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Thread: The most important 4 weeks of our League season?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
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    24,832

    The most important 4 weeks of our League season?

    In the past I have had a few threads for very specific things - often simply to provide a means of casting a cursory glance over something to see how well we have (or haven't) done in a specific area.

    As daunting a task as it seems right now (and some, quite understandably, think it's beyond us - probably right too) the goal of the League campaign has to be to maintain our position as a Champion's League side. We need to finish 4th or higher to do that, as you all know - though this changes in 24/25 when 5 sides will get in.

    Currently we are 10 points off 3rd (though have a game in hand) and 6 points off 4th. After the Man City fixture, I think we can reasonably expect those gaps to be 13 and 9 points respectively, with anything less being a bonus.

    Beyond that Man City fixture (and prior to a World Cup that will give many of our lads something of a mental and physical reprieve) there are 5 League matches for us.

    West Ham (Anfield)
    Nottingham Forest
    Leeds (Anfield)
    Tottenham
    Southampton (Anfield)

    - with the West Ham match on October 19th and the Southampton match taking place on November 12th. It's a period of time within which the games will come thick and fast and could prove one of two things - there's fight in us yet, or, potentially, our season is utterly Doomed.

    With 4 of those 5 sides in the bottom half and with 3 of the games at Anfield, it probably presents one of our better opportunities to pick up some points, though Reds will understandably be entering this period of time with troubled minds. Still - with the possibility that we may pick a few up (losing to Nottingham really would be an eye-opener!) I thought it might we worth looking at the equivalent fixtures for some of the clubs we're trying to reel in. Brighton and Newcastle are both decent outfits with 14 points, so although not traditionally Champion's League place challengers, I've included them. I'll embolden spots where so-called "six-pointers" may benefit us, should we manage our own affairs - tall an ask as it may be just now. I'm also not detailing Arsenal and Man City's fixtures as lists due to them being so far ahead - though will include instances of the sides above us playing against them.

    TOTTENHAM

    Man United
    Newcastle
    Bournemouth
    Liverpool
    Leeds

    CHELSEA

    Brentford
    Man United
    Brighton
    Arsenal
    Newcastle

    MAN UNITED

    Tottenham
    Chelsea
    West Ham
    Aston Villa
    Fulham


    NEWCASTLE

    Everton
    Tottenham
    Aston Villa
    Southampton
    Chelsea

    BRIGHTON

    Nottingham Forest
    Man City
    Chelsea
    Wolves
    Aston Villa

    If we are to have any chance of giving us something to hold on to for the return after the World Cup, then we have to get something before it starts. We can't enter the late December/early January period without some hope. It has to be now.

    Can we do enough? Will we have some of the good fortune required in terms of the "right" teams above us dropping points? Tottenham and Chelsea in particular have a few difficult fixtures there. The gap is scary, but if we can squeak a few results out, we might just be able to get one or two sides within a more reasonable distance.

    Fingers and toes incredibly tightly crossed for 3 things -

    - Favourable results
    - Some rest/recovery for a lot of our lads during the World Cup
    - A January transfer to help these lads push for a respectable half of the season

    My hopes aren't high, but nothing is impossible in this sport.

    Your hobbies are rollerblading and you're also a bit of a rat-hound? Steel Wool
    Sid knows he's crazy and he likes it. Balinkay

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    23,303
    After city we need to win those 3 after at least.... get going a bit and who knows we might get a result against spurs, I'd fancy us v southampton too.
    #FSGOUT

    we are liverpool football club, not fucking norwich.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
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    24,832
    Quote Originally Posted by Kev0909 View Post
    After city we need to win those 3 after at least.... get going a bit and who knows we might get a result against spurs, I'd fancy us v southampton too.
    My guesstimate is 10 points - 3 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss. But you never know.

