Liverpool ‘are going to win the league’ in Jurgen Klopp’s final season

The Jurgen Klopp final season narrative is strong and Man City will just have to accept that Liverpool are destined to win the Premier League.

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This is Liverpool’s season
All season I’ve thought Man City will win the league. They were always going to kick on and Liverpool never really looked that convincing, even if picking up points on a regular basis.

However, now things are starting to click, players are back from injury and the Klopp final season #narrative is making a small part of my brain think that Liverpool might actually do this. Which is going to make the inevitable City title victory even more crushing. Damn you football.
Mike, LFC, Dubai

…Stick Kevin de Bruyne’s return straight up your a*se. We’re going to win the League.
Ian, LFC Hartford, CT USA

READ: 16 Conclusions on Liverpool 4-1 Chelsea: Bradley, Mac Allister, Nunez, Caicedo and a Klopp quadruple

On Liverpool, Chelsea and VAR
That first half was probably our best 45 (50?) of the season. The intensity was back and the whole team buzzed with menace. Nunez’s penalty miss aside it was practically perfect and he was otherwise brilliant, a constant pest.

Second half saw Chelsea get a toe hold for a few minutes and Nkunku showed good feet for his goal before the cushion was restored.

Obviously the decisions will be questioned as is the norm despite (because?) of var and I must admit I fully expected both Chelsea penalty shouts to be given even if I wasn’t 100% convinced either was, partly cos contact and partly Tierney. Could it be that Jurgen’s comment against him – and the social media spotlight on the odd decisions he’s given against us at times – have meant he’s gone the other way?

Special praise for Conor Bradley. What a start to his Liverpool career, five assists and a goal in six game I think. Amazing. He looks so composed in defence and gets himself in the right positions to stop opposition wide men but still causes problems in attack.

Finally, Mudryk. Yikes! He’s almost as bad as Antony.
Andy, London (via everywhere)

…That’s the best I’ve seen Liverpool play in a while. Passing, pressing, control and movement were exceptional.

Finishing could be better but let’s not be too greedy.
Aidan, Lfc (Nunez might’ve missed numerous chances but his positive influence on this game is undeniable)

How can Chelsea be quite this bad?
As an Arsenal fan, I tuned in to the Liverpool match tonight hoping Chelsea could take some points off them. After it became clear that this would not be the case, I instead enjoyed some schadenfreude at how absolutely SHITE Chelsea actually are.

Like it’s actually beggars belief how bad they are, they remind me of a Sunday league team just phoning in the last 10 games of a season with only 9 and 10 lads showing up hungover.

Pochettino should be lambasted for this. How in the name of God has he not managed to put a defensive shape/ a press/ some sort of plan/ ANYTHING in place since the start of the season.

They literally survive by Cole Palmer penalties against terrible teams it’s hilarious. I just can’t fathom how you could be a Champions League winning team, spend a billion and be this bad.

Like, I dislike Chelsea and I was pulling my hair out looking at Sterling and Mudryk, their fans must be clinically depressed. Laughably bad. Enzo and Caciedo are bang average also.

Anyways, long may it last.
Chippy

TraVARsty
Football fans for the last 100 years – We hate referees if they give a decision against my team, regardless if its correct or not.

Football – You hate referees so much, here is VAR.

Football fans – Continue to be fussy little babies unless VAR gives a decision their team’s way.

It’s a f**ing game, being fussy little babies birthed VAR and now here we are complaining about VAR, UNLESS it benefits your team.

You. I’m looking at you. Referee complainer. You are why we cannot have nice things.
Will (I know I know, of all the unimportant things in life, football is the most important, but f**k sake there is a limit)

​Bring it on Herr Clop
City fan here. Firstly, great Wednesday afternoon mailbox. Generally balanced and only a minority tempted into the tribalistic bollocks the majority of us dislike in the extreme.

