Pre Match : Stoke v Liverpool : Sat 8th April 15.00

Next two away games are against the sort of teams we always struggle against Stoke and Palace. After the draw at Home against Bmouth it's imperative we pick up max pts against Stoke.
No doubt Crouch will start and why would you not when you look at the way we defend long balls and set pieces, although I'm quietly confident that if Matip and Lovren start we might be ok.

3 games in a week for a squad as paper thin as ours is not ideal. This is the sort of schedule where Lucas ends up getting injured.
So bearing that in mind if we can get 60mins out of Lucas that time frame might be an ideal time to shift Can to DM and bring on a replacement or switch Milner for Moreno (surely he can be trusted for 30mins!)

Sturridge should be able to handle 20-30 mins if needed.

So based on fitness and what is available I would go with something like

Migs
Clyne
Matip
Lovren
Milner

Lucas?
Can
Gini

Firmino
Coutinho
Origi

Trickier than Bournemouth this.

We need 3pts or we can probably start thinking about waving goodbye to Champions League.

I can't see too much of a change, frankly because we don't have the personnel but perhaps Sturridge can enter the fray at some point and boost our chances.

The only thing I'd consider changing is swapping Clyne and Milner over at fb. Clyne for all his defensive good work is pretty much a non-entity going forward down the right flank, whereas Milner I think would offer way more quality from the right.

I don't know how capable Clyne is a LB, but if Milner can have relative success there as a midfield player, and Glen Johnson to an extent I think it would be worth pursuing this idea. I think Milner down the right will utilise the overlap much better and get in some proper crosses to. Our fullbacks haven't really helped stretch the pitch, nor have they used that room and width to take advantage of the space they have been afforded. So, trialling Milner there to add that dimension we've lack makes perfect sense.

Keep Origi up front, he's banged in 2 now in short succession, and other than a Coutinho piece of magic I can't really see where the goals will come from. So for me, the young Belgian is our best option through the middle right now.

Stoke, I have no doubt will look to kick a few lumps out of us as well so we need to be up for this way more than we were against Bournemouth, and hopefully, Jürgen won't feel like "vomiting" from our shoddy defending again.

So, who is confident against the weaker teams? 

We really should be putting these away and going on a run of form with wins. There is no reason why we cannot, and hopefully we've learnt our lesson from the Bournemouth game. We played really well recently, but fell into our old ways of taking it easy on a "winnable" game, and that is our problem.

It's all about the attitude of the players and perhaps also Klopp. We saw that he didn't make effective use of his players or tactics against Bournemouth and perhaps he too again underestimated the opposition. But it's clear that the players did. All round, they were lackadaisical in their approach. Messing around - throwing passes to nobody, and trying to take on too many players. Then not even putting in enough effort to stop the threats.

No way do they play that way against Chelsea or Man Utd!! They take them folks seriously, but expect to get away with it against the likes of Bournemouth. No more.

What we need is intensity and a desire to hammer our opposition. That has to come fro Klopp and forced into the players. He should be screaming at them for messing around with the ball. He should be charging them on, and that has to happen now.

We need to go out there and put Stoke, Crystal Palace, and any other 'guaranteed victory' to the sword and claim those 3 points long before we get to the final 5 or 10 minutes and hold on for dear life.

Same team picks itself - unless any fortunate turn in fitness/injuries, but this time, let's go for it! We control our own destiny here. 4th place is ours if we want it.   

The concern is teams now know that if you kick coutinio of the park, they win. We have nothing else. this will be a struggle.

I am going against the grain here and think we will bounce back from the Bournemouth game and get 3 points against Stoke.Some of our lads have got to know that they cannot afford to play good one week and play sh*te the next.

I think we're gona get beat and collapse on the run in to the end of the season. We are astonishingly easy to score against and it's gona cost us big time.

I actually think Stoke will be relishing playing us this weekend and our players will be nervous , slack and disorganized .
Still , hope in your heart and all that.

I have done 1-1 in my Super Six though.

I think we're gona get beat and collapse on the run in to the end of the season. We are astonishingly easy to score against and it's gona cost us big time.

I actually think Stoke will be relishing playing us this weekend and our players will be nervous , slack and disorganized .
Still , hope in your heart and all that.

I have done 1-1 in my Super Six though.

Why would you go with a draw in your Super Six if you think we're going to lose?? 

https://twitter.com/_pauljoyce/status/850302401299058688

Why would you go with a draw in your Super Six if you think we're going to lose?? 

Because i'm an eternal optimist at heart.

Knowing us, they might choose to start Crouchie. If Cou isnt fit to start, I would like us to play 4-4-2 diamond, and push for an aggressive start.