    I'm quietly confident about Nottingham Forest so if we did beat West Ham we would enter the Forest game with our tails up. If we had beaten Forest we enter a Leeds game at Anfield with a tiny bit of hope rekindled, etc etc etc

    Ifs, buts and maybes but all we can do is try. Injury to Diaz will mean Elliott and Carvalho will fancy chances at making some impact, Ramsey may be hopeful of a game if Trent is out (don't know if he is) as will Gomez. Núñez will still feel he has a lot to prove and so will Jota and Salah for different reasons. Konate will be eager for game time as Matip can't play every match and Jones will hope for minutes as Thiago and Henderson will need rotated. Fabinho will want to answer critics.

    Lots of nuances. The fight for a Champion's League spot lacks the glamour we have become accustomed to, but so many sides never get the chance. Let's show everyone we don't take our lofty position in World football for granted.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Posts
    9,602
    Love the optimism but between now and Christmas there will likely be more injuries not less. This team is a physios dream. This is likely going to be like the year after we won the title when Virgil and so many others got hurt. But we we still “mentality monsters” then. They show little belief in the system or themselves now. Best that could happen is all our rivals’ best players get hurt at the World Cup and bottle it for months.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    3,806
    Quote Originally Posted by Insidious View Post
    In the past I have had a few threads for very specific things - often simply to provide a means of casting a cursory glance over something to see how well we have (or haven't) done in a specific area.

    As daunting a task as it seems right now (and some, quite understandably, think it's beyond us - probably right too) the goal of the League campaign has to be to maintain our position as a Champion's League side. We need to finish 4th or higher to do that, as you all know - though this changes in 24/25 when 5 sides will get in.

    Currently we are 10 points off 3rd (though have a game in hand) and 6 points off 4th. After the Man City fixture, I think we can reasonably expect those gaps to be 13 and 9 points respectively, with anything less being a bonus.

    Beyond that Man City fixture (and prior to a World Cup that will give many of our lads something of a mental and physical reprieve) there are 5 League matches for us.

    West Ham (Anfield)
    Nottingham Forest
    Leeds (Anfield)
    Tottenham
    Southampton (Anfield)

    - with the West Ham match on October 19th and the Southampton match taking place on November 12th. It's a period of time within which the games will come thick and fast and could prove one of two things - there's fight in us yet, or, potentially, our season is utterly Doomed.

    With 4 of those 5 sides in the bottom half and with 3 of the games at Anfield, it probably presents one of our better opportunities to pick up some points, though Reds will understandably be entering this period of time with troubled minds. Still - with the possibility that we may pick a few up (losing to Nottingham really would be an eye-opener!) I thought it might we worth looking at the equivalent fixtures for some of the clubs we're trying to reel in. Brighton and Newcastle are both decent outfits with 14 points, so although not traditionally Champion's League place challengers, I've included them. I'll embolden spots where so-called "six-pointers" may benefit us, should we manage our own affairs - tall an ask as it may be just now. I'm also not detailing Arsenal and Man City's fixtures as lists due to them being so far ahead - though will include instances of the sides above us playing against them.

    TOTTENHAM

    Man United
    Newcastle
    Bournemouth
    Liverpool
    Leeds

    CHELSEA

    Brentford
    Man United
    Brighton
    Arsenal
    Newcastle

    MAN UNITED

    Tottenham
    Chelsea
    West Ham
    Aston Villa
    Fulham


    NEWCASTLE

    Everton
    Tottenham
    Aston Villa
    Southampton
    Chelsea

    BRIGHTON

    Nottingham Forest
    Man City
    Chelsea
    Wolves
    Aston Villa

    If we are to have any chance of giving us something to hold on to for the return after the World Cup, then we have to get something before it starts. We can't enter the late December/early January period without some hope. It has to be now.

    Can we do enough? Will we have some of the good fortune required in terms of the "right" teams above us dropping points? Tottenham and Chelsea in particular have a few difficult fixtures there. The gap is scary, but if we can squeak a few results out, we might just be able to get one or two sides within a more reasonable distance.

