Liverpool Football Club - It is time to end the 30 year wait

[clasher]

https://talksport.com/football/589160/jurgen-klopp-liverpool-milestone-dalglish-shankly-paisley/

 

Klopp took 146 games to reach 300points, 4 games quicker than King Kenny.

 

I guess he is the new generation manager who has a clear view on how he wants to set up his team. By doing that, FSG is happy to give full support.

 

But i feel that its unfair to compare with Paisley and Shankly as the point value of a draw game is much higher than today.

Yup, you are right to say that it’s unfair to compare with paisley or shankly. In the olden days, a league win was 2 points instead of 3 now

[Atrecord]

Yup, you are right to say that it’s unfair to compare with paisley or shankly. In the olden days, a league win was 2 points instead of 3 now

 

i read that the comparison was reconciled somehow to compare between 2 and 3 points for a win.

 

I think what is more likely was that back in Paisley and Shankly's days, the league was not as competitive as now, when money rules the game and clubs who spent millions (even billions) measure by success so everyone is pressured to deliver. So the most successful clubs definitely are higher achievers than their counterparts from decades ago. Same for the managers.

[Jamesc]

Now one team always win so it's less competitive.

 

Last time so many different teams win so was more competitive last time.

 

Teams that win the League like Leeds, Blackburn, Aston Villa, Forest and even Derby County I think.

 

Edited August 19, 2019 by Jamesc

[Raymondism]

i read that the comparison was reconciled somehow to compare between 2 and 3 points for a win.

 

I think what is more likely was that back in Paisley and Shankly's days, the league was not as competitive as now, when money rules the game and clubs who spent millions (even billions) measure by success so everyone is pressured to deliver. So the most successful clubs definitely are higher achievers than their counterparts from decades ago. Same for the managers.

What i meant was a draw in those days is worth 1.5pts compared to now. Two draws are as good as a win. So the coaches will more likely set up the team to secure a draw i.e. more defensive.

[Atrecord]

What i meant was a draw in those days is worth 1.5pts compared to now. Two draws are as good as a win. So the coaches will more likely set up the team to secure a draw i.e. more defensive.

 

OK that's indeed true. In those days, the incentive to win a match - as compared to a draw - is not as obvious as now.

 

last time drawing 2 matches gets as many points as win one and losing the other.

 

now win one lose one, gets more points than 2 draws.

[Fooblack]

Pool top of the league after all the round 2 matches :) 

 

- 2 wins out of 2 

- All front 3 have opened their account for the season

- 11 games winning run in the league

- City dropped their own winning run in the league and especially for home games streak

- Klopp's 300 pts for Pool at record timing 

 

best part is that Pool not firing at full cylinders yet.  So we should have fair reasonable basis for optimism?

 

Next up, the Gunners are coming to town this coming Sat.  If the games go open, expect fireworks as they themselves have real firepower in their locker. 

[kopfan]

Just 2 games into the season. We will be watching top of table clash this weekend. Our trio should be fit, clear of fatigue and be ready for firing at Gunners on home soil.

[Raymondism]

Guess we will see all 3 frontmen starting for the game against Arsenal with Hendo and Wijnaldum (or Ox) supporting in box to box role. Fabinho will patrol in front of our defensive quartet of Robertson, VVD, Gomez and TAA with Adrian in goal!

Edited August 20, 2019 by Raymondism

[Joseph22]

What i meant was a draw in those days is worth 1.5pts compared to now. Two draws are as good as a win. So the coaches will more likely set up the team to secure a draw i.e. more defensive.

On TOP of that bob record is more impressive as Liverpool wasn’t even a TOP TOP team then.

[Raymondism]

On TOP of that bob record is more impressive as Liverpool wasnât even a TOP TOP team then.

Where did you appear from?

 

The league introduced 3pts for a win probably to encourage more goals.

[Jamesc]

Pool top of the league after all the round 2 matches :) 

 

- 2 wins out of 2 

- All front 3 have opened their account for the season

- 11 games winning run in the league

- City dropped their own winning run in the league and especially for home games streak

- Klopp's 300 pts for Pool at record timing 

 

best part is that Pool not firing at full cylinders yet.  So we should have fair reasonable basis for optimism?

 

Next up, the Gunners are coming to town this coming Sat.  If the games go open, expect fireworks as they themselves have real firepower in their locker. 

 

Pool will control the midfield and starve Arsenal's front 3 of service.

 

[cashcow]

Pool will control the midfield and starve Arsenal's front 3 of service.

 

Actually the main problem for visiting teams including Arsenal is that Liverpool is playing with 12 against 11 players.

 

This is Anfield. Hard to explain really. 

 

Klopp knews and every opposition coaches and teams also know.

 

After all Klopp is a smart cookie who also know something about mind games (like Alex Fergie).

 

[Jamesc]

Actually the main problem for visiting teams including Arsenal is that Liverpool is playing with 12 against 11 players.

 

This is Anfield. Hard to explain really. 

 

Klopp knews and every opposition coaches and teams also know.

