KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Round Table - Next Season Confidence ?

I know it depends on rivals and our spending. However lets assume our rivals do strengthen (thats a certainty) and we do bring in one or two new players (Klopp I dont believe will allow owners to rest on laurels)

I am naturally pessimistic as a person so trying to ride over that. I certainly think next year we are the team to overtake although City might do that in the league which is always harder to win second time out.

So my position is we will do well but my natural pessimism is tapping hard on my shoulder

Still early to say, we dont even know who will be in the squad. We have a very good and well balanced team, especially if Keita shows his worth, but we will struggle big time if any one of VVD, Mane, Salah and Firmino gets injured. Look what happened to City with Laporte out long term.

Vish I am not asking for you to predict the future. Just how are you feeling confident or concerned ?

I need to see more to have a feeling, I am not confident yet but must say concerned with the statements that we have no money to spend.

We're still the most balanced team by a mile. City have the attack, but I feel we can improve that next season, hopefully with another option up top signed.

It'll be between us and City. The rest aren't going to bridge 30 points unless we suffer horrendous luck with injuries.

City had a strange season. They seem to win 5-0 often, then get beat. Silva's gone, Aguero's injuries have slowed him down, so it's all down to how they improve their defence and whether it gels.

It'll be much closer but I think we'll sneak it.

Another CL would be nice too, start building an era of real dominance with this team while we still have them and Klopp.

I can't see us signing anyone. I predict FSG will use this summer to make money and reduce the wage bill.

Out
Karius 8million
Grujic 18million
Harry Wilson 20million
Lovren 11million gone
Lallana Free gone
Origi 20million

That is 77million and they will claim we cannot afford anyone.

I suspect if we get 200million for either Mane or Salah one of those will go as well.

Am I positive for next season?
Based on our performance s since lockdown, the answer is no.

I think Man UTD (hate to say it) will be right back in the mix. Their front three is a threat and with BF looking like a player that has galvanised the whole club, I think they have morphed into an entirely different proposition. OGS is not top quality but he's been in winning squads and he seems to be learning how to get the job done.

I'm glad we won the league this year but I feel the attitude / financial capability of the owners is likely to make it a one time only event, before Chelsea, Man UTD and Man City become the dominant forces from here on. What really worries me is that the team relies on high energy and the midfield and attack are getting past their peak yrs, in terms of pace and fitness. We don't just need 'the odd signing'. We need to look at a rebuild, soon. We relied on Mane this season. He was key for us. If we remove him, much of the yr's performance was less impressive than that of last year.

City's defence has been the problem and if they reinforce well, they will have sorted this weakness. Silva is apparently going to be replaced by Torres

I am confident we will be favourites next season and the one to beat, we are a well balanced team, City will be our main competitor.

If we get some injuries to our key players - VvD/Alisson/Mane/Salah/Firmino/TAA/Rovertson etc, we may drop off, as we saw with the CL, we are pretty much out because Oblak gave a great GK display and Adrian made a few mistakes as Alisson was injured.

Our rivals appear to be making more signings than us, but I think it will take time for them to integrate, like Chelsea, they have some excellent players upfront, but they cannot all play, defensively, GK, MF they are still weak and not well balanced IMO, so they will hammer some teams, then drop stupid points, as we have seen this season.

I am confident we will land one or both of the big trophies. This season we are out as ecnirp says because of goalkeepers. Last season we missed it by the 2mm the ball crossed the line by for City at Burnley or the 1.2mm it didn't cross the line for us at the emptyhad.

We have enough to go again. In general we have been lucky with injuries and crucially this season in the CL unlucky.

Look at the players who have left or who have been left out by Klopp. Most have had long injury issues or struggled to stay fit all season. Clyne, Sturridge, Lovren, Lallana, Moreno, Shaqiri. Others that heal quickly or have suffered freak injuries have been welcomed back like Ox and Gomez.

The training regime means the players are supremely fit and ready. Some have possibly not met the grade needed to play in the team. No point in having loads of decent players on the treatment table. Klopp doesn't want them in his squad. Obviously some players train better than others but in a team where there are so many real workers if a player is not at it in training he is going to stick out like a sore thumb.

I don't understand how people say our performances dropped off. It happened to every team. Nobody really stood out except United and if you give them enough penalties they will win games. City seemed to either win by 4 or 5 goals or lose games like they did all season. Nine defeats this season will have to be massively improved to catch our form of the last 2 seasons.

We will win the league again on our own performances. Everybody strengthening is good. They will all take points off each other. None of them at the moment look capable of taking 4 points or more off us. We have 58/59 unbeaten games at home and it will take a special effort to stop that sequence.

We had this league won officially with 7 games to go. Unofficially it was all over by Christmas when we beat Leicester. We could have stopped playing games then and Everton for example still would not catch us.