    Fingers and toes incredibly tightly crossed for 3 things -

    - Favourable results
    - Some rest/recovery for a lot of our lads during the World Cup
    - A January transfer to help these lads push for a respectable half of the season

    My hopes aren't high, but nothing is impossible in this sport.

    thanks for this

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    3,806
    Quote Originally Posted by 3underpar View Post
    Love the optimism but between now and Christmas there will likely be more injuries not less. This team is a physios dream. This is likely going to be like the year after we won the title when Virgil and so many others got hurt. But we we still “mentality monsters” then. They show little belief in the system or themselves now. Best that could happen is all our rivals’ best players get hurt at the World Cup and bottle it for months.
    maybe we have to accept the fact that our style of play is too much to play to the optimum levels needed two years running...Especially with our injury prone squad......They ran themselves into the ground last season.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    24,832
    Quote Originally Posted by 3underpar View Post
    Love the optimism but between now and Christmas there will likely be more injuries not less. This team is a physios dream. This is likely going to be like the year after we won the title when Virgil and so many others got hurt. But we we still “mentality monsters” then. They show little belief in the system or themselves now. Best that could happen is all our rivals’ best players get hurt at the World Cup and bottle it for months.
    I'm not even so sure I would go so far as to say I am genuinely optimistic, moreso just seeing an area where we might - MIGHT mind you - be able to slightly close the gap.

    Even after we get back (much too far ahead to look) after the World Cup, we will be looking at Aston Villa, Leicester (at Anfield) and Brentford. We would be into January by that point and if we found ourselves something like 2-7 points off 4th spot rather than 9-15 then we might suddenly have renewed vigour - ESPECIALLY if a January signing came in for that extra injection to spur us on a bit.

    We're generally better in the second half of a season and even in Klopp's final Dortmund season where the first half showed relegation form, the second half was very respectable. Whilst I don't expect a "brilliant" second half, I can certainly anticipate that we may find a way to do "enough" to the key is to give ourselves half a chance - and that means getting some points out of the matches before the World Cup while some of our rivals drop points.

    Fingers crossed.

  8. #8
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    Oct 2009
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    Byron Bay Australia
    Posts
    2,765
    Quote Originally Posted by shminkyred View Post
    maybe we have to accept the fact that our style of play is too much to play to the optimum levels needed two years running...Especially with our injury prone squad......They ran themselves into the ground last season.
    The shallow squad depth is the problem. The first XI played far too many matches last season as the squad players aren't good enough to be rotated in and maintain the same level of performance.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Posts
    24,832
    Just to add (in terms of areas where we may take some confidence) that the Ajax game happens just before the Leeds game - so we might enter the Leeds game knowing that Champion's League knockout football for this season is secured, if things go very well.

    The same goes for Tottenham - we play Napoli after Leeds, but before Spurs - so could enter the Spurs game (the one I expect we're most likely to lose annoyingly) with a bit of renewed self-belief.

  10. #10
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    Oct 2011
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    23,096
    Quote Originally Posted by shminkyred View Post
    maybe we have to accept the fact that our style of play is too much to play to the optimum levels needed two years running...Especially with our injury prone squad......They ran themselves into the ground last season.
    It is absolutely it imo. This is where plenty will blame Klopp. But Klopp has tried to evolve the team so that this boom and bust risk.. is mitigated. Sadly he just hasn’t had anything like the backing to do so.

    This is why he (or the club) has/have tried - all or nothing to go for Chou Chou. Next up Bellingham… He realises there isn’t ever going to be the cash to get to that next level. So he is trying to get back to 2019 by putting a plaster in at number 6…and hope that works. But the rest have aged.

    Simple maths tells us all that FSG cannot make us competitive at the elite level, UNLESS there is a freak occurrence in the market which creates a Coutinho to Barca situation.

    Yet again that situation we ruthlessly and brilliantly exploited, is at the heart of it all.

    Where is it coming from next? Without it, even with Klopp, it is - as I mentioned a year or more ago - us looking up at Spurs and Arsenal, again…that’s the model right there.

    Klopp has made it look so much more effective than it is.

    Put this manager in any big club in Europe, and he will do similar. The difference is, with us, there is a connection with the fans and the city, it’s genuine. He would have never signed that contract otherwise

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