We're On Our Way To Wembley

     So, we are on our way to Wembley, a poor performance from the Reds, who as always, did it the hard way, with a penalty shoot out win.  For me the most memorable things from the semi were Lucas appearing to want to fight the whole Stoke support and the post match interview from Jurgen Klopp, how can you not smile when your manager told you it doesn't matter who we play in the final we will in the cup.

     I'm delighted to have made a final, we have our big day out and for me it shows that we are developing under Klopp.  I know it's "only" the league cup and we would probably swap it for a top four place but it's a cup final a huge chance of silverware and its Liverpool back at Wembley, where we belong, challenging for trophies.  We have made it to a final amidst the worst injury crisis this club has seen for years, without our star player for almost the whole season and with according to most commentators no creativity, nobody to take a chance, the worst defence in the country, the worst keeper, the worst record from set plays both defending and attacking and having changed managers half way through the campaign it would appear that our manager can work miracles, especially when you consider we have had to play far to many games in a short period and we are still in both the FA Cup and the UEFA league more chances of glory.

     Success in the League Cup is often seen as a stepping stone with supporters believing it will lead to further success in bigger trophies, " it shows the team are heading in the correct direction".  In the case of Liverpool this season I'm not sure we had far to many problems with the team but what it does who is the manager is working along the correct lines h can do it, he can do it with the players he has available at the moment, imagine what he could could achieve without the injuries, imagine hat he can achieve when he has had time to work with the players, imagine what he can achieve when they understand fully understand his philosophy , imagine what he can achieve when they have completed a full pre season and are a fit as he needs, imagine what he can achieve when he a brought in his own players, when we have a goalkeeper who can catch and a striker who can score, just imagine.  I liked Klopp from the moment he walks through the door but I had been hoping he would take us forward that he could take us to finals but he has now proved it to me, to all the support, to the players and to the owners there is now no reason why he can't be given everything he needs and when he is watch us go.

@lumolfc

Problems At The Back

      It's getting beyond the point of worry or concern now for years we have had weaknesses at the back but over the last year or so things have appear to be getting progressively worse until we are now at the point that it seems every shot on target is a goal, a corner for our opponents is as good as a penalty, every attack causes fear to spread around the support and players and our individual international level defenders all appear to have never played the game before with horrendous individual errors a weekly occurrence with communication and organisation a thing of the past.

     I am not claiming to be a coach and certainly not to have all the answers but I along with most other supporters have seen some issues that need addressing sooner rather than later.  Firstly and for me the biggest issue is our goalkeepers, Mignolet and Bogdan are not good enough, Mignolet our regular starter appears now to have reached the stage of Reina before him where every shot on target is a goal, a huge problem when his only attribute was that he was a good shot stopper.  His distribution is still appalling, organisation non existent, command of the area equally poor and his confidence appears to be totally shot and I believe all of this has caused problems with his defenders in front of him, people have no confidence and the panic is spreading.  Bogdan is worse so we don't have the solution of giving him again he has similar problems but actually seems to add to the problems causing problems that aren't there almost throwing the ball in his own goal.

     What's the solution, for me a new goalkeeper and long term we need to look at our keeper coaching, Mignolet is not the first keeper we have broken, when you are this far down there is no way back.   I am aware that we have recently given Mignolet his new contract and I simply don't understand why, I am hoping we will be bringing in a new number one and he will be our reserve cover although I would like to see the promising Ward given a chance as well.

