FFS @Woland , at least be subtle with your new non de plume
Post Match Crystal Palace (A) - Sat October 5th 12:30
- Thread starter Shadey
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Another famous SCM welcome to the newbs.
I stopped reading at "Curtis Jones is a local lad", thinking what a condescending twat ... I only just read beyond that after all the responses. Trying to work out if this represents an upgrade on the loons or not ... probably not, the loons are almost likeable in their lunacy.
I think a lot of the blame is on him. He's the one who wants to play every game and has a tantrum if he's subbed
Slot’s machine making the right noises
The striking thing about Liverpool under Arne Slot is there have already been improvements made to various departments. Too often under Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool would concede goals that took time and effort to recover from. Virgil van Dijk looks close to his best again, and is no longer left so exposed with Ibrahima Konaté getting a long run beside him. Ryan Gravenberch looks like a stroller and pinpoint passer in the mould of John Barnes and Jan Molby, but with a modern physique suited to the pressing game. “He’s tall, and he’s strong in duels,” noted Slot. Cody Gakpo supplied Diogo Jota’s goal and is far more comfortable on the flanks than a central role. The downsides? In the tougher tests to come, the tempo may have to lift; Chelsea, Arsenal and City are unlikely to grant Slot’s players so much time. And if Mohamed Salah has continued to score goals, his individualism – and wastefulness – can jar when compared with his teammates’ embracing of the system. JB
Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action
Ederson is showing his worth to Manchester City and Everton’s Jordan Pickford silences the boo-boys
Someone was saying on the radio the other day (might have been Troy Deeney, who's a surprisingly good pundit) that just the sight of Virgil stops some players trying stuff - "They see him there, think 'Nah, not bothering' and lay the ball off".
I didn't think that he was that good last season, above average at best. We were proned to conceding too many early goals and often the entire defence with Virg in it looked clueless.
This season is totally different. He had games where he didn't put a foot wrong and just went above his job with utmost efficiency. Not sure if it is Grav / Macca who have been providing the cover but Virg has imperious so far.
I thought Thiago perhaps was out of contract when Liverpool got him. But he wasn't. He had only one year left. So that Liverpool did have to purchase or buy out his contract.
When a player is letting his contract run out like that and enter the final year without renewal, it is usually a sign of some sort of problems. A club can, for example, be hesitant to sign the player to a new contract for some specific reason. Like the player being very injury prone(!). And in such a situation the club will seek to hide and conceal that the player is injury prone in order to be able to sell him. Which is probably what happened with Thiago. Another example would be a player that has some sort of personal issues and is not a good dressing room presence. So that the club refuses to renew and extend the contract. It could also be a case that the club is very poorly run and/or organized so that the player himself chooses not to renew so as to escape such a club. Again, almost always such a situation is a sign of some sort of problems.
It could also be a case of a club thinking that a particular player is overrated and doesn't deserve to be paid at the level that he thinks he deserves. A player might have a very inflated sense of his own self and his role within the club, and within the team. And that can have a very negative and corrosive impact or influence within the club. It can serve to impede the progress and performance of other players. That is very possible too and that would again be a sign of problems.
Of course, it is interesting that TAA, VVD and Salah are in exactly such situation at Liverpool. With TAA being the most pertinent example in this regard because he is only 25 years of age. Why would Liverpool Football Club not secure a . supposedly . very top player at the prime of his career to a long-term contract?
ps TAA . is . a . local . lad .
I don’t know. Why wouldn’t they?
It's quite hard to discern with some of the new posters who it appears are neither artificial or intelligent
Deeney has always been a fan of Virgil.
This is from four or five seasons back....
He did however admit that, despite getting the better of him on several occasions, the Netherlands captain smelt great and had great hair.
"I've said it many times, I hate him," Deeney told BBC Radio 5. "I hate going up against him.
"He's too big, too strong, too quick, too good on the ball, loves fighting, a good head of hair."
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EseMHr6VEM0
Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages
prima donna
/ˌpriːmə ˈdɒnə/
noun
noun: primadonna
- the chief female singer in an opera or opera company.
Similar:
leading soprano leading lady diva star protagonist heroine principal singer female lead songbird
a very temperamental person with an inflated view of their own talent or importance.
modifier noun: prima-donna
"the prima-donna behaviour of some of the stars"
It’s Premadonna.
Deeney also said that even worse than knowing you weren't getting round him was that he smells gorgeous
Only for those who come before, like a virgin
Now the AI influence has been pointed out I cant read any of his/her posts in anything other than a synthesised voice.
