I'm not complaining as it appears to have inspired the team to do something.

Were through, 2-1

A good result but where was the team that slaughtered Man City a few days ago?

We needed to back up the win at City with any sort of victory and we did it.Mignolet and the ref men of the match, our keeper for inadvertently giving us a kick up the arris with his mistake.Then the official trying to make it all about him by blowing up for everything

Qualified with a round to go and in control of the group.Rest a few in Sion and just don't lose their.Then we win the group and avoid drawing any teams that go out of the CL in the first knockout rounds.Utd and Arsenal could be two of those.

Most disappointing was Firmino. Didn't seem to get involved in the game tonight at all. Shame because he has been improving a lot recently.

Delighted to be through with a game to spare, now concentrate on getting at least a point in Switzerland to secure top spot.

The referee was genuinely dreadful, worst refereeing performance I've seen in ages.

Top spot can still play a Champions League 3rd place.

16 seeds = 12 EL Group winners + best 4 CL 3rds

16 non-seeds = 12 EL Group runners-up + worst 4 CL 3rds

But obviously still better to be seeded - plus get 2nd leg at home.

A mixed day then. A fine result that gets us to the knockout stages with a game to spare ( which means we can concentrate more on the PL a couple of weeks early) . But bad news about Sturridge. It's hard to get the player back in the team when he can't even get two weeks training under his belt. The man is becoming a bit of an enigma.

I was thinking this too. Not once did he play the advantage in the whole game.

Probably the reason the game went through dead patches.

Sadly I think enough is enough with Sturridge. I'm not sure if the will or the money will be there to do anything about it in January but certainly next summer I think it will be time to say goodbye.

Is there an echo in here or is it just me?

Exactly. Even if they have to take a big hit on his fee, I'd rather that than keep hold of him for the sake of it because he is of zero use to us now that he seems to get injured when he walks on a field.

To be honest I've no idea how long he has left on his contract. It may be we simply agree to release him. That said the noises coming out of Anfield this morning suggest it's unrelated to his previous injury and may not be too serious so we may all just be over-reacting, but given his record that's understandable.

Nice words from Klopp about the importance of the EL. It's a peculiarly English attitude that the EL doesn't matter and is a distraction but clearly Klopp is having none of that and sees every competition as being important. I wouldn't put money against us winning something this season.

Sturridge signed a 5 year deal last October.

You don't release a player 1 year into that deal.

You don't leave that sort of contract either. He won't get that sort of security elsewhere.

Exactly and wouldn't blame him. Him being injured sux but I feel all this talk of giving up on him very melodramatic.

I think its a good example of why fans shouldn't get upset when players want to leave for better things. Truth is fans are just as hard-nosed when things are going the other way. People would happily punt Sturridge now because of injuries one year into a 5 year deal but if he had scored 15 goals already this season and Real Madrid were sniffing round there would be mayhem if he said he wanted to go so soon into a new contract and he would be getting called every disloyal name under the sun.

Its just the way of the footballing world.

Good point, agree with the above

LFC will be doing everything they possibly can to mend Sturridge, they might actually manage it on the physical side, but mentally? I think he'll be getting close to being scared of any tackle in case it breaks him now.

Apart from the aforementioned, all this puts him through a lot of pain - cruel on anyone, but on a sports-person with a short career span it has to be frightening. Clubs and players should have insurance against such situations - maybe they do?

Can't see many rushing to buy Sturridge, hes only got to sneeze and hes out for a season.

They gave him the hefty wage increase after the brilliant season with Suarez when we finished PL runners up. Silly looking back as he still had a fair bit of his original contract to run, we rushed that some what me thinks. Barely kicked a ball in anger since he got that big bumper pay rise

I don't on this one. What the hell is he doing holding onto the ball for 22 seconds when we are nil nil at home to Bordeaux after about 30 odd mins. We should be injecting pace into our game at such a stage not behaving as if we are in the final few mins holding a lead over the opposition. I have no idea what he was thinking!

Anyhow, a win is a win and we are through so happy overall. Need to beat Swansea on Sunday though, pretty important we start moving up that table. on paper winnable games to come. (disclaimer - on paper!)

Further to my comment 3519, this has been said today by Klopp on Sturridge -
“You have to learn what is serious pain and what is only pain".

Easy to read what he's saying there, not going to be easy to get through though!

Ouch! .... or not ouch....

This is a side of the game that I don't think fans of all clubs take that seriously.
Having a psychological issue in regards to football is harder to fix, than an actual physical injury, and to me this is what seems to be the problem with him.
He seems to not want to go out on the pitch in case he picks up another injury, that is very hard to overcome.
He may still love football and playing it, but the issue is just related to his mind.
Hopefully for him, and England, he can get over that issue, as there is a damn fine striker within him.