Well, no shortage of goals last night. Brilliant win for City but, and I can’t speak for anybody else when I say this, it seems to me to be a double-edged sword when it’s against a Burnley side managed by one of the best Captains and players City have ever had.

Still, most of us know that football is a brutal and rather unforgiving sport. To paraphrase ‘Goodfellas’, “Don’t get instant results? F*ck you. Pay me.” “Don’t win trophies in your fist season? F*ck you. Pay me.” And so, despite everything he did for Burnley last season, might it prove for Kaptain Kompany. I hope not and I also wish he could come back to City in one form or another to further learn his trade under Guardiola.

Other than that? Clop’s ‘Quad’ is still on despite at least one of VVD’s clear fouls not being punished appropriately (I don’t think it was two). Then again, perhaps my eyes deceived me because I’m led to understand that VAR/PGMOL have had it in for ‘Pool from the outset. But what do I know?

Great result for Spurs also and, personally, I’d be surprised if they don’t end up in the top four. Just can’t bring myself to like Richarlison though. Or Bruno at United for that matter. Can’t for the life of me explain why. Just think they’re a couple of huge, wobbly pr*cks.

Looking forward to the run-in though. Bring it on Herr Clop!
Mark (The World Cup Winner Julian Alvarez is SO underrated). MCFC

Haal about that transfer
Does Haaland need to leave to get individual awards?

I think you could make a case. Players in the Premier League rarely get a Ballon d’Or. Ronaldo and Owen spring to mind. Ronaldo was leaving as he won it and I’ve genuinely no idea why Owen won it.

Playing for Madrid or Barca however practically guarantees a world-class player will win it.

If Haaland can have the ridiculous season he had and still not win it maybe he does need to leave.

But what about Messi! I hear you cry. He was playing at Miami when he won!

You mean when he won a World Cup in a country which he was international ambassador for? I’m sure that has no bearing on it. Also Ballon d’Or in a WC year needs an asterisk if you ask me. Winning the World Cup is something that can over shadow a mediocre season – like with Messi, and probably Owen thinking on it.

So if Haaland can win the league, break Premier League records for scoring goals over the course of a year and still not win the Ballon d’Or in favour of an oap Messi who strolls around for 83 minutes a game then something is wrong. He probably won’t win it this year either because despite winning a treble the current favourite to win it is…..Lionel Messi (10/1).

(Nope, it’s Jude Bellingham – Ed)

But I guarantee you the minute he dons a white shirt it’ll be Ballon dOr galore. In fact the winners of Ballon dOr is statistically massively more likely to come from Barca or Madrid (12 and 11 winners)than any other team at all (16 of the winners since 2000 have come from real and Barca) even when said teams are performing poorly. For example which Man United player won the award in 1999 when they won a treble? Trick question it was Barcelona player which took the award (Rivaldo). What did Barca win? Nothing. Literally nothing. Beckham finished second in that year. Which is probably why so many players want to go there.

So will Haaland swap the sunny shores of Manchester for the dreary turgid Spanish lifestyle? There’s a good chance because he’s way more likely to win that coveted award there.
Lee

Rashford out? Not yet anyway
The Rashford needs kicking out/transferring narrative is a bit of an over-reaction in my opinion however there seems to be a general idea that Ten Hag is giving the player an easier ride than others who have faced his disciplinary action. I’d argue each case is individual and Rashford’s transgressions are different in nature to that of Sancho or Ronaldo, and there tends to be more criticism of him given he is young, black, English, a Man United player, and vocal on political issues.

However, there is definitely precedent for treating players differently. There’s famous story from the early 90’s when all the United squad were ordered to attend a function in black tie but Cantona turned up in shorts and flip flops. When Steve Bruce complained about this behaviour to Fergie his response was to look at Eric, laugh, and tell Bruce something along the lines of ‘when you can play as well as Cantona you can wear whatever you f**king want’.

