Arne Slot

[baitman]

Slot inherited a group of players who had some balls between them.
He didnt change much and winged it, as few sensible substitutions and it carried us over the line.
So now hes stepped out of klopps shadow and now has to stand up as the main man.
He comes across as pretty soulless and I doubt the players feel like they can run through walls for him.
His pressers sound like a beige summary of the game, but there is no spirit, no passion!
It's like the last days of bodgers,

[Buzzo]

He’s been part of the “****ed it” few, there is no doubt about that, I think Slot is a little out of his depth now and everything he touched turned to gold last season whereas it’s turning to piss this season. The more I think about this, the more I’m increasing the % of blame apportioned to Hughes.

The Premier League has been moving towards a bigger and stronger profile of player over the past few seasons with Arsenal at the forefront but we targeted lightweight technical players that at first glance seem to be a bad fit. We bought wide attacking full backs in Kerkez and Frimpong but they both seem to be asked to under lap instead of overlap.

We went into the season with 4 CBs - Ibou by some miracle hasn’t been injured yet, Gomez is Gomez so he’s missed half the games and Leoni is a kid that shouldn’t be more than 5th choice.

We sold Nunez and Diaz who could infuriate you but they worked like demons and are fast….. we didn’t sign anyone to replace Diaz (maybe Wirtz, but we’ve been told we sold him in the vision of bring a 10?) and we didn’t replace the work rate of Nunez. Chiesa (as much as I live him) really isn’t good enough and Slot doesn’t play him + AFCON left us light up top. Gakpo as a starting forward shows how badly we planned that.

Midfield looks ridiculously light as well, it hasn’t been helped by Mac being space jammed but all 4 are being played now an no cover. Endo doesn’t count as he’s another in the not rated category.

I think we’ve a very unbalanced squad and it was a bit arrogant of us to think everyone would settle immediately. We used to say we were “make do FC” under Klopp and even though we spent a fortune we are making do again. The Anfield Wrap lads have picked up on this as well

https://twitter.com/theanfieldwrap/s...12153332814068

Yep - agree with all of that. Even the Nunez bit!

[Exiled_red]

He’s been part of the “****ed it” few, there is no doubt about that, I think Slot is a little out of his depth now and everything he touched turned to gold last season whereas it’s turning to piss this season. The more I think about this, the more I’m increasing the % of blame apportioned to Hughes.

The Premier League has been moving towards a bigger and stronger profile of player over the past few seasons with Arsenal at the forefront but we targeted lightweight technical players that at first glance seem to be a bad fit. We bought wide attacking full backs in Kerkez and Frimpong but they both seem to be asked to under lap instead of overlap.

We went into the season with 4 CBs - Ibou by some miracle hasn’t been injured yet, Gomez is Gomez so he’s missed half the games and Leoni is a kid that shouldn’t be more than 5th choice.

We sold Nunez and Diaz who could infuriate you but they worked like demons and are fast….. we didn’t sign anyone to replace Diaz (maybe Wirtz, but we’ve been told we sold him in the vision of bring a 10?) and we didn’t replace the work rate of Nunez. Chiesa (as much as I live him) really isn’t good enough and Slot doesn’t play him + AFCON left us light up top. Gakpo as a starting forward shows how badly we planned that.

Midfield looks ridiculously light as well, it hasn’t been helped by Mac being space jammed but all 4 are being played now an no cover. Endo doesn’t count as he’s another in the not rated category.

I think we’ve a very unbalanced squad and it was a bit arrogant of us to think everyone would settle immediately. We used to say we were “make do FC” under Klopp and even though we spent a fortune we are making do again. The Anfield Wrap lads have picked up on this as well

https://twitter.com/theanfieldwrap/s...12153332814068

Been saying since summer that while I liked the players we had brought in in isolation not sure how they fitted into a system, but also there weren't enough bodies that the manager trusts.

If you look at the squad we have about 23 outfield players listed Endo, Chiesa, Rio, Nyoni, Bajcetic and Ramsay aren't serious options, Leoni was unproven so something of a gamble, that leaves you effectively 16 to pick from Salah is away at AFCON so we knew that would be down to 15 at this point before any injuries/suspensions. Gomez is regularly injured, Isak's injury record wasn't great. Probably looking at picking 10 from 14 on any given day at best, then you have to take into account managing minutes, it was madness going into the season with such as small core of trusted players, 5 of whom still needed to settle into the side/league. What is happening here is we are having more injuries than that, in that regard I feel sorry for the manager having to juggle things around.

