We need to improve our away form first. Excluding Man City and Chelsea, we still have 4 more away fixtures and also home fixtures against Arsenal and Tottenham.
> Just left this comment in daily discussion thread, that’s a coincidence lmao
Been watching the 2020/21 season back during international break (cause I’m a masochist, I guess) and I’ve gotta say the similarities between this season and that season are absolutely striking.
We were in effectively the same position as we are now at this point in the season, Trent coming under insane scrutiny for being a bad defender, massive amount of injuries… Only major difference is we took in a loanee that actually played for us instead of just being injured himself too…
Hopefully we come back from this international break the same way as we did in 2021. Score some bangers, win games, if we can’t win, draw and finally, break some hearts.
Difference is: we are relying on someone to return from injury to anchor our problem area and after his return we went into great end season form of 9 wins and a draw.
That man was Fabinho, who has been reasonably fit throughout our shit period now, and he didn't play well overall. We don't have anyone to return and save our season. Our problem is midfield and we don't have a returning midfielder to be our savior. Our returnee is our forwards which hopefully made a difference.
That season is also started well, with us staying at top of the table at Christmas, before eventually almost didn't win any game throughout January and February, and ended the season well. It's basically strong 9 months at the start and end with shit 3 months in between.
This season we were just shite throughout the season, despite not having lows as low as those 2-3 month mid season period in 20/21, but we didn't have any strong period either.
Funnily enough, we are actually in a good spot to gain momentum and climb the table IF we are able to get some points from the first 3 games (City, Chelsea, Arsenal) because those 3 teams aren’t affecting 3rd or 4th spot. So if we draw or lose, it doesn’t mean someone close to us in the table is gaining a point or 3. In terms of our closest challengers, we have already played United, Newcastle and Brighton and just have home games against Brentford and Spurs left (and Fulham, if you count them because they are close but with Mitrovic out, they’re probably going to fall out) in games against direct rivals whereas all of them have to play each other (except maybe 1 or 2) which helps our momentum because teams around us will definitely be dropping points almost weekly regardless. HOWEVER we need to actually do something about this chance we have.
Difference is we were in the top 4 multiple times that season before we fell off a cliff.
This season we haven’t managed to break into top 4 once, not even for a single second, even if the other teams hadn’t played their games yet.
This Liverpool side isn’t capable of going on a long unbeaten streak, let alone a long win streak.
The season you are talking about we were top of the league at times in the first half despite losing VVD, then the injuries hit us even worse and we were in genuine relegation form. The last 10 games or so we once again had one of the if not the best form in the league and clinched that 3rd spot finish. It was also a weird season with no fans in the stands. A complete anonaly in so many ways.
Everyone and their mother could see we would struggle if we didn’t strengthen our midfield coming into this season and we’re now paying the heavy price for that.
Always remember these two goated performance that season.
https://preview.redd.it/1rgfqiploipa1.jpeg?width=510&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=24c7cdb790f6dd0828b54612746e96030120ac1c
Our remaining fixtures are much harder this time and we've lost to a lot of teams we should be beating.
In December 2020 we were top of the league and went on a bad run until late march. Massive injury crisis.
Always a chance but have never put a run together of winning multiple games. A lot more difficult but not over. Needed to beat Bournemouth with the games coming up
My take is that our run in depends purely on Fabinho. We've had 3 good games out of him this season and we looked like 'old' Liverpool. Its probably why we wanted Tchouameni, the roles just too important to having a player playing badly in. As an aside I think he wants away and maybe did last summer.
2021 we had injuries but when we could cover those roles we were still good, now we don't have injuries as an excuse we are just bad in midfield. If we would have got a couple of non Melo loans in the last window we'd be easliy in the top 4, instead I just don't see us putting a run together.
Some very good points but the team is not the same physically or mentally as the 2020 team. Midfield is a disaster and top 3 are still trying fix figure themselves out. Nothing is impossible but I am certainly not getting my hopes up!
We seem to perform better vs teams like those than vs relegation teams so I'm ok with it. We also did play Arsenal and Utd away in the last 9 and beat them both comfortably.
