Like many of our fans, I am on a permanent war footing against the mancs. You can see it as silly if you want. I see it as rivalry, and I'm not prepared to give them an inch, let alone say their players are the best in the world. I put up with that said about them on a daily basis for 20 years. And as a Liverpool fan, I'm not prepared to add to that.
You have disrespected Hoffenheim and pretty much every other team we played in the Euro run while you're at it. Expecting to beat Hoffenheim is one thing, going out and doing it is another.
That's why England fail at major finals time after time, the expectations are outrageous for a country that has won nothing in over 50 years. But they're still expected to go out and wipe the floor against anybody that isn't the best in the world. Their expectations have now risen and their next tournament(s) will be compared against this. But the next tournament is the Euros, and there's no Panama Tunisia or Colombia at the Euros. There may be a Belgium and a Croatia though. And possibly a Lovren for them to deal with again.
We're not England though, and most of us had modest expectations going into the campaign. Some of us thought we would do well to get out of the group, having not done it in 9 years. We didn't get off to the best of starts either. The fact it went all the way to the wire showed what kind of group it was. Maribor lost one home game, at a banana skin venue several English and British sides have slipped on in recent years, Spartak beat Seville 5-1, while we couldn't beat Seville at all. If you want to find out what the easiest group was, the ones that were sorted after 4 games is where you look. Then we had to go to Porto, twice European champion, unbeaten at home all year, play this competition every year, and a side we had a lot of trouble dealing with when we last played them at this level, home and away. So I didn't hear anyone say, we should go there and win 5-0. The easiest draw of that round was given to Bayern, who got Besiktas and took advantage of it. Everyone here was disappointed to get City, many said we were going out while the press/bookies thought it was a mere formality. Roma were next, the place was a fortress for them in Europe this year, where Chelsea and Barcelona had gone there and got walloped. Unfortunately one of our fans got walloped by them too, and is still in hospital. And we lost out there as well, so you can see why I would have preferred to play them in the final. We hadn't played this level of football for 9 years, but we had to play quality sides from all the top 4 leagues in Europe. So I'm sorry, the myth that we had a cushy route to the final just doesn't stand up.
Lovren may not get in any of the rival sides, then again he doesn't have to. He just has to play well enough to get in our side. In Klopp's view, he does, and most fans back his judgement.
I'm not here to defend Lovren. I came here to state that he has got to two major finals this year, which demonstrates that the "you can't compete for/win major trophies with him around" phrase that gets often trotted out here, is evidently not true.
Maybe he won't win the World Cup. But even if he doesn't, there are plenty of top quality players who would gladly sell you their dinner for the chance to win one of his finals, let alone both in the same season.
To be honest lad, and I don't mean to be rude here, but you're just talking utter sh*te now to try and prove your point.
I didn't say the rivalry with the mancs is silly. I'm saying that failing to accept or acknowledge they have the best goalkeeper in the world is silly. Refusing to admit de gea is the best in the world just because he plays for Manchester United is just proper childish. You can act like a big super Mega Liverpool fan if you want but to me you just come across as a knob. I hate man united as much as anyone, but de gea is the best in the world and I think 99% of people involved in football would agree with me on that.
Right ok. If we drew Yeovil in the cup who would you expect to win? Again, id expect it to be Liverpool. As you say it's another thing going out there and doing it, but 99% of people involved in football would would probaby agree with me on that too.
The same applies to Hoffenheim and our other opponents in the CL (apart from city). Liverpool were expected to breeze past them and that we did. So the way you're repeating yourself now and suggesting our run was difficult and we somehow miraculously got through it you just look like a tool to be honest and your very quickly losing any credibility from me now. I'm just rubbishing you off as a divvy. You're either deluded as F**k or your just arguing for arguments sake. Either way its just stupid.
We couldn't have asked for a kinder draw and I think you would find it extremely difficult to find anybody, including reds, to agree with you on that. You're talking absolute tripe. All just to say dejan Lovren faced top opposition, performed tremendously, and reached the final.
It was our attack that got the plaudits during our CL campaign and rightly so. Ive already stated this several times that they bail the likes of Lovren and Henderson out regularly. There were times (city and Madrid) that Lovren performed very, very well and I've stated that several times too. However, there were also times were we were a shambles at the back like in Seville and in Rome and it falls back to what I keep saying over and over and over - dejan Lovren isn't CONSISTENT and consistency is what makes you a top player. Consistency is what wins you titles and other trophies.
You keep saying 'dejan Lovren is in a World Cup final and supposedly better players are sitting at home'. What exactly does that mean or prove? I could name you dozens and dozens of players who have played in finals who were poor. Some of them even won medals. Look at our very own djimi traore for fucks sake!! Just because he is in the final doesn't mean he is an elite player. As previously stated it is not dejan Lovren FC. He is playing for two top sides for fucks sake!
Croatia don't have anybody else better to select and in my opinion he shouldn't be in the Liverpool team and he is one of three players or positions we neee to upgrade on to win the league. That's my opinion.
Do me a favour now please lad and don't send me an essay about how tough our CL campaign was and how de gea is sh*te. All I do is read it, shake my head, and think you haven't got a clue. Unless you're going to talk a bit of sense then don't bother. Can't be arsed reading sh*te and just plain bollocks from someone trying to prove a point.