 

After all Klopp is a smart cookie who also know something about mind games (like Alex Fergie).

 

 

Easy to explain.

 

Pool have the best fans.

 

Pool have the best songs

 

and the fans are the most knowledgeable about football

 

and also have the best sense of humour.

 

[Jamesc]

Example of Pool fans sense of humour.

 

 

 

 

[Lala81]

 

HOW CARB POWER HELPED THE REDS AVOID A BANANA SKIN 

As soon as the lap of honour was complete in Istanbul’s Vodafone Park, Liverpool’s backroom staff swung into action.

By that stage it was already the early hours of Thursday morning. There was little time to dwell on the glory of being crowned UEFA Super Cup winners after a penalty shootout victory over Chelsea.

There were ice baths to run, recovery shakes to be dished out and video analysis to be pored over. The next assignment was just around the corner and Jurgen Klopp knew that it was laced with danger.

Privately, the scheduling had angered the Liverpool manager. He couldn’t understand why his side had been handed a Saturday afternoon showdown away to Southampton in the Premier League so soon after a 3,500-mile round trip to Turkey.

But Klopp also knew that publicly complaining would achieve little other than giving his players a ready-made excuse to stumble on the south coast.

Instead a detailed plan had been drawn up to ensure that Liverpool did everything in their power to ensure that fatigue wasn’t a determining factor against Saints, who had the luxury of a full week to prepare and were smarting from a heavy opening weekend defeat to Burnley.

The decision had been taken to stay at the luxurious Ritz-Carlton Hotel close to Besiktas’ home in Istanbul post-match rather than immediately fly home to Merseyside. It was just after 2am local time when the squad returned to their base but all the clocks in the players’ rooms had been put back two hours in line with UK time.

Captain Jordan Henderson didn’t return for a further hour-and-a-half as he was forced to wait in Vodafone Park, desperately trying to rehydrate after an exhausting night in order to provide a urine sample. Xherdan Shaqiri was also randomly selected for a drugs test but, having not featured over the course of the 120 minutes, had no such issues.

The following morning brought an early start for head physio Lee Nobes and long-serving masseur Paul Small as they got to work on weary limbs in the hotel.

Among their five-strong team was physio Jose Luis Rodriguez Robledo. The Spaniard had enjoyed an eventful evening in Istanbul. Having gone into the stands to get his national flag for goalkeeper Adrian during the post-match celebrations, stewards mistook him for a pitch invader when he returned to the field. Twice, they tried to drag him away – much to the amusement of his fellow staff members.

After breakfast, those squad players who didn’t get on in the Super Cup embarked on an intensive core session in the gym led by head of fitness and conditioning Andreas Kornmayer.

On their four-hour afternoon flight back to Liverpool the treatment continued for Klopp’s walking wounded. Nobes, who joined the club from Manchester City last November, spent three of those hours working solidly on Adrian’s ankle. It had swelled up considerably overnight after he had been wiped out by a supporter who had ran on to the field after the penalty shootout.

Without Nobes’ expertise, the former West Ham keeper would have had no chance of playing at St Mary’s.

James Milner was also regarded as a major doubt with a heavily bruised leg after taking a kick against Chelsea and was tended to on the plane.

The ‘Game Ready’ icing machine was regularly filled and passed around the players. Developed by scientists and doctors using NASA space suit technology, it circulates cold water from an ice reservoir through a wrap which is applied to the injured area of the body and provides compression as well as ice treatment.

Having landed back in Liverpool just before 4.30pm on Thursday, the players had cars at the airport and were able to head straight home to their families.

For Klopp and his staff there was still work to be done as they got together to study the video analysis assistant boss Peter Krawietz and his team had pulled together on Southampton.

They talked about dealing with Saints’ threat from set-pieces, their direct style and how crucial it would be to win the second balls.

At 1pm on Friday the players reported back to Melwood where the importance of rest and nutrition over the following 24 hours was drummed into them. Signs around the inner sanctum of the training ground read ‘Carb Power’.

A light training session lasted less than an hour with Klopp knowing that overexerting his players would be counter-productive on what was essentially their second recovery day.

Going outside was preceded by the video analysis team meeting as the manager picked out examples of Southampton’s strengths and weaknesses. “Massive,” was how one staff member described the significance of that information to Saturday’s outcome.

“It’s so difficult trying to prepare when you only have one light session between games so that’s when using the video becomes such a powerful tool. The manager was calm. He told everyone he wasn’t interested in excuses.”

At 6pm on Friday they flew to Southampton and headed to the Hilton at the Ageas Bowl. Nobes and Small were busy again. The players ate together, had treatment and then slept.

On Saturday morning Adrian passed a fitness test on his sore ankle before the squad went for a leisurely stroll close to the home of Hampshire County Cricket Club.

Klopp had described the game to his players as “the biggest banana skin in history”.

“Everybody is waiting for it, probably all the headlines are written already,” he said. “I would prefer the headline: ‘The mentality giants were in town’.”

The manager had decided that fresh legs in midfield was vital. Henderson and Fabinho had played 120 minutes in the Super Cup so they would make way.

