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How would they be doing with Klopp at their wheel? Out of sight of Liverpool that's for certain.
This is the concern. What happens in 2 or 3 years time if we replace Klopp with a Owl like replacement?
I still think we have a strong squad. As long as we avoid losing all players from a single position we'll be ok for this season at least.
My concern is more down the line. When Mo, VVD, Mane, Bobby and Hendo are all well into their 30s. We could well end up with another Kenny > Souness situation without the likes of Macca, Fowler, Redknapp, Owen and Carra to soften the transition to Evans.
Something, Something, Something, Dark Side
Isolating a single point I know, but we really do and I hope the lads remind us of it in 21/22.
The absolute madness of last season has made us forget how good it is. This group of players put up back-to-back seasons of 97-or-more points and we still have almost all of the significant contributors, besides Wijnaldum, but have since strengthened with additions of Jota, Thiago, Tsimikas, Konate and Jones has been coming through.
20/21 was an absolutely insane season and as prone as we are to fear/paranoia, we shouldn't expect an exact repeat by any means. as not normal and we shouldn't really expect anything resembling a repeat unless we are horrendously unfortunate.
We had -
- A lack of crowds at Anfield
- No pre-season
- The worst injury crisis anyone can remember
- Seemingly incessant bad luck with the refs
We should have crowds for a large chunk of the season and are getting a pre-season - Mane in particular looks rejuvenated. We'd be quite unlucky to have even 50% of minutes missed due to injury that we had in 20/21. Refs and VAR I don't hold much hope for, but in the other departments we do hopefully have a better time.
We're also guilty of assuming that Ox and Keita will contribute nothing - I'm guilty of this. Keita actually started the first 4 games for us in 20/21 season, so he's not just a squad player in terms of perceived quality by Klopp - and who knows, he might manage to be fit for 30-50% of the season rather than the never-ending twinges if we get his pre-season right. he can stay fit for even 70% of the season.
Mane and Firmino were both in rotten form for large chunks of the season as well - if even one of them improves on that score we get another boost (expecting both to be flying is unrealistic) and I think we can expect some upturn, given longer recovery times between matches.
So - small causes for optimism? We had a run of 14 games at the start the season with a PPG of 2.2, then 10 games to end the season with a PPG of 2.6 - that puts you at 90-point season territory but obviously our middle 14 games where we played to 0.9 PPG and were rubbish at Anfield robbed us - do we honestly see 6 losses in a row at Anfield again?
I'd very much like a forward and a midfielder in if I were I were in charge of transfers, but even in the event that we signed nobody else, I'd still rate us as very capable of finishing higher than Man United/Chelsea and wouldn't trade our squad or Manager for theirs.
Let's get a crowd in at Anfield. Let's get some recharged players who actually had a preseason in front of those baying fans and let's see how we go. We do need to look to the future and can't bury our heads in the sand, but I think we'll manage.
No ideas on us with ‘Ole at the wheel’ then
Question was a cheap jibe aimed at Sid to be honest - I think plenty of others see the point though.
You think we would finish top 4 with Ole... perfectly entitled to your opinion, but I wouldn't agree on that.
I think plenty are a little delusional about the club and its ability to fight for the big prizes without Jurgen.
Last edited by Steveo; 27th July 2021 at 05:28 PM.
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