18/19 Liverpool
97 points, Champions league winners, beating Porto Bayern and Barcelona on route to number 6.
19/20 Liverpool (No changes to side)
99 points and a PL title.
Arsenal fans are a different breed of brain dead. They couldn’t touch this LFC
🗣️ Rio Ferdinand:
“Eşimle aramızdaki romantizmin bozulmaması için aynı tuvaleti kullanmıyorum.
Gecenin bir yarısı bile olsa başka bir tuvalet arıyorum. Çünkü bazı şeylerin ilişkideki tutkuyu öldürebileceğini düşünüyorum.”
We tend to normalise that Liverpool sold their top striker who then went on to win two Balon d'Ors but the player who replaced him became Liverpool's greatest ever player.
If you really stop to think about that, it's crazy. Like what are the odds. It's mad.
Andoni Iraola inherits a £1B squad
Enzo maresca inherits a £1B squad
Xabi Alonso inherits a £1B squad
Micheal Carrick inherits a £1B squad
Mikel Arteta built it from scratch and non of these blank cheque managers will beat him to the trophy next season 🥱
What’s everyone’s genuine and fair expectations for Iraola next season? Like what would you consider a good first year and what would be considered an absolute failure for you?
I just love when managers walk their way to the top, there's a sense of achievement and deservedness.
After his playing career at Bilbao, and retiring in the US, Iraola took a bold step to go to AEK Larnaca in Cyprus to coach, he proved himself immediately by winning the cup.
He came back home in Spain to Mirandes, they were in the Segunda division and he dragged them to the semi finals of Copa Del Rey, while beating few La Liga teams on the way.
He moved to Rayo Vallecano, also in the Segunda and promoted them to La Liga. The crazy thing about him is that he has a known style of play and very adaptable too.
Rayo got to the final of the Conference league this season, its not a fluke because guess who their coach is? Yes, Iñigo Pérez, who was Iraola's assistant.
Bill Foley, Bournemouth's owner and the Bournemouth hierarchy like Richard Hughes wanted to play in a particular way, they had been monitoring Iraola for a long time, eventually, they found out that he was available, they grabbed him so quick, sacking Gary O'Neil who had just saved them from relegating.
Iraola took Bournemouth to Europe for the first time in their history, while losing top players like Semenyo, Huijsen, Zabarnyi, Solanke, and many more, on the way.
Liverpool players should be ready because he is a very demanding coach. Semenyo once said that immediately Iraola arrived at Bournemouth, they were training Monday to Sunday, something he'd never experienced before.
The mastermind behind this move is Richard Hughes, he was the Technical Director at Bournemouth, he sacked Gary O'Neil for Iraola. He is now the Sporting Director at Liverpool, he has just sacked Slot for Iraola again😅. He knows the Iraola train passes only once.
Congratulations to Andoni, I'm one of his biggest fans, and I think he suits Liverpool. Liverpool fans are going to see some serious high and aggressive hybrid pressing, they're also going to see some vertical and direct football which they're quite used to under Klopp and Slot's first season.
When they win the ball back, Iraola hates backward passes, he wants the ball played forward asap, in summary, quick transitions. I'm excited, are you?
🚨💣 BREAKING: Liverpool reach agreement in principle to appoint Andoni Iraola as new manager, here we go! 🔴🫱🏻🫲🏼
Exclusive story from Saturday, 100% confirmed: Arne Slot left and Iraola will lead #LFC project, as expected.
Talks advanced over last 48h and deal in place.
🚨 Chelsea hold a strong interest in Liverpool midfielder Florian Wirtz at the request of Xabi Alonso.
Wirtz flourished into a world class operator at Bayer Leverkusen under the management of Alonso.
Liverpool would be open to doing business at the right price given his form last season.
(Source: Football Insider)
[🟢] A number of dressing room sources have detailed how the mood deteriorated and belief ebbed away over the course of the season.
“Out of the other senior figures, you had Salah coming to terms with no longer being indispensable, Robertson not playing regularly for the first time and Alisson missing a lot of games” says one dressing-room source. “It’s not easy to keep setting standards when you’re not out there performing at the top level every week.”
On top of that, Konate’s contract was running down, Szoboszlai wasn’t happy about having to fill in at right-back at times, and Jones was frustrated that he didn’t get the extended run of games in midfield that he craved. Mac Allister felt that he had been unfairly singled out for criticism.
Players were angered by a social media narrative that they had too much time off and didn’t train enough when the schedule was almost identical to a year earlier when they won the title. They felt the crux of the matter wasn’t a lack of fitness but a succession of injuries which left Slot picking from such a shallow pool of senior pros.
“You had all these tricky individual situations with the collective issues on top,” says another dressing-room source. “There was so much negativity, so much adversity and it’s been too much for a lot of players. How many times did we get back into games and then throw it away? It’s been blow after blow.”
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