Arne Slot

[Mark79]

He’s highly rated but that’s a summer move

I don't think the club are intending to move before then anyway.

[Harv]

please just **** off

[Irishnev]

I don't think the club are intending to move before then anyway.

I’d give it to Fowler, Gerrard, Klopp, Van Dijk, Chiesa….. anyone at this stage for an interim bounce

[Irishnev]

Ken Early of the Irish Times, paywall removed

If you want to analyse how things are going at Liverpool, you don’t even need to watch what’s happening out on the field (and don’t worry, you won’t miss much). Just listen to the crowd.
The atmosphere at Anfield was comparable to what you might experience if you spent your Sunday afternoon walking around a Lidl. The booing at the end was the most excited the home crowd had been all day.
It’s clear that people are fed up with Slotball, whatever it is. Arne Slot likes to use words like “creative” but his team never creates anything. They pass the ball endlessly in the same predictable patterns, always making it very obvious what they want to do next. No wonder there always seems to be a defender in the way.
The only notable chant the Liverpool fans had all day was “Rio, Rio” for the 17-year old winger Rio Ngumoha, whose dribbles from the left provided the only flashes of something that felt like football. The only player whose first automatic thought was not to pass the buck.
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Tottenham arrived having lost their last six games in all competitions, a club record losing streak. They were missing 13 players to injury and suspension, including most of their first-choice XI. In their last match, the struggling interim coach Igor Tudor had upset elements of the dressing room with his treatment of the young goalkeeper Antonín Kinsky, who was surprisingly picked to make his Champions League debut against Atlético Madrid, then substituted after making two huge mistakes in the first 17 minutes.
[ Champions League: Tottenham goalkeeper substituted after two errors as they are thrashed by AtleticoOpens in new window ]
The club had reportedly spent the previous few days sounding out available coaches in search of a fresh “new manager bounce”, only for everybody to say no. People had started seriously making suggestions like “maybe we need to get Harry Redknapp in to put his arm around the players and tell them they are terrific players”.
So this was the worst Tottenham team to come to Anfield in 50 years, since their last relegation season of 1976-’77. And yet, in a generally appalling game, they had the better of it.
Richarlison of Tottenham celebrates after scoring a goal to make it 1-1 during the match between Liverpool and Tottenham at Anfield. Photograph: Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images
Richarlison of Tottenham celebrates after scoring a goal to make it 1-1 during the match between Liverpool and Tottenham at Anfield. Photograph: Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images
They went behind after 18 minutes but kept chasing and running and eventually got their reward, when Andy Robertson’s failed clearance allowed Kolo Muani to hold off Virgil van Dijk and play in the unmarked Richarlison, who sent Alisson the wrong way with a mis-hit shot.
The nominal right-back, Dominik Szoboszlai, was nowhere to be seen. As everyone knows, Szoboszlai is not a right-back but he has filled in there this season because injuries left Slot with no other options. Yesterday he did have an option – but Szoboszlai played right-back yet again, because the alleged right-back Liverpool bought in the summer, Jeremie Frimpong, is apparently more comfortable on the right wing.
Liverpool have now conceded eight goals in injury time, their most in a single Premier League season even though they’re not quite 80 per cent of the way through this one. The previous record of seven was set in 2010-’11, when Roy Hodgson was sacked as manager midway through and the club nearly went bankrupt.

They have conceded so many injury-time winners that Slot could reflect on the varied ways in which they have buckled late, as though he were a disinterested connoisseur of such matters rather than the actual coach of the team. “Every time when it happens it feels like it’s the biggest blow. When it happens against Wolves it feels oh, it’s the biggest blow of the season. And now it happens again. Although, the way we concede is not always the same in the last minute. You cannot compare the deflected shot against Wolves with the way we conceded today, or the 30-yard shot against Fulham.”
The goal came from Spurs’ seventh shot on target of the game, compared to four for the home side. Proof again that in football, attitude is always more important than talent.
You can criticise many things about Liverpool this season: the planning of the squad, the collapse in form of several key individuals, etc. But above everything else, their attitude is terrible.
As usual, they spent most of the game playing as though they just wanted it to be over. They give no impression of enjoying the games or rising to the challenges. The sense is that they are dreading the inevitable moment when everything goes wrong.

The team’s personality reflects the downbeat, even peevish tone of their manager. Slot’s bleating about opposing teams using low-blocks and set pieces in the first part of the season set a defeatist tone that the team has never shaken off. He seemed to see these tactics as an aesthetic and philosophical affront, rather than a problem it was his job to solve.
Ironically, after all their complaining about set pieces, Liverpool have themselves become more dependent on them as a way to score. The only chances they created against Galatasaray were from scuffles at corners and free-kicks. The goal against Spurs came from a direct free-kick; they created hardly any clear opportunities from open play.
[ Familiar tale for Arne Slot after Lemina gives Galatasaray edge over LiverpoolOpens in new window ]
Slot, like many of the fans, sounds increasingly disillusioned and checked-out about the whole league. A couple of weeks ago he remarked that “most of the games I see in the Premier League are not for me a joy to watch”.
His own team’s games are among the worst but, on the bright side, it’s unlikely that he’ll be required to follow any of this stuff beyond the summer

[kingfunk]

Is he gone yet?

