How about given the new manager the opportunity to build his own side. Inconsistency was inevitable while klopp was assessing his players and implementing his own methodology on the team.

Klopp has done just fine. If you can beat the big sides your halfway there.

So Captain we get 6 new top class players and fit them into the team - I don;t think so!!

Some of the problems this season have been due to having no pre season with Klopp, no Klopp chosen players yet, many injuries, the excessive number of games that playing in the EL brings ...etc.

We have had some very bad performances - at Newcastle, West Ham, Watford and Swansea only one of which was recent altho the second half at Southampton was a low point too. On the plus side we have had many great moments and performances - compared to last season under Rodgers when we had none.

So what now? - some to go = for me that'd be Skrtel, Bogdan, Balotelli, Benteke, Texeira, Illori and maybe Ibe, Moreno and Mignolet but these last ones only if we get suitable replacements. We need a new keeper and for me a LB - Hector and Horn from Cologne, and then others coming into the squad will be Matip and Groic (sp) - already signed (for free) and hopefully Gotze as you never turn down quality even though we are quite well of in his position and it does seem as if Zielinski will come too.

Maybe given the size of the budget we may sign others too as the above net spend will not be that much but there is no need to panic and spend for spending's sake. The probably team V Seville plus Hendo, Allen, Lucas, Flanno, Kolo, Origi, Ings, Gomez, Ojo, the returning Markovic and the new ones i have mentioned along with Sakho hopefully will give us a squad of more than 25 with other fringe players too like Brannagan, Smith, Canos, Stewart and Rodriguez - the squad is plenty big enough and there is no need to panic as i said.

If we get to the CL then there will be far less games and we will cope - you cannot underestimate the impact of the number of games you have to play when in the EL which I think effected our season a lot - and in the end after it was all counted up we were miles ahead of 9th and only just behind 5th, 6th and 7th so altho 8th sounds bad it is nowhere near as bad as it looks.

I can accept that pass pass pass is not the best tactic but would argue that under Klopp mostly we are not like that - we press a lot and often have 30 or shots per match. Today V WBA when we had twice their possession and half their shots was not our usual stat and was I think due to us having too many fringe players in.

Two interesting facts ahead of Wednesday...

Sevilla have won exactly ZERO away matches in La Liga this season and are in next Sunday's Copa del Rey final versus Barcelona which many of their fans have chosen to attend over the Europa League final apparently.

We should be confident but not complacent.

This season has been poor league-wise but it is no coincidence we improved once we got a potent striker on the pitch. A pre-season, a few extra pieces in Klopp's jigsaw and a fully fit squad will mean next season will be different. I'm looking forward to Klopp's first full season immensely.

I'm amazed anyone tries to take analysis from a meaningless last game of the season where we rested key players.

We are focused on Wednesday as that's all what matters right now.

Sevilla have had a very poor season. They've lost as many as games as they've won, and they lost 4-1 at home to relegation threatened Granada two weeks ago.

Still, I hope we treat them as a serious threat.

There is one final match left, and I cant wait

It's difficult to have a good league season when you're so inconsistent. I think our campaign effectively hit the buffers in December-January time. We dropped quite a few points we really shouldn't have, had quite a bit of fixture congestion with a whole string of games just coming one after the other and then ended up with a pile of pulled hamstrings to deal with. The main narrative of our season has been two cup runs and the final chapter has still to written.

We've scored 63 goals this season; the 6th best total in the league. ( last season we scored 52 which was the 7th best total )

We've conceded 50 goals this season; 8th best, equal with Watford. ( last season we conceded 48, also 8th best in the league) .

It's difficult to draw any hard conclusions just looking at our numbers. If we had played our best teams against Swansea and West Brom would we have picked up an extra five points? Possibly, but we still wouldn't be in a CL place, so ensuring fit players for the EL seems fair enough.

For me though, it comes down to conceding too many goals...again! We need to be conceding less than 40 goals to give us a real fighting chance of winning this league.
As well as a new CB in Matip, the answers to this problem might be a better GK and a more defensively efficient LB.
And above all, defend set-pieces much better; preferably by giving up zonal marking, either that or just learn how to do it properly ( if indeed there is a way to do it properly, as it seems to me all the attacking team has to do is have three men attacking the same zone and they just overwhelm the given defender ).

Limped into 8th place 9 points clear of the 9th placed team and only 6 points behind the 4th placed team? Yesterday was a far from full strength side. Yes they've been inconsistent, but a few good signings could make them into serious top 4 challengers next season.

It's tricky and proabably futile trying to draw conclusions from the final league table. Arguably we should have won our last 2 games rather than draw, but clearly the teams' mind was on Basel. Covert those draws to wins and suddenly we're sitting in 5th (pending Utd's game) just 2 pts off 4th and the season seems a lot better. I'm not sure there's ever been such a close season.

Win on Wednesday and the expectations for next season are going to rocket, which in itself is possibly a bad thing. There's no doubt the PL has become much more competative in the top half.

Man 2 man marking is the biggest myth in football. Just as many goals are conceded from teams who use man to man marking but the difference is its never highlighted like zonal.

