02 Nov 2026 09:00:26
Can we really argue that much about not n beating Arsenal
Yes the money paid means the results should happen quicker but it is what it is I think lfc are heading in the right direction
Just need to be far more potent up front turn and get the shot off on target more often.
02 Nov 2026 09:13:35
Dont get this "right direction" thing. so much was hyped around Adoni Irola and his training methods. We have a Goal difference of +3 while brighton is sitting at +16. It was said any manager would walk the league with this squad while slot was incharge. it looks like we would need at least two seasons to get anywhere near at the top.
02 Nov 2026 09:24:57
Sonic, you are saying what I was saying all last season and was repeatedly shot down on here.
02 Nov 2026 09:25:02
Every top team is paying money. Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and City have all paid enormous amounts of money through the years assembling their squads.
It does take time to get cohesion and alignment to new ideas at the highest levels. This is the Premier League. It is not just getting across one formation and basic idea. It's what to do if this happens, or that happens, or that happens or when to do this, how to do that times 1, 000. It's takes a long time to get your full plan across and the team being able to execute 100 percent.
I know people love to simplify everything. We are Liverpool and we should not accept anything less then a Premier League. It's fine to say standards must be met etc. but the reality is, we need to build towards that. I ll be first to get annoyed when we are not building towards that but there's already been marked improvement in many areas this season. Defence is far better, we are getting in many more dangerous situations.
It is true to say we are making many wrong decisions in the final third but that is improving also. Slowly.
You can look at the game yesterday and say we lost one nil without a shot on target. However we created a lot of dangerous situations. Attacked a lot. The team made many efforts to score goals and were not passive. Arsenal put their bodies on the line and made many last ditch tackles. Teams have been completely dominated by Arsenal and have gotten 3 or 4 shots on target. I prefer to not get dominated like we did. I'm not happy with the result but I just can't understand how anyone watches that game and thinks we are not heading in the right direction.
{Ed025's Note - not having a shot on target at home with half a £billion of attacking talent is not heading in the right direction Davey, i get you want to put a positive spin on things mate...but come on..
02 Nov 2026 09:38:34
Were we heading the wrong direction under Slot in his first season where he walked the league with Gravenbech and Szobozslai who most agree needs replacing @davey. A lot of people like Irola becasue of reasons unknown to me personally. hence this "right direction" thing, We absoultey got dominated by brighton the other week. was that also "Heading the right direction".
02 Nov 2026 09:40:36
Ha ha @Rome, seems we two are heding the "wrong direction".
02 Nov 2026 09:45:27
Good post, DS.
I'll add that we limited Arsenal, the champions, to three shots on target and easily had more shots than them.
02 Nov 2026 10:16:45
We played some good higher intensity attacking football yesterday and deserved a draw, but that's the fine margins.
It's a well balanced thread this though because Rome and others are right, the reason we didn't win the game was the failure of a few of the players, their decision making, their qualities ultimately. Iraola also got the substitution wrong.
The difficulty in the league as others have said is that quality and depth wins out over 38 games. Iraola is a good coach, but he isn't great, he isn't Klopp, not yet anyway. Our players aren't great, they're good or very good, but other teams in the top six have just as good or better, including the coaching and analytics.
With the money we've spent on attackers you'd expect at least one great player, like a Torres or Suarez in the new buys, but they're just not that good. There's no X factor with any of them, too predictable.
The challenge we've got is having spent all that cash on them we can't afford to go big again in attacking spend without offloading at least one of them. We can't have £250k a week players sitting on the bench. Same goes for Szob and Grav in the midfield. They don't seem effective at all in the positions they're playing if we want to win consistently at the highest level.
Some big decisions ahead if we want to win anything big over the next few seasons. The silver lining is the city sanctions mean they're likely to be out of the picture, so domestically it's only really Arsenal that we're behind in terms of competing for silverware.
