LIVERPOOL
So I'm going to do a proper Premier League season preview tomorrow but since I'm primarily a Liverpool fan and I didn't do a Liverpool season review because I wanted to talk about them separately, I felt a Liverpool blog post was due. I've already rated individual players' seasons last year and I've already talked about where I feel our squad is at (since then we've signed one of the three players I was after, also signed Wijnaldum and will probably sign a left back before the window closes. So now I just want to talk about my hopes, expectations, my thoughts on the previous season and the Klopp era as a whole.
Okay so starting with the season just gone then. First and foremost, eighth is not representative of where we should have finished that season. It's all very well and good to point it out but anyone who watched our last six or seven league performances should be well aware that the teams sent out simply weren't anywhere near full strength. It leaves a sour taste in the mouth that we spend the last few weeks and months of our season focusing entirely on the Europa League, only to monumentally blow it but that doesn't mean that the league position is any more representative. We should have finished at least sixth and could well have pressed United for fifth.
But that's moot. We didn't do that, we focused on the Europa League and we finished eighth. My point is merely that we're not the eighth best team in the Premier League, we're nowhere near a million miles away from the likes of United and Spurs and our starting position is nowhere near as bad as some people make out, especially considering that we won't have to worry about juggling Europe this season.
But yes, last season was a poor season, however you try to spin it. We got off to a horrific start under Brodge, things seemed to get better under Klopp but then before and around Christmas we hit another really bumpy patch. There are multiple reasons why last season went so wrong. For starters, Brodge was struggling, and when he was sacked and Klopp came in, it took a while for the players to get used to and bedded into exactly what it was Klopp was after. Klopp's gegenpress is not something you can magically adapt to overnight. There were some really impressive early signs, beating City 4-1 and Chelsea 3-1 and the 6-1 decimation of Southampton. But a series of injuries, a lack of fitness and two or three truly dreadful individuals just kept stunting progress and we played some truly dreadful matches.
Watford, Newcastle, Leicester, West Ham, Southampton. These were arguably the five key defeats of the Klopp era. Of those five, Lucas played four of them, Skrtel played the key role in three of them, Sturridge only started once and Coutinho and Henderson only played three of them. Liverpool didn't lose a single game with Can and Henderson in the double pivot, and only twice with Sakho and Lovren starting together.
Of the crucial individuals involved in decimating Liverpool's season: Skrtel has already been sold, Benteke is on his way out, Lucas is still at LFC but will be at most a bit part player and Simon Mignolet...okay so our replacement for Mignolet is injured but at least we tried. The only other problem is still at left back, where one man wrecking ball Alberto Moreno is still ripe for defensive errors. The introductions of Matip and Klavan into our defence, as well as Karius when he's fit, should limit our defensive errors.
That's not to say all is perfect of course. Injuries are still a major problem, with Sakho, Lucas, Gomez and Karius out for the foreseeable future and Milner, Matip, Sturridge and Grujic are all facing niggles that will keep them out the Arsenal game, though they should all be back to play Spurs. And in terms of problems, defensively we still need to worry about our full back areas, where we're one injury away from disaster and we still don't have a Premier League proven established central defensive partnership. Moreover, if something happens to Emre Can we could be seriously lacking in defensive midfield, with Henderson, Grujic and Wijnaldum nowhere near as capable in that role and Lucas both past it and injured.
But nevertheless, there's a real sense of justified optimism at Anfield. With Klopp now having had nearly a year, and a proper pre-season with which to bed in his new system, to mold this squad into his own and bring in additions that he feels will improve the squad, and most of them bringing quality to the table, there's a real feeling that results like outplaying City, Chelsea and United, as we did last season, as well as overturning Dortmund and even the 4-0 demolition job of Barca last week, are not flukes. Klopp has a bigger squad now, quality options in almost every area of the pitch and most importantly, he's got the team playing his style.
So in terms of hopes for the new season: without European football we can really focus on winning a trophy and making the top four. And under Klopp we have a manager capable of making it happen, with a squad capable of making it happen, and the fans are genuinely starting to believe. We're in a better position than Chelsea right now and Klopp has had a head-start on the likes of Pep and Mourinho. We just need a little bit of luck with injuries, and to get up a head of steam and build some consistency and I see no reason why Liverpool shouldn't make top four and win a trophy, especially as Klopp managed to reach two cup finals last season without the team being fully his.
So yeah overall I'm feeling good about this season. And why not? All of the teams ahead of us last season have a significantly bigger workload and you can't expect Saints, West Ham, Leicester and Spurs to all deal with that well. Chelsea, Man City and Man U all have new managers so will be slightly behind us in terms of transition and we have managed to get rid of most of the players who dragged us down at crucial moments last season. But more than anything else, football is about optimism. Because if I sat here and claimed that despite a positive end to last season, an excellent pre-season, having improved the squad and given one of the world's best managers time to build a system we weren't going to finish any higher than last season, then what would be the point of following football at all?
Olympic Watch
- After a pretty dire Tuesday, we got some late luck in the pool, with two excellent silvers, for the men's 4 x 200 freestyle finishing behind the US team featuring Phelps and also a brilliant silver for Siobhan-Marie O'Connor, in the 200m individual medley, setting a British record and losing to an Olympic record in the process, can't really argue with that.
- But Wednesday turned into Wonderful Wednesday, as GB picked up six medals.
- Joe Clarke started the gold rush with a brilliant display in the canoe slalom.
- There were also hard earned bronzes for Chris Froome, who finished last in the time trial and managed to pinch a medal by 4s, Sally Conway in the Judo, who overturned the World Champion on the way to a semi-final loss on golden point but a brilliant bronze match, Steven Scott, who had to beat his own team-mate in the bronze double trap shootout, and Max Whitlock, who had an incredibly nervy wait for his medal in the men's individual all-round gymnastics.
- But the starts of the day were Jack Laugher and Chris Mears, who managed to pull out the dives of their lives to somehow pip both the Americans and the Chinese to 3m diving gold. Phenomenal.
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