Personally I prefer zonal. Man 2 man for me has players not looking at the ball as they are so concerned with the man and it allows defenders to get blocked off.

Clyne, Henderson, Lallana, Milner & Sturridge in Hodgeson's 26 man squad. Not a bad Liverpool contingent.

Not that poor a season, 2 cup finals and a 7th place league finish ....similar to us actually.

The 1-4 loss was with a much weakened team as they have done what we have done and rested most of their 1st team squad, they have 2 cup finals to hold their better players back for rather than a meaningless game v Grenada, so don't read too much into that, no more a sneak preview into them than our 3-1 loss to Swansea was for them.

Here's hoping the "possible" parade goes ahead and Klopp can bring us a trophy home in his 1st season.

Fair enough, I'll confess I didn't actually do my research properly. Just a quick check of the La Liga table and their previous 6 results.

I prefer the combo approach - mark key threats and leave someone whose sole job is to follow and clear the ball if out of the keeper's zone. Works very well generally if you have enough capable players.

Agreed - I promise not to write an essay this time!! - as what Captain had done was exactly what you say and that is hardly fair.

Yes we do need strength in depth but in normal circumstances they would not all play at once which they did yesterday and i would certainly argue that many of our fringe stars are OK and would not let us down if called upon as long as they were alongside some first team stars.

Soooooo...

...how's everyone feeling about Zielinski and Karius? They're beginning to look like done deals.

I'd be happier with a taller keeper that could cherry pick all those crosses but let's see - I note he was at City as a teenager. As forZielinski, foot know a thing about him but he's already ours if you believe Wikipedia!

Well, the Ultimate season is over. I don't have any Man United players in my XI. I have Darmian on the bench but can't sub him on, even though I wouldn't because he's injured. Scored a crappy 35 points. A few of my players didn't play, and some might as well have not played (I'm looking at you, 1pt Jamie Vardy!).

So well done to Orch for finishing in first. I had a much better second season, being smarter with transfer windows and utilising the loan system properly, and to my advantage. A few mistakes, mainly forgetting a couple times, forgetting to make substitutions and even forgetting to sort out the team before the first matchday. I solved part of that problem by setting up my team after every game week, then make any changes I want before the games. That way if I happen to forget I'll have still put out a good team.

I didn't get to take full advantage of the other week where we had like 6 matchdays in one game week. Coutinho had to keep missing out.

Overall it's been a good season for me, and I'm expecting to improve next season, though it'll be a hard one to predict when I'm creating my team. Vardy and Mahrez won't be cheap this time and there's no guarantees they'll be worth the investment. I suspect Mahrez will because he was getting me points last season. I might give Sturridge a miss this time, too. But then he'll be fit all season and get 50 goals.


Coincidentally I didn't do too bad on ordinary fantasy football, got 1,906 points, and came third in an 8-team league, and I often neglected that one.

Pretty decent on the Ultimate Fantasy Munch, for a first season anyway, I have no doubt you will be a lot more sorted next one!

Quite pleased with mine, I like to get into the top 10%, and this season made it into the top 8%, I learnt from last season that choosing your initial squad right is vital.

Looking forward to the battles next season, and if anyone else wants to have a go, do, it's fun and interesting!

It's not so much a myth, it's just the traditional way we've done it in this country, and, I suppose, it's the way most of the pundits did it when they were playing.

Of course man-to-man has it's faults as well and when a defender loses his man it's usually pretty obvious and they do get picked up and criticised for it when it costs a goal.

Like Sloth I would like to see a mixed approach and have our best defenders take some personal responsibility to stop the attacking players getting to the crosses. It probably doesn't help that we are a relatively small team, but if there's three attackers running into the same zone it's going to take a seriously special defender to beat all three to the ball.

Given time I'm sure JK can drill them into a decent unit; good defending is definitely about teamwork.

If Karius is a replacement for Mingolet, Then I'd be a bit concerned. I'm not sure he's good enough and experienced enough to be our clear starting #1.

If he's a replacement for Bogdan, then I'd be very happy with that as he certainly seems decent enough and is still young enough for plenty more improvement. Danny Ward is probably not going to be that happy about it though.

As for Zielinski: I know very little about him and I cant recall ever seeing him play, but he's been linked with us for months. But he's another central midfielder to add to our list. He's also still quite young, in fact most of the players we're being licked with are quite young ( Gotze is only 23, Charlie Taylor from Leeds and I've seen us mentioned in the race for Dennis Praet as well ) .
You'd be forgiven for thinking the FSG transfer committee is still running things. I hope someone has explained to them they're not!

From FB:

Henderson is likely to be on the bench v Sevilla with Milner continuing to wear the armband. (James Pearce)

That's what I wanted.

Excellent. He should be there, but he shouldn't be starting - solves my quandary over this a couple of days ago.

And now THIS - "Top of the Klopps"

Just a quick one to anyone who has LFCTV.

I am just about to cancel Sky Sports over the summer to save money. But I was thinking of subscribing to LFCTV.

Do they show the games live or is it a few days laters?

Cheers