestivals said:

 

From what others say (I don't know either way) Klopp will be a fantastic asset to the club and I'm not arguing with that, but I'm not getting swept up in the hype either. Then again, I wasn't swept up in the 'Rodgers must be sacked' hype either, because nothing was as bad as the criticisms said ... which means the Klopp revival is not as big as some are saying either.

 

While the Rodgers sacking was slightly harsh, I think it was done in the context of Klopps availability.  Liverpool felt they couldn't wait until the end of the season and risk losing him to another club.  I agree that the results Klopp has achieved (apart from maybe the city result) are ones that Rodgers could have got.  However one of liverpools problems in recent seasons has been recruitment and I think Klopps pedigree attracts better players.

[Wooderson]

LFC will spend big in Jan.

[Dan R]

2 hours ago, Wooderson said:

LFC will spend big in Jan.

You think so? I think Klopp will try to get the current LFC players to settle into his style of play rather than adding a load of new players. Maybe go for a big signing if theres one available.

[eFestivals]

8 hours ago, Wooderson said:

LFC will spend big in Jan.

 

6 hours ago, Dan R said:

You think so? I think Klopp will try to get the current LFC players to settle into his style of play rather than adding a load of new players. Maybe go for a big signing if theres one available.

The main suggestion doing the rounds at the mo is that they might go for a new goalie. Defo not a bad place to start if that's the case.

They also probably need another central defender as better cover than Toure, but other than that the squad isn't too bad in relative terms. It's been a bit thin lately due to injuries but is coming out the other side of that.

[DomDom1984]

I don't think you grasp how mediocre a lot of that side is.

[eFestivals]

16 minutes ago, DomDom1984 said:

I don't think you grasp how mediocre a lot of that side is.

If they're mediocre then the same applies to every team in the Prem.

They're a team short of the players to be champions, but as a group of players they've easily the skills to be around the top.

All the same bollocks about them being dreadful was said in the season that Suarez took the Prem by storm, while most of the same people were saying Utd under Moyes were guaranteed top 4. And then again last season it was said that they were nothing without Suarez, and then they went and put in (only for a while, admittedly) the best play of any team last season.

And so if this season they're now being called mediocre again, it gets to mean that Sterling is one of the best players in the world because only his loss could have dragged them down to mediocre - but I suspect someone calling them mediocre wouldn't agree with that about Sterling so will struggle for evidence to back up his claim of mediocre players.

Some mediocre performances don't necessarily equal mediocre players, and definitely don't when those 'mediocre' players can turn it on as Liverpool did for a while last season.

[TheGayTent]

Are Liverpool getting a big cash injection from somewhere? 

[The Nal]

45 minutes ago, TheGayTent said:

Are Liverpool getting a big cash injection from somewhere? 

Liverpool always have lots of cash. As do City. They just sold 13% of the club to a Chine consortium. 

[eFestivals]

5 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Liverpool always have lots of cash. As do City. They just sold 13% of the club to a Chine consortium. 

who have? City or Liverpool? That's passed me by entirely.

52 minutes ago, TheGayTent said:

Are Liverpool getting a big cash injection from somewhere? 

Liverpool's owners have invested a fair wack over the last few years, and presumably appointing Klopp isn't the end of that.

[mrtourette]

Yeah I can't see Liverpool deciding to stop throwing money around, especially with a new high-profile manager. The concern is that the arrival of that new manager signals a change to their previous policy/methods and they actually do something constructive with the money.

[TheGayTent]

 

14 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Liverpool always have lots of cash. As do City. They just sold 13% of the club to a Chine consortium. 

Not comparitively they don't. Hence my question. 

Wouldn't surprise me if Liverpool have/are attempting to bring in cash from outside in a similar move to the one City have just announced. 

[Wooderson]

3 hours ago, DomDom1984 said:

I don't think you grasp how mediocre a lot of that side is.

I don't think you grasp how mediocre a lot of that league is.

[kaosmark2]

4 hours ago, eFestivals said:

 

The main suggestion doing the rounds at the mo is that they might go for a new goalie. Defo not a bad place to start if that's the case.

They also probably need another central defender as better cover than Toure, but other than that the squad isn't too bad in relative terms. It's been a bit thin lately due to injuries but is coming out the other side of that.

Weren't you saying a few months ago that mignolet is one of the better keepers in the league?

Edited December 1, 2015 by kaosmark2