I would be looking to tie Salah down to a new contract, sell Mane and let Firmino go for free. Diaz and Jota are doing well and we need to be looking at bringing some young talent in as a replacement. I'm not convinced offering Salah and Mane big new contracts would make financial sense.
With Salah, he's not been in the best form of late but he's finished as top of the scoring and assist tables. He always creates chances whether he's playing well or not so I think it would be mad to let him leave. I think the way we play is very different now we have better midfielders. Looking at the three midfielders who started against Madrid (Wijnaldum, Henderson & Milner), it was all about high energy and winning the ball back to get it to the front three as quickly as possible, now we have better ball players (Thiago/Keira/Fabinho) we can build play more slowly. The style of football has changed a lot but it's still working well.
Gonna be a late night now. Seems odd to travel so far if you haven't got a ticket.
Juist heard that UEFA have lied and blamed the fans for turning up late, totally disgraceful statement.
Lied about what? I saw something on Twitter about fans with fake tickets, or no tickets trying to rush the barriers and the police holding them back with tear gas?
I do hope not, but after Wembley last year I'm not ruling it out. I'm a huge football fan, but if that's true I'm ashamed again.
The Madrid fans all seem to be in OK?
Klopp telling fans to travel without a ticket is frankly disgraceful.
Fans always travel without tickets, every city hosting will have screens, pubs, etc, the fake ticket stuff again is something always trotted out, would doubt it was a massive issue, i'd guess it's the security checks and fannying around, France aren't the best for this type of thing.
they've hosted plenty of massive events in the SdF.
Travelling to soak up the atmosphere and fan zone it is OK. What I'm reading (unconfirmed, I must stress) isn't.
anyway - seems resolved and game on .... COYR
The goal check is taking longer than the delay!
Going as I thought. Rope a dope from Madrid!
As good as Konate is he seems a little reluctant to hoof into row z, when needed.
I’m the only Real supporter and ABL Neutral in a house full of scousers
I’m having a GREAT TIME. I think at least two people may be about to punch me.
I’m going for two for Benzema in the 93rd and 94th minute to win it
Watching it out here in Spain. I’m also the only one supporting Real Madrid.
As an Everton fan living out here in Spain it’s a difficult choice….Barca we’re always my second team.
Casemiro truly is a master of his craft. Shithousery in motion.
oof.....
It's been Real's playbook all season. Gotta take your chances.
It's a pretty dull match.
Yeah, TAA always gets praise, but his defending and knowing where the danger is has always been suspect.
Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold has admitted he feels as though he can see things on the pitch that most others players cannot.
LOL like the player ghosting in behind you ?
At this rate he'll see something that I won't - Real Madrid picking up the trophy, 'cos I'll have turned it off
It's got that feel of Liverpool could play all night without scoring
last final they played it was a goalkeeper that swung it, same again this time. Courtois has been immense
Silence in this bar…..the only noise was my stifling my guffaw…
All over, Liverpool probably wish they hadn't been so quick to book up their open bus tour now 😂
Got to say, CL finals are disappointing affairs, Liverpool just looked poor and like they'd never score, Real just wanted to counter attack and both were happy to just play around the middle.
There’s always the League Cup
Courtois was easily MOM but Liverpool have been well off the pace for a while, we've barely won a game by more than a single goal for months. We were much better off in terms of goal difference in the league earlier in the season but City finished quite a few ahead. Afcon seemed to ruin Salah's form
Re MoM yes Courtois had a couple of worldys and deserved it but their right back was faultless. Diaz didnt get a sniff.
Liverpool just looked poor and like they’d never score
Got to say, as an ex-GK myself this pisses me off. Another day they could have scored four or five. They've just said they had 24 shots, Courtois made nine saves and there were three or four worldies in there. Give some credit where due, that was a masterclass. You make it sound like it's Liverpool's problem they never scored, there was a 6'4" big Belgian reason why they aren't taking Big Cup home tonight.
Three cup finals. No goals. The better teams handle the front three pretty well.
Liverpool looked tired and out of ideas. They seem to end seasons like that, nowadays.
Liverpool just looked out of ideas, they need something to refresh that team, i think a lot of clubs are now figuring out how to play them, and if ManU, Tottenham, Chelsea, etc all strengthen, it'll be a tough season ahead.