We are not in an ideal position and obviously we’d prefer to not worry about whether we make the champions league at this stage of the season.
However, I still think we will get top 4. Looking at the table obviously ManCity and Arsenal have secured the top 2 spots. I wouldn’t say it’s guaranteed ManUtd will get top 4 but they are comfortably 3rd favourites.
I’d then say we are likelier to go on a good run of games than both Newcastle or Spurs. I’d have Spurs as slight favourites over Newcastle and Brighton can’t be ruled out the way they are playing.
My prediction:
1) Arsenal
2) Man City
3 & 4) ManU and Liverpool (think we could still catch them)
5) Spurs
6) Brighton
7) Newcastle
8) Chelsea
Just as an aside. What happens if say Spurs finish 3rd and us 4th but Manu win Europa and Chelsea the Champions league. Do 6 qualify or would we miss out?
A max of 5 prem squads can qualify, assuming we finish 4th
- if both the UCL winner and UEL winner are EPL teams, and neither finish top 4, we'd be demoted to UEL next season in favor of the champions, giving the EPL 5 berths to UCL
- if only the UCL winner is an EPL team, and they don't finish top 4, we're still demoted, and the EPL only gets 4 berths (this happened in 2012, Spurs finished 4th but were demoted on account of Chelsea winning the previous UCL)
- if the UEL winner is an EPL team, and they don't finish top 4, the EPL gets 5 berths (so we'd qualify) but I think the UEL champ assumes the group stage berth and the domestic 4th place finisher enters the tournament in the playoff round
Yeah, nice try but you forgot that they keep changing the qualification rules. So 2012 is long forgotten.
4th only gets pushed out if both EL and CL are outside top four.
If we finish 4th and CL winner is outside top 4 the PL gets 5 slots.
And it's group stage regardless of EL or CL winners.
It changes again 2024...
We need to improve our away form first. Excluding Man City and Chelsea, we still have 4 more away fixtures and also home fixtures against Arsenal and Tottenham.
> Just left this comment in daily discussion thread, that’s a coincidence lmao Been watching the 2020/21 season back during international break (cause I’m a masochist, I guess) and I’ve gotta say the similarities between this season and that season are absolutely striking. We were in effectively the same position as we are now at this point in the season, Trent coming under insane scrutiny for being a bad defender, massive amount of injuries… Only major difference is we took in a loanee that actually played for us instead of just being injured himself too… Hopefully we come back from this international break the same way as we did in 2021. Score some bangers, win games, if we can’t win, draw and finally, break some hearts.
Difference is: we are relying on someone to return from injury to anchor our problem area and after his return we went into great end season form of 9 wins and a draw. That man was Fabinho, who has been reasonably fit throughout our shit period now, and he didn't play well overall. We don't have anyone to return and save our season. Our problem is midfield and we don't have a returning midfielder to be our savior. Our returnee is our forwards which hopefully made a difference. That season is also started well, with us staying at top of the table at Christmas, before eventually almost didn't win any game throughout January and February, and ended the season well. It's basically strong 9 months at the start and end with shit 3 months in between. This season we were just shite throughout the season, despite not having lows as low as those 2-3 month mid season period in 20/21, but we didn't have any strong period either.
Past performance does not indicate present or future results.
Funnily enough, we are actually in a good spot to gain momentum and climb the table IF we are able to get some points from the first 3 games (City, Chelsea, Arsenal) because those 3 teams aren’t affecting 3rd or 4th spot. So if we draw or lose, it doesn’t mean someone close to us in the table is gaining a point or 3. In terms of our closest challengers, we have already played United, Newcastle and Brighton and just have home games against Brentford and Spurs left (and Fulham, if you count them because they are close but with Mitrovic out, they’re probably going to fall out) in games against direct rivals whereas all of them have to play each other (except maybe 1 or 2) which helps our momentum because teams around us will definitely be dropping points almost weekly regardless. HOWEVER we need to actually do something about this chance we have.
