Arne Slot ‘losing the plot’ as Arsenal handed the title
There is some genuine Liverpool lunacy in the Mailbox as fans hand the title to an Arsenal side eight points behindâŠ
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Some Liverpool fans are genuinely losing their minds
This season, itâs the Battle of the Bottlers.
Arsenal has bottled it twice from previous seasons, and we are witnessing Liverpoolâs unravelling in glorious hi-res 4K. City is gracious enough to let one of these clubs have one out of pity and both clubs are clown-showing over the finish line.
Last season gave us a glimpse of this Liverpool team, running out of gas during the run-in. Itâs the same team, no additions, and we expect something different? Einstein needs a word here.
Slot is losing the plot as well, gone is the control and clean sheets and workload sharing. Our players are breaking down at the wrong time.
Our form is going from meh to bad. We just might sneak the League, but 70% Arsenal will win it from here as they have an easier run-in.
Next season? We have to replace the entire backline, new keeper, at least one more midfielder, no Salah, do you think FSG will pull out serious money for 6-7 players? We will get 2-3 signings at Tsimikas level. Not bad, but forget about trophies for the next 5 years.
The only joy I have at this moment is seeing Amorim and United and thinking, at least weâre not there.
Vinnie Pee, FSG OUT!
MORE LIVERPOOL COVERAGE ON F365âŠ
đ Liverpool bottle it, Man City trophyless, stubborn Amorim: One prediction per Premier League club
đ Darwin Nunez sent to Saudi as âknackeredâ Liverpool hand over title
đ The Sun drool over Liverpool âfull-scale disasterâ of eight-point gap
âŠLiverpoolâs form has been poor since December. Before playing Newcastle, they were on course for 99 points over the 13 games played. In the 13 games since, they are on course for 78 points with 7 wins and 6 draws.
This team has slowly been losing control and the fans and media have accepted âtough drawsâ. Arsenal donât have to be perfect for the remainder of the season to win the league. If Liverpoolâs form continues over next 12 games they will get another 24 points and finished the season with 85. Arsenal would need to take 32 points from 13 games to beat that. That averages to 2.46 points per game or 93 points over course of the season.
As a Liverpool fan I think Arsenal will win league but am hopeful we can stay strong. Arsenalâs collapse in late November or so is what has Liverpool ahead. Since then their form has been very similar.
Also, Nunez is a joke, but Jota missed three good chances in first half and didnât hit target with any.
Sean Mackey
Chill out lads
Liverpool are 8 points clear at the top of the league having played game more than 2nd place. City are out the picture and the team behind us are an Arsenal side that struggled to break down Leicister at the weekend. If you had offered me that at the start of the season, not only would I have bitten your hand off, I would have wolves down your arm, shoulder and entire body.
Thatâs not to say Liverpool will win the league, they might not. But itâs a damned good position to be in. Arsenal play West Ham next, after which they have a run of 6 games that all have the potential to cause them problems. Chelsea, Fulham and Brentford at home and then Forest, Everton and United (donât laugh, remember the FA cupâŠ) away. If Arsenal get 18 or even 16 points from those games, then I think they have a great chance to win the league. But thatâs the sort of form they will need to hit to catch up with Liverpool.
Every game is crucial now, but we were always going to drop points. No need to be too upset about a draw away against a good Villa side.
Mike, LFC, Dubai
Nobody bottles anything
I appreciate that many hands will be wrung and more teeth gnashed after the last draw. But lest we forget that puts Liverpool 8 points clear. 5 assuming Arsenal win the game in hand. They play each other 3 games out. A veritable wet dream for Sky Sports.
Will Liverpool bottle it or will Arsenal become the team they want to be and chase it down? Itâs all narrative. No team bottles anything in a league. The best will out over 38 games.
Did United bottle 2011/12 or was Aguero a magical moment?
(Yes. Yes they did â Ed)
Football is mad. Enjoy the madness and donât belittle any achievements regardless of position. If Leicester finished second in 2016 it would still be mental. Bottled it? Not for me.
There are three trophies every year. Some are lucky to have 4. You win one itâs f***ing mental. I appreciate expectations will fluctuate but I guess what this rambling essentially means is enjoy the moments. Celebrate that win. Bitch and moan about that loss.
Essentially football is the most important non important thing in our lives.
TLDR enjoy footballâs pluses donât focus on the negatives
Much love and happiness to all.