Origi-Studge
Firmino
Can - Gini
Lucas
Milner Lovren Matip Clyne
Mig

Subs- Karius, Moreno, Klavan, TAA, Grujic, Woodburn, Coutinho

Knowing us, they might choose to start Crouchie. If Cou isnt fit to start, I would like us to play 4-4-2 diamond, and push for an aggressive start.

Origi-Studge
Firmino
Can - Gini
Lucas
Milner Lovren Matip Clyne
Mig

Subs- Karius, Moreno, Klavan, TAA, Grujic, Woodburn, Coutinho

If Coutinho is out the diamond is probably our best option without having to fill the team out with kids.

F***ing joke this club has become couple of injuries and we are decimated to the point if we don't win tomorrow it's a huge blow to the team mentally.
Will be a uphill task to achieve Top 4.

Hendo still not training I doubt we will see him this season, Mane is out for the season, Lallana still a few more weeks before he starts training! 

https://twitter.com/_pauljoyce/status/850302401299058688

Dropping like flies

Knowing us, they might choose to start Crouchie. If Cou isnt fit to start, I would like us to play 4-4-2 diamond, and push for an aggressive start.

Origi-Studge
Firmino
Can - Gini
Lucas
Milner Lovren Matip Clyne
Mig

Subs- Karius, Moreno, Klavan, TAA, Grujic, Woodburn, Coutinho

I agree with your selection. I would play Grujic rather than Lucas. It won't happen.

https://twitter.com/_pauljoyce/status/850302401299058688

Damn Sturridge!!! 

 

With all of these injuries and now Coutinho in doubt, I really feel pessimistic about our chances getting a result against Stoke, let alone other future games.

 

Well at least it will be different to what Stoke was expecting ;-)

This will be a physical game, not sure we have the players to deal with that.  Even thought Stoke look poor at moment, I can see us losing this one. Hope not!!

 

At this rate Klopp will be forced use Danny Sturridge. 

F***ing hell, Coutinho now. Mane out for season. Europa League then, unless we learn how to do something we haven't done for 20 years, win ugly and keep clean sheets

           Karius
Clyne Matip Lovren Moreno
     Milner Can Gini
Coutinho Origi Firmino

Would not play Lucas in the middle for this, surely given things the way they are (paperthinness) Jürgen will consider moving Milner in there. His trick is pretty much up at FB anyway. Moreno is a dogs-dinner defending but our options are starting to get limited - Milner/Can/Gini are a defensive looking setup infront of the back 4, should should give them the cover to offset Moreno (in theory).
Karius in for Migs, why not? Want to see more bambi-like Cruff-turns outside the box?
Cou needs to play with whatever drugs or anything else thats need to get him out there, and Origi and Bob filling out the rest.
No reason we can't go there and win, Stoke are no great shakes, but we need to show some backbone, intent.
Jürgen will need to earn his bucks tomorrow.
CMON BOYS!!!

    Mignolet
Clyne Matip Lovren Moreno
   Milner Can Gini
Park bench Mascot Steward

Subs;

First come first served, form an orderly queue

With all of these injuries and now Coutinho in doubt, I really feel pessimistic about our chances getting a result against Stoke, let alone other future games.

 

Thats a terrible attitude.

We need Jürgen to prove he's got a plan B .
We don't have the players available to play 4-3-3
Sturridge up front?
Ojo on the wing ? Firminho  playing number 10 ? Grujic out wide ?
4-4-1-1 ?
?

I'm already scared...Our defence against Crouch/Walters :S :S :S

Would be more confident playing Chelsea away right now.

I doubt Sturridge is fit to go 90, maybe not even 60. But then if Phil is out, what would be the Sturridge-less alternative for the starting XI?

I think a 4-4-2 would make us very vulnerable in midfield.

I PRAY we don't use the 3 center backs again. If we're going to try and shut it down, 4-5-1 is much preferred.

Grujic, Ojo and Woodburn have all been out of the side for months now, but would he think of using one of them?

Thats a terrible attitude.

That's not your problem.

That's not your problem.

That's more like it !

Knowing us, they might choose to start Crouchie. If Cou isnt fit to start, I would like us to play 4-4-2 diamond, and push for an aggressive start.

Origi-Studge
Firmino
Can - Gini
Lucas
Milner Lovren Matip Clyne
Mig

Subs- Karius, Moreno, Klavan, TAA, Grujic, Woodburn, Coutinho

I know Migs is sh*te as goal keeper but why would you want him as centre forward?
 
I like Origi-Sturridge in goal. That way we may be able to keep clean sheet and earn at least one point. Hopefully, Sturridge will not get injured just standing in the goal unless Origi looks in his direction.

