20 Oct 2017 13:08:24
Few points to hopefully settle any early season nerves.
So far, Liverpool have played 6 games against teams currently in the top half of the table. City away, Watford away, Newcastle away, United at home, Burnley at home and Arsenal at home. We've had 4 draws, 1 win, and 1 defeat in those games, taking 7 points from 6 games. We have only played 2 teams in the bottom half of the table. Away to Leicester and at home to Palace. We won both games taking 6 points from 2 games.
I know at the time we all considered the Watford, Burnley and Newcastle results to be bad results and maybe they were considering we played well enough to win all 3 games, but when you look at the scalps they're all taking this season, draws seem like okay results in hindsight. We are not an easy team to beat now and that is a massive step forward.
Last season we probably would've beaten Man City, but potentially gone on to lose a couple of those games against Watford, Burnley and Newcastle and probably conceded an equaliser in the dying minutes at Leicester. So even if we have had to wait 14 games for it to click in the final third, I'm just pleased we're not rolling over every other week like last season, whilst papering over the cracks by stuffing our rivals. We are grinding out points against good teams and beating the teams below us and that is usually how you challenge for the title, even if City do look too strong for anyone this season.
Just wanted to share that with others as it made me look at our current league position in a different light. I think when we've played everyone once and not had three quarters of our games against the better sides in the league, we'll look much more comfortable! In contrast to our opening 8 fixtures, United have played 7 teams in the bottom 10 and just 1 team in the top 10! Draw your own conclusions from that!
I think it was Superred said the that we are the 2nd best team in the league? I actually wouldn't disagree. City are clearly the best, but I'd say it's a toss up between us and Spurs for being second best and we might get a clearer indication of who quite soon 👀
Here's hoping for a decent result at Wembley on Sunday!
20 Oct 2017 14:16:33
Great to see you back, MK. As for your post, I see your angle in your view BUT I can still understand the frustration with the Burnley, Watford and Newcastle results are that we could have won all these games had we either taken our chances (Burnley and Newcastle) or been defensively switched on (Watford) . That is the main gripe in my view.
I will say that on a slightly positive note in contrast to last season, we are creating more guilt-edged chances vs low block teams than we did last season and are taking more points off these games cos last season, we were not even drawing these games. I know it is a low bar but there you go. As of now, we are a better team than Arsenal, on par with Chelsea and Spurs. The Manchester clubs? Not there yet. As for Spurs game, we'll see what happens.
20 Oct 2017 13:59:04
I don't really get your point here MK. You've papered over the cracks, that you believe we haven't papered over if that makes sense. We didn't beat city which is fine because we drew v Watford, Newcastle and burnley. I might be being stupid here but your post makes no sense.
Whichever way you look at it, we dropped points, better team or not. There's reasons why we dropped points, same reasons why we always drop points. Our defending is poor and we are not clinical enough.
What I do whole heartedly agree with you is that on paper it does not look as bad as it may feel, but that is purely because some of our "rivals", for say the top 4 spot have also dropped points. But then we should not be focusing on what other teams are doing and getting the job done ourselves.
20 Oct 2017 14:36:42
I do agree Bingo that with the chances we had to win them games, they at the very least felt like bad results in the immediate aftermath. But when you see Burnley beating Chelsea and Watford beating Arsenal it puts it into perspective. At least we didn't roll over thinking those teams had no right to give us a game.
My post was more pointing towards the fact that until everybody has played each other at least once, it is very hard to start making final judgements.
United sit 7 points above us, but aside from the game against us, the highest placed team they've faced is Southampton in 11th. By contrast we've already played 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 9th, plus we face 3rd placed Spurs on Sunday whilst United have yet another game against a bottom half team in Huddersfield.
The fixture list is only fair once everyone has played 38 games. So for now, we should all back our players and manager and hopefully enjoy a 3-0 win at Wembley 😂 just wanted to put forward a case for our boys because they've not been anywhere near as bad as people think. Top of the Champions league group, and still mixing it up in the league with a very favourable run to come in the Premier League after Sunday is out the way.
I'm just trying to be positive buddy, but i completely get the frustrations 😉 my shrink has told me i need to be more "Ron Keague" whatever that means?
20 Oct 2017 14:52:13
Not sure what you mean by a decent result? Draw, loose or Win? Draw is decent! A Win is what we need and a defeat is not DECENT in any form!
20 Oct 2017 14:46:45
Perhaps i didn't make my point clear enough Istanbul. My main point was that we've got a lot of tough games out the way nice and early and at some stage we will have a run where we face Bournemouth, Stoke, Brighton, Huddersfield, West Ham, Swansea, Southampton, West Brom and Everton, with Chelsea tucked in there somewhere. So far this season, when we have played against sides significantly weaker than us on paper (Leicester, Palace and Maribor) we have won. So if we can keep up that consistency, in theory we could go on a very good run and clock up some serious points. Sure, we have no divine right to win those games, but if we turn up we should win most of them. That will be the measure of how much we've improved; whether we can finally stop dropping silly points. Not our inability to win every single game against other teams fighting for a top 6 finish. We have still only been beaten twice and both games had extreme circumstances involved ie, a cup game with our kids on the pitch, and playing against City for an hour with 10 men.
It'd hard to convey my 'point' i suppose, but what I'm saying in short, is we are getting a lot of the big games out the way early so we should have plenty of chances to make up the gap throughout the season!
20 Oct 2017 15:24:07
Harry I'd agree mate. A draw is decent and I'd come away content in my head, but a bit disappointed in my heart as we could do with a win to keep the Maribor momentum alive.
I really think we can do them at Wembley as well. The pressure on them is huge after half their team mouthed off to the press about the historic/ colossal 1-1 draw against a Real Madrid in poor form 🙄 they are bad enough at Wembley without that pressure on their shoulders, and they do tend to struggle against pace in the wide areas as their full backs are always their weak links. Walker and Rose were never in position to defend, Trippier and Davies are not that great defensively, and now they have Aurier who can't even manage defensive basics, and Vertonghen who has the turning circle of a freight train. If we can get Salah, Coutinho, Chamberlain, Moreno etc running at them in wide areas Spurs can be hurt.
I am really hopeful for a victory but realistically I'm only expecting a draw. Having said that, I've put Kane back in my fantasy team and he's stopped scoring again so we might have a chance of a third consecutive clean sheet 😂.
20 Oct 2017 15:44:49
I got what you were saying first time round MK.
I agree mate, by Sunday evening we will have played 4/ 5 of the top 6 teams and 3 other in form teams and still only be 7 points off 2nd.
20 Oct 2017 16:21:16
Glad it sort of made sense Noshbag 😂 obviously it all means nothing if we then fail to beat the teams in the bottom half, but i was just hoping to lighten the mood ahead of the gam because having watched our games, i don't think we've been bad at all. For weeks it's felt like we just needed something to give and we'd hit form. In the end it was a piece of grafting from Salah 3 minutes into the game, and the flood gates have opened. Spurs is a much tougher test but i am buzzing for it!
20 Oct 2017 22:19:36
I reckon we are better than utd. We were the better team last weekend.
20 Oct 2017 23:22:48
I think the frustration comes from our inability to defend. I know that sounds a bit sarky and I do get your points for they are many and educated, but two seasons in a row our biggest problem has been conceding and while we have certainly shown a little improvment against teams parking buses, amateur mistakes have set us back.
Not to mention the keeper fiasco which has certainly stirred a little dissatisfaction. Totally agree that halfway mark gives us a better idea of where we are. Let's hope the table is a little deceiving at the moment. Can I also ad- great to have you back mk. Hope all works out well for you soon.