2023 End of Season Review

Well overall that was a painful season with the odd sprinkling of gold like the 9-0 v Bournemouth and of course the Utd mauling will go down in history.

Klopp and his coaching team underperformed from their lofty heights, I don’t think it was simply down to the midfield, not knowing what to do with Trent early in the season, the insistence that Harvey is a central midfielder reflected a muddled thinking.

The defence has been coming under increasing scrutiny with the thought that it isn’t just the fact that the midfield is not providing enough protection. The Trent hybrid experiment I is something can’t be played against the better teams, the space left for quick wingers to exploit is just asking too much from the CB’s.
Question for next season is Trent a RB or a midfielder, he certainly enjoys the midfield role and without doubt is our most creative midfielder.
Personally if we can sort out the RB position and get more mobile midfielders, Konate and VVD are as good a pairing as any in the EPL.

Midfield issues have been discussed to death and there can be no doubt we need new legs in midfield.
I almost threw my beer at my TV yesterday watching Fabinho let the Saints player stroll past him like he was a statue and slot it away.
If next season we are starting with Henderson and Fab as certain starters I doubt another Top 4 finish.

The attack has mainly stood up despite the lack of support from midfield or as previously from the full backs.
Nunez is clearly a work in progress but I don’t understand the obsession with playing him as a winger.
Gakpo as slotted in well into a dysfunctional team and if Diaz and Jota can stay along with the irreplaceable Salah that’s a fearsome front line.

Salah and Alisson only two players played anything like what is expected but for me Alisson was our POTY.

The season would have been a 4/10 but because of the Utd rout i would rate it as a 5/10.

May be a C+, must to better.

Had far worse seasons in recent years and had far better , injuries and a drop in form derailed the season during the middle but finished well

Refresh , recharge over the off season and go again

Well overall that was a painful season with the odd sprinkling of gold like the 9-0 v Bournemouth and of course the Utd mauling will go down in history.

Klopp and his coaching team underperformed from their lofty heights, I don’t think it was simply down to the midfield, not knowing what to do with Trent early in the season, the insistence that Harvey is a central midfielder reflected a muddled thinking.

The defence has been coming under increasing scrutiny with the thought that it isn’t just the fact that the midfield is not providing enough protection. The Trent hybrid experiment I is something can’t be played against the better teams, the space left for quick wingers to exploit is just asking too much from the CB’s.
Question for next season is Trent a RB or a midfielder, he certainly enjoys the midfield role and without doubt is our most creative midfielder.
Personally if we can sort out the RB position and get more mobile midfielders, Konate and VVD are as good a pairing as any in the EPL.

Midfield issues have been discussed to death and there can be no doubt we need new legs in midfield.
I almost threw my beer at my TV yesterday watching Fabinho let the Saints player stroll past him like he was a statue and slot it away.
If next season we are starting with Henderson and Fab as certain starters I doubt another Top 4 finish.

The attack has mainly stood up despite the lack of support from midfield or as previously from the full backs.
Nunez is clearly a work in progress but I don’t understand the obsession with playing him as a winger.
Gakpo as slotted in well into a dysfunctional team and if Diaz and Jota can stay along with the irreplaceable Salah that’s a fearsome front line.

Salah and Alisson only two players played anything like what is expected but for me Alisson was our POTY.

The season would have been a 4/10 but because of the Utd rout i would rate it as a 5/10.

Some valid points mate, in particular the midfield debacle and that we somehow got into the Europa League with, we can all pontificate on why and how we have struggled this campaign, it’s blatantly obvious we simply ran out of legs, the previous seasons’s assault on all four fronts burnt away whatever energy that was left of five years of high intensity with minimal rest periods in between,

Ultimately it all leads back to finance and in our case the lack thereof, and as such, left Jürgen very little choice in having to hold onto players longer than he perhaps wanted to, and resulting in a aged tired squad, short on quality, short in energy, a lack of team spirit, lacking confidence and in the end going backwards, almost to the point where belief turned to doubt,

So for us to have finished fifth and qualifying for a major European competition is indeed a decent end to what can only be described as a complete right off a campaign, we finished unbeaten in I think 12 winning 10 and had that run began just a couple of games earlier we’d be dining at the CL table for the eighth season on the bounce, alas it wasn’t to be this time round but, as sure as there’s sh*t in a cat, next season Munts, Toon & Arse, will be looking up ours whilst we do battle once again with the Fraudulent lot !!