Klopp needs to put out a side that is capable of scoring goals. We always somehow leak goals so let's go Brendan way at least until we get couple of our regulars back. A diamond seems to be the best bet considering the players we got available.

             Mignolet
Clyne  Lovren  Matip  Milner
                 Can       
    Gini                  Woodburn               
               Firmino     
       Origi        Sturridge

think we will struggle with every game we play from now until the end, the team have shown this consistently all season.

desperate for the win though. frustrating, embarrassing and nervous times ahead

think we will struggle with every game we play from now until the end, the team have shown this consistently all season.

desperate for the win though. frustrating, embarrassing and nervous times ahead

Really.......... so how have we managed to fluke our way to 3rd in the league 

Saw this quote earlier today about Cou:
"He had a conversation with the doc and he feels much better, but it doesn't look too good. We will have to see if we [can] bring him in tomorrow.

Feels much better, but doesn't look good !?! Glass half full, am looking at the first half of that sentence.

Sounds to me like he's getting over whatever it was, maybe not feeling 100%, but get a nights sleep and then make sure his ass is on the grass tomorrow.  Even for an hour.

If Studge is fit enough to be on the bench, would have him coming on for a run out. Only got a few months left in a Liverpool shirt, be nice if we could get some payback from him before he heads off to some other suckers who think he'll magically start playing games regularly. Feel bad, do like Danny, but like anyone you can't depend on, they start to irk you a bit eventually.

Ive reached a point now where i'm not confident of wining any games against so say lesser sides.  As for going ahead in games and seeing it through to 90+ mins, I'm thinking theres nothing to suggest we won't go on to lose. Especially with the strange negative substitutions we are seeing. I'm afraid i'm beginning to think Jürgen might not have grasped the whole 'premier league' situation yet, and i'm afraid because of this, i'm not predicting we win another game this season.
Not sure if it's players or management any more, but something is disjointed and i'm not gonna be massively pissed off any more, so i'm setting my expectations particularly low from now on. 2 - 1 we lose.
Hopefully we can get a few players in during the summer to strengthen the squad some what. Until then, i'm not expecting anything above average.

No Lallana.
No Henderson.
No Mane.
Potentially no Coutinho.

Thank god we made a profit last summer and signed no one in January, otherwise we'd be at risk of missing out on Champions League because of a wafer thin squad...

I'm still so angry after Bournemouth that it's hard to be sensible about this game but finding it difficult to imagine we'll win.

Expect to lose 3-1 to be honest, maybe we can get a draw.

Either way that would leave us needing to win basically every game to secure Champions League... from where we sat on 31st December that's a disgrace.

No GK
No Left back
No Lallana.
No Henderson.
No Mane.
Potentially no Coutinho.

Edited for you

No Lallana.
No Henderson.
No Mane.
Potentially no Coutinho.

Thank god we made a profit last summer and signed no one in January, otherwise we'd be at risk of missing out on Champions League because of a wafer thin squad...

I'm still so angry after Bournemouth that it's hard to be sensible about this game but finding it difficult to imagine we'll win.

Expect to lose 3-1 to be honest, maybe we can get a draw.

Either way that would leave us needing to win basically every game to secure Champions League... from where we sat on 31st December that's a disgrace.

A disgrace it is. Us supporters have had to swallow some sh*t in recent years but that would be the hardest to swallow.

The pressure's on these guys and they've brought it all on themselves.

Got to go out tonight. Not sure will be rushing home anyway to catch this. Have a bad feeling but hope the booze and drugs I'm going to be taking will change my opinion about the result. Come on you lads, I'll take a 0-1 all day, with a goal flying in for us, off Charlie Adams arse!

If only we had signed 2 or 3 players in pre season or January the league could of been ours for the taking.At my age I can't afford to hang around too long waiting to win the league so L.F.C.go out and thrash the arse off Stoke and give me some hope for the future.

If only we had signed 2 or 3 players in pre season or January the league could of been ours for the taking.At my age I can't afford to hang around too long waiting to win the league so L.F.C.go out and thrash the arse off Stoke and give me some hope for the future.

You won't have to wait too much longer.

...Not with the Ben Chilwell and Demarai Gray double signing funded by the Coutinho sale.

That'll really show our rivals!

I watched the Burnley v Stoke game the other night [I'd had a nice bet on Burnley] and I tell you what...

The only time Stoke looked any way threatening against a poor footballing but defensively solid Burnley was when Crouch came on.

Football wise we shouldn't have much to fear. Injuries or not we can outplay Stoke: stay strong in the air, cover the Austrian's runs and we can nick it.

Mon the Reds.

I watched the Burnley v Stoke game the other night [I'd had a nice bet on Burnley] and I tell you what...

