Andy

On the fence is neither happy nor unhappy IMO, maybe you're in that category if your opinion changes with each match, like most of the forum.

In one option you're on the fence, in the other you're unhappy but willing to give more time.

New poll, less binary, anonymous, let's see where you all stand.

That season we had experienced players all over the pitch who were also playing at their peak; Schar, Trippier, Burn in particular. The Willock/Joelinton combo was defensively rock solid. Bruno was excellent in the "6" position. Longstaff and Miggy were contributing in both directions too. We attacked and defended as unit, rather than the way we play now which constantly puts a huge amount of distance between our defence, midfield and attack. Our wingers in particular are bombing forward relentlessly before we've even had any chance to build possession, which sometimes works but often leaves the fullback isolated when we lose the ball. Tonali is all over the place in that DM role too, the amount of times you see him chasing their defenders and keeper down is mad. It's little wonder there's always a huge gap in front of our defence. There's basically no discipline in our midfield at all.

Maybe not a miracle, but it's better than being a "good" achievement like, given where we were when Howe took over. A big chunk of the money we've spent was to bolster a squad that had been neglected for years. You name Forest but they're a great example of how difficult it is. They fell off towards the end of last season then continued that descent this season. Villa are the only comparable club really and they were struggling at this stage last season too in the exact same circumstances as us. Their gamble in the January window helped but didn't even really pay off as they still missed out on CL despite picking up form massively. Emery is flavour of the month, but I'd bet a decent amount they'll struggle next season too.

I'm glad he's actually been shit all along so now we don't have to say "all of the singings were shit except Thiaw", makes it much easier to be able to just lump all the Summer 25ers together.

I said it in the match thread, but our defensive frailties in general (one game and a half aside) have been nothing to do with him IMO. What more could he do? Probably 75% appearances or more have been 8/10 performances at least. We don't defend as a unit like we used to. It's just that simple. It stems from the midfield.

I wonder whether his injury earlier in the season has knocked a yard of pace out of him, I don't remember him looking so slow and lethargic for Brentford in the odd game I watched.

I feel like we've been poor defensively in spite of his performances for the most part; the whole unit is the problem, from front to back.

Seems a bit of a reactive take to me, he's been excellent in all but one game prior to this one. Even that goal was more Burn's fault than his.

Aye I noticed him letting Wirtz just walk past him for the first goal He's been pretty anonymous otherwise, a couple of good passes here and there but that's it.

We have too many players who seem to collapse mentally and completely vanish once the game starts to turn.

This is far from a great Liverpool team and they'll still give us a chance if we can pull ourselves together. Looks like all the confidence has drained out of us though.

Aye that's shocking by Thiaw, way too easy. Pope should do better too for me.

Great finish that

Class performance so far, but we're all on the same page that they're going to score from absolutely nowt against the run of play, aye?

I mean to be fair, it's easy to see why people don't trust him (especially playing as a striker) after what happened in the reverse fixture.

Learnt from his iffy start there and adapted rapidly which shows how good his footballing brain and composure is. That first 10 minutes would've rattled many a seasoned fullback.

Best game for us. Happy with him tonight.

Great performance as the game went on.

Grew into the game as it went on. Second half will be tough but at least we've given ourselves a good chance with options on the bench.

That penalty is the worst I've seen in my life, I still can't believe it was given. It's unbelievable that they managed to make a worse decision than the Tino one.

Would love us to be perennial Europa League qualifiers for a few years. Actually hate this competition I think.

Genuinely one of the worst refereeing decisions I've ever seen. Somehow they've eclipsed the Tino one.

What the fuck