The Question Is Liverpool, What Is The Answer?

Okay, we're back! Season 23/24.

Obviously, last season I was playing 'monthly'. It was an experience, but an unsuccessful one. Certainly going by rank. You could knock two million off and it'd still be my worst season.

So not great. I'm hoping I've at least learnt some lessons from it though. Plus, I did enjoy it too - it was a very low stress way of playing.

This Season

I've decided I'm going to blog much more loosely this season. I'm just gonna post whatever's on my mind. I'll still do posts showing my weekly score and rank, but I'll keep those brief. Post the points, picture of the team, then bang, out of there. I'm very bored with the posts where I'm basically just saying, "This player got me these points; this player came off my bench, etc."

Anyway, as we start this season the big question I have is Liverpool. What are they going to be like?

My personal feeling is that they seem like a team that's lost its way. It used to be "heavy metal football." A million miles an hour. Mane and Robertson bombing down the left relentlessly. High energy. Exciting. Jurgen Klopp all bright and shiny. Now I'm not really sure what their style is. There have been a lot of new faces, but not a new feel.

In fact, this is one of the things I called right at the start of last season. Everyone was very excited about the new signings last summer, but I feared the absence of Mane. I really think people took him for granted. To be fair, I was considering all that in the context of Salah, and Salah still had a great season fpl-wise. However, Liverpool definitely dropped off. A fifth place finish was very surprising given their previous years.

This is the thing with football. Nothing lasts forever. Sooner or later the magic goes. Mourinho once looked like he would never stop winning things. Then the magic went. Things just change, and sometimes it happens quite fast.

So, that's the question with Liverpool. Was last season a blip, or transition season? Or was it the beginning of the end of an era?

If it was just a blip then with Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold so low-owned they're massive differentials. My gut feeling is to go against Liverpool. However, I do like to go against the grain and gamble. So I'm very, very tempted to do that just in case they do hit the ground running.

It's doubly-tempting as you could essentially ask the same question of Arsenal, only in reverse. Was last season a blip where they over-performed? After all, it was a season where Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs all under-performed. No one really expected a title challenge from Arsenal at the start of the season.

So going with Liverpool picks over Arsenal ones would be quite interesting.

I did a Salah draft earlier today with this in mind, but I just didn't like it. I really wasn't feeling it. So I'm back with my "no Liverpool" draft now.

I really like how my current draft looks (I won't share it here - I think I'll keep my cards to my chest and share it after the deadline. It's pretty template, but still, it's the small differences that matter). Nevertheless, Salah has been so consistently good over the seasons. So the thought of somehow getting him in when so many won't have him is really niggling me.

I'm so desperate to go against the grain that I'm tempted to go against my own instinct.