The Official Liverpool Thread - Part 2

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

Of course they didn't need to be too forensic in this instance, but it so often is a forensic analysis.

Everything that could have a blind-eye turned where, crucially, little argument would have been offered by the "victims" is now 100% under scrutiny.

I know Szob was trying to argue about the foul on him but I think he'd rather be playing tomorrow night.

 

[The Duke]

Prefer an 'its up for grabs now' myself.

You’re some bollox. Nearly vomited my corkflakes seeing that again. Remember watching it on ITV with the inimitable Brian Moore. I remember going out to the green afterwards to be greeted by all my Utd mates . Head spinning. In fairness that has to be the greatest league win ever.

 

[Philby]

Of course they didn't need to be too forensic in this instance, but it so often is a forensic analysis.

Everything that could have a blind-eye turned where, crucially, little argument would have been offered by the "victims" is now 100% under scrutiny.

Don't disagree in general terms.

But it sounded like you were applying that line of argument in this specific scenario, which I couldn't agree with.

I know Szob was trying to argue about the foul on him but I think he'd rather be playing tomorrow night.

He wanted to have his cake and eat it. He wasn't arguing for a free kick & red outcome.

His foul was a little less blatant than Haaland's and was hoping the ref would untimately give a free out only.

Can't blame a guy for trying, but it was pretty unrealistic.

Whether he'd rather be playing tomorrow night or not is much of a muchness. He committed one of the most blatant DOGSO fouls in recent memory.

 

[Shabby]

Selling Diaz was a calamity. Losing Kelleher was desperate too. I wouldn’t necessarily criticise them for selling Kelleher given he was going into his last year of contract. Getting into that situation in the first place was a huge ball drop. Brentford got him for a song. Fair play to Brentford they’re having a belter of season and more power to them. I’d love to see Kelleher play in champions league; that is his level.

This is all with the aid of hindsight of course but there was logic and reason behind letting both go.

Diaz was on a fairly basic wage and wanted a substantial rise at the age of 29. From a business point of view, that was the time to move him on while he was available for a good fee and not having to increase his wage. Kelleher wanted first team football and the club didn’t want to stand in his way. Alisson doesn’t have much longer in him but it made sense to keep Alisson for another season or two and get the fee for Kelleher. I would love it if we bought him back but Marmadashvilli may prove his worth yet in the long run as Alisson’s successor. From a business and also moral point of view, both wanted to leave so therefore the club probably did the right thing with both. From a playing point of view of course we’d want to have kept both.

We were always facing into a transition at some point. Not just from Klopp leaving but the age of some key men meant a transition had to be eyed up. I don’t even think the club expected to win the title in Slot’s first season which makes the drop off this season even harder to take. We spent a lot of money but did recoup quite a bit too. The worry is that there’s still a lot of work to be done on the squad and more suffering to come. I would say I’m a bit worried about the lack of leadership and characters in the squad and also selling a few of the younger talents like Morton, Quansah and Elliot has taken some of the soul out of the squad and club too. And it’s visible!

 

[nelly sham]

The gang commentating on Singapore or Australia coverage are a lot better than Sky.

God bless the firestick.

I think I said it here before but my firestick has a bug (unrequested feature?) where they provide a dedicated NowTv feed but for some reason on Sky its just in stadium noise only, no comms.

It's a game changer!

Doesn't work on TNT unfortunately

 

[Philby]

This is all with the aid of hindsight of course but there was logic and reason behind letting both go.

Diaz was on a fairly basic wage and wanted a substantial rise at the age of 29. From a business point of view, that was the time to move him on while he was available for a good fee and not having to increase his wage.

The economics of a Diaz extension were clearly a factor.

The bigger issue is that he was sold and not replaced. The squad really lacks wide players who can make the ball stick, carry at pace & commit defenders.

Clearly the various injuries to Bradley & Frimpong are contributing to that, as well as the knock-on effect of your best player often playing out of position.

The fans (and maybe Slot too) were sold a pup by Hughes that the pathway in the squad was kept clear for Rio to progress. Like Chiesa, Slot is very reluctant to give him decent chunks of minutes in vaguely important games. It's not a deep squad and a lot of the depth is, in practice, false (Rio, Endo, Ramsey, Chiesa)

I would say I’m a bit worried about the lack of leadership and characters in the squad and also selling a few of the younger talents like Morton, Quansah and Elliot has taken some of the soul out of the squad and club too. And it’s visible!

