What makes knowing who to point fingers at more difficult is that the club doesn't air it's dirty laundry anymore like it did during the H&G debacle.
I think it's a collective failing. FSG for the lack of investment for several years, Klopp and Pep having more influence on the transfer strategy and holding onto players for too long.
Performances were not as good but we had a good structure, players were switched on, fitter (?) and we had momentum to keep going.
Yeh you're right. I was going more from memory. I've now looked at the stats which show an improvement as soon as Klopp came which we all noticed. 16/17 17/18 pretty static, then as you say, two great seasons followed by mediocre (by our standards), then a good one and now this one. So there is a sort of pattern there that I was alluding to. I disagree about the continual improvement leading up to Klopp coming. Rodgers left us mid table and we finished 8th. with the lowest position we've finished in with the lowest points tally for 40 years.
No, sorry, I meant once Klopp came in there was continual improvement until the two stellar seasons. 16/17 and 17/18 were pretty static league-wise (in fact one point less in 17/18), but we did reach the Champions League final. As you say, we were on a downward trend at the end of Rodgers' time with us.
Sorry, I misunderstood, I thought you meant leading up to Klopp coming. I think there's also a mental aspect to our performances that gets overlooked. Mind and body are very closely linked. Once the belief goes, the body follows through. The opposite is also true. A team running on fumes that gets an unexpected goal, finds a sudden burst of energy that wasn't there before.
klopp stated after 0-3 loss to Barca that they said in the dressing room they could trun it round. he said he put the arm round and said don't worry. salah wore always believe. this year klopps flown a white flag on this season. it's very clear that the entire squad and management know things have gone to pot and only changes will fix it. it's a massive shift in mindset and mental approach
Exactly. And hopefully Diego isn't around to read this, but the one player to me that epitomized "never give up" was Mané. I'm not saying him going triggered this whole collapse, obviously there is more to it than that... But no matter how bad or defeated the rest of the team were acting, Mane was always going for the win. I think Milner has the same spirit, but obviously his range and position in the club has greatly diminished. It's hard for a bit part player to motivate a whole team. Losing the spirit of Mane is one of many parts in the jigsaw of why we're doing so much worse in the PL table.
I think there's something in what you say here. I will add that splitting up Mané and Salah has been telling too. A sort of animosity appeared, that may have been one sided on Mané's part following the very visible selfish call he made on Salah, but they drove each other on. Salah has a phenomenal desire to break all the records going (which feeds into the selfish call because he wants to score at all costs) so although his form has dropped, I still see a player who wants to win. He's missing Bobby and Mané: one to provide for him and one to give his all to outdo. Just to add, Mané is probably missing the Salah effect as well judging by his performances at Bayern. And when was Mané ever injured for us?
he had a few. one for 3 months as I recall. like... fairly solid player. mane is mane. he's not exactly scoring more in a dominant side. just the same sort of scoring record tbh.