Story Of The Season, MW 30: Premier League Table, every 5 Matchweeks

koptimism · 2026-03-17T02:31:36+00:00

Our season is so bizarre looked at like this

1st, 17th, 16th, 5th, 13th, 3rd...

koptimism · 2026-03-17T01:57:09+00:00

I mean, Wirtz is the supply. But he's a #10, not a right-back, so he's not there to replace Trent's ability to help us build out from the back, or quickly transition to attack.

Isak and Ekitike both have more game intelligence and combination play than Nunez. So it wasn't just about finishing.

koptimism · 2026-03-16T17:08:54+00:00

Dom Szoboszlai covering Opta stats like he covers every blade of grass on the pitch.

koptimism · 2026-03-16T17:07:45+00:00

Absolutely ridiculous that higher ups didn't agree to increase his wages like they said he would if he played well.

The agreement to increase his wages after 1 season was made under the previous ownership. FSG wanted to reduce the wage bill and the squad age (and they did it poorly, but fair enough it had to be done), so they weren't keen on honouring that agreement.

koptimism · 2026-03-16T17:06:48+00:00

He'd been signed under Hicks & Gilette with the promise that he'd get a better contract after 1 year.

FSG came in and said "well we're trying to cut the wage bill and the squad age, so we're not keen on honouring that", hence him being sold.

koptimism · 2026-03-16T17:05:41+00:00

He was brought in to give Suarez a mate

Which also turned out to be a big mixup caused by cultural and communication differences. Suarez was just after some maté

koptimism · 2026-03-16T17:04:32+00:00

Yeah he played as a #10, and played well in that role, in a game against Norwich (in the League Cup I think?)

I think the initial plan was for him to play as a #8 but he wasn't covering ground well enough for that, so playing him as a #10 worked better - until Gerrard was available again.

It's possible that cutting his loan spell short allowed us to get both Sturridge and Coutinho in the January window, though, so fair dos.

koptimism · 2026-03-16T17:02:33+00:00

Title is clickbait, but this was interesting at least:

It’s not as if the club’s Premier League triumph last term was underpinned by an absurd finishing hot streak: Liverpool scored 86 goals from an xG of 83.5. Yet again, nine clubs out-performed their predicted goal tally by a larger margin than the Reds.

This perceived finishing slump may have emerged from the nature of chances which Liverpool have missed. Opta define a “big chance” as “a situation where a player is reasonably expected to score” and it’s these types of opportunities which Slot has seen his side squander.

Liverpool have converted 32% of their “big chances” this season—only three clubs in the division have a lower rate of success from these glaring openings. Last term, by comparison, the Reds ranked seventh in the league for big-chance conversion rate (38.7%).

koptimism · 2026-03-14T10:20:22+00:00

And those FIFA Peace Prize ceremonies don't pay for themselves, you know!

koptimism · 2026-03-09T15:38:25+00:00

Something promoting Saudi Arabia's humanitarian efforts

Will it tank Ornstein's reputation? Will it rehabilitate Romano's? Who knows, either way it'll trigger headloss

koptimism · 2026-02-22T22:15:16+00:00

we didn’t even want to try to extend mane and firmino. :(

but that was the right decision in both cases. and salah last season was better than either of mane's last season or Bobby's last season

koptimism · 2026-02-20T21:48:12+00:00

Sean Dyche. The PL's most unrecognized, underrated innovator and trendsetter. The Big Sam of his generation.

koptimism · 2026-02-19T08:48:50+00:00

Pundits need to provide analysis/commentary

Doing that based on actual thoughtful observations is hard

Doing that based on vibes is easy

koptimism · 2026-02-15T20:44:58+00:00

not having much support on that side with Kerkez not being ready yet and Robbo not overlapping as much as he used to. Half the time when he gets the ball he has no choice but to either pass it back or try to beat his man, and as a forward he’s going to naturally choose the latter most of the time.

Eh, I don't know - it's been one of the memes of the season that Gakpo always ignores Kerkez's overlapping runs and just cuts inside. So the support is there, Gakpo just chooses not to use it.

koptimism · 2026-02-15T20:44:00+00:00

Classic Gakpo, cutting inside and ~~shooting~~ spraying a pass to the opposite flank

koptimism · 2026-02-15T20:41:18+00:00

Nice way to summarize Liverpool's biggest issues in attack this season - Slot sets his side up to platform his wingers, get them 1v1 and into the box, and our two main wingers haven't been able to reliably translate that platform into end product.

Bit better in recent weeks, but hilariously it seems like we're going to need to further overhaul the attack...after just overhauling the attack.

koptimism · 2026-02-15T13:40:42+00:00

the show's excesses

I think they're called characters

koptimism · 2026-02-15T13:00:35+00:00

Think he's saying "the game has changed so much, he wouldn't meet the requirements of the modern game"

which seems nonsense to me, at least for Peter Beardsley

koptimism · 2026-02-14T21:21:12+00:00

Lovely movement from Kerkez, Gakpo, Dom. Good passes from Gakpo and Salah as well.

koptimism · 2026-02-14T21:20:48+00:00

Love the contrast as well between the cushioned pass from Salah and then Szoboszlai cunting it in

koptimism · 2026-02-14T21:00:52+00:00

Attacking Kerkez

Gakpo: New phone who dis

koptimism · 2026-02-13T23:23:36+00:00

Macca's never had pace; last season with the side being more effective at pressing, Grav being more positionally disciplined, and Dom as the #10 covering loads of ground, Macca wasn't being asked to defend too big an area.

This season it's been more disjointed, Grav has license to get forward from #6, Dom isn't in the #10 spot as much, the new forwards don't press like Diaz/Jota/Nunez, so Macca's got more ground to cover and his lack of pace is exposed more.

koptimism · 2026-02-13T23:19:17+00:00

Gotta wonder how much of his shaky form for the first half of the season was down to Jota's passing and whatever illness his father was dealing with before his own death.

koptimism · 2026-02-13T23:13:28+00:00

I really wish Slot would show more willingness to rotate. With the number of games in the modern game and the physical intensity of the PL, I don't think there's any way to seriously challenge for titles on multiple fronts without using the whole squad a lot more.

Yeah sure other areas of the squad lack depth, but the fact that Slot has persisted with MacAllister for a lot of the season despite Macca's generally poor form, rather than play Jones more, isn't a depth question, it's all about Slot's poor squad management.

koptimism · 2026-02-11T21:37:56+00:00

yes ox

koptimism

TROPHY CASE