Football 2022/23

[thetime]

8 minutes ago, DareToDibble said:

Monumentally bad decision. Replaced KDB with Salah too. 
 

Awful performance (again) yesterday. Fair play to Forest, wanted it more. Not sure what to expect from this season really. Top 4 I guess.

Luckily for Liverpool the likes of spurs, Chelsea and united are not stringing wins together either. 

[charlierc]

15 minutes ago, DareToDibble said:

Monumentally bad decision. Replaced KDB with Salah too. 
 

Awful performance (again) yesterday. Fair play to Forest, wanted it more. Not sure what to expect from this season really. Top 4 I guess.

I looked at my Fantasy PL team having not checked it in a little while and yeesh... mine is stinking out the leagues I'm in.

Tbf you weren't to know until the game that an injury-hit Liverpool in a tweaked formation would just not look up to it.

[charlierc]

6 minutes ago, thetime said:

Luckily for Liverpool the likes of spurs, Chelsea and united are not stringing wins together either. 

As a Newcastle fan, I think there's a scenario where we might nip in ahead and get a top 4 spot at the first time of trying with a full season of our new arrangement, which is more than I was expecting given my pre-season ambition was that there was a chance we might sneak 7th if a few of the other rivals for that position had poor seasons. Though given Leicester have made an awful start, Aston Villa went backwards, West Ham aren't quite at the level they've had of late and Brighton's bright start faded after Potter got poached, the path to that is smoother.

Still early days though. Could easily see our form go off a cliff in the second half of the season, which happened in 2013/14 - 6th in January and not far off the Champions League, finished 10th and lucky not to finish in the bottom half.

[thetime]

2 hours ago, charlierc said:

As a Newcastle fan, I think there's a scenario where we might nip in ahead and get a top 4 spot at the first time of trying with a full season of our new arrangement, which is more than I was expecting given my pre-season ambition was that there was a chance we might sneak 7th if a few of the other rivals for that position had poor seasons. Though given Leicester have made an awful start, Aston Villa went backwards, West Ham aren't quite at the level they've had of late and Brighton's bright start faded after Potter got poached, the path to that is smoother.

Still early days though. Could easily see our form go off a cliff in the second half of the season, which happened in 2013/14 - 6th in January and not far off the Champions League, finished 10th and lucky not to finish in the bottom half.

Was thinking about that earlier, think it will be next season when you make a proper push for top 4. 

The draws have kept you in the top half, be interesting if you can turn the draws into wins. Especially over better opposition. 

 

[charlierc]

44 minutes ago, thetime said:

Was thinking about that earlier, think it will be next season when you make a proper push for top 4. 

The draws have kept you in the top half, be interesting if you can turn the draws into wins. Especially over better opposition. 

 

I'd believe it more and be more enthusiastic at the prospect if this was April, not October. Still ages of football still to play yet.

The draws kinda speak for themselves - got a lot of the defensive fundamentals right, but injuries have limited our attack in some games. In recent weeks, however, we seem to have found a way around it.

Spurs away, which is due in about 20-odd minutes, is gonna be a good test.

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

Was thinking about that earlier, think it will be next season when you make a proper push for top 4. 

The draws have kept you in the top half, be interesting if you can turn the draws into wins. Especially over better opposition. 

 

I'd say it's mostly about growing enough to take advantage when the big boys mess up and leave a gap. This season probably is a year or two too early, but Liverpool won't be this bad again for a while.

[kaosmark2]

Huuuge win.

Sounds like Lloris was the difference between the 2 sides.

[charlierc]

4 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

Huuuge win.

Sounds like Lloris was the difference between the 2 sides.

Lloris is a strange goalkeeper. Either he'll make a ton of amazing saves, as he did to no avail at Manchester United on Wednesday, or he'll drop an almighty clanger. I'm not sure either mistake today was as bad as his two blunders against Wolves last season, which were both astonishingly poor for a World Cup winning goalkeeper, but both reflected poorly on him. I can see why some people might claim Wilson fouled him for the first goal, but Lloris was asking for trouble to begin with.

It's a sign we're going places though. Even though we've won at Spurs on multiple occasions before, in the context of this season, it's a huge result. I know it's only October so I don't wanna get too carried away about being 4th in the table, but it's a mood booster for sure.

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

Lloris is a strange goalkeeper. Either he'll make a ton of amazing saves, as he did to no avail at Manchester United on Wednesday, or he'll drop an almighty clanger. I'm not sure either mistake today was as bad as his two blunders against Wolves last season, which were both astonishingly poor for a World Cup winning goalkeeper, but both reflected poorly on him. I can see why some people might claim Wilson fouled him for the first goal, but Lloris was asking for trouble to begin with.

It's a sign we're going places though. Even though we've won at Spurs on multiple occasions before, in the context of this season, it's a huge result. I know it's only October so I don't wanna get too carried away about being 4th in the table, but it's a mood booster for sure.

I think he just has worse days than most top keepers. I don't even think they're much more frequent, just very obvious.

A big bonus this season is the world cup I think. A lot of the top players , Haaland aside, won't get a break while most of ours will. Feels like a big opportunity, even though I think it's too early.

[thetime]

18 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

I think he just has worse days than most top keepers. I don't even think they're much more frequent, just very obvious.

A big bonus this season is the world cup I think. A lot of the top players , Haaland aside, won't get a break while most of ours will. Feels like a big opportunity, even though I think it's too early.

