What was the sporting highlight of 2018 for you?

@GlassDog Tbh Olympiacos are not big hitters and we are just having a crap season. Nobody can take away past achievements though. I think 2019 could be even better for Liverpool.

@Burnley123 Just had a look at their current squad value on TransferMarkt. They've really fallen away. I hadn't realised.

Fingers crossed, but hope hurts, as they say!

Yeah, expecially in a relegation battle. It's when you win a couple of games you have false hope that gets crushed. Fortunately, Burnley don't have that problem so far. 😲

@Burnley123 With the exception of United, you look like you've got a handful of games you'd hope to pick up some points from. I know that's not exactly how it works, though. :/

@GlassDog We are playing really really badly and there a lot of problems. Thanks though.

@Burnley123 Do you know what's caused it? From the outside, I can't believe that Dyche has suddenly become a bad manager. Even if you didn't really invest in new players, when virtually everyone else did.

@GlassDog The biggest problems are:

1) Teams have found out how to play us. We play a direct physical game which relies on other teams over-committing or making mistakes. Teams are dropping off us more and are better prepared to deal with long balls. Without counter-attacks and long balls, we can't score because we don't have the technique to break teams down.
2) A lack of intensity. Our game relies on working harder than other teams. The players have a slight complacency. They are not lazy but can no longer work as pyscho-hard as they did last season. A small squad, the European games and injuries haven't helped but then the board had a chance to bring in more players and didn't.
3) Selection errors. Joe Hart hasn't been awful but he hasn't been that good either. Heaton and Pope are better and can win you tight games. Dyche also insists on playing Jeff Hendrick as a number ten, which doesn't work. None of our wingers has played well enough this season so Dyche switched to wing-backs. The 5-3-2 works for us when we want to park the bus but the players don't know how to attack playing that formation. Dyche is also too conservative to play Vydra and he offers us something different up front.

The team lacks confidence and its hard to get the intensity back without it. Dyche has built a team to play a certain way and that way is not working so it's difficult to know what a solution would be. A couple of things can be tweaked but unfortunately, the problems are deep and other teams are a lot better than us in this league. Dyche would have been fired if this was his first season but his past success means that he deserves a chance to change it around. Whether we stay up or go down, he needs to evolve though.

@Burnley123 Good analysis that mate .... maybe you should throw your hat in the ring. 😉

@Burnley123 That makes a lot of sense now I think about it. Dyche does seem to be someone with a singular idea of how he wants the game played (and if he's now also short on personnel who can do anything much different, you could be stuck). Joe Hart has really surprised me because I rated him very highly when he left City.

@GlassDog Yeah, Hart is not the biggest problem but it is a problem that you could solve by playing another keeper. He's not made howlers like he did for West Ham but he doesn't save many difficult shots. Rumour is that Heaton wants to leave now and it looks like Leeds and Villa will get him on loan. They are getting a good keeper. Pope is fit now and I'd like him to get a chance.

@RodionRomanovitch lol. There is still half the season to go and we still have a chance of staying up, but only because there are other bad teams. Personally, I think Fulham have enough to stay up when Ranieri sorts them out.