28 Dec 2025 04:56:54
So let me understand something.
According to some posters, when we win, are we not allowed to criticize the performance.
We are just supposed to shut up, and take the 3 points like good little sheep
So when we lose, and we most likely will at some point, then will we be allowed to criticize the performance?
Will we then be allowed out of our cages to vent our dis- approval of the way we are playing?
When we lose, we always say that at we lost by giving it a go, we didn't just roll over and have our bellies tickled. So when we win, why can't we want to win with a good performance. Why is it such a crime to win, yet want to win by controlling the game and taking it to the opposition?
28 Dec 2025 07:02:46
@JLC, WE HAVEN’t lost in our last 7 games, we are slowly starting to get better and Wirtz looks like he’s starting to come to terms with what’s required in the PL. he took four defenders out of the game with the best pass a Liverpool player has played in the past couple of seasons to set Hugo up early in the game.
Of course people should criticise, all the better if it’s constructive criticism, but for me some of it is very much Neville and Carragher on Sky - they have pre-conceptions before the match and judge the actual match on their pre-conceptions rather than what is happening in the game. At the moment everything is criticised, by some, because they are expecting perfection as a right and some of the positive signs and better play is being ignored.
On a completely different matter. Give Wirtz a little bit more time and imagine hi. Playing in the same team as Bobby at the height of his career. Now that would have been something to see.
28 Dec 2025 07:14:05
If there is a complaint about all the criticism, JLC, it would be the way the criticism is often, not always, communicated - hysterically, exaggerated, entitled.
Yes, we are playing like a slow moving turd but we are in clear 4th, we have 16 teams below us midway through the season and 3 teams above us playing superb football. I personally think this is a small miracle in a transitional year.
And yes it is a transitional year regardless of what we want it to be or how angry we are that this transition was "forced upon us" by the recruiting team when we just eon the league.
The only pity i have is for the local punters, who pay good money to make the effort to go to Anfield and expect a good game. Not the rest of us armchair entitled critics.
I've been supporting Liverpool since European cup night 1977 and I've seen it all. I'm grateful for the current "miraculous" 4th spot we have and i cannot wait for the (long overdue) transition to complete. We're going to be witnesses to the Wirtz period.
And let's think carefully before we put finger to keyboard and stop bating for reactions. There's a lot of really sensible analysts on here who i love reading who back off during the "hysterical" moments because all the oxygen is taken out of the room.
Breathe.
{Ed001's Note - none of them are playing superb football, have you watched the games lately? Everyone is playing poorly, that is what makes it so frustrating.|
28 Dec 2025 07:34:14
Right, Ed01.
Perhaps it's better to say that they're getting "superb results" . Maybe it's a bad football year this season in terms of quality - the "small" teams have cynically worked out how to play the "big" teams. All the more reason to be patient.
My main point still stands.
28 Dec 2025 07:59:40
By all means criticise the team when necessary, but folks on here keep saying we are the worst coached team in the league, we have no variety in our attacking play, we only have one kind of tempo, only win by fluking it, other teams tear us apart repeatedly, other teams are bullying us off the pitch, that we can only play slow football in front of a packed box, that we only win because of moments of skill that have nothing to do with the coach, that Curtis Jones and kerkez are useless, that we are lucky to get the three points every time, when none of that is true.
If you were to go by what posters on here say and actually watch our last two games, you'd be rubbing your eyes in disbelief. At least I have felt that way, and I wonder how our perception of the games can be so vastly different from one another.
28 Dec 2025 09:19:53
Personally, I think people need to be more realistic in their analysis of the team and see them for what they are and where we are going.
Crawling before we walk comes to mind.
I accept that seems ridiculous after winning the title but honestly just don’t care. I’m seeing it for what it is, what we are and the journey we’re on.
{Ed001's Note - no you see it from one point of view, not for what it is, but for what you think it is.}
28 Dec 2025 09:51:52
Some posters seem more concerned and upset that other posters don’t have the same opinion as them over the performances and results this season.
28 Dec 2025 09:53:44
Morning Ed01 TBH I'm sure you are spot on that other teams are playing poor footie
Frankly I couldn't care less about others! I only care about us . Our play is slow and boring me to tears. I'm struggling to understand why half way Tru the season we still get run through the middle of the pitch. That although we have almost a week off our players look shattered. Lfc players gaining injury's? Rolling on the ground with minor knocks.
Love you Ed enjoy your comments but could not care less about any other team.