Now Rashford ain’t no Cantona, not even close, but in context Ten Hag needs to get United back in form and moving up the table. His best route to this would be getting Rashford and Hojlund performing and scoring well as a partnership. The club is simply not in a position to spend big again on a winger, Rashford is going nowhere, and so with long and short term need it’s just not practical for Ten Hag to come down hard on the lad. Bollock him, fine him, make do extra training or whatever but he needs him in the team and he needs him to play well.

Saying all that if his form continues as it has this season and they can get a decent fee in the summer then I wouldn’t object to him going. It would be a damn shame given he’s a local lad and academy graduate but the team needs players who are consistently good.
Dave, Manchester

READ: Smith Rowe leaving Arsenal, Rashford to PSG: Best pure profit sale for every Premier League club

Not sure Olise should be Man Utd priority
Whilst I don’t think it would be a bad move for United, I’m not sure I can see him at United next season.

United need reinforcing in literally every position. We can build a team around Garnacho, Mainoo and Hojlund maybe but Christ, look at the rest of the squad:

Onana – poor
Bayindir – who knows?
Heaton – old

Shaw – injured/ageing
Malacia – currently injured/permanently not as good as a fit Shaw
Martinez – might be ok but has been injured a while
Varane – old/useless
Dalot – can’t defend, not really that great going forwards
AWB – opposite of Dalot but admittedly immense at tackling
Maguire – slow/old/hated by the manager
Lindelof – combination of everyone above
Evans – basically here on a retirement lap

Casemiro – old/injured/suspended/possibly useless
Eriksen – old/slow
Amrabat – back to Fiorentina in the Summer (thank god)
McSauce – “limited” but will probably always stay
Bruno – ageing/everyone hates him

Rashford – one good season. Back to the mean this and looks very miserable
Antony – everyone says he can only use his left foot but I’ve not seen much evidence of even that this season
Amad – might come good but generally injured/not fancied by the manager
Martial – won’t be here next season. We won’t notice he’s gone.
Mount – seemingly Martial’s replacement as someone who would be amazing if only they weren’t injured all the time
Pellistri – don’t think he has a single assist or goal to his name but there’s still a clamour for him to stay and play, weirdly

There’s Sancho and Greenwood on loan but the best hope for them is that they generate some income – a loss in Sancho’s case, but “pure profit” in Greenwood’s.

With that squad, many of whom have been MIA this season, is it any wonder we’ve been so rubbish?

Anyway, back to my point, which was that our squad needs reinforcing everywhere, and that’s before we consider likely sales and contract expirations this Summer. Palace will have our pants down for Olise so it seems likely that if he signs he will be one for 3/4 players. If that happens we’re in for a lean season next season (unless we don’t qualify for Europe which seems to be harder than actually qualifying these days) as our squad won’t actually be that much better.

Surely a sign that United are doing recruitment strategically and efficiently is to unearth a number of hidden gems for lower prices and not consistently shop off the top shelf? Sure, if/when we have a decent squad again that doesn’t need “open heart surgery” we can go back to wanging a load in really top quality players, like City and Liverpool do. But in the meantime we should stop trying to compete for the best players because everyone knows the only thing attractive about United right now is the money.

And everyone also knows that’s not working.
Ash Metcalfe

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Giving Edwards his flowers
How good a manager must Edwards be given Luton got consecutive promotions in the last two years and he is 17th as it stands in the Premier League.

I don’t care what anyone else says, if you’re managing Luton and your budget is practically non-existent compared to some other clubs in the league and you aren’t in the bottom 3, then you’re doing a bloody splendid job. If I stand corrected, Chong at £5million is the record signing. Clearly Edwards must be a hard working & quality coach, if they manage to survive it could be life changing for the club.

When you look at their form as well over December & January, its been a solid middle table team kind of form and were unlucky to lose matches like the City & Arsenal ones at home, there was plenty of positives to take from these close losses.