It does, his interview just inspired a Sunday rant of seeing some dickhead for another side needing to put a full kit on to take the field the other week.
This was getting tested his year after injury. Klopp's tactics always left the CBs vulnerable to one-on-one situations and agile, fast players were taking him on with more and more success. Slots tactics have tightened things up a bit, but it's almost irrelevant to the discussion because VVD's performances have re-asserted himself regardless of coaches and tactics. VVD isn't far off his peak anymore, IMO. Maybe not quite as fast but when he's so strong positionally it rarely matters. Quick enough will do.
I disagree with that. Whilst Virgil may not have been the 9/10 he is this season he was still at least a 7.5/10 because our midfield was shite, Robbo was out and then back in but playing crap because he still not over the injury, OK Gomez did well but Tsimikas was awful and the RCB was changing every week, to say nothing of Trent being MIA because Klopp had him inverting (poorly most of the time).
He is the GOAT but even the goat can't do it whilst the rest of the defence is falling over - and this season is just the proof of the pudding.
Quick enough as in one of the fastest in our squad and fastest CBs in the PL?
Thanks for that.
A couple of quick follow-up questions for you... Who is this Steven Gerrard? And what is 'The Kop'? Is it in. Liverpool?
Can you re-formulate the query so the output is provided as a haiku?
Like Stephen Hawking? Or is it more like alexa or one of the other smart speakers?
Yes. My apologies for stating what to many appears as very, very obvious.
The point I was trying to make is that in my opinion these things are of great, great intensity in Liverpool and in the Liverpool Football Club. That is always a very big issue when it comes to the club management.
For example, LFC owners and management appear to be about not to resign a very popular local lad and player in TAA. For that they might face a huge backlash. That, I think, is the reason they have chosen this particular time to give another local lad and player (Quansah) a new contract. They are managing the situation like that. Having a local lad/player that is unambiguously and unquestionably the very best player in the squad (or among the top two, like Steven Gerrard was (i.e. Torres; Suarez in their prime)) makes it easier to manage the club.
What makes things like that particularly difficult is that some local lads/players use the threat of that backlash to get themselves contracts that they think they deserve. To force the hand of the owners and of the management. Those things are extremely difficult to manage because Liverpool supporters always have very, very strong and very, very favourable attitudes and feelings towards local lads/players.
In addition to using the threat of that backlash to get themselves contracts, such local lad/players also very often use that to augment or inflate their roles and positions within the team. Their careers at LFC, that is, often very much ride not on what they objectively deliver on the pitch week-in and week-out, but also on the coattails of that reserve of very, very strong and very, very favourable attitudes that general and especially uninformed masses of Liverpool supporters unquestionably have towards them.
In my opinion that is why Klopp was forced into leaving the club. Player power. And then local player power, and local player power demands. Not just local player power and local player power demands. But local player power was, in my opinion, a very huge part of it.
Player power is a term that many people who are not from Liverpool and who are not even from England may understand. In the United States, for example, player power is often used to describe what is currently going on in the NBA, which is the most famous and popular basketball league in the world that happens to be based in the US. Players use their popularity and power to force their way into managing the teams. Getting contracts they want, getting new teammates they want, refusing to play with others or under specific managers, get the managers they want, organize and plan transfers or trades, etc. The same/similar thing often happens in football too.
Finally, it is important to understand that the NBA and the United States are very different in this regard than Liverpool and England. United States of America is a so-called settler society.* That means that it has been settled by people who arrived to the North American continent from other areas of the world (including also from England and Britain, but not just from England and Britain). That means that the above-noted attitudes, feelings and passions that supporters have towards their local lads/players are much, much stronger in Liverpool and in England than they are in the US. As a rule, in fact, American basketball players don't really care what team they play for as long as they make in the NBA. And also as a rule, supporters and fans of individual basketball teams in the US do not care so, so greatly that their local lads play and succeed within their organizations. Things like that are ALMOST NEVER* an issue and the whole league is set up differently. That's also why NBA teams are not called clubs but "organizations" or "franchises." LFC, on the other hand, is a football club and that's part of what that word club means. Things in Liverpool are very, very, veeeeeeeery different in that regard.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settler_society
** A player named Kawhi Leonard (also known as the KLaw) could be an exception in this regard. I think I read somewhere that he may have decided to sign and play for LA Clippers because it is a team based in LA, which is where he is from. I think that some other NBA players might have recently done or tried to do something similar in the New-York-based Brooklyn Nets team. But I'm less sure about that.