This is just considering numbers and not what the different players bring, the work rate, pace and ball carrying of the likes of Diaz and Nunez. Transfer boys were too busy patting themselves on the back at getting big deals across the line and not focused on how the squad would work as a unit. Hughes and co have or whoever is in charge of transfers have to take a big share of the blame for this IMO

[Catrin]

When we were looking at signing Isak I did mention my concern that the fee was a lot of eggs in one basket just waiting for some over-excited grok to ruin our season. I didn’t think signing a 5’7” right-back was an issue as he was fast and would understudy Conor. I didn’t realise Kerkez was the shortest 5’11” on earth and although Wirtz has all the skills he weighs about as much as a supermodel before her breakfast.

We sold the hardest grafter in the team (ok, he wanted to go) and though Nunez was frustrating in front of goal he did also graft, as well as usually being the one getting his head to opposition corners. We also lost the player who was our fiercest, bravest, most dogged competitor, RIP.

Is it me or does football in the premier league seem a bit different this season? We are used to defenders having both hands on Salah and basically wrestling him but that seems to have spread, and not just against us. Foot, ball. It’s in the name. If you’re a defender and the atttacker has the ball, you’re supposed to get the ball off him using your foot. Either foot. If you use your hands on the attacker’s body that’s rugby. I almost feel like writing to PGMOL and asking them to explain it for me. Because if football is moving closer to rugby then our recruitment makes no sense at all.

[Harv]

This guy is an absolute fraud.

Boring, dull, slow, and lacking any imagination to our play. Its no wonder all the players look lost out there. They're being coached to suck the life out of the game. He coaches not to lose basically.

Have never really hoped any of our managers get sacked, other than Woy, but i cant handle this football now. It is utterly hopeless and the excuses he is putting out just make him look like an idiot. For example, stop whinging about low blocks and teams not attacking us. They don't need to, we make it so easy for them to defend and counterattack, why would they do anything different?

[Exiled_red]

Seeing an increasing number of people are in the Slot out camp. I know this isn't going to go down well but sacking Slot now isn't going to be a magic bullet. Maybe it improves the way that we play in the short term, but player fitness isn't going to be able to be improved significantly mid-season with all the games we have. A new manager will still have his hands tied by having too small a squad, having to take players off after 60-80mins because they are done, not having the quality to replace them. Clearly there are issues with the coaching, style of play and not picking/trusting certain players, alot of which comes down to Slot, but this isn't the type of football he played before he came here, I have always been of the opinion that we didn't have enough strength in depth, everyone was too busy patting Hughes and Co on the back for getting Isak and Wirtz and bringing in good money for Diaz but the squad building they have done has been nowhere near good enough.

[Kenneth]

The players/squad balance arguments are all fine and there are valid points there, and they may well excuse losing to Man city or Chelsea, but if you take a step back and look at the squad as a whole, including the peripheral and the young players, and then average that out with the squads of the teams that have been taking points off of this season, it's clearly not a satisfactory excuse. Irrespective of injuries or fatigue we have the squad to put out a better group of footballers than 80% of this league on any given Saturday if there's a manager that knows what to do with them to be effective. That's what we don't have, a flexible ,pragmatic coach that can get the best out of a group of players based on their attributes. Last season suggested that we did, but we've had half a season of shambles since.

[vlahka]

Give me that new manager bounce already.

[Exiled_red]

The players/squad balance arguments are all fine and there are valid points there, and they may well excuse losing to Man city or Chelsea, but if you take a step back and look at the squad as a whole, including the peripheral and the young players, and then average that out with the squads of the teams that have been taking points off of this season, it's clearly not a satisfactory excuse. Irrespective of injuries or fatigue we have the squad to put out a better group of footballers than 80% of this league on any given Saturday if there's a manager that knows what to do with them to be effective. That's what we don't have, a flexible ,pragmatic coach that can get the best out of a group of players based on their attributes. Last season suggested that we did, but we've had half a season of shambles since.

Last season we had 14 players who played 900 mins or more (equivalent of 10 games), Two of whom were GKs, we had 4 other players who played over 450mins. That's 18 players who were trusted enough to play the equivalent of 5 PL.games. Plus players like Chiesa, Endo and Elliott who played even less.

Of the first group, (900+mins) 5 aren't here anymore, of the second group (450+ mins) 3 left, we replaced those 8 with 7 players (plus a 3rd choice GK we hope doesn't play), 2 of those new signings are out for the season, which puts us down to 15 players (2 of whom are GKs) plus 2 guys the manager didn't trust last season and some kids.

