Arne Slot

[BG1973]

Whoever the manager is you can't consistently beat a low block without true quality in wide areas. The attackers have to be 1v1 beasts to at least draw more defenders their way and leave gaps for other players to exploit inc overlapping fullbacks.

Slot's problem against low block this season was not dropping Salah soon enough and overplaying Gakpo too who is..... very limited. No need to double up on either.

Frimpong has shown the benefit on the right... we need another for the left. Diaz didn't have the goals of Mane but he was more dangerous and tenacious than Gakpo and therefore drew defenders.

Two 9s was a waste of money.

In short.. until we upgrade the wingers, esp LWF then any manager will struggle to find space against low blocks.

[kingfunk]

Oh man…. I’ve never been so fickle on a player/manager, one day (usually day after a **** result) I want Slot out the door asap and never to be seen again, the next I think he deserves more respect for what he has already achieved, I think somewhere in between he deserves another summer window and a start next season to show last season wasn’t an anomaly (provided we get top 4). There is absolutely no guarantee that sacking Slot and bringing in Alonso will see us do much better given the current squad, apart from improved emotional connection.

[memzey]

Finding an improvement on Slot is going to be difficult. This is one of the reasons why I've landed in the "Slot in" camp, when I've previously said he's cooked. If we go through the options listed here and try to look at them in a sober and critical manner, it becomes clear that none of them have a particularly straight forward case as our next head coach:

Emery: Good coach for Villa but Aston Villa is his level not LFC. A mega-club appointment would result in another Arsenal debacle for him (although I thought they were out of order to him at the time).

Iraola: Another good coach but lacks the gravitas required for a top tier club (and top tier players). Potential future Spurs manager.

Alonso & Inzaghi: Some historic successes but the real issue is stylistic and whether their preferred style will work in the EPL (it won't).

One other point made above, that I don't think I'm fully on board with, is the need for bags of experience. Given the support structure around the coaching staff and baked in squad culture, I think a younger man with the right skills and approach could do the job. Youth perhaps might even be advantageous. I could be wrong here but when I look at the direction of travel in elite football, that seems to be the way.

I don't want Slot sacked. I think he can turn things around and win bigly next season. If the powers that be see things differently the only candidate, that I think would be a good fit and tick all the boxes, is Naglesmann and his situation is complicated by the WC in the summer.

Slot in.

[fidget]

Finding an improvement on Slot is going to be difficult. This is one of the reasons why I've landed in the "Slot in" camp, when I've previously said he's cooked. If we go through the options listed here and try to look at them in a sober and critical manner, it becomes clear that none of them have a particularly straight forward case as our next head coach:

Emery: Good coach for Villa but Aston Villa is his level not LFC. A mega-club appointment would result in another Arsenal debacle for him (although I thought they were out of order to him at the time).

Iraola: Another good coach but lacks the gravitas required for a top tier club (and top tier players). Potential future Spurs manager.

Alonso & Inzaghi: Some historic successes but the real issue is stylistic and whether their preferred style will work in the EPL (it won't).

One other point made above, that I don't think I'm fully on board with, is the need for bags of experience. Given the support structure around the coaching staff and baked in squad culture, I think a younger man with the right skills and approach could do the job. Youth perhaps might even be advantageous. I could be wrong here but when I look at the direction of travel in elite football, that seems to be the way.

I don't want Slot sacked. I think he can turn things around and win bigly next season. If the powers that be see things differently the only candidate, that I think would be a good fit and tick all the boxes, is Naglesmann and his situation is complicated by the WC in the summer.

Slot in.

I'd be happy with Emery or Nagelsmann but the latter extended his contract last year til after the 2028 Euros

[Doc_Piptorious]

Finding an improvement on Slot is going to be difficult. This is one of the reasons why I've landed in the "Slot in" camp, when I've previously said he's cooked. If we go through the options listed here and try to look at them in a sober and critical manner, it becomes clear that none of them have a particularly straight forward case as our next head coach:

Emery: Good coach for Villa but Aston Villa is his level not LFC. A mega-club appointment would result in another Arsenal debacle for him (although I thought they were out of order to him at the time).

Iraola: Another good coach but lacks the gravitas required for a top tier club (and top tier players). Potential future Spurs manager.

Alonso & Inzaghi: Some historic successes but the real issue is stylistic and whether their preferred style will work in the EPL (it won't).

One other point made above, that I don't think I'm fully on board with, is the need for bags of experience. Given the support structure around the coaching staff and baked in squad culture, I think a younger man with the right skills and approach could do the job. Youth perhaps might even be advantageous. I could be wrong here but when I look at the direction of travel in elite football, that seems to be the way.

I don't want Slot sacked. I think he can turn things around and win bigly next season. If the powers that be see things differently the only candidate, that I think would be a good fit and tick all the boxes, is Naglesmann and his situation is complicated by the WC in the summer.