The only time Stoke looked any way threatening against a poor footballing but defensively solid Burnley was when Crouch came on.

Football wise we shouldn't have much to fear. Injuries or not we can out play Stoke: stay strong in the air, cover the Austrian's runs and we can nick it.

Mon the Reds.

When we're we strong in the air? 😁 Seriously though we should still be beating this lot, even with the players missing. How many of their players would make or team? That's the bottom line for me, there's no excuses not to best the smaller clubs other than a poor attitude.

I don't see why we should be going into this game fearing for the worst.

We're an organised team with players who all know what system we play. We're likely to get more space as we're away from home and hopefully our defence will involve our two best centre backs playing, who've proven they are good together.

Gini can pop up with a goal. So can Can. So can Origi. So can Milner from the spot. So can Firmino.

Come on you mighty reds!!!

When we're we strong in the air?

Hmmm... fair point.

I know a lot of us asked for a defensive coach under Rodgers so definitely not then mate. Those calls are silent now but we still aren't solid.

At a guess we were sound (for a short time) when Sakho & Skrtel & Lovren started together and before that under Kenny, with the old guard - Pepe, Carra/Martin and Danny.

Now you've gone n went n got me all worried 😲 😁

Nah... We can do them.

Must win today, pressure is on but they have no one to blame but themselves, after Bournemouth.
Not feeling too confident, it's not that I don't think we can beat Stoke, even with all the injuries, it's simply do we have the mental strength to do it.
Jürgen has a job to do to get them ready mentally, Stoke will fancy their chances!
Come on you Redmen!

Defence always let's the side down, time and time again. Gone for a 1  1 draw in the Prediction league. Although hope that I am proved wrong and the Reds come away with a win.

https://twitter.com/_pauljoyce/status/850652244139794433

Bench I reckon for Coutinho.  Under normal circumstances I reckon he wouldn't be involved but they will try and at least get 20 minutes out of him if it's needed.

We can criticise our squad depth (which admittedly isn't great) but missing 4 of your front 6 players would hurt every team in the division so part of it is just F***ing horrible luck.

I'd like to see Stewart or Grujic start today if Coutinho is benched and start with Sturridge on the right, Firmino left with Origi through the middle. Our squad is thread bare at the moment so we need options.

Stoke are not playing great at the moment whilst we are actually playing fairly decent so barring any big F**k ups and with a bit of luck on our side we should win this comfortably but I'll take any win at the moment.

I can see that we will win this game and everyone will be saying we are back on track for a top 4 finish...Then lose/draw the next
game... This has nothing to do with positivity or negativity it is just calling it as it is... I am just going to try and enjoy each game until the end of the season, and see what we do in the transfer market...

Even though I've gone for 2-1 to us in the prediction league I've no idea how our game will pan out.
no matter how sh*te the opposition is or how sh*te there form is Im always thinking how long before we concede,  & as @JD pointed out in his post it's sh*t luck that our injuries to key players has come at the wrong & worst time of the season,however it is what it is and it's up to Jürgen to make do with what he has & it's up to the players to do the job they are paid to do.
We've not done the double over these since 1971 so it's high F***ing time we sorted that statistic right out.
Come on redmen .

Bench I reckon for Coutinho.  Under normal circumstances I reckon he wouldn't be involved but they will try and at least get 20 minutes out of him if it's needed.

We can criticise our squad depth (which admittedly isn't great) but missing 4 of your front 6 players would hurt every team in the division so part of it is just f**king horrible luck.

I'd like to think Coutinho would insist on playing . We're down to our bare bones so just get on with it. I can't believe it's beyond him to play if he's a little under the weather , if that's what it is.

                       Migs
Clyne      Lovren        Matip        Milner
        Can        Lucas     Wjnaldum
                     Firmino
             Origi           Sturridge
                     

We are going to concede today, we always do. We need to score goals so need as many "strikers" on the pitch as possible.

Would personally like to see Grujic take part. He'll add physical presence, and looked great in preseason before being forgotten about.

I expect the players to be "confident" today. That should determine today's result.

spurs 3-nill up, no doubt the others around us will win.

its imperative that we collect 3 points.

i'm so un-confident, but always hopeful

Really.......... so how have we managed to fluke our way to 3rd in the league 

hehe i think it is because we ran out of matches vs top 6.  what a weird season it has been.  play well vs top teams and lose/ draw to the fodder

Really.......... so how have we managed to fluke our way to 3rd in the league 

because we have a decent record against the top teams, have played more games than the teams around us and have a squad worth a lot more than most

Spurs winning 4-0 !

We are going to have to up our game now to stand any chance of winning the title !! 

Match thread is here https://www.lfcreds.com/reds/index.php/topic,49590.0.html