Looking forward, which is what we must do, I honestly believe we’re not far off being a major threat to City’s dominance, as of now, we’re probably a season or two behind where we should be, the gulf between us and them isn’t that bad, we lack, energy, creativity from midfield, we’ll need more solidity and consistency at the back, if in the summer we go some way to rectify some or most of them issues we’d make giant strides to getting back to our rightful place amongst contenders ,


No one is more relieved that this season has now been consigned to history, and I doubt any of us will remember it with any fondness, apart maybe from handing those Scummy Fuckpig MUtants a SEVEN goal Butt F***ing, Keith’s still crying into his crotch less panties btw  !! 🤣



Overall it was a f***in Disaster, there was lots of sh*t that hit the fan this season and thinking about it now we’ve done pretty f***in we’ll all things considered, it’s not what we wanted, it’s not what we expected if we’re all honest, the league table doesn’t lie we finished where we deserved to, and as painful as that is, we have to take it on the chin for what it is, and move the F**k on !!



“We Go Again” as someone once said.




YNWA



It’s early days yet but I can already feel the onset of the close season blues, thinking, sh*t what am I gonna watch now ? So roll on August ffs 😟

It’s funny really. The problems we saw this season many of us were shouting about last season and this could have almost been predicted.

Our problems don’t just lie with Harvey Elliott obviously but he was always a problem playing in midfield for us. He is a winger by trade and it would be no different to playing salah in there. The rubbish people on here who came out with things like ‘klopp likes him there’ like they go round to Jurgens for a brew every other day and have a chat. It wasn’t true. Klopp was forced to play him there because at the time we had no other options. And the kid did alright, he’s a talented footballer, but it was always going to catch up with us.

It’s the same with Curtis jones now. He did well towards the end of the season but if we use that as a reason not to invest then we are in big trouble again. A couple of decent performances doesn’t mean anything. Over a full season, if jones played every game, we would be in trouble.

Trent moving into midfield. I’ll be very surprised if I wasn’t the first poster who suggested this ages ago and again, certain people laughed and slaughtered me. One in particular said he would never play in midfield for us. Let’s be honest, he was a complete liability at right back for the first 20-25 games this season but in his new role his form improved immediately and so did our results. Unless we improve our midfield and sign a proper RCM then it’s a no brainier for me, Trent has to play in midfield again otherwise teams will continue to target and expose him at full back where the likes of Harvey Elliott don’t protect him. We also need to get the best out of him wherever that may be. I still think it’s from the wide areas but only if we get the protection down that side again.

Again, I’ll be very surprised if I wasn’t the first person to criticise Nunez on here. You could see immediately that he wasn’t very good technically. I think my words were ‘he will never be good enough to lead the line for Liverpool’ and again, got slaughtered.

That’s why he plays on the left because what he does have is pace and power. He just doesn’t have tidy feet and he couldn’t finish his dinner either. It does make me laugh when reds say ‘he’s matched suarez’s tally for his first season’ like that is relevant to anything.  Suarez came into a Kenny team recently inherited from Roy that was absolutely dreadful and a short while later nearly took us to a title. Nunez came into a Jürgen klopp team that nearly won the lot high on confidence and looked like the peri peri Andy Carroll. The only thing they have in common is nationality.

I’m one of few who doesn’t rate Gakpo either. In his case, i do think he’s got good feet and he’s technically very sound, my problem comes with his attitude. Not that he particularly has a a bad one, I don’t think he’s a bad apple or anything like that, but he doesn’t strike me as the type of lad who will run through brick walls for Jürgen or for us. He doesn’t come across as having that same determined winners mentality that mane and Bobby did. There’s no real urgency about him. He kind of just turns up and strolls around. We’ll see next season with him.

Tell you who else is over rated. Diaz. Now in his case he has all the talent in the world. Again, you can tell instantly if someone’s a player or not and he certainly is. However, he drifts out of games constantly. He can be electric for ten minutes and not involved for the other 80.  It drives me mad. Mane, Bobby and even Mo at times had games where it just didn’t fall their way for whatever reason but they still let their presence known in some way and they were involved but Diaz is like a ghost at times. He has to be much more consistent if we’re ever going to challenge.