     Our defenders are not without blame all of them seem to have a mistake in them.  Skrtel in my opinion flatters to deceive he is one of those players who is often not directly to blame but is always at the edge of the crime, Toure has been quality in his day but is finished his legs have gone and is prone to a bit of panic despite his constant calm down gestures, Lovren before his injury was in the process of proving me wrong for a whil he looked like a joke player but under Klopp has been far better, in the wait and see basket for me, Sakho also is proving me wrong I thought he was quality but recently has been coming down to the level of the rest of our defenders and doesn't seem to be strong enough in the air needs to do far better mor often.  Moreno is an idiot just seems to be to thick to learn, a superb athlete with very little brain and Clyne has been a disappointment started off well it's consistently good defending but has got worse each week to the point that he is now targeted by many teams as the week link and thats amongst those listed above.  What's the solution? Again for me it's personnel changes but I think we can improve from coaching we have no communication , nobody taking the lead nobody organising and when mistakes are made somebody should be handing out a bollocking, we need to get nasty, we need to get physical and we need to get in the front foot and individuals need to do their jobs if your marking somebody then mark him and make sure he doesn't get his head in the ball, oh and just as an aside get somebody on the posts from corners I have been told all my life that this is what you do but for some reason we have stopped and we have conceded goals because of this

    Overall we need players who can do the job to the required level and that's going to mean replacing one or two or more of our back line but we also have to get organised and get nasty it's has been to long since we have looked comfortable at the back to challenge at the top we have to be strong at the back. 

    

What a Game !

      I don't normally do match reports but what a game we watched at Norwich and it could just be the turning point we have been looking for.

     Liverpool were not good, we were bloody terrible, all over the pitch both as a team and individually we were terrible with the exception of Firmino and Lallana and up to the very last minute of the game I was fuming with them all.  For the whole first half it looked like we didn't give a shit, for the whole match we couldn't defend, childish errors all over the field, every Norwich attack caused panic, every shot was a goal every corner was like a penalty, by half time I was predicting a humiliating defeat, possibly as big as Stoke last season and when Moreno gave away the most idiotic penalty I have seen for years, I mean what was he thinking, not once but twice absolutely bloody stupid, that was it I was of the opinion we should just get rid of them all and start again.

      But then we showed that we have something we have a bit of fight, following the third Norwich goal going in Toure grabbed the ball from the back of the net and ran to the half way, he was saying come on we can sort this, we can get this back and we bloody well did, within seconds Henderson has got us back in it and now there was two players Henderson and Firmino grabbing the ball and rushing it back to half way and minutes later following Firmino's equaliser most of the team were there determined to get on with the game, we can win this now.  We must remember that we were not good we got back into the game because Norwich were shit even worse than us, they sat back and can't defend a huge tactical error if they had continued to attack they would have continued to score proven by them grabbing a late late equaliser following Milner capitalising on the worst error of the game to give Liverpool an unlikely lead.  Surely it was all over 4-4 three minutes in to injury time, no, remember we are fighters now And Lallane grabbed a fifth and winning goal and wild scenes of celebrations led by the manager.

     We were rubbish but what a quality game and a quality three points and there is every possibility that that terrible performance could start us on the road.  Klopp, who is the man for the job,who will bring success has been putting messages in all our heads players and supporters, don't leave early, a game last until the final whistle, anything can happen and if that wasn't heavy metal football.  The messages are getting across late equalisers against West Brom and Arsenal and that against Norwich, confidence must be increasing maybe in the years to come we will look back at this game as the one where it all started again for Liverpool.

Sturridge A Problem Or The Solution

     When Sturridge missed yet another game with a foot injury, I, like almost wverybody else, was incredibly frustrated, I remember some of the goals he scored whilst alongside Suarez, I knew he was good but to be honest I had forgotten how good he was and I think after reading my Twitter timeline so had many others.  Enough is enough, we need to get rid, get what cash we can for him and farm him out, he is no longer worth the wages, we must get rid, he has become a liability were all comments posted by Liverpool fans and you can certainly see why people were this frustrated injury after injury, constant stories that Sturridge has broken down again, returns to the team only to break down again after only a couple of starts and then this time injured before he even got back on he pitch, it did start to feel like we were paying him for nothing.  Then Klopp worked his magic and Sturridge was encouraged back on to the pitch and within a half had two goals and had inspired Liverpool to a 6-1 win away to Southampton and we all remembered why we love him.

      For most of this season we have been lacking in goals, with only Benteke and Coutinho looking to me like they could get a goal, certainly on a regular basis, far to many draws were the outcome of not having a player  who can tuck the ball away on a regular basis.  It took 45 minutes for us to realise what we were missing not only a goalscorer but a player who can create space, who makes intelligent runs, who lifts the rest of the team who can do the simplest yet most difficult task and put the ball in the net, a player who can turn those draws into wins and who could just possibly turn our dreams into reality.

