re: OFFICIAL LFC 16/17 Season Long Thread - Piss off, Gunners!!

60M for Van Dijk at this point would be money well spent.

Lovren is a fraud. I haven't seen a defender with worse sense of positioning. He has cost us majorly this season.

Another disappointing performance against a bottom half of the table side

We're limping to the finish line

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Hello Europa my old friend

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*creeeeeeeeak* (opening up CL's door)

Here you go, ManU... come on in. We've kept a seat warm for you.

Not as is, because of the depth... but all healthy, with some clever purchases in the summer we could be... obviously, we wouldn't be a favorite... but we need to keep building...

I'm not counting us out by any means... still think we can do it...

Liverpool's EPL losses this year:

Burnley (A) - 16th in the table
Bournemouth (A) - 13th in the table
Swansea (H) - 18th in the table
Hull (A) - 17th in the table
Leicester (A) - 15th in the table
Crystal Palace (H) - 12th in the table

At this point, with 2 games in hand, the ManC's are likely going to move into 3rd in the table.

If, by some miracle, Liverpool could win their last 4 against bottom of the table teams, ManU would need 16 points out of their remaining 6 games to pass us.

3 wins and a draw, they need 14 points in 6 games.

Liverpool are precariously balanced on a knife's edge right now and any slip-up will be deadly.

Of course, the above depends on us maintaining our advantage in goal differential. Considering today's performance and with ManU only being -2 in goal differential, that may change too.

Lovren took an elbow to the face from Benteke.

Was a clear foul by Benteke flailing wildly in the air IMO (though unintentional) but not called.

God I hope Lallana is back next week.

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Liverpool are precariously balanced on a knife's edge right now and any slip-up will be deadly.

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Yep, we don't really control our destiny entirely (depends upon the Machester Derby) and we have zero room for error - especially considering how ManU just aren't losing - they are picking up points every matchday.

So...my thoughts today - we really only had one guy with the creativity and impetus to get anything done.

I said this a few weeks ago and I'll reiterate it here - Klopp is entirely to blame for this for not picking up guys in January. Yes, he said they weren't available in January - but if Brandt is who you want, and they have to sell him for a reduced rate in the summer because of a release clause - then you make them an offer you can't refuse. We already knew that we had injuries off the normal scale, Mane out for the ACON, etc. Now we have a squad that is largely incapble of fighting out wins on a regular basis and not nearly enough creative power up front to really challenge. The commentator referred to our bench today as Kindergarten Klopp and he was right.

I've pretty much made up my mind that we are in big trouble if Origi is our second striker next year (assuming we get Europe of some kind). Orig is young - and possibly could add this to his game, but he has ZERO anticipation. How many through balls were sent in his directly today that he wasn't even running for? 10? Can, Cou, Milner, and Firmino were all visibly frustrated with him at different times. He is completely incapable of creating his own goals short of the from the left wing. He routinely destroys and stifles offensive creation around him by not making runs, not making good passes, and not seeing the guy thats open. We need much better in our squad as a regular starting (challengin Firmino and starting 20-25 games)and sometime sub if we're going to challenge for anything next year.

Lovren's five year contract is a joke. He doesn't have much value - so making for a longer contract will only lock him to us since I doubt anyone with any funds would be willing to buy him. His "only" real value is that he can play both sides, and thus could be of value from the bench. But I'd rather never see him again.

Having said that - I don't know what the hell Matip is doing on the first goal. He needs to take a quick look back and see that the only threat is the one behind him and he was in no man's land.

I get that Man U has tough matches but you need to look at our fixtures. It truly sounds ridiculous but does anyone expect this run to be anything but frustrating going forward? We have proven all year that we are incapable of consistency against weaker sides. Our major problem now is that we have been hearing all week about how "positive" our transfer talks have been because of the promise of CL football. If we don't make the Top 4 you will see a lot of names on our potential list turn elsewhere. This club absolutely has to get better at the back end, I know it seems obvious but we thought that going into last summer and look where we are stil. I have faith in Klopp and I am patient but the time to make a move is right now, unfortunately we did screw up this January but if we can limp in to the Top 4 we HAVE to infuse this team with starters and not 16 year olds who will develop.

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I'm aware of our fixtures, but it can be done... should be done..

I'm going to remain optimistic for now..

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Yep.

I continue to believe, evidence be damned, that Liverpool damn well SHOULD beat the sides residing in the bottom half of the table.

Maybe that's not realistic. Maybe it is. But I'm sticking to it.