Arne Slot

[Charly]

No, not really. At least, not in a sustainable, material way, unless his name is Jurgen Klopp and that isn’t happening. Who do you think could come in and magically make this squad the world beaters you seem to believe Slot is preventing them from being?

Dunno... how did Carrick manage to take bum**** Manu and make them challange on form?

How did Slot take Klopps side and win the league?

[memzey]

Dunno... how did Carrick manage to take bum**** Manu and make them challange on form?

How did Slot take Klopps side and win the league?

For the first point to apply, one would have to equate Slot's suitableness for the LFC job with Amorim's for Utd. We are clearly talking chalk and cheese here.

As for the second point, that happened because he is actually a very good coach, in the right place, at the right time. I don't see how the fact Slot won the league in his first season can be used as justification to sack him. I would say the opposite is true.

[frank the tank]

Dunno... how did Carrick manage to take bum**** Manu and make them challange on form?

How did Slot take Klopps side and win the league?

Carrick had a new manager bounce alright but it wont last. He hasnt had to think of any long term implications like a permanent manager would have to. Heck, he wont even have to play mid week games ffs.

[Charly]

For the first point to apply, one would have to equate Slot's suitableness for the LFC job with Amorim's for Utd. We are clearly talking chalk and cheese here.



As for the second point, that happened because he is actually a very good coach, in the right place, at the right time. I don't see how the fact Slot won the league in his first season can be used as justification to sack him. I would say the opposite is true.

Why are we tactically worse this season do you think?

[Doc_Piptorious]

Why are we tactically worse this season do you think?

Because we put Gavin Newsom in charge of that and he rocked up with a crate of Tic tacs?

[vlahka]

I think its also important to see how our players perform during international games compared to what they're doing for us at the moment. That would point out a manager difference.

[Doc_Piptorious]

I think its also important to see how our players perform during international games compared to what they're doing for us at the moment. That would point out a manager difference.

It might or it might point to a being away from Liverpool/the UK thing.

Then again we had plenty of players in the past that were brilliant for us and looked for the most part pretty average for their countries.

[danperkins]

Strange. Considering how talented a manager would have to be, in order to turn our current group into a team of world beaters, I assumed I'd at least recognise his name. And yet, I'm not familiar with this one. Is there another world class coach, who fits our profile, would join us, make an immediate impact and is available now or in the summer that springs to mind? To my thinking there are only one or two compelling candidates who might do a better job with the current squad and neither of those are without there own risks and challenges. Not to mention the impact this would have on accountability in the squad.

It's just not worth it.

Yet.

I'm acutely aware that things can still get worse as well as better, starting most critically, on Sunday against Spurs. We do need to get that one right, otherwise things might quickly change.

100%. It's easy to dream of how a new man might come in, be absolutely perfect and compare Slot to that imaginary standard. The reality is that simply does not happen. The squad is so unbalanced it's looking increasingly like we are part way through a multi year rebuild. When viewed through this lens letting Slot go seems incredibly unwise. It would also be incredibly unfair on a decent man and talented young coach.

Slot wasn't considering a world class coach when we got him in, he still is not considered a world class coach now. Every manager is available if they want to leave, most managers would jump at a chance to manage us & what profile are you talking about exactly? It's not worth it? What getting the very best out of the current squad? Playing a better brand of football? Getting the excitement back into Anfield and the fanbase? Challenging for the league? It's worth it if the board feels someone else can come in and do a better job, simple as that and i'm sure they are doing their due diligence behind the scenes. Nothing is guaranteed & imo Slot should be commended for the league win even if people will say it was Klopps team... he still got us over the line & tweaked certain things which he should absolutely get credit for and he has but we are where we are this season and we can't ignore that.

The problem this season seems to be that he's tried to put his own stamp on the side and it just hasn't worked results wise and performance wise it has been ****ing awful. You could argue that Jotas passing had a big affect on the lads, that Slot has been unlucky with injuries & certain transfers have taken time to bed in but Jota aside apply that to every manager but one thing you can't argue that we have been utterly dismal to watch all season & even back to March 2025. The defending champs, world class players everywhere plus 400m spending in the summer and not only are we 20 points behind Arsenal, our performances are some of the worst LFC has seen since Hodgson. Can you name on one hand the really good performances we've put in this season? You'd struggle. Of course it is risky to change a manager but also sometimes it is necessary. I am sure we'd rather not but we might have to with what is at stake. IMO Slot is gone at the end of the season & short of a catastrophic break down, it will be in the summer. I don't think that will happen, I think it will be win, lose, win, draw kinda thing and maybe we get that champs league spot & maybe we do something in the cups but we really haven't shown we are capable or deserving since about a year ago.

With all due respect him being a decent man, that means **** all if they job is not getting done right. This is elite level sport with no room for sentiment unfortunately. I'm sure he's a lively bloke but at the end of the day, he like any other manager will be judged on results and performances. If the balance in not right in the squad who's fault is that? Hughes? Slot? Hughes & Slot? If the team are not performing, who's fault is that? If the tactics are not working, who's fault is that? If the results aren't good who's fault is that? If the performances are poor who's fault is that? If we are easy to play against, who's fault is that?

Hopefully he can get us over the line into the champs league spots & maybe be some miracle we'll see a good cup run.

[danperkins]

It is on him, no doubt about that, but that does not mean it is all because of him. Think there is a distinction.