Got to say, as an ex-GK myself this pisses me off. Another day they could have scored four or five. They’ve just said they had 24 shots, Courtois made nine saves and there were three or four worldies in there.
I'd have to see those 3 or 4 worldies to agree, he made decent saves, but they were all around him, or at him, even that Salah one in the second half was from a tightish angle.
Courtois was MotM, but i never saw much finger tip saves over the bar or racing out to throw himself at the feet of attackers, it was for a couple of decent saves, yes on another day Liverpool could have scored, but that's like any game, when the chances fell Liverpool either snatched at the shots, or hit it too close to the keeper.
His movement and positioning are all part of his skill, but the fingertip onto the post in the first half, the one scrambling back across goal to block at the foot of the post and the one from Salah immediately stand out. That last one the angle was tight, and Salah should have kept it on the deck but that was a full strike from 6 yards away. Sure it hit his arm as much as him getting an arm to it but making yourself big and taking it as you can is all part of it.
Some of the others you'd be disappointed to let in but those three stand out .
Liverpool never produced anything that Courtois couldn’t deal with easily
I thought they looked absolutely knackered. And that’s perfectly reasonable given the season they’ve had.
easily my arse. You are doing him a huge amount of discredit.
His movement and positioning are all part of his skill, but the fingertip onto the post in the first half, the one scrambling back across goal to block at the foot of the post and the one from Salah immediately stand out. That last one the angle was tight, and Salah should have kept it on the deck but that was a full strike from 6 yards away. Sure it hit his arm as much as him getting an arm to it but making yourself big and taking it as you can is all part of it.
Forgot the first one, didn't see if he'd got fingers to it, so would give him that one.
The Salah one where he was scrambling across, if you see it from the angle, Salah actually hits it back across goal (not at goal) and hits the goalie with it, so can't count that as a save.
The last one, Salah brought that ball down, was pressured by the defender and managed to get that half a yard before hitting that shot, by the time he'd done that the angle was tight and Courtois had it covered, pretty standard save you see many times.
A couple of very good saves but Liverpool didn't work Courtois hard enough IMO, it's a CL final so you won't get any freebies (let's ignore what happened with Karius....)
You're wired to the moon if you think that was a 'standard' save.
And take it from me, if I used my footwork to get in the right position and then the ball hit me I'm absolutely counting that as a save. Best save I ever made hit me half on the shoulder and half on the ear, and went over the bar as the second part of a double save, they all count.
anyway, UEFA statement on the delay reported on the BBC
Uefa has issued a statement on the pre-match problems outside the stadium...
"In the lead-up to the game, the turnstiles at the Liverpool end became blocked by thousands fans who had purchased fake tickets which did not work in the turnstiles.
"This created a build-up of fans trying to get in. As a result, the kick-off was delayed by 35 minutes to allow as many fans as possible with genuine tickets to gain access.
"As numbers outside the stadium continued to build up after kick-off, the police dispersed them with tear gas and forced them away from the stadium.
"Uefa is sympathetic to those affected by these events and will further review these matters urgently together with the French police and authorities, and with the French Football Federation."
From reports and the video it looks like the French police were focused on Liverpool fans, UEFA are jus being UEFA, regurgitating what the French police told them, the French police do tend to be ones that can be heavy handed, Spanish police can be like this at times, but to actively handle both sets of supporters differently, and using kettling and tear gas on one set is not a good thing, and from the reports, lying about the reasoning is even worse.
Nothing will happen though, UEFA have made their minds up, they'll be back to focusing on how to make more money next year, French police couldn't care less about English fans so expect lots of nothing.
Just the small matter of the biggest prize in football left. COYRs!
Play offs are bonkers!!
Yeah, this is the richest game in football today, the winners get over £100 million guaranteed, the losers get to try again next season, it truly is a winner take all game, unlike the CL final, where there's probably £5-10 million between winner and runner-up, sometimes the runner-up makes more than the winner!
I did find out this week that the losers take the whole gate from the Wembley final which isn't a bad gesture, the winners won't miss it.
Hope for Cooper to make the dream come true with him clocking one with 1 point from 7 on the board when he took over. Hudds are very well drilled though, that corner routine they have going is one of those things where you think you've seen everything in football buy new ideas still exist.
Annoying my toddlers bath time is the best part of an hour bang in the middle of the game! :/