I think Burnley & Sheff U are already down, but I would say 18th is potentially between Everton, Luton & Forest. I think Forest have the best squad out of the 3 teams here, but too much change too quickly can lead to inefficiency, only reason I think Everton will stay up is because of Dyche he just knows how to get over the line with Premier League relegation.
Rami, Manchester

What Klopp has done for Liverpool
Just thought I would spit out some bullet points about Herr Clop (sic) while I have time. Let’s get it out of the way, yes, he hasn’t won enough in his time at Liverpool – I say that mainly because of finals lost. However, if you’re going to say that he’s not a great manager because of the tin pots, then you quite possibly are the type of person to say that Bruce Springsteen can’t write a good song because he hasn’t had a UK No 1. And I don’t have any time for that nonsense. Here’s why he is great:

– He built a team from virtually nothing to post three 90+ points seasons and three CL finals. We won the CL after that Barca game, and the Prem after 30 years of the monkey on our backs. And but for 11mm and 115 charges it would have panned out differently.

– He brought gegenpressing, an incredibly complex system which largely works by force of personality and tactical excellence, something pretty much all teams even down to grass roots adopt now.

– He created an attacking trident from an absolute budget. Yes, MSN, etc…but Mane, Firmino and Salah had no right to do what they did

– More recently, it was clear he was running on empty last season. The team were terrible. But he knuckled down and made sure the club was regenerated before passing the reigns. It hurts that he’s leaving, but he’s leaving a legacy

– The guy has always done things with honesty and integrity and passion. He’s got involved with the local community. He’s not been afraid to talk politics, Brexit, immigration etc, but always from a position of humility

– ​ He gets drunk on the team bus

So yeah, you can leave him (and Bruce) the f**k alone. Personally, I would love to see him forgo football altogether and go into politics, because he might actually be one person who can clean up the swamp.

Side note – I totally agree about Rob Edwards – totally one for somebody’s near future.
Adam, LFC

…Adidas mufc gets it. F rivalry enjoy those who make the game fun. Not about money or trophies.

We want the joy we get from Klopp’s enjoyable but not always perfect football .Old fashioned effort beats money and trophies on a weekly basis in our ordinary lives. Klopp gives us that. Fergie’s teams were actually fun. Didn’t always win easy, but were fun. Man City bore old me. I get they’re great but seriously I’d say the viewing figures after 20 minutes at the Etihad against a team below 6th are atrocious.

Klopp brings pure joy to the older among us. And if we wish to teach the next generation our way then celebrate Klopp’s and Fergie’s love for attacking end to end joy.

Football will be very dull if the overcoached way takes hold like the old Barca and current Man City are. Effective but fn boring.
Stephen Ireland ( not that one. I’ve no grandparents so can’t get a sickie)

Will he actually leave though?
On the theme of being the first to spot Clop’s managerial genius – can I chip in with..?

The Perfectly Timed Resignation. Riding a wave of ‘lets do it for Cloppie’, Liverpool find an extra few percent; they achieve eternal greatness by doing a quadruple; J. Norbert, overcome with emotion and realising that he still needs the Europa Conference League to complete the set has a change of heart .. and joy rains down from the heavens as even the angels weep to see such love. [Exploding love heart emoji]

Seriously if he does go it’ll be a loss to the whole league. The guys already a legend tbf. That article a couple of weeks back was on point; it’s about the experience and emotions not cold numbers. Remember those wild, high scoring, end to end quarters and semis in the CL? (18/19?)

The Klopp Kop? Dunno about a Klopp stand, surely a Klopp jump up and down? Anyone?… anyone? No…no. Fair… I’ll get me coat. Taxi!
Hartley MCFC Somerset (Gussy Ireland, Pep won 6/6 CL group games just this year. Making a record 19 game unbeaten run btw.)

Petting peeve
Does anyone else find this modern way of managers and their assistants passionately embracing after every goal, somewhat contrived and nauseating?
Stewart, Gooner