Official Liverpool FC Thread @ The Phins

Conor Bradley was soo friggin good today. I do recall seeing him a couple of summers ago, in the preseason. I thought he had skill then, but not to this degree. All facets of his game have improved since then and he's only 20 years old. TAA is going to have a tough time getting his RB position back. I think Bradley should start vs Arsenal, Gomez as well. Pretty much the same team that shredded Chelsea today. But I imagine Klopp will rotate 3/4 players for Sunday.

 

agree on all fronts. One game at a time of course. This FA Cup matchup, we have to play a bunch of U21's. It just is what it is. I just hope we play Kelleher again and we might have a chance, the way he played today. Adrian... no.

I just couldn't believe how we mostly dominated the extra 30 minutes considering how things were looking at the end of the 90. Chelsea were in the ascendency. And Poch says after the game, maybe his players were looking ahead to penalties thinking they had the advantage there. OMG. How is he still employed?

Thought McConnell and Clark and Danns brought that energy that we needed in the 30. I went back and watched it again. It was Clark's shot that was blocked that created the corner and ultimate goal for Van Dijk. They are all heroes today.

I'm going to be so sad to see Klopp go. I just don't want to think about it right now. I mean I know it's looking likely that Alonso will be the new manager, but nobody is Klopp.

 

Massive to get Michael Edwards back, now as CEO, with Hughes from Bournemouth likely to be the Sporting Director. Edwards bringing in so many of our great stars going back to 2016 ish, Sadio Mane, Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino, Virgil Van Dyk, Alisson, the list goes on and on. I can't help but think there must have been some kind of rift between him and Klopp that led to him leaving back in 2022. And now he's been convinced to come back with Klopp leaving after this season. Whatever that was about, doesn't really matter in the end now does it? Hopefully with this power team in place on and off the pitch, we can convince Xabi Alonso to join us.

 

hard one to take that... should have won it earlier in the 2nd half. Giving away two leads. And against them. Not good. Only silver line is that less games to play on the run in now with the league. Of course we have the Europa league as well, but winning the premier league is the perfect way to send Klopp off. We shall see, time will only tell. I won't even talk about which players were to blame today, not time for that at all.

 

Pathetic to see the Klopp era end this way... with a loss to Everton, just inexcusable. I had feared the announcement in late January that Klopp was leaving could derail the team. Looks like that was in whole or in part, an ingredient in this season's collapse. And that's exactly what it was. Losing at home to CP... and now to hated Everton, is a collapse for me. Just a real shame to see it end this way. And we may never know how or what lead up to him making this decision or even why he chose January to announce it. He said he made the decision back in late November, told the board then... but didn't tell the players for another 8 to 10 weeks. Something strange going on behind the scenes...

Sure, he says he is tired... but a part of me can't accept that. I'm not calling him a liar. But you just can't do that to your team in the middle of the season when you are fighting in THREE competitions.

"Yeah guys, I know you are fighting your arses off to win, and you can't be tired... but me? no no, I'm tired, I'm leaving when this is all said and done." Sorry. But you just can't do that to your team. You can't expect that to have nothing but a long term negative effect. The short term reaction was fantastic, mind you. But with a third of the season left... it can only get you so far... fighting on pure energy for your manager.

What's next, well more on that later... looks like it's going to be Slot taking over, the dutchman. And I'm not too thrilled with that. I'd rather a PL manager actually... RDZ would have been a good choice. He knows the competition. And that's huge. But the three main candidates... Alonso then Amorim, now Slot, all from outside the PL. Not sure I understand that if I'm being honest. Sure, it worked for Klopp, but that took some years... this current squad doesn't have the time for that... unless we are rebuilding? which frankly, might not be a bad idea at this point.

 

Melissa Reddy reporting that Slot over Amorim is the choice because he's a better fit to the style and infrastructure that LFC currently have in place. That Amorim would want to implement three at the back and that would mean a change in playing philosophy as well as needing to bring in different players at the senior level. I'd also venture to guess that the academy style that we currently have is more in line with what Klopp has built over the last what 8 or 9 years? And that Slot's style falls more in line with Klopp's. Certainly, the longer a culture is in place (because of Klopp), the harder it is to implement a different play style.

I'm not sure how I feel about that. From a resource allocation stand point, it makes sense to keep things trending in the same direction. So we won't see a "rebuild." which takes time to implement... and more of a retooling. But we still need several new players infused into the squad at each level of the team (forwards / mf's / defenders). You can't fill all the gaps with academy players. You'll be hoping you can fill some... but you still have to go outside the club anyway. So it always comes down to money and the willingness of the board to spend.

People who always complain about FSG not spending enough forget how much they spent for Alisson and VVD. And how much they were willing to spend for Caicedo last summer. If the right player is there, they will spend for that player. The trouble has been identifying that big piece that completes the team and turns us into perennial contenders. Hopefully, with Edwards and et al coming in (back), we will be able to do that again. Time will tell.