Alison, best goalie in the world and if it wasn’t for him we would probably be bottom half.

Virgil is still our best centre half but nowhere near the level he was. Konate is a bit of a myth. Has all the attributes needed to be a top centre half but has too many brain farts.  If we could put Matips head on konates body then we would have the perfect centre half.

Because of what we’ve done under klopp so far and the expectations we’ve set, despite a couple of big wins this season, my rating would be 1/10. To go from a potential quadruple to just about finishing 5th is shocking.

Investment is badly needed.

C- got to do a lot better all round  . Jürgen is going to fight hard for every penny but I am not sure he will.

Looking forward, which is what we must do, I honestly believe we’re not far off being a major threat to City’s dominance, as of now, we’re probably a season or two behind where we should be, the gulf between us and them isn’t that bad, we lack, energy, creativity from midfield, we’ll need more solidity and consistency at the back, if in the summer we go some way to rectify some or most of them issues we’d make giant strides to getting back to our rightful place amongst contenders ,


No one is more relieved that this season has now been consigned to history, and I doubt any of us will remember it with any fondness, apart maybe from handing those Scummy Fuckpig MUtants a SEVEN goal Butt F***ing, Keith’s still crying into his crotch less panties btw  !! 🤣



Overall it was a f***in Disaster, there was lots of sh*t that hit the fan this season and thinking about it now we’ve done pretty f***in we’ll all things considered, it’s not what we wanted, it’s not what we expected if we’re all honest, the league table doesn’t lie we finished where we deserved to, and as painful as that is, we have to take it on the chin for what it is, and move the f**k on !!



“We Go Again” as someone once said.




YNWA



It’s early days yet but I can already feel the onset of the close season blues, thinking, sh*t what am I gonna watch now ? So roll on August ffs 😟

The way things stand now Billy I think you’re miles behind City and looking at the potential with players you may bring in the summer that won’t change anytime soon. That said United in the same position and even if we get top striker with additions I still think we’re fighting for top 4 only.

I still haven’t been on that seven! thread and won’t be doing anytime soon.    Thank Christ you lot made up for it by having ( in your words ) a annus horribilis, that made me feel much much better. 

Think we will all have a better idea when summer signings are all done and dusted.

Ps.. Gave your season 10/10 

A drop off of 25 points in the league, poor defence of our domestic cups, meek exit in the Champions League, senior pros being well of their best all season, tonnes of injuries again and coaching staff who made no tactical adjustments until the season was already over.

4/10 is generous.

The way things stand now Billy I think you’re miles behind City and looking at the potential with players you may bring in the summer that won’t change anytime soon. That said United in the same position and even if we get top striker with additions I still think we’re fighting for top 4 only.

I still haven’t been on that seven! thread and won’t be doing anytime soon.    Thank Christ you lot made up for it by having ( in your words ) a annus horribilis, that made me feel much much better. 

Think we will all have a better idea when summer signings are all done and dusted.

There is a gulf between us and City, 22pts difference is in truth why it does indeed feel likes ‘miles’ , fact is that they have a easier ride than most with having the resources immediately at hand, whereas we struggle  with quality to fill in for injured players,
They didn’t have any midfield worries, nor defensive worries or do they lack the goodies up top, with the amount of financial clout at their disposal they can afford two high end quality players for almost every position,  so yes I guess in terms of having the kind of resources they have, we are indeed mile’s’ behind,


But fear ye not, although our season has been nothing short of disastrous, there are very encouraging signs a huge corner has been turned and we’ve seen glimpses of what seems to be a new style/system trialed for the last few weeks of the season, …..using some of our knackered and aged individuals, the likes of Jimmy, Bobby, Naby, Ox all heading for pastures new, worked the new system well without pulling up trees, but we’ll have fresher legs, fresher minds, and a fresh determined mindset to equal our title winning mentality,


No f**ker of course has any idea who’ll be hoisting a scarf above their heads in front of the Kop come August but I can assure you they will be young, full of beans, hungry, and have the quality to take us up another level, and onwards for the next few seasons, so there won’t be any Arthur Melo type stocking fillers on our books,

This summer is massive for us, from the Boston boardroom to the dog sh*t picker uppers around L4, we have to get every signing spot on, I can see minimal 5 coming in, three of which will take up most of whatever budget is made available, ball park figure, probably around £175m - £200m, maybe one or two surprises and perhaps a Academy prospect or two,

It’s simple, this window is probably Jürgen’s most important, it will show which direction he wants us to take next, it’s for me the beginning of the second era under his tutelage, and perhaps his last major opportunity to stamp his legacy, so he has to get it right and history shows he’s pretty good at recruiting the right player, with the right mindset & mentality to take us forward.