     Nobody single player is more important than any other, but a striker is responsible for scoring goals and if you as a team don't score you don't win its that simple.  I can't think of any championship winning team woo it a top quality striker, without somebody who can turn those draws into wins, who can break the deadlock when it seems the goal is never going to come.  We have strikers and I am reasonably hopeful that Benteke will turn out to be a good signing for us, Ings had looked like he was finding form just before a season ending injury and Origi despite his three goals recently still has a long way to go despite looking like he may have the potential to achieve but not one of them can compete with Sturridge for goal scoring, match wining ability.

     So yes that statement is always there, "if we can keep him fit" Sturridge is the key man to us challenging for and yes we can dream, winning the title. Not a problem, not a waste of money, we should pay anything for a chance, just a chance that our dreams may come true.  So it turns out that Sturridge may be the solution to our problems the solution we have been waiting for.

@lfclumo

We are coming !

Jurgen Klopp has turned us into something special already and we have so much more to come 3-1 away at Chelsea, 4-1 away at Manchester City and now 6-1 away at Southampton, results that have made everybody sit up and take notice, we are in the semi finals of the league cup, have qualified from the group stages in the UEFA league and are only six points of the top of the league and have played everybody, all the top teams away from home, they all need to come to us.  We are coming and they all know it.  

We have achieved this following having a bad enough start to force the sacking of a manager, Klopp has arrived and made an immediate impact but there is so much more to come from him he has only been working with the players for a few weeks as time passes his messages and tactics will develop the team will get better able to respond to difficult situations.  His management style seems to be bringing the best out of the players, he is certainly instilling confidence in them and they want to play for him they want to achieve, just look at the big soft smiles he can get just from giving one of his famous hugs.  Every player seems to have improved since Klopp took over imagine how much he can achieve and where we could be in three months time.  

We still have huge injury issues our squad and team can only get better as players return Sakho, Gomes, Ings all out at the moment with Henderson, Sturridge and Coutinho all just returning now, our squad can only get better.  At the start of the season Henderson, Sturridge and Coutinho were our three most important players, Sakho our best defender, Gomes looks like our best young signing for years and Ings was breaking into the first eleven when his injury cut him down, any other team would have really suffered with there three best players missing, we have gone through this and are still challenging on all fronts, seriously challenging.

Klopp asked the supporters to believe, he has said he felt alone when supporters left early, he has told Sturridge to learn to tell the difference between pain and real pain, he is sorting out the issues at the club we do believe or are starting to we are not so anxious in the ground heads don't go down when the team falls behind and we can see it in the players we are coming from behind and can hold on to leads, supporters are staying in the ground we all want to create an atmosphere to please the manager and within four days of Klopps comment Sturridge was back on the pitch playing and scoring when he had been mostly injured for a year and a half.  The manager gets his own way and his way is working.

When Liverpool beat Chelsea we were told Chelsea were out of form, struggling, players like Costa, Hazzard, Fabregas and Terry were playing badly, it wasn't Liverpool doing well it was Chelsea doing badly.  When we destroyed Man City again City had had an off day, Silva was injured and Aguero was only just returning and unfit so again no credit to Liverpool despite several of our first team players not playing due to injury, then we mullered Southampton a full strength Southampton whilst reintroducing injured players,meeting star players and blooding youngsters and did it at their ground after falling behind after only 41 seconds 

They know we are coming and we are most defiantly a threat, we are on the verge of another serious title challenge and will challenge in the cups, nobody wants to play Liverpool and I don't think anybody is ready for Klopp.  We have to show we can get the big results at home and learn how to break teams down when they come for a draw but would you bet against Klopp sorting this, I wouldn't, he will sort it and we are coming so get ready for exciting times, Liverpool only ever know one way it will be a roller coaster, it will be exciting and it could just end in glory.

@lfclumo