The Official Liverpool Thread - Part 2

[omar]

Villa have five central midfielders on the field, none of whom are on any big club’s wish list. Arsenal I’ll grant though didn’t exactly scream their best day at the office but Villa? Villa are quality now? Ok. I think Villa address more likely some sort of statistical or tactical anomaly. I thought their win against Arsenal was fortuitous and one Jason Sanchez was key to the winner. That plus Lindelof played today for Villa makes me sceptical.

They've been a top 6 team for 3 seasons now, and only missed out on CL football again on the last day. You can't "fluke" that tbf.

You can't fluke beating Munich and PSG at home either like and finishing in the top 8 of the CL league stage.

This is their third full season under Emery and outside of a slow start to this season they've been incredibly consistent during his tenure despite consistently have to sell players to adhere to spending rules.

I'm not sure what you're watching tbh.

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

They've been a top 6 team for 3 seasons now, and only missed out on CL football again on the last day. You can't "fluke" that tbf.

You can't fluke beating Munich and PSG at home either like and finishing in the top 8 of the CL league stage.

This is their third full season under Emery and outside of a slow start to this season they've been incredibly consistent during his tenure despite consistently have to sell players to adhere to spending rules.

I'm not sure what you're watching tbh.

Fluke is a strong word. Plus, we're talking about this season, not previous ones. They've lived off scoring a lot of wonder goals rather than creating lots of high quality chances, and ridden their luck a fair bit at the back.

The one game where they were actually fantastic was against Arsenal, so that will paint a picture that they must be great.

 

[omar]

Fluke is a strong word. Plus, we're talking about this season, not previous ones. They've lived off scoring a lot of wonder goals rather than creating lots of high quality chances, and ridden their luck a fair bit at the back.

You have to consider previous seasons when analysing their stats for this season though to give a fairer reflection. If they had been a bang average mid table team up to now, your point would be more relevant.

I would see their current position as progession on previous campaigns where they have also gone on pretty long unbeaten runs, especially at home.

If you remove their disastrous start to the season which to be fair has been an anomaly in their form over the last 3.5 seasons...then their stats aren't that bad at all. Their XG in recent games (not today) has significantly improved for example.

I don't think they'll win the league and will probably be closer to 4th or 5th than 1st come the 3nd of season but they've consistently shown they're are now a top 6 level team.

The big 6 has been consistently broken up in the previous 3 seasons but people don't want to acknowledge it imo.

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

You have to consider previous seasons when analysing their stats for this season though to give a fairer reflection. If they had been a bang average mid table team up to now, your point would be more relevant.

I would see their current position as progession on previous campaigns where they have also gone on pretty long unbeaten runs, especially at home.

If you remove their disastrous start to the season which to be fair has been an anomaly in their form over the last 3.5 seasons...then their stats aren't that bad at all. Their XG in recent games (not today) has significantly improved for example.

I don't think they'll win the league and will probably be closer to 4th or 5th than 1st come the 3nd of season but they've consistently shown they're are now a top 6 level team.

The big 6 has been consistently broken up in the previous 3 seasons but people don't want to acknowledge it imo.

I would say more that we need to look at the talent pool in their squad, which is really strong, no doubt, top six, as you say.

Since they got over that nasty start they had to the season, they've basically been racking up points at title contender levels. They are NOT that good.

 

[Cleric Pubetic]

Fluke is a strong word. Plus, we're talking about this season, not previous ones. They've lived off scoring a lot of wonder goals rather than creating lots of high quality chances, and ridden their luck a fair bit at the back.

The one game where they were actually fantastic was against Arsenal, so that will paint a picture that they must be great.

Yeah Ive not seen much of them this year besides the Bumnal game but the consensus seems to be they're majorly outperforming xG?

Even today West Ham deserved something out of that only for the thundertwat from Rogers.

 

[omar]

I would say more that we need to look at the talent pool in their squad, which is really strong, no doubt, top six, as you say.

Since they got over that nasty start they had to the season, they've basically been racking up points at title contender levels. They are NOT that good.

If Watkins finds his form you would wonder much much they can push on. He was woeful again today. They might replace him in January too..

Villa's problem has been dropping point to lower placed teams at higher rates than other top 6 teams...they consistently beat other top 6 teams outside of Liverpool. They seem to be doing both at the moment but admittedly not beating West Ham etc very unconvincingly.

Anyway I've dragged this thread off topic enough for one nighy!

 

[Shabby]

With some of the reds you'd see these days, it seems bizarre that Brighton's Gomez only got a yellow for this

Liverpool told major decision vs Brighton was incorrect by ex-referee chief

Former head of referees says yellow card was 'insufficient' for high challenge on Florian Wirtz during Liverpool's 2-0 win over Brighton on Saturday

www.mirror.co.uk

A nailed on red. I couldn’t believe it at the time and neither could the player himself. In general the game is gone very, very soft and there’s fouls, pens and reds for very little but that was surely as clearcut red card as it gets.

 

[KolaKubes]

A nailed on red. I couldn’t believe it at the time and neither could the player himself. In general the game is gone very, very soft and there’s fouls, pens and reds for very little but that was surely as clearcut red card as it gets.

Agreed.

The bar for sending off a player from one of these teams is higher. Wirtz would have seen red for that. The game is creating an upset in every match.

 

[Nollaig O Muracu]

Anyway I've dragged this thread off topic enough for one nighy!

Any thoughts on Munster Saturday night?

OT loves it when we talk about rugby. Or Bruno.

 

[omar]

Any thoughts on Munster Saturday night?

OT loves it when we talk about rugby. Or Bruno.

What a deal for Cork GAA, rental fee for the stadium and they won't have to fertilise the pitch till Easter.