Rival watch

I've always thought that one thing a politician does not want is someone asking him/her questions. He/she might have to answer!

 

That's why they scuttle off to events where the media have not been informed where they are. Or hide in a fridge when they see journalists. Or spend the last week with their feet up at a lakeside mansion

...hang on, I'm describing one politician there

 

Liverpool's title challenge falling apart at home to West Ham. 1-2

 

It was good while it lasted

 

and then was 3

 

Pat Nevin ex Chelsea thinks Liverpool lucky. Well,that's what you need.Unfortunately,Spurs are badly in need of some!

Unlucky,Hackney!

 

That's really unusual. Normally the pundits pitch it as Liverpool's opponents being unlucky rather than Liverpool being lucky (see the subtle difference). And there have been very many games where the opponents have been described as unlucky!

The BBC match report has kept the normal narrative however. They say Liverpool 'find a way'. This is of course bollocks, as if they can arrange for the opposition keeper to make errors.

 

Maybe I watched a different match to other people but the match I watched Liverpool thoroughly deserved to win - The spammers were plucky, but LIverpool were better in every department, yes their 2nd goal was lucky, as the keeper had a mare, but thats what you get when you create the pressure that they did.

I hate to say it but this is a very special team breaking records almost every week - and there are more to come before the season ends.

Our club needs to be inspired by what is going on at Anfield because they are setting the bar at new heights now and its not that long ago that they were we are now.

 

i think that there are a lot of similarities in the recent history of both clubs though not sure many on either club board would agree with me .

 

There were similarities between Liverpool and Spurs and Klopp and Poch.

The difference maker was January 2018 when you sold Coutinho and used that money to get Van Dijk and Alisson, since then Liverpool have just been getting better and better while Spurs got stale.

Such fine margins make a huge difference in football.

 

@remembercolinlee will be with you shortly...

 

RCL had our back last night

 

I don't think the margins are as fine as that tbh. No question those 2 additions in particular have been the most significant, but some if not most of Pool's transfer activity has been really smart in recent years. Their front 3 cost a combined total of £115m. Bringing in Robertson for £8m was a masterstroke (many of us wanted to sign him when Hull went down but tbh at that time Rose and Davies were such a strong duo it was impossible to see him fitting in). Then the summer Newcastle went down and sold 2 midfielders there is no question they got the better deal in Wijnaldum. They picked up Gomez and Matip for pennies and have benefited from a productive era in their academy, TAA being the biggest success story of that. If you follow their transfer history from the end of Klopp's first season until the present day, there is a clear strategy to all of it as he set about building a unit capable of challenging for the top prizes. Piece by piece that has happened and the results are obvious.

Compare it to the pre and early Klopp era when they were pissing money away on the likes of Markovic, Benteke, Balotelli and Moreno and it is night and day.

Financially, I think we could've kept up with all of the above save for Allison and VVD. I think the rest of the names I've mentioned would all fit in to our fee and wage ceilings comfortably. But by contrast, our transfer policy was either hit and miss or non existent. Our strategy far too often came across as "let's hope for the best", over-relying on key players, wasting money on bargain basement crud or wishing broken players back to full fitness and form. There has been no pattern, plan or strategy because the whole thing is reactive rather than proactive. In fact the only proactive signings we've made in the past 4 years have been Sanchez, Foyth and Janssen. And so far only one of them proved successful and he cost 10x what Joe Gomez cost and isn't a better player.

 

CK is right about our transfer policy under Klopp being a giant step forward from the previous arrangement but as i've said before on a number of threads many of the players we have weren't rated that highly when we signed them. What has led to our & their improvement is they were bought with specific tactics in mind where their skills would be useful . Too often players seen to be bought because they are "good players" with little thought given to how they will fit in the team framework .

 

A bit of sense and honesty for a ****ing change. Fair play mate

 

I will say that the difference between Klopp and Poch was....Klopp wants to win everything,even a darts match against his mum. Poch didn't....and it shows!

 

two things:-

1. Harry Kane shirt on sale for $129.99. No thank you!

2. The late Kirk Douglas left 60 million,mostly to charity. I'm expecting a cheque any day now.

 

It's such an easy trap to fall into. For the first 3.5 years under Poch, we had a clear system which was perfectly suited to the players we had and also guided our hand in which players we pursued in the market/which we promoted from the academy. Injuries to key players plus minimal investment at the same time decimated Poch's chances and tbh I don't think he ever managed to recover. He persisted with a system that was successful with Walker, Rose, Wanyama and Dembele as key components despite having players with totally different skill sets/simply not as good in Trippier, Davies, Sissoko and Winks.

We went from a starting line up of:
Hugo
Walker Toby Jan Rose
Dembele Wanyama
Alli Eriksen Son
Kane

To:
Hugo
Sissoko Toby Jan Davies
Dier NDombele
Lamela Eriksen Son
Kane

In less than 2 years. That was our line up versus Brighton when we lost 3-0. The drop in quality is appalling enough but then you have to also consider how ill-suited many of those players are to the system we asked them to implement. Poch is probably guilty of settling on the 4231 approach without reacting quickly enough to our rapidly changing on field fortunes.

Pool sold Coutinho precisely when it suited them. They sacrificed the short term gains of having him stay, for an inflated transfer fee and a clear understanding that Klopp's preferred 433 system simply doesn't accommodate him without seriously compromising either pace or graft.

The sooner Maureen settles on a system the better. If that's going to be 433 as recent selections indicate, we have to recognise that irrespective of his generally poor form, there is no real role for Alli in that system.

 

Went for the greater good of getting Sullivan, Gold and Brady FC relegated...
RCL was loaned out to pool last night

 

Seasoned jinxternational.