Your lot, are for me in a worst position, it’s abundantly clear the Glazers aren’t looking to spend the millions it will take to bring you even close to your noisy neighbours , your stadium is falling apart, and more importantly your team is very thin and vulnerable as Sevilla exposed only too recently, they, in short, ripped you a new one and showed the whole f***in world that cosmetically you look half decent but scratch the surface, it’s f***in ugly, putting lipstick on a pig you still wouldn’t kiss it,


£50.00 says we finish above you’re shower of sh*t next season??



YNWA

There is a gulf between us and City, 22pts difference is in truth why it does indeed feel likes ‘miles’ , fact is that they have a easier ride than most with having the resources immediately at hand, whereas we struggle  with quality to fill in for injured players,
They didn’t have any midfield worries, nor defensive worries or do they lack the goodies up top, with the amount of financial clout at their disposal they can afford two high end quality players for almost every position,  so yes I guess in terms of having the kind of resources they have, we are indeed mile’s’ behind,


But fear ye not, although our season has been nothing short of disastrous, there are very encouraging signs a huge corner has been turned and we’ve seen glimpses of what seems to be a new style/system trialed for the last few weeks of the season, …..using some of our knackered and aged individuals, the likes of Jimmy, Bobby, Naby, Ox all heading for pastures new, worked the new system well without pulling up trees, but we’ll have fresher legs, fresher minds, and a fresh determined mindset to equal our title winning mentality,


No f**ker of course has any idea who’ll be hoisting a scarf above their heads in front of the Kop come August but I can assure you they will be young, full of beans, hungry, and have the quality to take us up another level, and onwards for the next few seasons, so there won’t be any Arthur Melo type stocking fillers on our books,

This summer is massive for us, from the Boston boardroom to the dog sh*t picker uppers around L4, we have to get every signing spot on, I can see minimal 5 coming in, three of which will take up most of whatever budget is made available, ball park figure, probably around £175m - £200m, maybe one or two surprises and perhaps a Academy prospect or two,

It’s simple, this window is probably Jürgen’s most important, it will show which direction he wants us to take next, it’s for me the beginning of the second era under his tutelage, and perhaps his last major opportunity to stamp his legacy, so he has to get it right and history shows he’s pretty good at recruiting the right player, with the right mindset & mentality to take us forward.


Your lot, are for me in a worst position, it’s abundantly clear the Glazers aren’t looking to spend the millions it will take to bring you even close to your noisy neighbours , your stadium is falling apart, and more importantly your team is very thin and vulnerable as Sevilla exposed only too recently, they, in short, ripped you a new one and showed the whole f***in world that cosmetically you look half decent but scratch the surface, it’s f***in ugly, putting lipstick on a pig you still wouldn’t kiss it,


£50.00 says  finish above you’re shower of Sh*t next season??



YNWA

As usual you come back with a cracking post.    Such a way with words it’s impossible not to smile/laugh  You know I’ve never hidden the fact we’re a average side so your not telling me anything I don’t know anyway. Take Casimiro out we’d be mid table.

However!!! Taking £50 off you would make my fcuking year.    Can we discuss the bet once transfer window concluded?

Whatever action plan is needed...

I don't think the owners care about winning anymore. All they care is expanding capacity and getting 100% attendance. Only the fans care about awards - CL, top 4, silverware etc.

Since Jürgen has managed without much transfer budget, it shows that without additional transfer funding, the performance is sustainable. I don't think the owners will care which star players we bring in, as long "you generate your own transfer funds by selling to buy..."

The other way to have more transfer funding is to trade players for profit - solanke type.

I think it will get more difficult next season with extra monetary ammunition apart from player sales.

Whatever the action plan for next year is, I don't think the transfer budget is going to improve.