Gini Wijnaldum and James Milner, who had each featured for an hour in Istanbul, would have Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for company. Shifting Oxlade-Chamberlain from wide on the left to a central role created space for Roberto Firmino’s return to the starting line up.

It was a big show of faith in Oxlade-Chamberlain considering how he had struggled in the first half of the Super Cup. But he looked so much more comfortable in the middle and Klopp’s gamble in handing him a first Premier League start since April 2018 paid off handsomely.

For most of the opening 45 minutes it was a scrappy, disjointed affair. Possession was tossed away far too easily. As well as a predictable hangover of sorts from their midweek exploits, Liverpool were caught out by Saints’ set-up.

Instead of the 5-4-1 formation they had planned for, it was 5-3-2. That gave the hosts more of a threat through the middle but also meant there was more space out wide for Klopp’s men to exploit.

Liverpool’s failure to make the most of that in the first half featured heavily in the half-time team talk at St Mary’s. Sadio Mane’s stunning finish had lifted the mood but the bar still needed to be raised. Full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson were told in no uncertain terms that they needed to be operating further up the field.

Switching play quickly from one flank to the other in order to really stretch Saints started to pay dividends as Liverpool dominated the second half. Midfielders were quicker to get up in support of Mane, Firmino and Mohamed Salah.

Rather than wilt physically, Liverpool grew stronger. They counter-pressed better as a unit. The value of the gruelling fitness drills during the pre-season training camp in Evian came to the fore.

So did Klopp’s attention to detail and pursuit of marginal gains. Some were sceptical last season when it emerged that he had enlisted the services of throw-in coach Thomas Gronnemark.

But the players have bought into it and the Dane’s impact is clear. Both of Liverpool’s goals at St Mary’s came via that route.

The second involved Mane robbing the ball off Jan Bednarek and feeding Firmino, who hammered home from the edge of the box. Nerves were jangling when Adrian’s blunder enabled Danny Ings to pull one back but Liverpool held on.

“It’s a massive result for us,” Robertson told The Athletic. “We got no favours playing Wednesday night in Turkey and being given a 3pm Saturday kick-off away.

“I think we could have been looked after a wee bit better but getting another three points on the board is all that matters. We knew we would have to dig deep, especially having had extra time in midweek.

“We stayed resilient and compact. Our mentality is so strong. When your preparation isn’t ideal, it’s all about finding a way to win and we did that.”

An 11th straight league win – equalling the club’s best run of the Premier League era – was all the sweeter as Manchester City were held by Tottenham later in the day. Liverpool still haven’t dropped a point since March.

Despite the body blow of losing No 1 Alisson Becker to a torn calf, they emerged from an energy-sapping week with the Super Cup and six points out of six.

Their latest triumph owed much to the team behind the team. A truly collective effort.

In the away dressing room at St Mary’s following Saturday’s game, assistant boss Pep Lijnders declared that he had “good news and bad news”.

“The bad news is that Adam (Lallana), Joe (Gomez) and Hendo (Jordan Henderson), you have to go back outside and run,” he said. “The good news is that you’ve all got two days off.”

Nobody can say they haven’t earned a breather.

 

 

How pros recover.

 

[Fooblack]

Guess we will see all 3 frontmen starting for the game against Arsenal with Hendo and Wijnaldum (or Ox) supporting in box to box role. Fabinho will patrol in front of our defensive quartet of Robertson, VVD, Gomez and TAA with Adrian in goal!

 

for games against top 6 teams, these teams usually wouldn't park the bus so I expect Klopp will play it safe in midfield to bolster it with his trusted generals - Fabino, Hendro, Milner and Gini. 

 

If Ox plays, then it would be a major vote of confidence by Klopp.   

[Lala81]

Slightly unrelated to LFC.

But Abraham and Pogba all got racist abuse after missing their penalties recently.

It's quite appalling.

 

https://www.empireofthekop.com/2019/08/20/reds-fans-rally-against-racism-after-rival-star-faces-abuse/?fbclid=IwAR07mzG8VewgSjnUSVz9UapEPpeoayHPIKvTlrKkyTG6JPepqlECnLsVFaU

 

If u had money riding on the game, sure feel free to shout some general expletives not directed at someone, but to call them out as niggers etc is really BS.

As if you had the nerve to shoot the penalty in front of 40-50,000 people.

[Raymondism]

for games against top 6 teams, these teams usually wouldn't park the bus so I expect Klopp will play it safe in midfield to bolster it with his trusted generals - Fabino, Hendro, Milner and Gini.

 

If Ox plays, then it would be a major vote of confidence by Klopp.

Yes most of the time Klopp would line up Fabinho Hendo and Wijnaldum or Milner in midfield if we want.

 

I remember before Fabinho's arrival and Ox's injury. There were games which we start with Ox, Hendo and Milner. With two hardworking and hard tackling guys in the middle, our forwards can drag the defense apart for Ox to drive thru the centre. Lets see if Klopp continues to build up Ox's match fitness by starting him.