Would that not be a disadvantage, as well as an advantage. No football for 4 weeks, rather than players playing and keeping sharp. 

I must say Newcastle have been impressive the twice I have seen them this season(against united and spurs).

[kaosmark2]

30 minutes ago, thetime said:

Would that not be a disadvantage, as well as an advantage. No football for 4 weeks, rather than players playing and keeping sharp. 

I must say Newcastle have been impressive the twice I have seen them this season(against united and spurs).

They're not playing together though. Not the same training drills, player movements, etc

[thetime]

5 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

They're not playing together though. Not the same training drills, player movements, etc

its certainly going to be interesting post world cup.

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

Would that not be a disadvantage, as well as an advantage. No football for 4 weeks, rather than players playing and keeping sharp. 

I must say Newcastle have been impressive the twice I have seen them this season(against united and spurs).

It will be very interesting to see who can get back up to speed the quickest and for whom the first few games post-World Cup are almost like a second pre-season. The nearest parallel I can think of is the first covid lockdown in 2020, given that was effectively pausing the league for a long period mid-season and then rebooting it in the same space but with a lot of factors altered.

[WS_Jack_III]

Howe's ppg since he became manager is great. If it keeps up the rest of this season we should finish top 6. 

 

The high press!

 

Also, half that team today played under Bruce.

[Skip997]

21 hours ago, DareToDibble said:

Awful performance (again) yesterday. Fair play to Forest, wanted it more. Not sure what to expect from this season really. Top 4 I guess.

Liverpool players just aren't interested, only played well twice this season, both vs Man City. Can only get motivated against the big boys.

No idea what's up with Trent, really looks like he can't be bothered, same for Virgil. Only player who is playing to his standard is Allison.

[DareToDibble]

25 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Liverpool players just aren't interested, only played well twice this season, both vs Man City. Can only get motivated against the big boys.

No idea what's up with Trent, really looks like he can't be bothered, same for Virgil. Only player who is playing to his standard is Allison.

Yeah I feel sorry got Alisson, the only player who has been 100% on his game all season, he's being let down by the rest of the team. 

It really is quite remarkable how we lose all control when Thiago doesn't play.

[kaosmark2]

54 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Liverpool players just aren't interested, only played well twice this season, both vs Man City. Can only get motivated against the big boys.

No idea what's up with Trent, really looks like he can't be bothered, same for Virgil. Only player who is playing to his standard is Allison.

Taa has always played like this, the difference is that the midfield is struggling, due to sales, injuries, and aging, and can't cover the gaps he leaves.

[charlierc]

7 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Taa has always played like this, the difference is that the midfield is struggling, due to sales, injuries, and aging, and can't cover the gaps he leaves.

When Liverpool were at their best, it would have a right-sided midfielder able to do the dirty work and leave Alexander-Arnold to maraud forward as an extra deep lying attacker. But with Liverpool changing formation, suffering with injuries and players not being as fit as they were in 2019, it makes it more of a bodge job. Hell, I saw people suggest their formation on Saturday was close to a 4-4-2 with Salah and Firmino up top, which very much feels like trying to make something stick.

[charlierc]

Presumably questions are going to be asked of Barcelona's strategy of betting the farm that an array of expensive new signings would pay off immediately with financial expectations of reaching the Champions League quarter finals at least, only to crash out in the group stage.

The end of Atletico Madrid vs Bayer Leverkusen was also pretty astonishing as a CL recap - Atletico given a VAR penalty after the on-pitch ref blew the whistle, only for the penalty to be saved, first rebound to hit the bar, second rebound to go wide after hitting the original penalty taker, and a second final whistle confirming Atletico are out in the group stage.

[WS_Jack_III]

Dream stuff from Newcastle at the moment.

[thetime]

Klopp isn't very good unless his teams can run around like lunatics for 90 minutes. 

Doesn't seem to have a plan b.

[thetime]

16 hours ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Dream stuff from Newcastle at the moment.

Most impressed by a team united have played this season. 

[charlierc]

28 minutes ago, thetime said:

Klopp isn't very good unless his teams can run around like lunatics for 90 minutes. 

Doesn't seem to have a plan b.

It's a toss-up between them or Chelsea for the worst result yesterday. Chelsea crashing at Brighton and doing a bit of the damage with two own goals was a bit of a disaster and on base stats, Liverpool really should've won last night, but when they're playing a team whose manager was under pressure and had gone 7 Premier League outings without a win, there's not really many excuses. Liverpool do seem to have a habit of coming unstuck against bottom 3 sides, given this is not a million miles away from Forest last week.

[charlierc]

17 hours ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Dream stuff from Newcastle at the moment.

To think I was worried yesterday after Villa did a decent job against Brentford last weekend and that they did OK at keeping us out until the stoppage time penalty. This might genuinely have been one of the most dominant displays seen by a Newcastle team in years.

[thetime]

3 minutes ago, charlierc said:

It's a toss-up between them or Chelsea for the worst result yesterday. Chelsea crashing at Brighton and doing a bit of the damage with two own goals was a bit of a disaster and on base stats, Liverpool really should've won last night, but when they're playing a team whose manager was under pressure and had gone 7 Premier League outings without a win, there's not really many excuses. Liverpool do seem to have a habit of coming unstuck against bottom 3 sides, given this is not a million miles away from Forest last week.

They have spurs away next week as well, so that won't be easy.

They need to pick up quickly, especially as arsenal and maybe Newcastle are in the mix for top 4 this season.