02 Nov 2026 10:17:02
I really hate the shot on target stat. I know that stats and lies are almost the same thing but the shots on target one has to be the largest one.
If in a game one teams shots 10 soft balls direct right into the goalkeeper hands, they will have 10 shots on target but zero with any danger.
Even XG is a better stat and that one also has it problems.
02 Nov 2026 10:36:33
A lot of posters on here have short memories and are behaving like spoilt brats.
02 Nov 2026 10:22:30
We are not the finished article ed25. I fully get that the team needs to improve in front of goal but Iraola has had a whole host of problems to contend with from last year and he is addressing them.
I thought it was a solid performance at this stage and certainly improvement. Macca has a guilt edge chance, we hit the crossbar, and there were many last ditch blocks.
Maybe we should have hit one no hoper from far out to break the stat but I think the team was just genuinely trying to get a goal instead.
Rome wasn't built in a day.
{Ed025's Note - i thought you were decent Davey but you have to be a lot better in the final third mate, dont get me wrong Arsenal were very good defensively but you have to be sharper in front of goal..
02 Nov 2026 10:08:15
Sonic, I've also said we are heading in the right direction. I say this from a point of view that we are better defensively and we look to attack quicker. However, there are still areas of concern, in my opinion, despite spending squillions in the transfer market. Areas of concern being the 3 players who we've spent in excess of 100 million pound on. In addition to a left back who has the intelligence of a sheep.
Going back to yesterday's game, I thought the substitutions made us worse. Szoboszlai contributed nothing, and moving forward I'm struggling to see how we accommodate both him and Wirtz in the same side. It really is a test of Iraola's tactical nous.
{Ed025's Note - thats a terrible thing to say about sheep Rome.. :)
02 Nov 2026 11:18:44
Sonic - i agree to a point about Slot not being the sole issue for our failings last year but to say that Brighton dominated us last week is utter nonsense.
Get the penalty yesterday for the pull on Isak and that changes the game when we were totally dominating for that period. Same can be said about Grav being sent off against City - it's small margins that have massive impacts on games!
We were good value yesterday for a deserved point & if Arsenal had gone home empty handed they'd have zero complaints with their shocking anti football mindset.
We've lost twice to two bloody good sides imo but there are definitely improvements which are clearly visible.
Onwards & upwards!
02 Nov 2026 11:38:03
I agree on that Ed. I'm not ignoring that the finishing and final third decision making needs work. It is not just bad lick. but I do think that piece will come because we are getting up there far more regularly now.
The team is out of practice from last season watching the team play around at the back.
Bradley and Wirtz are improving in many areas but the finishing is still leaving both down. They are snatching. But If they keep turning up in the positions, I'm hopeful it will turn around.
It was a frustrating one, but I ll take that performance for where we are at.
What we simply need to do now is win the next two winnable league games with a top standard and then we can move forward.
Also, I think Bradley Barcola is better on the right. I definitely would have started Gakpo left and Barcola right. Think Gakpo would have got one or two good opportunities cutting in given how much we got up there and he is a better finisher than Barcola. Barcola has been showing some decent stuff as a a setup man on the right.
02 Nov 2026 12:29:26
I'm not surprised you don't understand it Sonic, after all, you say we got absolutely dominated by Brighton when we won 2-0.
02 Nov 2026 12:26:54
Ed025, you are absolutely right. I sometimes post on here without any care for the feelings of others. Can I hereby use this platform to wholeheartedly apologise to the sheep community for any offence I may have caused.
May I also say, in fairness to Kerkez, whenever I've seen him on the bench, his crayoning is coming on a treat; he rarely goes over the lines.
{Ed025's Note - love it Rome..
03 Nov 2026 11:08:14
"I prefer to not get dominated like we did."
When did Arsenal dominate us, exactly?
Cos all I saw was a team defending with 10 men for it's dear life as soon as they scored, something West Brom of back in the day would have been proud of.