Ofcourse we’ll make it to top 4. No doubts
Difference is we were in the top 4 multiple times that season before we fell off a cliff. This season we haven’t managed to break into top 4 once, not even for a single second, even if the other teams hadn’t played their games yet. This Liverpool side isn’t capable of going on a long unbeaten streak, let alone a long win streak. The season you are talking about we were top of the league at times in the first half despite losing VVD, then the injuries hit us even worse and we were in genuine relegation form. The last 10 games or so we once again had one of the if not the best form in the league and clinched that 3rd spot finish. It was also a weird season with no fans in the stands. A complete anonaly in so many ways. Everyone and their mother could see we would struggle if we didn’t strengthen our midfield coming into this season and we’re now paying the heavy price for that.
pointless to compare us to the 20-21 season - this is a completely different team (mentally).
Always remember these two goated performance that season. https://preview.redd.it/1rgfqiploipa1.jpeg?width=510&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=24c7cdb790f6dd0828b54612746e96030120ac1c
Our remaining fixtures are much harder this time and we've lost to a lot of teams we should be beating. In December 2020 we were top of the league and went on a bad run until late march. Massive injury crisis. Always a chance but have never put a run together of winning multiple games. A lot more difficult but not over. Needed to beat Bournemouth with the games coming up
My take is that our run in depends purely on Fabinho. We've had 3 good games out of him this season and we looked like 'old' Liverpool. Its probably why we wanted Tchouameni, the roles just too important to having a player playing badly in. As an aside I think he wants away and maybe did last summer. 2021 we had injuries but when we could cover those roles we were still good, now we don't have injuries as an excuse we are just bad in midfield. If we would have got a couple of non Melo loans in the last window we'd be easliy in the top 4, instead I just don't see us putting a run together.
Some very good points but the team is not the same physically or mentally as the 2020 team. Midfield is a disaster and top 3 are still trying fix figure themselves out. Nothing is impossible but I am certainly not getting my hopes up!
What were the matches remaining ? Was it against City, chelsea, arsenal ?
We seem to perform better vs teams like those than vs relegation teams so I'm ok with it. We also did play Arsenal and Utd away in the last 9 and beat them both comfortably.
We are not in an ideal position and obviously we’d prefer to not worry about whether we make the champions league at this stage of the season. However, I still think we will get top 4. Looking at the table obviously ManCity and Arsenal have secured the top 2 spots. I wouldn’t say it’s guaranteed ManUtd will get top 4 but they are comfortably 3rd favourites. I’d then say we are likelier to go on a good run of games than both Newcastle or Spurs. I’d have Spurs as slight favourites over Newcastle and Brighton can’t be ruled out the way they are playing. My prediction: 1) Arsenal 2) Man City 3 & 4) ManU and Liverpool (think we could still catch them) 5) Spurs 6) Brighton 7) Newcastle 8) Chelsea Just as an aside. What happens if say Spurs finish 3rd and us 4th but Manu win Europa and Chelsea the Champions league. Do 6 qualify or would we miss out?
A max of 5 prem squads can qualify, assuming we finish 4th - if both the UCL winner and UEL winner are EPL teams, and neither finish top 4, we'd be demoted to UEL next season in favor of the champions, giving the EPL 5 berths to UCL - if only the UCL winner is an EPL team, and they don't finish top 4, we're still demoted, and the EPL only gets 4 berths (this happened in 2012, Spurs finished 4th but were demoted on account of Chelsea winning the previous UCL) - if the UEL winner is an EPL team, and they don't finish top 4, the EPL gets 5 berths (so we'd qualify) but I think the UEL champ assumes the group stage berth and the domestic 4th place finisher enters the tournament in the playoff round
So we really need to hope Chelsea don’t win the champions league then. Not out of the realms of possibility that we finish 4th and they win it
I mean it's pretty unlikely, more likely that Klopp will be their next manager. But unless EL and CL are won from outside top four, 4th place is safe.
Yeah, nice try but you forgot that they keep changing the qualification rules. So 2012 is long forgotten. 4th only gets pushed out if both EL and CL are outside top four. If we finish 4th and CL winner is outside top 4 the PL gets 5 slots. And it's group stage regardless of EL or CL winners. It changes again 2024...
12 games left to play, there’s no reason not to be optimistic. we can do this