[frank the tank]

It really is the opposite of what you’d expect at home especially.

Go at them early on and put teams under pressure. Don’t let them settle and build into the game. It’s happening over and over this season. The slow starts are killing the team and it means it ends in that hectic style because they’ve not got themselves into a position to have the game won.

Today is the perfect example of it. Spurs were they for the taking and are so fragile mentally. Get right into them and pin them back and pile the pressure on with high intensity football.

I didnt watch the game live. But looking at Sky Sports analysis afterwards the suggestion was that Spurs did brilliantly and had something to build on. From the highlights I watched, I was thinking that it was just liverpool being **** as opposed to anything else. Their next 3.league games are against forest, Sunderland and Brighton and i wouldn't be surprised if they reverted to being terrible and end up with 2 losses from those 3 games.

[The_weatherman]

Weeks.

We only have half the picture, i.e. slot was clearly not up to it this season and wasn't going to turn it around. But you can't sack someone if you're going to replace him with the likes of Gerrard. We've no idea who turned us down. I'd have replaced him with Alonso as soon as he was available, if indeed he was.

Yes, weeks, at least I'm consistent with myself, I think it's been obvious since December that he was never going to turn this around. He's been repeating his mistakes for months now, if we end up missing out on the CL next season it will be because we didn't act.

United and Chelsea acted and it benefitted them both, Chelsea to a lesser degree though. There is no way in hell that we can coast to a trophy this season, there is no bite, fight or urgency in the team, instruction seem complicated and he's reminding me of Brendan in being full of himself and a poor leader.

Tell me, when he made a triple sub and took off Rio, Wirtz and Frimpong, didn't you think that was going to come back and bite? It was obvious, and to then put Nyoni on the left? He's putting square pegs in round holes all over the ****ing team and then deflecting all blame, on the players.

Oh, and yeah, we can for sure get Gerrard in to finish the season and then go for Hoeness or Xabi, it can't get any worse, you just need to put a solid structure and up the intensity, Gerrard would be fine for that.

[kingfunk]

Even if Arne has the boardrooms support, the relationship with the fans is turning toxic and there is only one winner in this scenario. The clock is ticking loudly for Arne, how much harm are we going to inflict on the club before having the balls to pull the trigger.

[ChesterDave]

He isn't turning this around no matter how much time he gets. Rip the plaster off sooner rather than later and get on with the reset

[Slinky Skills]

Has to be goner if we **** it up against Galatasaray surely. If he isn't then I have serious concerns about the board as they must be blind.

[Doc_Piptorious]

All these cries to just get rid.

Who exactly comes in?

The choice now would be Alonso or some ****ing bum or a coach like Gerrard.


Any other manager of quality is at a club that is trying to finish as high as they can in the remain couple months of the season.

And the Alonso option is assuming Alonso wants to come and that he wants to do so before the summer.

Change is most likely on the cards, but cannot see any trigger being officially pulled before the end of May. For all we know the changes are already arranged and all are just seeing out the season in order to get the perceived right guy in.

[kingfunk]

Has to be goner if we **** it up against Galatasaray surely. If he isn't then I have serious concerns about the board as they must be blind.

There is already reason to be concerned about the decisions above, serious questions should be asked about the Summer window, it was like giving a 9 year old 350m to spend. Zero thought for squad balance or style going forward.

[Kenneth]

All that money and our only attacking strategy was to give the ball to 17 year old every time and hope that he can produce something magical. The others should be embarrassed by it. Wirtz in particular chose that option time after time, even when he was in a shooting position 10 yards out himself. Nobody tries to make a run into the box, they just hang around in a cluster around the edge of the box looking for balls to feet. The players do look lazy and unathletic, and the running numbers suggest that, but the major thing is that we look like we aren't doing any coaching in the week, or if we are it's misguided, we don't have an attacking plan at all. It's depressing, sure, but it's more mind boggling.

[Big Dave]

All these cries to just get rid.

Who exactly comes in?

The choice now would be Alonso or some ****ing bum or a coach like Gerrard.


Any other manager of quality is at a club that is trying to finish as high as they can in the remain couple months of the season.

And the Alonso option is assuming Alonso wants to come and that he wants to do so before the summer.

Change is most likely on the cards, but cannot see any trigger being officially pulled before the end of May. For all we know the changes are already arranged and all are just seeing out the season in order to get the perceived right guy in.

We have a fairly experienced coach in Rob Page with the under 21s. Managed Wales for a good few years. I'm sure he could see things out until the end of the season

[Doc_Piptorious]

We have a fairly experienced coach in Rob Page with the under 21s. Managed Wales for a good few years. I'm sure he could see things out until the end of the season

TBH I knew next to nothing about him before your post prompted me to google him.



But after seeing some pics of him, how do we know that he is not already managing the senior team and that Slot was done away with months ago?