Add to that Salah being away, players not being able to play more than 60-80mins. The squad is too small and there is alot of juggling to do to put 11 players out and not run anyone into the ground, mone of that hoe's away if we get a hew manager. Maybe he should play Endo, Rio Nyoni more to improve that and maybe you could argue those players should be able to beat Leeds/whoever.

I am as frustrated with the tactics as much as anyone maybe a new manager improves things a bit in terms of performances but it's not going to be a massive step up in terms of quality and results because there are still IMO a number of significant problems that go deeper than just the manager.

[Catrin]

I think I’m now just about in the Slot out camp.
There are reasons/excuses this season for quite a lot. We are short on numbers so he has often had to select based on who is fit (and how best to keep them fit) rather than how best to execute a tactical plan. But, for what is now half a season, there are so few games where we have been equal to or greater than the sum of our parts. Maybe Real and Arsenal. Can’t think of any others. For almost every match Slot has been able to field 11 players who are all either good, very good or excellent, but as a team they’ve been sometimes good, sometimes awful, but overall no more than average. Some of that will be down to grief but the rest has to be down to the manager.

[baitman]

Slot and his cohort of faceless ass kissers can all **** off.
There is no passion or personality amongst them.
No one from within LFC...

I know there are big squad issues, but there is no inspiration to motivate any of the team.
You may laugh, but its going to come down to Gerrard stepping in.
He has his issues, but he should at least inspire some passion and belief in this bunch of bedwetters.

[Irishnev]

[ame="https://twitter.com/gandalf_lfc/status/2007779406677459086"]https://twitter.com/gandalf_lfc/status/2007779406677459086[/ame]

[Doc_Piptorious]

https://twitter.com/gandalf_lfc/stat...79406677459086

That's a wild stat.

[Fierce]

Last season we had 14 players who played 900 mins or more (equivalent of 10 games), Two of whom were GKs, we had 4 other players who played over 450mins. That's 18 players who were trusted enough to play the equivalent of 5 PL.games. Plus players like Chiesa, Endo and Elliott who played even less.

Of the first group, (900+mins) 5 aren't here anymore, of the second group (450+ mins) 3 left, we replaced those 8 with 7 players (plus a 3rd choice GK we hope doesn't play), 2 of those new signings are out for the season, which puts us down to 15 players (2 of whom are GKs) plus 2 guys the manager didn't trust last season and some kids.

Add to that Salah being away, players not being able to play more than 60-80mins. The squad is too small and there is alot of juggling to do to put 11 players out and not run anyone into the ground, mone of that hoe's away if we get a hew manager. Maybe he should play Endo, Rio Nyoni more to improve that and maybe you could argue those players should be able to beat Leeds/whoever.

I am as frustrated with the tactics as much as anyone maybe a new manager improves things a bit in terms of performances but it's not going to be a massive step up in terms of quality and results because there are still IMO a number of significant problems that go deeper than just the manager.

Agreed as to the issues we're facing, but WHY are our players unable to play as much as they were in previous seasons? That is down to conditioning, surely?

Regardless, your points are valid. But -

The players/squad balance arguments are all fine and there are valid points there, and they may well excuse losing to Man city or Chelsea, but if you take a step back and look at the squad as a whole, including the peripheral and the young players, and then average that out with the squads of the teams that have been taking points off of this season, it's clearly not a satisfactory excuse. Irrespective of injuries or fatigue we have the squad to put out a better group of footballers than 80% of this league on any given Saturday if there's a manager that knows what to do with them to be effective. That's what we don't have, a flexible ,pragmatic coach that can get the best out of a group of players based on their attributes. Last season suggested that we did, but we've had half a season of shambles since.

This trumps the argument for me Clive

I'd prefer Slot stays because of last season and because I kinda like him, and that we play like we did last year. But I don't believe that is possible, so I'm in the out gang

Thanks for coming to my talk

[Kenneth]

Agreed as to the issues we're facing, but WHY are our players unable to play as much as they were in previous seasons? That is down to conditioning, surely?

Regardless, your points are valid. But -



This trumps the argument for me Clive

I'd prefer Slot stays because of last season and because I kinda like him, and that we play like we did last year. But I don't believe that is possible, so I'm in the out gang

Thanks for coming to my talk

It's like amorim, you can imagine what might happen with the perfect squad for his set up, but you've got to win games with what you have got because the perfect squad doesn't exist. Dogmatism gets you nowhere. Even klopp pushed the boundaries of that at times but he mitigated it by trusting younger players.