OTF

This is a bit tardy but just making it official that you've forfeited any right to complain about pun making. You could say you've pundermined your position and revealed yourself as pun of us.

For me it's clear that Joelinton has been playing through some sort of injury for a long time (groin/hip/thigh) and he's lost his acceleration and explosiveness on the ball as a result. To make up for this he's tried to increase his physicality in a way that is both ineffective and harder on his body. Howe probably should have showed the faith in Miley from earlier to allow Joelinton to get the treatment he needed to return to 100% fitness. That's hopefully what happens now, but boy it would have been nice to have both Miley and Joelinton fully fit as options through these busy weeks.

Miley has the size to cause defenders big problems and in particular with Woltemade playing more as a 10 we need the extra bodies coming into that space.

You mean @Craig isn't an expert in Middle East-African cultural relations!?

I've never said he's not a drawcard, but there's no way he's anywhere near as big a drawcard as Ronaldo. They're trying to grow the Saudi PL outside of SA and in most of the developed world a footballer's religious beliefs do not factor into support at all. My point has always been that unless there's a Saudi driven buying war Salah has limited appeal world wide and especially in terms of a transfer fee they'd be foolish to throw away good money on a player with a limited career remaining, already on a steep decline. If there was to be a bidding war it's more likely to be on the wages front. In the last couple of years the Saudi teams have focused on bringing in players in their mid 20s and even younger because they know that paying big fees and wages on players in the twilight of their careers is financial suicide. The purse strings are being tightened now that the quality of the league has been massively improved and they're trying to lure players with the supposed appeal of living in Saudi Arabia as well as a tidy but not ridiculous wage.

Again, not of interest to Liverpool, so it's only a bargaining chip if the Saudi Clubs want to throw away money fighting against each other. There isn't a bigger drawcard than Ronaldo unless they got Messi there for a final showdown.

Yeah maybe, but also multiple state owned SA clubs are supposedly for sale with talk that they wish to curb the copious football spending. Ronaldo's salary is twice the commercial revenue for Al-Nassr, so no matter the players popularity there's still a huge amount of money being burned in bringing them to the Saudi league. He was unstoppable first half of last season but has been pedestrian since then. No doubt he would still carve up the Saudi League but it's only if there's multiple clubs there that start a bidding war for him that he should go for super amounts of money. He's not a Ronaldo level star, only Messi is. He's the same age as Son Heung-Min and a similar level player in his prime, though admittedly Salah's prime was both better and more recent, but he was also in a stronger team. Son went for £20m to MLS as there are no Asian teams with money to burn like there is in Saudi Arabia so there would not have been many options with huge wages for him.

If you play two up top you normally need more versatile wide men, as in not wingers but side midfielders who are more defensively capable. Not exactly what springs to mind when I think of Gordon or Wissa.

He'd been champing at the bit for the derby as well so that was an extra reason to rest him that Howe ignored.

I think it's fair to say we need to bring in Pope's replacement this summer at the latest. Ramsdale gives us good cover and better distribution and ball playing but lacks size and command of the area. If getting Trafford in means Livramento moves the other way then fuck that. Much easier IMO to bring in a European keeper with size and better feet than Pope than it is to get a player with Livramento's pace/engine/quality.

He busts a gut out there but sometimes his enthusiasm leads to him being pulled out of position. A rest here would have made sense, but Howe values his leadership and physicality too highly to not play him.

If Liverpool are paying him a massive wage and he's not playing and contracted until 2027 then why should any club offer Liverpool huge money? They probably bought Isak expecting they'd get the lion's share of it back when they sell Salah in 12 months, but with everything that has transpired since his value has to have dropped significantly. Now the foreign clubs can tap up Salah/his agent with the promise of huge wages and hero worshipping to further undermine his position at Liverpool. In the meantime it will be lovely seeing him collecting a wage for doing nothing there, much like Isak.

Especially with our busy schedule and there being actual depth on our bench. Central defense though they should be rested for a whole game as it's not often a good idea to mess with your central defenders mid game. Going to be a huge match for our season at home against PSV. It's huge for them as well as they would leapfrog us if they win, a draw would likely keep them in the unseeded play off spots and a loss could move them into the elimination spots. Their final game is at home against Bayern Munich who will, like PSG, have locked up their round of 16 spot so could rest players. If we had won against Marseille we'd be in 4th place currently.

Miley has earned a run in the side ahead of Joelinton. Definitely not a bad result but frustrating once again to give up victory so late.

It's not like Schär or Botman are short.

Aye, you can't blame Ramsdale for that either, no keeper is getting to that deflection unless they were wrongly positioned for the header.

Nothing in the air but he's had the ball at feet multiple times which is what he prefers and has turned it over cheaply with poor touches.

As well as enforcing he was previously great at turning/beating the first defender and running into space forcing another defensive player out of position. Don't know what has happened to him but you're right a complete shadow of himself and it has now been for a prolonged period.

It's not been a great return to the motherland for either of our Germans. Wolte with possibly his worst game for us thus far.

Right decision, why the hell was there so much space for him to run into. Very worrying.

That would be a harsh red as he's running for the ball and there's a clipping of legs.

Oh fuck.

We look like we're just going through the motions, lacking that killer edge.

Results this season are not often going as expected.