27 May 2018 16:53:18
Hi all, I don't normally do long posts and I expect some people to disagree with me but here goes.

Last night was a bit of a disappointment, to be honest. Whilst I didn't expect us to beat Real (comfortably), I was quietly confident we could score a few goals and give them a game. To lose in such a way is gutting because everything that could've gone wrong for us, did go wrong. We conceded three 'freak' goals and by 'freak' goals, I mean goals you just don't expect to happen in any game and particularly not the biggest game in club football.

Of course, the man who played a big part in two of those goals is Loris Karius. But before I get into it, I have to firstly say it is absolutely vile that so many fans are sending death threats to Karius and wishing his children to have cancer. Football is, after all, just a game. To wish death upon a man who has just had the worst night of his life is completely out of order and I urge any and all football fans to call out those who have resorted to such actions.

I understand Karius's errors have provoked strong emotions. I myself sat in disbelief as the ball trickled in off Benzema as the people in the pub I was in started laughing. The last goal he let in had a much more subdued reaction because I think even a lot of fans of rival clubs who came to watch the match felt sympathy for him. And when Karius went over in tears to apologise to the fans in the stadium, the pub was uncomfortably quiet.

The errors that he made were errors you just don't expect at this level. I don't know what was going on in his head for the first goal. Maybe Ramos's elbow to his head that went unpunished right before affected his concentration. Maybe the pressure got to him. No one really knows and I suspect Karius might not even know himself. For the third goal, he lost track of the flight of a knuckleball which can happen to many keepers, and with his confidence shot, I'm not surprised it ended up in the back of the net.

Having said that, now's the time to support Karius more than ever. He knows as well as anyone else those were huge mistakes. Unforgivable, some would say. But I don't believe so. Not because I'm Karius's number one fan and I'm blindly supporting him. I'm not excusing his errors because that's what they are and no one can deny that. I'm saying that because there's almost always a chance at redemption in football. Karius is 24, if he can ride through this storm, he could still have at least another ten years in his career at a second chance. But the only way he can get through this disaster is if we, as fans, give him our support.

Because what do people expect to achieve by slagging him off? Will we be able to turn back time and run onto the pitch just as Karius is about to throw the ball out and disrupt the match if we throw enough insults at him on social media? Slagging him off in such a moment is akin to kicking a man when he's down. Now, I'm not saying we can't criticise his performance. We can do it, but only when it's constructive and not when it's just strings of abuse. Calling for him to get sacked or to get sold immediately is not helpful to anybody. The coaching team had already identified the goalkeeping position as a position to improve before the final but in the case that the club fail to secure a replacement and Karius stays, do you think he'll do better if the fans helped rebuild his confidence or if we continued to destroy him over a night that will probably haunt him for the rest of his life? It might be true that Karius isn't good enough to bring us forward, but that's a decision for Klopp and the club, not us. Alisson or Butland might be better, but they're not Liverpool players right now and Karius is, and it is not our job as fans to rip apart our own player.

We pride ourselves as the best fans in the world but when we can't even support a player who's younger than many fans and has had a terrible night, what right do we have to sing 'You'll Never Walk Alone'?

And in truth, despite Karius's mistakes, did we deserve anything out of the game? I'd argue we didn't. Real Madrid were better than us on the day, more experienced and now winners of three Champions Leagues in a row. Yes, we were all over them before Salah went off but we didn't capitalise. We barely tested Navas. We seemed to retreat into our shells when Salah went off, giving Marcelo and Carvajal/ Nacho the freedom to attack us. Bale scored a CL final goal that rivalled Zidane's against Leverkusen all those years ago. Mane hit the post but we were sloppy and sent aimless long balls forward. We didn't seem to have much of a gameplan after Salah went off and the substitutions made were head-scratching. Can and Lallana both had not started a game in ages and lacked match fitness but were expected to come on and change the game. Ramos got away with multiple challenges that might or might not have been deliberate. In all honesty, a lot of what happened yesterday was due to the team's inexperience. Real have won four of the last five CL finals they played in. They took apart top defences in Atletico and Juventus. Our team consisted of a player who was relegated last season, the first teenage defender to start a CL final since the 1970s and absolutely no (European competition) medals between the rest of them.

We lost and that's gutting, but we lost a CL final. After years of not qualifying for the competition. We blew teams away including the PL champions on the way here. We played well for periods in the final itself. And we managed to retain our position in the top 4 in the PL despite our run.