5 out of 10. Big summer coming up, the thought of we can't this be bad next season and jurgens optimism will keep me going over the summer. The idea of a fully fit Diaz, jota, gakpo pushing on. Nunez bedding in  is cause for optimism. Just too many injuries, loss of form, loss of focus to have a coherent season.

5/10 must do better only Two players did well Salah and Allison Jota was ok as was Gakpo, the midfielder was shocking and starved the forwards while not supporting the defence, last season the defence was shocking and wasn’t changed and this year the midfield was awful and again not strengthened a all to often problem with our owners again let’s hope the midfield is strengthened and all who are leaving are replaced by better players. Wonder what is going on with Nunez ?.

Jürgen - 5/10
Players - 4/10
FSG - 1/10


I’d like to be optimistic about the coming season but this is the first summer where I will actually be worried that if we don’t get it right we could be in a lot of trouble. Honestly last summer I had a bit more optimism about the squad due to the prior years performance but now I don’t have that optimism as I don’t have any optimism that we will spend what’s necessary to bring in quality. Hopefully I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

5/10 must do better only Two players did well Salah and Allison Jota was ok as was Gakpo, the midfielder was shocking and starved the forwards while not supporting the defence, last season the defence was shocking and wasn’t changed and this year the midfield was awful and again not strengthened a all to often problem with our owners again let’s hope the midfield is strengthened and all who are leaving are replaced by better players. Wonder what is going on with Nunez ?.

What about Nunez?

5/10 must do better only Two players did well Salah and Allison Jota was ok as was Gakpo, the midfielder was shocking and starved the forwards while not supporting the defence, last season the defence was shocking and wasn’t changed and this year the midfield was awful and again not strengthened a all to often problem with our owners again let’s hope the midfield is strengthened and all who are leaving are replaced by better players. Wonder what is going on with Nunez ?.

What’s the issue with Nunez ?

He had a few niggling injuries but for a first season in England

42 games with 25 starts

15 goals and 5 assists


As a comparison Mane first season with us scored 13 goals and 8 assists in 26 starts


Nunez appears to be getting a bit of a raw deal at the moment

It's been a bit of a sh*t show, a huge come down after the season before, but if any team is able to bounce back in a big way it should be us as we've done it before and still have a lot of the ingredients needed to do it, most importantly our manager but also a reasonable mix of experienced winners and youth.

Nobody predicted Arsenal giving City a run for their money so that's what I'll be telling myself over the summer. Much will turn on what we do in the transfer market and getting the signings that make the system work. 3 or 4 minimum, 3 midfielders and a defender or two first class midfielders and two defenders, that need to be bang on the money to compensate for our lack of investment in earlier windows. Do that and I think some of these other (justified) concerns about the form of individual players will begin to recede.

It’s funny really. The problems we saw this season many of us were shouting about last season and this could have almost been predicted.

Our problems don’t just lie with Harvey Elliott obviously but he was always a problem playing in midfield for us. He is a winger by trade and it would be no different to playing salah in there. The rubbish people on here who came out with things like ‘klopp likes him there’ like they go round to Jurgens for a brew every other day and have a chat. It wasn’t true. Klopp was forced to play him there because at the time we had no other options. And the kid did alright, he’s a talented footballer, but it was always going to catch up with us.

It’s the same with Curtis jones now. He did well towards the end of the season but if we use that as a reason not to invest then we are in big trouble again. A couple of decent performances doesn’t mean anything. Over a full season, if jones played every game, we would be in trouble.

Trent moving into midfield. I’ll be very surprised if I wasn’t the first poster who suggested this ages ago and again, certain people laughed and slaughtered me. One in particular said he would never play in midfield for us. Let’s be honest, he was a complete liability at right back for the first 20-25 games this season but in his new role his form improved immediately and so did our results. Unless we improve our midfield and sign a proper RCM then it’s a no brainier for me, Trent has to play in midfield again otherwise teams will continue to target and expose him at full back where the likes of Harvey Elliott don’t protect him. We also need to get the best out of him wherever that may be. I still think it’s from the wide areas but only if we get the protection down that side again.

Again, I’ll be very surprised if I wasn’t the first person to criticise Nunez on here. You could see immediately that he wasn’t very good technically. I think my words were ‘he will never be good enough to lead the line for Liverpool’ and again, got slaughtered.

