Armchair Pundit

Off-side?

Seems to happen a lot. Not that I'm paranoid, but it's almost like refs have been given a memo to be as shit as possible for us, like the league is wanting to stitch us up with dodgy officiating ever since the Saudis took over.

Agreed, I still think Trafford is a gem of a keeper, just a shame he'll likely go to Villa instead of us though.

Haaland doesn't half fall over easy for a big lad, bit embarrassing really, I shouldn't expect anything more though these days.

I guess the thing with Delap is whether Eddie could get him back on the right track, following a poor spell at Chelsea. To be honest, I don't blame any player for going there, if the money is involved, nor their dip in form, because unless they're first choice team members I doubt they get the same coaching or play time. Also read we're considering Darwin Nunez from Al Hilal, I never really liked or trusted him at the scousers though.

Reading Liam Delap is on his way out of Chelsea this summer.

Bloody awful, messing with the stripes - like someone taking the piss with the 'Barcodes' nickname given to us by rival fans.

I'm wondering is Gibbs-White has a relegation clause in his contract, would be a good signing if we could nab him.

Would take Trafford if we could entice him, but I suspect he'll go to Villa.

Good work, pleased with the effort tonight, well done Eddie. That said, think Tripps looked his age again, Murphy seemed to have regressed after playing out of his skin in previous seasons and Tonali looks like he can't be arsed, doesn't track back, doesn't get stuck in, looks like he wants away to the bright lights somewhere. However, just to counter that, Ramsey, Elanga and Willock have all looked better recently too.

Fucking hate the stupidity of the offside rule in it's current guise, it's an absolute joke. It's beyond time that they went to having daylight between players instead, that would resolve all the nonsense and probably add some perfectly reasonable goals back into the game.

From memory, we had a similar issue the season we played in the Champions League last time, though several players were also 2 years younger.

I think half the problem is that in the first couple of seasons we had some momentum, new players, all in it together, unexpectedly into the Champs league which also increased some of who we could bring in... then the project stalled. A couple of the well liked ownership left, dickheads like Mitchell and Stapleton came in and the investment into building the club went quiet. We now find ourselves struggling, with a slightly disillusion squad, up against a hard fixture list from previously punching above our current weight. Is that Eddie's fault, no, I don't think it is - some occasional sub/tactic choice have been questionable, but also some have been forced, I think we'd massively regret losing Eddie if they sacked him.

And just how is he supposed to cope adequately with the squad/injuries we have?

I stand by that playing on four fronts, with an injury-ridden team, with low quality in depth, after last summer's Isak saga (which must have played on the player's minds) and signing two panic buy strikers, while being held back by PSR and having to work through an excessive fixture list, imo gives Eddie some reasonable reasons for our season and current level to be considerably hampered. We're a victim of our own success from previous seasons. What bothers me more is that PIF don't seem in that much of a rush to get things moving on the new stadium/expansion, new training ground and new scouting network front. There's no excuses of PSR hindrance for those.

I don't think I've seen a player get his shirt pulled more and receive no decisions from the ref for it for a very long time. It's incredible how much he gets fouled every match.

Oh well, it is what it is, it's still impressive to get to win it one year, then get to the semis then next. Just a shame we're hamstrung by PSR so that we can't properly compete on multiple fronts, unlike the pre-established cartel teams.

Believe me, when I said prior to the match that I couldn't see us getting back into this tie, it was out of realism, not depression or negativity. I'd love nothing more than to have been wrong, but we're just too stretched, across too many games, with too little quality in depth. Eddie can only do so much, but I'm sticking with it being PSR that fucks us over every time - we simply can't compete in Europe, the league and the domestic cups all in one season.

Just can't see us getting anything from this, we don't have the drive, stamina, presence or consistency. If we somehow managed a result then great, but I've seen nothing this season to make me think we can come back into the tie, let alone win it.

The way I see it is Eddie is having to fight on four fronts, with an expectation from some that we perform at the same level as established, cartel clubs, probably due to us actually having overperformed with what we have previously. We don't have the depth in quality or the financial clout of those aforementioned established clubs, so I just find our inconsistencies to be expected as things stand. In all honesty, we're probably breaking even on where we should expect to be, as frustrating as that can be. Eddie's actually performing a miracle that we haven't just collapsed under the expectations from punching above our capable weight. I'm not denying that Eddie's tactics sometimes appear questionable, but no more so than any other manager would in our situation, what realistic alternatives does he have? What players can he bring in that would make a difference? We're a million miles from the very dark times we've had over the past 20 years and I never thought I'd see us win another cup or get regular European football again. Our club is massively hamstrung by the PSR nonsense and also doesn't have the type of players that cheat to get results, which I'm forever grateful about but I'm damned if I'll take that out on a manager who's done for us what Eddie has and maintains the positions and status across the competitions that Eddie does. As with most things these days, I think people take opinions too far - tactically we could do some things differently, I'd like us to be more pressing and aggressive (like we were a couple of years ago), but it's not feasible with the amount of games we're now having, the players just wouldn't be able to sustain it. We just need a bit of help to push things on, be that from the owners pushing on with the stadium and training facility improvements or someone legally taking on the completely uncompetitive and ridiculous rules put in place by a league who actively wants us to fail.

Because it makes him some sort of hero to the rat fuck fans of Liverpool. Easy bit of PR for him.

What the fuck was that comment? The commentating saying Ekitike walking past the Newcastle like "Look what you could have had"? Cunts. All cunts. Fucking hate them.

Yeah, just no need for it other than pushing the media's ever loving bumming of the scouse scum and their dirty, cheating, eternal victim rat lives. Fucking hate Liverpool, hate their hypocrisy, hate their manager, hate their fans, hate their players... in fact, I can't think of a single likeable thing about them. Cunts, victim complex, lying, cheating scum. They've got every right to think they should be a separate entity to England, I wish they were, any hate they get they bring on themselves.