{Ed001's Note - it bothers me because we are not top of the league. When the others are playing so poorly, there is no excuse for not leading.}
28 Dec 2025 09:56:37
Seriously, what are we talking about here? The team is playing absolute dross. The "we haven't lost in 7 games" is a trope that will NEVER mask the dross we are playing. That is a non-statement when you compare it to what our eyes are seeing. If people think we are the worst coached team in the league then, that's their opinion. If you don't like it, prove them wrong rather than complain about them being negative. Simple as.
You are free just focus on "not being negative" cos we have a 7 game unbeaten streak which is ab absolute mirage which will take two bad results (playing the same way) to send up in smoke. You'll never catch me ignoring what my eyes are seeing. Not in a million centuries.
People are free to do whatever they want, in the end. People are free to ignore their eyes and remain "positive" while others can be relieved with the good results while at the same time calling out the absolute tripe being served up by a desperate manager employing tactics that the players are struggling in and demand more cos they think we can do more. No one group has power over the other, period.
Also, had Chiesa and Wirtz not rescued the Sun. game or had Bradley not saved the game last night with a game saving tackle, the "Unbeaten in 7 games" is NOT a thing.
28 Dec 2025 09:58:31
After the horrendous run we had probably the only way back for Arne was to tighten up defensively and grind out wins. We’ve done that, but I don’t particularly see a shift in style coming in the new year. Some of our starting players remain out of form and we don’t have replacements fit and ready.
City are playing well, Arsenal are so good defensively they don’t need to play well to win games. Villa are a strange team, there’s not that much to them but they have a few players who produce in the key moments and can finish. Defensively they’re probably on a par with us. Top 4 should be doable without further injuries.
28 Dec 2025 10:04:03
Absolutely nailed it there Ed. That’s one of the big issues. We should be eating that league. People should be talking about back-to-back titles instead of hoping to scrape into the top 4.
Couple that with the fact that we’re playing terrible football and always look like we could get battered in the final 20 minutes by Accrington Stanley, then that’s why so many have an issue with this season and Slot in general.
28 Dec 2025 11:20:22
I disagree with anyone that thinks Slot has gone back to basics and tightened things up. But yet, we look so vulnerable off the ball, even with all 5 midfielders on the pitch. The pressing and counterpressing in non-existent and they seem physically incapable of going man for man.
If that’s not the coaching then I don’t know what is.
28 Dec 2025 10:20:00
Ed, could the excuse be that we expected the league to trend in one direction and then it turned out the complete opposite from what we were forecasting?
I think it's clear that the complaints about us not addressing weaknesses that began to show when we were on a dismal run weren't perceived as weaknesses that required immediate attention in the summer. That is absolutely a mistake, but it is a mistake that we have time to rectify. Time will tell if we begin moving in the right direction when it comes to righting wrongs.
I understand that when things aren't going out way we lament the hesitancy we have in transition, the less aggressive press, the caution when it comes to playing risky passes or pressing the issue in attacking situations, but for better or worse this is the manager the board cast its lot with and his approach has won us the title, so until the manager changes I personally don't see the point in demanding that he became somebody entirely different. I see a manager trying to do what he can given the circumstances and parameters he has to work with (and the parameters include his way of thinking about football, injuries, suspensions, trying to move towards a style that goes through wirtz rather than Salah and the wings etc) .
{Ed001's Note - that's not an excuse, that is a failure. The weaknesses most of us saw last season, the midfield getting bullied and the central defence being a real weakness, that was all there last season and we won in spite of it. They tried to fix the central defence but never even looked at rectifying the midfield as Slot decided he didn't want an enforcer. Worse, he then told the closest thing we have to one, Gravy, to get forward more and leave a huge gaping hole in midfield.}
28 Dec 2025 11:17:37
as do you ed1, as you do.
What I tend to see on here and other forums is a desperation to get as close to being title contenders as possible. So when things aren't rosy it's like the 30 year trauma rears it's head again. And that is ok.
What I would say, from my perspective is that whatever the 'why' is, it doesn't change the development arc we're on. So for me, I find it helpful to look at it that way and then can embrace the journey we're on.
I recall in Klopp's early days and even in the down years, there were questions about him and his faults. same back then, we're on a journey, goes through ups and downs, blind alleys and whatnot.
{Ed001's Note - yes I do, but I don't come on to slag off those with a different opinion like you do. The little snide digs are as negative as the negativity you moan about.}
28 Dec 2025 14:36:35
Klopp took over from Rodger’s and a team on the road to nowhere. Slot took over from Klopp and was left a team to literally win the PL with, then he got £450 million of new talent. There is no comparison.