Liverpool 2014/15 | WARNING: Contains strong amounts of Scouse nonsense

antihenry said:
Those LFC scorers benefited greatly from having to play alongside Suarez, who not only was scoring and assisting, but was also creating spaces and opportunities for others by pulling away the attention of the opponent's defenders.
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Sturridge's tally in the 9 league games he played without Suarez - 9 goals. I guess they found other factors to benefit from while away.
 
Shark said:
That's exactly what I was saying a while back. Suarez opened up so much space and demanded defenders to constantly be on his back, distracting them from other threats. Liverpool fans are in for a shock of they think they're going to cope fine without him.
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Of course our attack will be less potent. A lot of people seems oblivious to the fact that our attack was nevertheless excellent without him.

I think Improving defence so that 2-0 leads aren't so nervy, alongside actually having options coming off the bench, would have more positive impact than the negative impact our attack might suffer from falling from historically good to merely one of the best in the league.

Suarez papered over the most glaring faults on an otherwise good side. We're adressing the issues in the side where there are most significant improvements to be made.
 
Cinja el Shagawa said:
Us or Arsenal may not have turned to shite but we definitely weren't as good the next season. Spurs kind of did turn to shite, though.
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They finished three points worse off. They also had a director of football doing all the buying. Bale was their only major goal threat for many games too. Their squad morale was also clearly fecked for quite a bit of the season and AvB wasn't given great support.
 
BarneyLFC said:
They finished three points worse off. They also had a director of football doing all the buying. Bale was their only major goal threat for a several games too. Their squad morale was also clearly fecked for quite a bit of the season and AvB wasn't given great support.
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And two league positions.

Do you want us to keep repeating ourselves or something? Clearly one's more important than the other, I'll leave you to guess which.
 
Cinja el Shagawa said:
And two league positions?

Do you want us to keep repeating ourselves or something? Clearly one's more important than the other, I'll leave you to guess which.
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I'd be ok with us dropping two positions.
 
B20 said:
I'd be ok with us dropping two positions.
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The real difference with Pool and the three scenarios Barney mentioned, for me anyway, is that you guys jumped from 7th to 2nd, where as the other three were constantly in or around those positions for years, so it's more difficult to see you coping without your star player available than it was for the others. Nobody expected us or Arsenal to just dramatically fall to shit when those players left. I'm not saying I expect Liverpool to do that or anything, but it's not a like-for-like situation.
 
B20 said:
I'd be ok with us dropping two positions.
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I think that says a lot to be honest.

You should be building on what you did last year but the reality is that you lot would see it as an achievement to scrape into the top 4 again.
 
Wait, didn't Spurs finish 5th with Bale and 6th without? They were a worse team definitely but somehow kept managing to win games they didn't deserve to, something we couldn't do tbf. But their results against the top 4 were pathetic and really showed how bad they were.
 
Really does amaze me how Suarez has suddenly become just another cog in the brilliant Liverpool team of last year who heroically finished 2nd. Seems strange that Barca wanted to pay that £75million on him and no other Liverpool player. Seems strange that he alone walked the Player of the year award and the scoring charts even though he missed those games at the start of the season. And it seems really strange how Liverpool fought so hard to keep him previously, given that he is just part of the superb goal scoring machine that is Brendan's Liverpool.
 
BD94 said:
Wait, didn't Spurs finish 5th with Bale and 6th without? They were a worse team definitely but somehow kept managing to win games they didn't deserve to, something we couldn't do tbf. But their results against the top 4 were pathetic and really showed how bad they were.
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Yeah, it was one place. All three of the examples I gave dropped just one place the season after.
 
BarneyLFC said:
Arsenal with RvP didn't turn to shite. United with Ronaldo didn't. Spurs with Bale didn't. United supporters will be in for even more of a shock if they think we'll suddenly collapse.
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The United without Ronaldo comparison is stupid. We still had a lot of world class, title winning players in the team at their peak. You've bought a bunch of Southampton players that aren't going to improve and one or two prospects at best. It's not enough.
 
BD94 said:
Wait, didn't Spurs finish 5th with Bale and 6th without? They were a worse team definitely but somehow kept managing to win games they didn't deserve to, something we couldn't do tbf. But their results against the top 4 were pathetic and really showed how bad they were.
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Spurs were much worse without Bale than with him, the points tally and position show they were worse, but not to what extent. You actually needed to watch their games.

Stupid examples in any case, all three of them (us, Arsenal and Spurs) were worse with the departures of the players mentioned.
 
Croque-monsieur said:
Spurs were much worse without Bale than with him, the points tally and position show they were worse, but not to what extent. You actually needed to watch their games.

Stupid examples in any case, all three of them (us, Arsenal and Spurs) were worse with the departures of the players mentioned.
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They played a less enjoyable brand of football, but they weren't significantly worse.

They aren't stupid examples, they're the three most recent examples of teams in a similar position to ours losing their best attacking player. All three were worse, but none dropped off massively with each of those teams only dropping one place.
 
BarneyLFC said:
They played a less enjoyable brand of football, but they weren't significantly worse.

They aren't stupid examples, they're the three most recent examples of teams in a similar position to ours losing their best attacking player. All three were worse, but none dropped off massively with each of those teams only dropping one place.
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like I said, those teams were already in our around those positions for years and years. They were used to it and clearly had a squad built for it. Liverpool are in a unique position in that they somehow jumped from 7th to 2nd, and just lost by far their best player straight after doing that. It's really not very comparable. Nobody expected Utd or Arsenal to suddenly drop 3/4 league positions after losing those players.
 
