The Title Race - 2023/24

[Kippax77]

My worry now is Jota being back for the dippers.
He is one of the snidest players in the Prem.
Their chances of winning penalties has now gone up 10 fold.
He was on for just 8 seconds last night before he tried for one.
Thankfully his cut across the defender was just outside the box

 

[supercity88]

Coming up to a critical run in the title race for me:

Liverpool
Palace H Sun 14th 2pm
Atalanta A Thu 18th 8pm
Fulham A Sun 21st 4.30pm
Everton A Wed 24th 8pm
West Ham A Sat 27th 12.30pm

Lots of away games, not much rest between them either.

Arsenal
Villa H Sun 14th 4.30pm
Bayern A Wed 17th 8pm
Wolves A Sat 20th 7.30pm
Chelsea H Tue 23rd 8pm
Spurs A Sun 28th 2pm

A tricky run, the only benefit being Chelsea play us in the Cup on Saturday so don't have any extra rest.

City
Luton H Sat 13th 3pm
Real H Wed 17th 8pm
Chelsea Cup semi Sat 20th 5.15pm
Brighton A Thu 25th 8pm
Forest A Sun 28th 4.30pm

Brighton will have had about 12 days off when we play them. We'll see a lot of players rested for the Cup semi final in my opinion.

 

[BeerIsTheBest]

liverpool, with a decent starting eleven, are definitely good enough to go to Atalanta and winby 3 goals or more.
It really depends on what Klopps ambitions are.

Hopefully not but we could be out of the champions league, and arsenal too, by the time the atalanta match takes place.

Our next 3 matches are critical and all in the space of a week. We could be out of any, or all of, premier league, fa Cup and champions league or still in all , and favourites, for all of them.

This is now all down to management and best use of players in the run in.
It is now time to be focused as much on a relegated threatened Luton as it is on the previous winners to us of the champions league, Chelsea and Madrid.
For me anyway, arsenal and Liverpool, getting knocked out if Europe, is a good thing, as it may demoralise them

Anything that damages gnashes last season and the inevitable hullabaloo when he departs is fine by me. Be great if his open top bus parade and candle lit procession through dipperpool only allows him to wave the Milk Cup around. Quad my arse!!!!!!
Was interested but not surprised to see the resurrection of another deflection type article on Hillsborough on the BBC this morning . And the news that the new BBC Head of Sport is the now ex head of sport at the Athletic. Read his back story on his hatred of ‘state owned’ clubs.

 

[Coatigan]

liverpool, with a decent starting eleven, are definitely good enough to go to Atalanta and winby 3 goals or more.
It really depends on what Klopps ambitions are.

I disagree. Over the two legs they are without doubt the better team and should be pumping them. But given where they are now, I just can't see them going there and winning by 3 or more. Think they will chuck it.

How it affects them mentally is the more important question. I've said it before the Klopp's last season charge is all great, but a good timely wobble can really see it come crashing down. They may well respond strongly. Or on the back of the utd draw, and that defeat, they might hopefully shit the bed a bit.

Similar with Arsenal should they get knocked out by Bayern, although there is maybe less pressure of expectation in the CL for them.

 

[Stephen230]

Agreed, doesn't mean it's bound to continue, but I hope it does of course. Ancelotti is a bright guy, he knows his team can't match ours but staying compact like defenses do in prem against us then use his talented two up top for a counter seems a likely approach. We don't face that in Europe as much but bound to next week don't you think?

Nothing can be guaranteed to continue indefinitely but when you state that breaking down teams is our ‘Achilles heel” that suggests there’s a bunch of evidence to support that has been the case previously . In Europe there’s been no evidence of that.

I imagine their approach won’t be an awful lot different from the first game. They’ve not really got a whole bunch of alternatives, no matter how good their manager is.

 

[alexmcity]

Liverpool are this season a little bit like United last season. Remember United won multiple games in a row in January and February, including the league cup, and were talking about winning a quadruple... Then tiredness or whatever kicked in and they finished 3rd with no other trophy.

Of course, Liverpool are stronger than United, they could win the league, but when they don't have those exceptional energy levels, they are surprisingly ordinary at times. Last night they didn't have the energy to suffocate Atalanta and paid for it.

If they gave up on Europa and then failed to win the league, they'd look foolish. Also, it wouldn't be especially monstrous in mental terms to give up, given that they won at Atalanta 5:0 a couple of seasons ago. It's a shit situation for them. The worst case scenario for them is to win there by 3 goals in regular time and then lose the tie...They'll have key players dead on their legs vs Fulham then. But, imo, Klopp will go strong there.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

I honestly feel very confident watching the football play out this week. Liverpool have looked leggy since United in the cup and have a brutal run of games coming up. Arsenal are better and have timed their run-in better but look nervy and are hoping that emotion will get them over the line, but they are due a disappointment and don't think they'll bounce back from it.

 

[117 M34]

Win tomorrow and we go top for a bit.
Should put a bit of added pressure on liverpool and arsenal for their games on Sunday.

 

[IrishBlueSince92]

I can see Klopp tossing this off next week with a 2nd string side being used

Klopp will believe that he can turn this around. No way he's binning it off IMO

 

[Moss Side's Finest]

liverpool, with a decent starting eleven, are definitely good enough to go to Atalanta and winby 3 goals or more.
It really depends on what Klopps ambitions are.

Hopefully not but we could be out of the champions league, and arsenal too, by the time the atalanta match takes place.

Our next 3 matches are critical and all in the space of a week. We could be out of any, or all of, premier league, fa Cup and champions league or still in all , and favourites, for all of them.

This is now all down to management and best use of players in the run in.
It is now time to be focused as much on a relegated threatened Luton as it is on the previous winners to us of the champions league, Chelsea and Madrid.
For me anyway, arsenal and Liverpool, getting knocked out if Europe, is a good thing, as it may demoralise them

They had a decent team out in the home leg, particularly the second half and still got battered. Your post makes it sound like it was klopp's decision to not try and win the game. Make no mistake they wanted to win the game and the trophy so pricks like taa can brag about a fake quadruple. Hopefully they'll go there and get twatted again