Match Day Thread Vs Leicester (A)

Yeah it’s not the only reason for sure. But even going back to last season after the break and restart with no fans, we weren’t brilliant, although also coincided with title being won.

Ask any opposition if at 0-0 going into last 10 mins you’d rather be playing at Anfield with 60k or an empty stadium and I’d be surprised if any said the former. It’s all psychological but that can such a huge impact on either side.

that’s why this season I don’t think can be overly fussed about what happens. Yes CL important from money and prestige side, but given the injuries, the condensed season, no fans, having come off back of 2 very successful seasons of CL and League wins (plus all the additional mini cups) this season is pretty much a write off.

 

No doubt this has been a weird season. In general not just from our view point. Of course we have to accept any outcome however negative it could be. You seem to be a half full glass type of person, which is no bad thing. Having said that we need to have some objectivity too. I started the season full of optimism. Not unrealistic considering we were the outstanding team of the last season, with a massive gap from the runners up and City our main rivals in mid table. I think we had reasonable expectations that we would champions or very near. What’s happened?

No doubt the main contribution to our downfall has been...Pickford. Singlehandedly he derailed our title defence. By removing VVD from our team, he not only damaged our defence. He set in motion a series of changes which affected the rest of the team.

But should we have been reliant on only one player however good? Matip we knew was injury prone. Others are too inexperienced and yet we let our CB go. We chose to do that.

Yes we missed the crowd. But others could argue that why should we moan about missing a 12th player? Is it now more equitable that the opposition team doesn’t need to play against a so called “12th” man?

If we miss out on CL for next season, we would be no better than Blackburn or Leicester who could not defend their title or qualify for CL in the following season AFAIK. that’s fact without putting a gloss on it.


However all is not lost. We still have plenty of matches and time to get that top 4. The title was gone really weeks ago. I see the favourites for top 4 as Chelsea Leicester and ourselves. We just cannot afford to gift away points to challengers by stupid GK errors.

Thiago is a great player but Hamann’s reservations seem to have merit. He’s class and an incredible passer of the ball but he does slow the play and unless Klopp find the best way to integrate him we will struggle to get the performances of last season.