That’s why he plays on the left because what he does have is pace and power. He just doesn’t have tidy feet and he couldn’t finish his dinner either. It does make me laugh when reds say ‘he’s matched suarez’s tally for his first season’ like that is relevant to anything.  Suarez came into a Kenny team recently inherited from Roy that was absolutely dreadful and a short while later nearly took us to a title. Nunez came into a Jürgen klopp team that nearly won the lot high on confidence and looked like the peri peri Andy Carroll. The only thing they have in common is nationality.

I’m one of few who doesn’t rate Gakpo either. In his case, i do think he’s got good feet and he’s technically very sound, my problem comes with his attitude. Not that he particularly has a a bad one, I don’t think he’s a bad apple or anything like that, but he doesn’t strike me as the type of lad who will run through brick walls for Jürgen or for us. He doesn’t come across as having that same determined winners mentality that mane and Bobby did. There’s no real urgency about him. He kind of just turns up and strolls around. We’ll see next season with him.

Tell you who else is over rated. Diaz. Now in his case he has all the talent in the world. Again, you can tell instantly if someone’s a player or not and he certainly is. However, he drifts out of games constantly. He can be electric for ten minutes and not involved for the other 80.  It drives me mad. Mane, Bobby and even Mo at times had games where it just didn’t fall their way for whatever reason but they still let their presence known in some way and they were involved but Diaz is like a ghost at times. He has to be much more consistent if we’re ever going to challenge.

Alison, best goalie in the world and if it wasn’t for him we would probably be bottom half.

Virgil is still our best centre half but nowhere near the level he was. Konate is a bit of a myth. Has all the attributes needed to be a top centre half but has too many brain farts.  If we could put Matips head on konates body then we would have the perfect centre half.

Because of what we’ve done under klopp so far and the expectations we’ve set, despite a couple of big wins this season, my rating would be 1/10. To go from a potential quadruple to just about finishing 5th is shocking.

Investment is badly needed.

Not sure I agree on Gakpo but 100% agree on everything else.

Nunez has been a massive misfire. Diaz needs to start finishing his dinner!

We lost so much with Mane because you’re absolutely right - even when it wasn’t going right for Mane at least he was always involved, giving 10000% every single time (what an amazing F***ing player he was for us - ‘sensational’ doesn’t do him justice).

Jota is the man for me, if he stays fit next season, I can see a 30 goal season coming.

As much as the season shitted, me, annoyed me, frustrated me and drained me, I couldn't wait for the next game to start and I can't wait for this off season to be finished and we go again.

This time we WIN THE F***ing LOT!

End of an era season.

We go again in a couple of month's with a fresh new look team.

In the end we did well getting 5th considering the clusterfuk of injuries and the knock on effect that had.

ill give the season a 6/10 mostly cos of the good finish.

Allison and Salah standout players, Robbo also never let us down too many times. TBF the whole team were just so disjointed for most of the season, the change in formation and return of Jones, Diaz and jota made so much difference last 10 games.

Props to young elliott for playing so many games.

Also late season props to Jones.

Gapko and Nunez will be even better next season now they have a season under their belt.

Fit Diaz and Jota showed what we were missing most of the season.

Well done to Naby for graduating and finishing up his career with us. I can't believe someone so injured is actually mobile enough to "leave".

The Athletic: In total, Liverpool have played 277 competitive matches since Keita arrived and he’s featured in just 129 of them (47 per cent).

https://theathletic.com/4534693/2023/05/25/naby-keita-liverpool-what-happened/

Well done to Naby for graduating and finishing up his career with us. I can't believe someone so injured is actually mobile enough to "leave".

The Athletic: In total, Liverpool have played 277 competitive matches since Keita arrived and he’s featured in just 129 of them (47 per cent).

https://theathletic.com/4534693/2023/05/25/naby-keita-liverpool-what-happened/

Obviously not the most robust of players, you can't blame him for that....He's gone...let it go.

Well done to Naby for graduating and finishing up his career with us. I can't believe someone so injured is actually mobile enough to "leave".

The Athletic: In total, Liverpool have played 277 competitive matches since Keita arrived and he’s featured in just 129 of them (47 per cent).

https://theathletic.com/4534693/2023/05/25/naby-keita-liverpool-what-happened/

His win % when fit was very very good though.