Match Day Thread 2017/18 Premier League, Cups & Euro Watch

Debatable.
I'd say over-performing is functioning at a level higher than your standard deserves, and that is a matter of opinion.
In my opinion, we deserve to be where we are. We are a team, and part of that team is its strike force. They are ****-hot, and not over-performing in any way.

 

Its also a bit silly to say we weren't close to 4th place in the summer. Considering we'd finished 4th the previous season and added Robertson, Salah & Oxlade Chamberlain to the squad with only squad players leaving in the other direction.

And "there's not a lot seperating us and Arsenal", yeah, bar our defence being better and our attack also being superior to theirs.

 

that's fair. it is my opinion and everyone is free to debate it (with manners)

Your opinion is also fair we are where we are. But equally in august nobody saw 30 goals out of mo salah by middle of February. so where did you think we'd be in august?

My opinion was formed on basis of:

a) forwards unknown qty. mane back form injury only late on, coutinho going, etc
b) midfield functional coutinho was the hope
c) defence lacking
d) GK lacking
e) we over performed last seaosn v top 6 rivals topping that table.


We have actually improved over this season and have got to a nice respectable position in the top 6 mini league now. City are way out in front but now we are respectable in it with 8 games gone (ud and cheslea to come) is 2-4-2 = 10 points. beat arsenal and city, drew with arsenal,cheslea, utd, spurs and lost to spurs and city.

thats not bad at all but we have done way better than last year against bottom half sides. WAY better +10 points better. thats down to salah and firmino IMO. Again.. predict that in preseason?

So IMO we have over performed. Its great. Its a shame about the cups but thats down to heads not being on them IMO. especially west brom. really maddening performance. The CL has been kind to us and thats great too. will always take that.

Are we where we deserve to be? thats a fiar point. you might say cheslea have slumped and talked themselves into 4th and deserve to be dropping down. Spurs depsite the bragging have not actually been that good and their inconsistency has cost them esp at wembley. Then theres arsenal who have been awful.

they all deserve to be where they are too then.

 

He was signed to score goals, I don't think Klopp and co. are surprised that he is doing what he was bought to do.

 

Yes nobody was happy with ox, or robertson as first choice and there was a big question mark on salah especiallay by some calling him a cheslea reject

Contrast that to the other teams improvements. (spurs were 2nd and added 3/4 players) chelsea added as well. good signings. Utd were 6th and added massively, arsenal you could debate yet they added a couple of decent players as well. It was always going to be higly competitive.

The fact is the year before we had a great run, slumped badly and ground out 4th. Thats not a basis for confidence in being better than the others again. There's nothing in that summer pile with coutinho mess happening to says yeah we will be at least as good (IMO)

Salah has been great, its been marvelous.

for the record: arsenal won 6 of the last 8 games last year, it was them losing to spurs that just eeked out the gap that meant our 76 points was enough. it was a huge points total for 4th and is reflective of how good we WERE up to christmas last year. Mane was great but injured and still not back til august this season. people forget that.

we had a piss easy run in last year. we won 5 and drew 2 and lost 1. however context is vital

Lost to palace having been a goal up. 1-2 due to idiotic defending
beat watford 1-0 thanks to punt form lucas at can who scores a wonder goal 1-0 and we absolutely ground that out in an awful game.
Drew 2-2 with bournemouth.
scraped past an awful stoke side 2-1 who scored first thanks to coutinho who was subbed on after injury. (free kick remember)
drew 0-0 with southampton

arsenal lose the its us pissing through west ham when pressure comes off and then beating boro on final day.

Now i'm sorry but i clearly remember all those games and how poor our defence was and how ineffective our midfield was.... we went into this season with the same midfield and defense.

 

so hand on heart.

did you expect 30 goals by middle of February.

seriously that's the question.

 

You might just as well say that we were under-performing earlier in the season.
It's logical, over a 38 game season, to say that everyone is more or less where they deserve to be.
Put in an historical context, it would be fair to say that Leicester over-achieved in their title-winning year, nevertheless they deserved what they got for that season.

 

I expected Salah to be a 10-15 goal a season player.

He may never have an incredible season like this year again, but I cant see him dropping off a cliff. Probably something like 20 goals a season, which is still fantastic.

Very impressed with Firmino improving each year too

 

No. But that simply means he's exceeded our expectations, that's not the same thing as over-performing. It just shows that despite the claims of some, we can't see the future accurately.

 

All i am doing is outlining the reasons behind my view in august.

 

No but expected more from Mane #evensoutovertheseason

 

His style suits us and partnering with firmino perfectly so yeah. he might dry up in terms of not having 4/5 chances to bag a goal or missing more or whatever but he's getting in positions that are just perfect to score form. As a right winger supposedly he's in the no 9 striking role so much.

He's be great.

 

Spurs didn't sign anyone until 2 games into the season. There's no way you can claim they were looking stronger in the summer because they hadn't made any signings.

 

that is true

though again i saw him returm form injury and he wasn't quite on it then. for sure the hope was he would have got back form injury earlier and had a full preseason.

Deffo mane was absolutely brilliant last year for us and then coutinho was also i nthat run in

And:

a) mane was injured and didn't return til final two preseason games
b) coutinho looked to want to go.

all factors.

Coutinho was absolutely great to get 12 goals/9 assists before christmas also. that was probably more than was expected after august "back injury"

 

Fair enough. However - and I'm being serious here - some of us are more pessimistic than others. Despite our poor showing in August, I was still optimistic that we could turn that around. I don't tend to extrapolate the form of a handful of games to a full season.
And even in the dark days earlier on Salah was looking the part, he's just turned out even better than anyone expected.

 

Spurs did buy 5 in the last week but they were also 2nd on 86 points last year and retained all their players but for walker and they already had a replacement for him in the wings. their buy s certinly added to squad depth.

surely they were always on for top 4?

if anything you'd say they have under performed this season so far.

 

#harsh

August:
Watford 3-3 Liverpool
Hoffenheim 1-2 Liverpool
Liverpool 1-0 Palace
Liverpool 4-2 Hoffenheim
Liverpool 4-0 Arsenal

 

true. that is just the way it is.

All i'm saying in the prior 6 months added to what was signed plus what coutinho was up to didn't lend to looking like a team that would have a 30 goal a year striker out of a RW and a 20 goals striker in firmino who score 12 in total the entire last season,

firmino for example: 2015/16 11 goals, 2016/17 12 goals total. this season 21 midway in feb. great stuff, can't expect it after his prior form and the role he plays

they have over performed whether that is a term that means against their own ability or whether that means against expectations or whether that means against prior records i don't know. Its just the term i feel fits

 

Terrible that. 4 wins out of 5, no losses. Huge room for improvement.