As a club, did we underachieve or overachieve last season?

[Case]

I'm not interested, in this thread, of talking about individuals and their failings. There is plenty of chat elsewhere where Mignolet, Moreno, Benteke, Lallana and even Klopp have fallen short. I also don't want the debate to get bogged down in a discussion on terminal summer signing failures. Or otherwise.

 

I want to consider as a whole, whether the club, the squad, the managers we had between the start of the season last August and today have underachieved or not given some context:-

 

The sacking of a manager and the hiring of another one.

No signings in January.

Crippling injuries, not just to Ings and Gomez, but other mid-long term absentees (Henderson, Sturridge, others)

Having to balance going deep in three out of four competitions.

 

My head says finishing eighth in the League is poor. Then my heart kicks in and tries to assess how this group of players got to two cup finals.

 

On balance, I think we overachieved under Klopp given the tools he's had to work with. But.... given that we have finished eighth and are not in Europe next season, I have some concern whether losing two cup finals has holed the confidence of some players below the waterline. The manager himself is confident in many of these players, but did 45 minutes in Switzerland shake his belief at all in some of the group?

 

Already, I can't wait tell next season. I'm not ever one who takes the title or top four for granted, even with no European games to distract us. But we get to start again, and I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of others as to whether this is from a position of relative weakness or strength. Did we underachieve or overachieve?

 

Whichever - next season is new and starts today. f*** the FA Cup Final. I literally could not give a s***e.

 

Come on, you mighty, mighty reds.

[Sion]

We finished below Southampton and West Ham. How can that be anything under than a massive underachievement?

s*** season

[Benzo-13]

Squad lacks. We've just got some good players.

The buying during the off season we lost Suarez and the following one have left gaps.

Plus having a keeper of note would help.

 

Our midfield is s***e.

[RafaShanks]

We finished below Southampton and West Ham. How can that be anything under than a massive underachievement?

s*** season

 

This all day long. Below the Manc c**ts too who ended up with 1 more trophy than us. We had 2 attempts at a trophy and bottled it both times when it really mattered.

 

Terrrible season to forget despite a few great moments like Dortmund, Norwich etc.

 

We needed some reinforcements in January. Just a keeper and a left back and we would have probably finished top 4 and won a trophy.

[Cunny]

League: massive under achievement, bloody huge.

Cups: fine

[Guy_Incognito]

League: massive under achievement, bloody huge.

Cups: fine

Don't think they operate in a vacuum, though.

 

Can never prove it, obviously, but I don't think we'd have finished 8th if we weren't still in the UEFA

[Chewie]

Maybe this team, these changes, those injuries mean we are on par with this team, these changes and those injuries.. 

 

but as a club, as Liverpool Football Club, winner of 18 league titles, 5 European Cups and on the list goes...

 

As a club, we have underachieved and by some considerable margin. 

[Cunny]

Don't think they operate in a vacuum, though.

Can never prove it, obviously, but I don't think we'd have finished 8th if we weren't still in the UEFA

Yeah, that's a decent point.

7 points dropped whilst leading 2-0 does not help.

[Falconhoof]

FSG have underachieved.

[RafaShanks]

FSG have underachieved.

 

Yep. all down to FSG. They may not have been involved in selection process of player recruitment, but this is all their set up.

 

That stat of where we were ranked before they took over (5th I think) compared to 50+ says it all really.

 

Goes back to their options. Rogders or Martinez. 2 of the biggest spoofers in the game. f*** me. What were they thinking or who the f*** was advising them??? Even worse was keeping Rodgers beyond the season before and sacking everyone else? The season was a write off as soon as they let him carry on.

 

Hopefully from now on they'll back Klopp and let him do his thing with no interference.

Edited May 22, 2016 by RafaShanks

[Bogman]

Yep. all down to FSG. They may not have been involved in selection process of player recruitment, but this is all their set up.

 

That stat of where we were ranked before they took over (5th I think) compared to 50+ says it all really.

 

Goes back to their options. Rogders or Martinez. 2 of the biggest spoofers in the game. f*** me. What were they thinking or who the f*** was advising them??? Even worse was keeping Rodgers beyond the season before and sacking everyone else? The season was a write off as soon as they let him carry on.

 

Hopefully from now on they'll back Klopp and let him do his thing with no interference.

 

That all day long.

 

Some inept decisions made over the years.

[growler]

s*** season, optimistic for future.

[McBain]

We were mostly s***

[Dan]

s*** season, optimistic for future.

Yep.

[Swipe]

s*** season, optimistic for future.

Aye. Still a little bit of daydreaming about what could have been if Klopp came last summer and was given money straight away but defo positive.

[Beardsley]

Massive underachievement, but I blame Rogers for a lot of it by him getting rid of every player who had some balls. We could have had good use of some of them in the final.

 

Optimistic for the future though. Klopp looks to be the best signing we've done in years, and it looks to be a perfect match for us.

Edited May 22, 2016 by Beardsley

[RafaShanks]

Massive underachievement, but I blame Rogers for a lot of it by him getting rid of every player who had some balls. We could have had good use of some of them in the final.

