This Weekend's Fixtures & Midweek Fixtures (27/28 Feb & 01/02/03/04 Mar).

[Letters]

Disallowed goal for Fulham earlier, sounds like a shit decision.

Had a look this morning.
Another one of those where the ball is blasted at a player who was side on.
The ball hit his arm because...well, that’s where arms are.
And these days that is “hand ball”.
One of those that by the letter of the law was right but it’s a bullshit rule.

[IBK]

We've not been great since we came back from the first lockdown really, at first you could put it down to the league already being won and us taking our foot of it. I wouldn't even put it all down to Van Dijk's injury, we won something like 7 on the bounce after it and did get dicked 7-2 by Villa with him in the team so it wasn't all rosey anyway. Problem is we lost every centre back we had in quick succession, then lost the centre mids who were filling in at centre back. It's not even the number of injuries (even though it has been a lot) it's that they've all been in the same position and to the leaders of the team. We've had something like 20 centre back partnerships and no two CBs have played more than 2 full games together.

That completely threw us off, and the players who are supposed to provide us with something a bit different, more direct etc like Keita (just put him down) and Oxlade (he's been here 4 fucking years and in that time done about 4 brilliant things) are always fucking injured as well. The front 3 decided to become absolute shite all at the same time, though Salah has bagged a load he's also looked off, Mane's in a slump and Firmino is done. Jota was winning us games and then he drops dead for 3 months as well, so we were relying on Origi, who will always be a cult hero but by Christ he's terrible.
We probably are affected by the lack of fans but that's a shite excuse. But I guess add that in with life being shit generally, they all just seem worn out and all look like they want the season to just be done with. Especially when you throw in the recent personal losses, they can say what they like but football must surely be unimportant all things considered.

I don't think it's irreversible, but we do need a refresh, and we did do last summer. And probably the summer before, as odd as it sounds. It is a tad concerning that this has happened to Klopp before, not to belittle what he's done in the last few years, but it just doesn't seem like he knows how to fix it because our tactic is still cross, cross, cross and when that doesn't work... cross. And less said about his subs the better.

My take on this is that you won the league playing a relatively small squad, but very high intensity football. This season has been so congested that it's turning into a test of stamina and your players look burnt out. I've heard that Guardiola's style - possession football that simply knackers out the opposition is on its way back - and Arsenal, with a big squad and a Pep graduate as manager, may ultimately be the beneficiaries of this. If this is right, then Klopp's style may be on its way out?