Slot in.

With regard to the highlighted bit. Inzagi does often go three at the back, but he has played four at the back a lot too. He tends to be very flexible on his formations and playing styles depending on the squad he inherits, plus his formations and tactics tend to be very fluid ingame.

Very much not a going to die on a hill for a formation type of manager.

What he is though is a manager that values an active press, hard work and creating teams that are often greater than their indivdual parts might suggest.

[frank the tank]

Alonso has the added bonus of having a really good relationship with Florian Wirtz already. If lfc talk to him and he presents a plan around getting the best out of Wirtz and building the team around him, then surely that will count for something. If Richard Hughes sanity checks that with florian, and he gets excited at the prospect of alonso being his coach again, then surely that counts too. Same with frimpong to a lesser extent.

It is obvious that we need a defender (or 3) but I actually think a new midfielder will be crucial to how we play. Or a change for macallisrer. I think our midfield has been so easy to bypass this season and this seems to be the biggest issue imo. A proper holding midfielder next to Grav and we are a totally different team imo. And if Alonso can paint that picture as well then it will also count.

[Angryred]

Alonso has the added bonus of having a really good relationship with Florian Wirtz already. If lfc talk to him and he presents a plan around getting the best out of Wirtz and building the team around him, then surely that will count for something. If Richard Hughes sanity checks that with florian, and he gets excited at the prospect of alonso being his coach again, then surely that counts too. Same with frimpong to a lesser extent.

It is obvious that we need a defender (or 3) but I actually think a new midfielder will be crucial to how we play. Or a change for macallisrer. I think our midfield has been so easy to bypass this season and this seems to be the biggest issue imo. A proper holding midfielder next to Grav and we are a totally different team imo. And if Alonso can paint that picture as well then it will also count.

Alonso will be delighted to get his hands on a young, talented & no-dickheaded squad after that debacle at Real & take us to another level by bringing sound replacements in defence to replace our aging backline & bolstering our 1st team with a deadly left sided player like Michael Elise or similar.

[Charly]

I want to see how he handles Salah too. If he just goes straight back into the team after we improved without him and his performances are still just as ****e, then that just shows he cant handle the big names.

We will see tonight. I assume he will start him there, but if he is shot then he needs to be benched at the weekend. The Afcon is not the same pace or quality of the PL.

[memzey]

With regard to the highlighted bit. Inzagi does often go three at the back, but he has played four at the back a lot too. He tends to be very flexible on his formations and playing styles depending on the squad he inherits, plus his formations and tactics tend to be very fluid ingame.

Very much not a going to die on a hill for a formation type of manager.

What he is though is a manager that values an active press, hard work and creating teams that are often greater than their indivdual parts might suggest.

You might be right but to my mind he is primarily a 3 at the back kind of guy who adapts from time to time and I just don't think that will work in the EPL.

If we are seriously looking at the coaching staff I'd rather we hired the best set piece coach available before changing the head coach. Sorting that cluster**** out will help enormously.

[kingfunk]

Credit when due. He got it right tonight.

[Charly]

Yeah, I feel Europe is better suited to the pace he wants play.

Hopefully we can carry into the weekend, but I feel the right flank might need adjusting.

[Exiled_red]

Yeah, I feel Europe is better suited to the pace he wants play.

Hopefully we can carry into the weekend, but I feel the right flank might need adjusting.

Feels like we are a team suited to the European away type games/approach

[Buzzo]

Yeah, I feel Europe is better suited to the pace he wants play.

Hopefully we can carry into the weekend, but I feel the right flank might need adjusting.

We didn’t play with a wide right forward tonight.

It was a 4-2-2-2.

At times the right looked exposed and Frimpong could have been left 2 v 1. That’s not a personnel issue, it’s potentially a tactical one.

Kudos to Slot for tonight but I wonder if that formation would work in the prem.

[Mr Pink]

Is anyone else sick of how long it takes him to make a sub, lately??

79th minute today when he made his first change.

78th minute vs Burnley

95th minute vs Arsenal (and it was due to an injury)

76th minute vs Fulham

I think no matter how a game is going, it’s good to make a change around 60-65 min, to freshen things up. I get that the bench is looking weak lately, but even today, surely gakpo and jones could have come on 10 min earlier.

[kingfunk]

Is anyone else sick of how long it takes him to make a sub, lately??

79th minute today when he made his first change.

78th minute vs Burnley

95th minute vs Arsenal (and it was due to an injury)

76th minute vs Fulham

I think no matter how a game is going, it’s good to make a change around 60-65 min, to freshen things up. I get that the bench is looking weak lately, but even today, surely gakpo and jones could have come on 10 min earlier.

I just think he is being extremely cautious due to previous results, which is probably understandable.