Mark
Trap game ahoy
Classic trap game!
Wounded City. Embarrassed in the EPL and trampled by Real in the UCL. Dumped out of Carling Cup. Having nothing to play apart from pride, qualification for next yearâs UCL, and FA Cup. Tho given Cityâs prior success, FA Cup and placing league/qualification are nothing more than snacks and titbits to the main meals.
LFC: never completely assured and currently wobbly from lack of confidence, injuries, loss of form amongst strikers.
Weâve seen what pride can do for teams with nothing else to play for (Everton, Man U).
An away point would be great.
On a separate note, itâs funny how folks say we are choking or losing confidence. Given that Slotâs a first year manager managing a team in transition, multiple players being tapped up and / or ending their contracts, in trouble scoring goals, totally reliant on an aging attacking freak having his best year ever at an advanced age. We werenât even expected to contend this year, but for competitorsâ underperformance.
Itâs only expected weâd struggle, becos we know we arenât dominant yet. Itâs part of the fun watching this team grow and challenge. And if we even win, itâd be our 2nd title in 35 years. Long drought!
Gab YNWA
Oh DarwinâŠ
I was going to write about him before we played with Newcastle but am too p***ed with him to wait. Arsenalâs interest in Isak is well documented but they are not the only ones casting envious glances at Isak. You see Isak is literally what we hoped Nunez would be; a classy competent striker not the buffoon we ended up with.
The main issue I have with Nunez is that he never has a hot streak. He scored a brace a few weeks ago but has been missing since. He scored on his PL debut only to be sent off in the next game. It is a pattern he has perfected.
Before him we had Origi and Firmino who werenât the most prolific strikers themselves but had their qualities. Origi was clutch and had a couple of purple patches during his time while Firmino was one of those players whose presence improved the team. Nunez has no quality to speak of, in fact he is the polar opposite to those players; he is not clutch while he seems to actively make the team worse. It is no coincidence that poor second half performance against Wolves coincided with his introduction.
Last night he displayed his incompetence once again. He canât finish as he fluffed yet another chance. He is supposedly quick but I have seen him lose plenty of footraces which usually end with him fouling the defender, an area he specialises in giving stupid fouls away. Yesterday he somehow found himself through on goal but managed to botch it. The average striker would have dinked the ball over the onrushing goalie. Rashford got a similar opportunity and managed to carve out an opportunity for himself. But not Nunez who has no striking instincts.
In his brief cameo he also found time to be offside. You would think after a million offside flags that he would learn to time his run and use his pace but nope he is still clueless about the offside rule. I was shocked to find out that Haaland was only caught offside once in a whole season. Nunez probably averages more than one per game. Surely it canât be that difficult, it is not like he would score the opportunity anyway.
With his height I thought we would see his ariel prowess given the crossing abilities of our fullbacks and Mo but I feel like I have seen Macca score more headers.
It is shocking how he offers nothing to the team yet is seemingly content with that doing little to improve. At times it feels like he against us.
How I wish we had already sold him when the opportunity arose.
Philip
MORE LIVERPOOL COVERAGE ON F365âŠ
đ Liverpool bottle it, Man City trophyless, stubborn Amorim: One prediction per Premier League club
đ Darwin Nunez sent to Saudi as âknackeredâ Liverpool hand over title
đ The Sun drool over Liverpool âfull-scale disasterâ of eight-point gap
More statistics chat
To echo Peter and the old adage, anyone who tells you stats are the answer to football is trying to sell you a statistical package.
Itâs a tool, just like good scouting. What stats gives you is a great way to do a wide shallow search of football talent (and maybe apply some factoring/weighting to take into account difficulty of league/opposition) and refine targets to then be followed up with good scouts doing the tape and character study.
But your ability to conduct these exercises is also subjective (you have to know what you are doing and put the legwork into building your model/determining the best parameters for your analysis).
For pundits, I genuinely think they could do no better than subscribe to a good stats service and one good fan podcast for each team to understand the general sentiment of where a squad is at â the ones for Arsenal are exceptional and every Prem team deserves that level of focus.
There are a few general football newsletters out there which offer imo an unparalleled level of insight into football and players and frankly I think if I ran a lower level Prem, top level Championship, Iâd just go to them for my scouting needs.
Tom (also, come on Lee, Arsenal arenât âchokersâ if they fail to make up 8pts on Liverpool with a 17yr old and DM in our front 3, none of that silliness) Leyton