 

Optimistic for the future though. Klopp looks to be the best signing we've done in years, and it looks to be a perfect match for us.

 

Goes back to FSG. Dreadful decision after dreadful decision left us in a hell of a mess going into this season squad wise.

 

Rodgers should have been sacked after that Stoke game. That game was a f***ing disgrace, especially on top of the league finish and that Villa semi.

 

To allow him to continue from that was just ridiculous really and to allow him to sign more players. Imagine the impact on our squad/other club staff of Rodgers hanging his staff out to dry in order to keep his job. Season f***ing review my a***. Amateur hour.

 

Had transfer committee buying players like Firmino and then Rodgers buying Benteke. Then more fall out and stand offs between both surrounding players like Markovic and Sakho, who never got a look in. Then Sakho gets a new contract.

 

Absolute f***ing farce. Rant over.

[Beardsley]

Goes back to FSG. Dreadful decision after dreadful decision left us in a hell of a mess going into this season squad wise.

 

Rodgers should have been sacked after that Stoke game. That game was a f***ing disgrace, especially on top of the league finish and that Villa semi.

 

To allow him to continue from that was just ridiculous really and to allow him to sign more players. Imagine the impact on our squad/other club staff of Rodgers hanging his staff out to dry in order to keep his job. Season f***ing review my a***. Amateur hour.

 

Had transfer committee buying players like Firmino and then Rodgers buying Benteke. Then more fall out and stand offs between both surrounding players like Markovic and Sakho, who never got a look in. Then Sakho gets a new contract.

 

Absolute f***ing farce. Rant over.

 

Can't disagree with any of that.

[Stevie]

Goes back to FSG. Dreadful decision after dreadful decision left us in a hell of a mess going into this season squad wise.

 

Rodgers should have been sacked after that Stoke game. That game was a f***ing disgrace, especially on top of the league finish and that Villa semi.

 

To allow him to continue from that was just ridiculous really and to allow him to sign more players. Imagine the impact on our squad/other club staff of Rodgers hanging his staff out to dry in order to keep his job. Season f***ing review my a***. Amateur hour.

 

Had transfer committee buying players like Firmino and then Rodgers buying Benteke. Then more fall out and stand offs between both surrounding players like Markovic and Sakho, who never got a look in. Then Sakho gets a new contract.

 

Absolute f***ing farce. Rant over.

I would like to think they were already in contact with Klopp back then, but Klopp just needed time out from the game.  Maybe FSG were trying to juggle keeping Rogers reasonably happy and knowing he wouldn't be around for that much longer and ended up just making a bit of a mess of it all.  Hopefully we can now get back on track regardless of what went on.

[jimbolala]

Now that the excitement of the final is over, it's clear this season was poor. Top 4 was a mess which we should have capitalised on, yet, we managed to do the opposite and finished behind some truly terrible teams.

There still seems a huge mental weakness throughout the squad and our star players have a tendency to run hot and cold e.g Coutinho won most of our awards, yet on to many occasions he disappeared, the other star, Sturridge can bang them in for fun but disappears as well.

Central midfield is as poor as any that's ever been at the club and has been for a few years, it seems far too easy to by pass them. Klopp has his work cut out for him indeed

[Molby]

c*** of a season

Overseen by FSG, the slack b*****ds

 

But getting to two finals was a good piece of stitching together by the manager

 

The writing was on the wall when Rodgers wasn't sacked after Stoke and reinforced when Benteke became our priority signing; this simply reinforced the staggering incompetence running through our club and delivered the expected result

 

Very hopeful for next season as long as FSG don't f*** it up for us

[Case]

Maybe this team, these changes, those injuries mean we are on par with this team, these changes and those injuries.. 

 

but as a club, as Liverpool Football Club, winner of 18 league titles, 5 European Cups and on the list goes...

 

As a club, we have underachieved and by some considerable margin.

 

See this middle paragraph, in the context of the question I asked, isn't relevant. Of course we're proud to support Liverpool Football Club, passionate about the team, desperate to win trophies to resecure our position at the top of the game.

 

But.

 

I'm asking if this season, in isolation, with no regard to our proud history, but with the challenges faced and decisions made by both managers was an overachievement or not. A little surprised that no-one other than me thinks it was anything other than a failure.

 

Obviously, the League position was dire, but the manager clearly put all his eggs in the Europa basket after the LC final while continuing to fight the comprehensive injury list. And Sakho.

 

By saying we were 's***' in the League are we also saying that Klopp made the wrong call to focus on the EL?

 

Genuine questions. I'm gutted too, like.

[Falconhoof]

We lost 2 finals and finished 8th. Struggling to see any part of that as overachievement.

There's times when a very mediocre side gets to a final, Fulham in the Europa league, crystal palace in the FA cup. It means f*** all if you don't lift the trophy.

I'm encouraged by Klopp, but this season has been a let down.

[Kvarme Ate My Food]

We didn't overachieve in any way, in any competition, in any context.

[Red Yoda]

JK did really well getting us to the two finals, pity we couldn't finish the deal. Our season was meh. Can't wait until next season.