What I'm saying is that there's hope. Last night was a bit of a learning experience for every single player and I'm sure it will be used as motivation for future campaigns. They've grown so much from when they first joined us and I'm proud of them. We have improved this term and if we have a good summer, who knows what might happen next season?

1.) 27 May 2018
27 May 2018 17:06:10
Great post.

{Ed0333's Note - I agree superb post. Nailed it.

2.) 27 May 2018
27 May 2018 17:12:54
Well said dude. A good post.

3.) 27 May 2018
27 May 2018 17:03:54
You get one opportunity each year to win 4 trophies.
Karius is not good enough for us to top the league.
That gives 3 possible chances to win something. Can we trust karius in a one off game like a final?
After last night's performance clearly not.

{Ed002's Note - So it is all Karius' fault that Liverpool cannot win anything?

4.) 27 May 2018
27 May 2018 17:48:08
Absolutely not ed002, he actually made some good saves last night in my opinion.

Liverpool under our last 2 managers prioritise league position and Champions league over other trophies. This is because we don’t have the squad to fully compete in all 4 trophies.
We don’t win the league because we don’t have a strong enough squad over 38 games and we didn’t win the champions league because we couldn’t cope with injuries.

Generally speaking we are still playing catch-up. Our fringe players are not good enough. Part of that is because we don’t rotate the sqaud when the opportunity is there.

{Ed002's Note - Clearly Lanland and many, many others think otherwise. It is the usual witch hunt for a fan base obsessed with the blame culture. The "fringe players" and youngsters have not shown that they are not good enough because they have not been given sufficient game time.}

5.) 27 May 2018
27 May 2018 18:18:29
this is why I stay away from all the social media crap, the lad made a couple of mistakes, as a dad of 4 i know that all kids make mistakes and at 24 in my eyes karius is still growing up, my god this witch hunt is just moronic, I'm sure he's beating himself up enough .

6.) 27 May 2018
27 May 2018 18:30:02
100% agree ed002 👍
Ojo got 2 games
Ejaria was a season long unused sub
Grujic never played
Woodburn has had a season away from the first team

I don’t know who’s advising Klopp, maybe losing Buvac will end up as a positive if someone with fresh ideas comes in. Rafa was a master of sqaud rotation. If you want to compete on more than front you have to rotate the squad.

{Ed002's Note - Buvac was the ideas person.}

7.) 27 May 2018
27 May 2018 18:46:16
Indeed ed002, so some fresh ideas might help Kloppo with rotation.
Liverpool spending on new fringe players is totally pointless if they don’t play enough. The secret to competing and squad rotation is to keep as many squad players as possible “in form”. Does Pep play his best XI every week?
As a fringe player you can’t just turn up for one game and expect to compete with all these world class players in form. You need to keep your fringe players “match fit” for when they are needed.

Last night we brought on Lallana who was clearly nowhere near match fitness. Timing and running were completely off. Not his fault at all. We were effectively playing with 10 men.
This is more of an issue than Karius making 2 errors. He made some good saves last night.

8.) 27 May 2018
27 May 2018 18:57:14
Yeah excellent post. Remember when lovren had a bad spell and we voted him player of the month? It's that type of loyalty that makes me proud to be a red.

9.) 27 May 2018
27 May 2018 19:13:26
I agree with the Eds and Ron, Karius was at fault for 2 goals, but Liverpool were second best in the match, after Salah went off. They were outplayed in midfield by a very experienced Real team who know how to win the big matches.
Our squad is too thin, Salah was replaced by a player who has been injured all season and Emre has also been out a while.
Maybe the loss of Buvac has had a serious impact on match preparations and tactics too.
There are several factors that contributed to this defeat, Real Madrid were the better team on the night overall.

10.) 27 May 2018
27 May 2018 19:51:25
Ron you say lots of sensible things but I thought that you were really mad when we rotated the side for the Everton game.

Are you saying now that Klopp was right in resting some of the side when we played Everton?

Hope we get two or three quality signings in to give us more options.

Then off we go again and let’s hope we can get some silverware to validate the progress Klopp is making.

11.) 27 May 2018
27 May 2018 20:59:19
Rotating is different from resting.

Resting the majority of the team for 1 match doesn’t really change much.
Rotation is changing 1 or 2 players most weeks to keep the whole squad fresh. 1 match hardly keeps them match fit.

I was mad as hell at that derby match. Biggest league game of the season the home derby.