Left out of the selection against Burnley, and didn't make his PL debut until January 22nd, almost a month after he was acquired (didn't even make the squad for the 4-3 game against City). Second game after his first start in the PL, he was on the bench again against Huddersfield.
Van Dijk played 90 mins 4 days after signing against Everton, suffered a thigh injury for the next game and played in every game after this (other than Huddersfield).
The Burnley game was on the 1st of January. Would Van Dijk even be allowed to train before this? It would have been risky for Klopp to play him on the day he officially signed.
Nothing I said in my post was not correct.
Probably. I can’t be sure but we went on a wretched run of form towards the end of Dalglish’s run as manager, then Rodgers struggled when he first started at the back end of 2012.
Indeed, although I really like our front line to really start clicking from now. We've been waiting for them to click for a while now and it's really not happened to the extent it did last season.
Personally If we are going to stick with this 4-2-3-1 formation I would rather see Firmino back up top with Shaq in the middle behind him and Salah back out on the right. I think Mane and Salah stretch the oppositions defence more and Shaq has the eye for the pass to open them up, but that's only my opinion.
I agree with this. Shaq is always cutting into the middle so we lose a bit of that width too.
I can't see where City are going to drop points and even if they did there is no way we are going the rest of the season without dropping any either.
Henderson is a decent player but you won't win trophies with the guy.
Where are City dropping points?
He's decent for me. He breaks up opposition play and can certainly pass. He gets into the box a bit too for a few chances. He's not polished but he's good enough to get into that team for me.
You will smash Everton and Bournmouth. Then beat Burnley. City will beat Bournemouth and Watford, then lose to Chelsea.
Ah, if only football predictions were that easy. We'd all be mega-rich now & be able to afford our own football clubs.
Agreed, after finally putting together a team that I think could have pushed Mourinho and SAF teams in bygone seasons, this City are just unreal. I guess now we know how the other teams in Germany, France and Italy feel most seasons. Good news for our hosts here at the Cafe I guess, we are the lesser of 2 evils for them.
Can't see it to be honest, they've only struggled in one game all season which was Lyon.
I think this side does need to outgrow Hendo as a starter to reach its potential, but he's a good player overall. He moves the ball quickly, when he is actually facing forwards he is quite good on the ball. Goes through a lot of work defensively.
90 pts are possible but not probable if they do not improve in attack without getting worse in defence. Still, if they continue to get results till Christmas, 88-90 pts will become probable.
We don't need to improve our attack if we keep this up defensively. We average exactly 2 goals per league game and average less than 0.4 goals against (second best differential in the league behind City).
I agree that you are likely to finish top 2. Hey, you can even win it. But I disagree about your defence. If pens were given for Spurs, City (Lovren on Aguero) and Watford (it was 0:0 at that point), you could have been 5-7 pts behind City and level with Spurs. You have to improve in attack because referee decisions may turn against you at some point (as against Arsenal).
You're only factoring in decisions that went in our favour though, as you always do. We've had some calls against us as well, plus if you follow that route, Spurs-Chelsea should've been a draw since Chelsea were denied two penalties on Hazard, right? Luckily it doesn't work that way.
Which are those decisions that went against you though? Arsenal and? Truth is you have benefitted from referee decisions, they have helped you to stay close to City.
People often ignore this.
You can only reflect on the games where L'pool have dropped points.
It's confirmation bias. You can find enough questionable decisions to back up whatever point you are trying to make. Football is full of them.
I think it's 7 from the last 8 and 8 from the last 10. I also think we continue to be underestimated, partly because of media hype (of which there is always a lot behind Liverpool) and the fan bias towards thinking that decisive transfer action or spending money is always going to lead to positive results.
I'm sure that's a valid opinion on RAWK but this does not make it objective evidence. I remember neutrals and professionals commenting ot Lovren's fouls on Aguero and Jesus in the box but can't remember non-rawk related evidence that Fernandinho deserved to be red carded (twice!). Might be wrong though. Still Liverpool got away with two pen calls vs Spurs and Watford which might have cost them 4 pts, while the Arsenal mistake did cost them 2 pts. Overall, they've benefitted from referee decisions (including Wolves' goal against City). 2 pts difference with City flatters their performances so far.
Watford was a crazy one. That was definitely one we got away with. Finally.
Have you been watching the first half of the Lyon game for chances conceded?
How many points we are ahead of Spurs is totally irrelevant to whether we are in a title challenge or not, you seemed to have overlooked what is relevant and that is we are only 2 points behind City.
Fixed for you so you see it in Treble-vision.