Cinja el Shagawa said:
like I said, those teams were already in our around those positions for years and years. They were used to it and clearly had a squad built for it. Liverpool are in a unique position in that they somehow jumped from 7th to 2nd, and just lost by far their best player straight after doing that. It's really not very comparable. Nobody expected Utd or Arsenal to suddenly drop 3/4 league positions after losing those players.
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Indeed. I think this is what Liverpool fans are yet to grasp.
 
Pexbo said:
I think that says a lot to be honest.

You should be building on what you did last year but the reality is that you lot would see it as an achievement to scrape into the top 4 again.
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I think the potential is there for us to do that as well. There are so many uncertain factors at play for next season, it's hard to gauge whether we're treading water, regressing or building foundation to progress even further. Rodgers seem to be focused on the parts fitting just right to make them sum of it even more than its parts were last year.

If the changes we've made turn out right, I think we'll do fine.
 
PickledRed said:
But high number of goals will likely get you very close (see Liverpool last season). Get near 100 and it's likely you win the league. Top 4 is a given.

One very interesting fact from last year for Liverpool is how the team finished the season. In the second half of the season Liverpool's scoring became extremely impressive:
- 19: games played
- 59: goals scored
- 5: the number of teams who exceeded 59 goals over 38 games
- 12: the number of goals scored by Suarez
- 20%: the percentage of goals contributed by Suarez

From January Liverpool had clicked into gear with goals coming from all angles - kind of contends with the simplistic analysis that Liverpool were ALL Suarez. The reality is that systemically the side were set up to out score opponents using high pace and aggressive attacking that often saw Liverpool out of sight by half-time.
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Well that's not true, if you win 10 games 10 nil, lose 28, 1-0, you'll have 100 goals, +72 goal difference and just 30 points. Of course one aspect of championship winning sides is that they can score goals but it's too simplistic to have that as the reason championships are won. The majority of championship winning teams have built wins on great defences first. Irrespective, the point I was making is that projecting goals based on last years performance was misleading, especially when the methodology was the equivalent of playing 15 players... They is so much variable between years that it's hard to project, but Liverpool have lost their key player from the last season, so all bets are off in terms of form, you just don't know how the team will react, it only takes a couple of early defeats without Suarez and confidence might drop....I actually think that Rodgers will change shape and Liverpool's style will be more defensive last year, still breaking fast and catching on the counter, but committing less men forward, I don't think you'll score as many but you'll concede less, especially having improved your back four. I always had the impression last year, if games were long enough teams would always beat Liverpool, what it mean is that Liverpool smashed teams early doors, but had little in the tank later on, this is especially true for your run in and in both the city and Norwich games, the losing sides both were dominant and could have won the games, obviously we saw what happened at palace.
 
BarneyLFC said:
Arsenal with RvP didn't turn to shite. United with Ronaldo didn't. Spurs with Bale didn't. United supporters will be in for even more of a shock if they think we'll suddenly collapse.
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All three of those scenarios resulted in the teams becoming poorer sides though. Odd that you out Spurs in there, they were hopeless last season. Amazing they finished above United despite how poor Moyes and Co turned out.
 
BarneyLFC said:
Arsenal with RvP didn't turn to shite. United with Ronaldo didn't. Spurs with Bale didn't. United supporters will be in for even more of a shock if they think we'll suddenly collapse.
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Rofl, you say it like we had a shit team without Ronaldo...
 
redman5 said:
You had a very good team last year didn't you ? League champions & all that.
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Ronaldo left 5 years ago. Remind me the respective league positions of the two clubs in that time period.

It's weird. After talking about the past for so long, suddenly all Liverpool care about is last year. And we aren't even going all the way back and talking about 25 years ago just the recent past. Like 2013.
 
BorisontheRock said:
I always had the impression last year, if games were long enough teams would always beat Liverpool, what it mean is that Liverpool smashed teams early doors, but had little in the tank later on, this is especially true for your run in and in both the city and Norwich games, the losing sides both were dominant and could have won the games, obviously we saw what happened at palace.
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The overwhelming evidence for Liverpool last year including the run in doesn't support this.

In the run in (last 10 games) Liverpool had late winners against Fulham, Swansea and City plus consolidating closer wins with late goals against United and Cardiff. The Norwich game was nerves rather than energy, as was the Palace draw (which also had other factors in play).

Generally speaking I'd say most of Liverpool's 26 wins last season were comfortable and really doesn't support the idea that they'd lose eventually - not sure where the evidence for that is. A bit odd given Liverpool had so many comprehensive wins.
 
Ole's_toe_poke said:
Ronaldo left 5 years ago. Remind me the respective league positions of the two clubs in that time period.

It's weird. After talking about the past for so long, suddenly all Liverpool care about is last year. And we aren't even going all the way back and talking about 25 years ago just the recent past. Like 2013.
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But what would you say is more significant in learning about the health of a squad - the previous season or two seasons back?

It's hardly outlandish for people to use last season as a measure for all sorts of things to do with Liverpool, United or anyone else.
 
redman5 said:
You had a very good team last year didn't you ? League champions & all that.
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What has that got to do with Ronaldo leaving 5 years ago? feck me, and you people wonder why everyone hates you..
 
PickledRed said:
They don't.
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Denial, how cute :P Another trait that just adds to the reason everybody hates you. Brendan Rodgers could set fire to your house and you'd find a way to blame United and the FA, LOL.
 
REJE said:
Denial, how cute :P Another trait that just adds to the reason everybody hates you. Brendan Rodgers could set fire to your house and you'd find a way to blame United and the FA, LOL.
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Many neutrals were hoping we would win the league last season, of course United fans were rooting for their local rivals City.
 
johnny boy said:
Many neutrals were hoping we would win the league last season, of course United fans were rooting for their local rivals City.
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Just like how you guys have been rooting for Chelsea, City, Arsenal and pretty much anybody who stood in our way for for the past 20+ years? Including a few back passes, er.. I mean passing errors from Stevie G.
 
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