I think those 3 were along for the ride more so than making big contributions.

Though the Quansah buy-back clause sounds like it's a lot more likely to be triggered than most. Terms are agreed to a detailed level and Liverpool will need CBs at that mid-20s age group to bridge the gap to the glut of recently recruited young prospects.

 

[Up For The Ba]

Can't agree with that at all. The ref was letting it run because the ball was still on course for goal, regardless of whether VAR was in play or not.

I think any ref would have done the same ten years ago and then made a decision, and I'd bet if you replayed that type of incident numerous times with various refs, without VAR involvement, a reasonable amount of them would have just let it be a goal.

We all know it's technically 100% correct what happened but sometimes shit happening is just fucking graaand, especially when nobody is getting completely robbed.

We want to see goals, we want to see madness and mistakes. We don't want to see forensic decisions about every little detail.

We need to come to a point where the Henry handballs don't happen but the general chaos, joy and despair are largely untouched.

Yes the ball was on course for the goal, which was my point, but the only way Haaland was going to going to regain the advantage was to foul himself as there wasnt enough time or distance between himself and the goal to do anything but that. There really wasn't any other outcome for this IMO other than what was correctly concluded.

What you are asking for here is for two blatant fouls to be completely ignored for the sake of the ball ending up in the net anyway, never going to happen. The ref blows the whistle as soon as Szoboszlai pulls him back in the pre VAR days if it was clear Haaland would be unable to regain the advantage, which it was.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

This is all with the aid of hindsight of course but there was logic and reason behind letting both go.

Diaz was on a fairly basic wage and wanted a substantial rise at the age of 29. From a business point of view, that was the time to move him on while he was available for a good fee and not having to increase his wage. Kelleher wanted first team football and the club didn’t want to stand in his way. Alisson doesn’t have much longer in him but it made sense to keep Alisson for another season or two and get the fee for Kelleher. I would love it if we bought him back but Marmadashvilli may prove his worth yet in the long run as Alisson’s successor. From a business and also moral point of view, both wanted to leave so therefore the club probably did the right thing with both. From a playing point of view of course we’d want to have kept both.

We were always facing into a transition at some point. Not just from Klopp leaving but the age of some key men meant a transition had to be eyed up. I don’t even think the club expected to win the title in Slot’s first season which makes the drop off this season even harder to take. We spent a lot of money but did recoup quite a bit too. The worry is that there’s still a lot of work to be done on the squad and more suffering to come. I would say I’m a bit worried about the lack of leadership and characters in the squad and also selling a few of the younger talents like Morton, Quansah and Elliot has taken some of the soul out of the squad and club too. And it’s visible!

You can attempt to rationalise it all you like Its turned out to be a terrible move selling both.

Diaz was 28 when they sold him. Only 29 a few days. Sold a player in his prime for a costly replacement who has been almost completely shite in the same 6 months Diaz is ripping it up at Bayern.

 

[Nollaig O Muracu]

Can't agree with that at all. The ref was letting it run because the ball was still on course for goal, regardless of whether VAR was in play or not.

I think any ref would have done the same ten years ago and then made a decision, and I'd bet if you replayed that type of incident numerous times with various refs, without VAR involvement, a reasonable amount of them would have just let it be a goal.

We all know it's technically 100% correct what happened but sometimes shit happening is just fucking graaand, especially when nobody is getting completely robbed.

We want to see goals, we want to see madness and mistakes. We don't want to see forensic decisions about every little detail.

We need to come to a point where the Henry handballs don't happen but the general chaos, joy and despair are largely untouched.

Great post.

The Sky Sports presenter whose name I don't know (and it's a WOMAN, deep breaths lads) asked a good question yesterday. Sobozlai was sent off for preventing a goal scoring opportunity but the ball went in anyway, so how could he have prevented a goal scoring opportunity?

 

[Nollaig O Muracu]

You’re some bollox. Nearly vomited my corkflakes seeing that again. Remember watching it on ITV with the inimitable Brian Moore. I remember going out to the green afterwards to be greeted by all my Utd mates . Head spinning. In fairness that has to be the greatest league win ever.

I would agree. Liverpool were utterly dominant then and Arsenal had to go there and win by two clear goals.

City beat a dreadful QPR side with ten men who were haunted to not be relegated.

No comparison.