We do have some very good players in our squad, but we also have some of our former best players getting by on past reputations and I would argue a number of them would struggle, on form, to get into other top teams.

MacAllister, Salah and Konate would not get close to a title competing team on this season's overall form.

Gakpo could be added to that list and so could Gravenberch, though I would suggest the latter's form has been badly impacted upon by his midfield partner in MacAllister causing an overflow of work coming his way.

Injuries have then often put us in positions where we cannot replace some of those players without taking players from other positions, further weakening the team.

Though the flip side of that is that Slot has either been too loyal or too determined to try and let players play through awful form the times we did have replacements fit to take the places of some of those players. Though the only player I do not buy that about is Salah.

Nothing will convince me that Salah having that outburst and then coming back to be undroppable after it despite continuing to stink up that right flank is with the blessing of any coach. My opinion there is that Slot is being told to play the 400k a week man for whatever reason. Maybe it is to keep Salah sweet to make him more amenable to a move in the summer or something.

Though think the only option we had for selling Salah was the Middle East and not so sure Salah would want to move his family there this summer given the current conflict over there.

I do not buy into Slot being responsible for all of our ails, but I do agree if the axe is to fall that the coach is who tends to get all of the blame and pays with his job.

But if Slot is to go this summer, there is an onus on the next guy in the door to bring about a pretty big improvement and quickly given the man that replaces Slot, this summer or not, gets the luxury of not being the guy that replaces a legend but rather gets to be the guy that replaces the guy that replaced a club legend.

For me if Slot goes this summer he can view his time with us as a success despite this mess of a season.

Any coach can have a bad season, any coach can have an awful season, but not many win a league title and even less win a league title with Liverpool FC.

Well I tell you this, if Slot is weak enough to be ordered to constantly play an under performing player, that this season he been detrimental to the team and could potentially cost us hundreds of millions by missing out on champs league football... well then he shouldn't the the manager of LFC & we should make a change immediately. We don't know but playing Mo so much , even when he has stunk the place out... has not been a good look for Slot. Same goes for him playing Gakpo and then you could look at him not trusting fringe players and not giving youth a chance.

I have said it before, Slot's time here if he leaves, will been seen as a relative success. Nobody expected us to win the league last year. Of course any manager can have a mare but at the level we are operating at, that can only go on for so long before changes are made. Again it's not just results, it's the level of the performances that have dropped off a cliff. Konate, VVD, Grav, Mac, Gakpo, Mo & I would argue Alisson have all had massive dips in form... that is a mighty coincidence. How the **** does a bloke go from 34 Goals 23 Assists to looking like a player that is completely out of his depth at this level, Virgil imperious to making more mistakes this season than every season combined ,Mac and Grav looking like top class midfielders to **** know what this season, I would argue MacAllister is just as bad of a performer this season as Mo. Konate going from a beast to looking like Bambi with a brain tumour. It's just a catastrophic drop across the board. We don't know why but we have watched it play out since March 2025 ish. Maybe it's coincidence, legs gone, off form or maybe they don't buy into the way Slot plays & like many of us can see that there hasn't been coherent setup all season, that we have no identity anymore & that we have no idea what we are. Regardless, if the results and performance are not there for a sustained period, as you said the axe has to fall on someone and it will always be the man who is in charge.

BTW i'm not hating on Slot at all, it is what it is this season.

[frank the tank]

We don't know the details though....for instance;

1. Who pushed for Salahs new contract?? Was it Dicky or Arne?? Maybe both?
2. Who pushed that starting the season with just gakpo and rio as left wing options was acceptable??
3. Who agreed that we should cash in on Diaz??
4. Who said we should buy Isak......for all that money and knowing he wouldn't be fit.

These are just a few questions that will need to be answered honestly in an end of year review. And maybe it was Arne that was on the wrong call of these. But I doubt it was on all of these. Under Brendan Rodgers for instance, its well known that Benteke was a "Rodgers signing" whereas Firmino was a "committee signing". For me, they should have sacked Rodgers as soon as he asked for Benteke because when he got the job, he sold himself as a wish.com guardiola who would play beautiful stuff ans therefore Andy Carroll would have to be shot even if we didnt have any other strikers. With Slot, we don't know who has pushed for what?!?!?

My feeling is that the fact he has one year left on his contract is what could **** Arne.....because I think it will force the club to do something. If he had 2 years left, it is much easier to accept the issues, agree the remedies and drive on. But having said that, there could be a scenario where they extend his contract but from a financial payout point of view, it costs lfc the same to sack him. That would be easy for lfc to do.

I thought that Alonso would take it to be honest. He is free, lfc legend and the coach that has developed wirtz and Frimpong into the players that they are. But maybe the fact that he has previously favoured a 3 man defense could screw his chances???

Having said that, the 3421 formation that Alonso used a lot at Leverkusen would actually suit the liverpool squad imo.

[Doc_Piptorious]

We don't know the details though....for instance;

1. Who pushed for Salahs new contract?? Was it Dicky or Arne?? Maybe both?
2. Who pushed that starting the season with just gakpo and rio as left wing options was acceptable??
3. Who agreed that we should cash in on Diaz??
4. Who said we should buy Isak......for all that money and knowing he wouldn't be fit.

These are just a few questions that will need to be answered honestly in an end of year review. And maybe it was Arne that was on the wrong call of these. But I doubt it was on all of these. Under Brendan Rodgers for instance, its well known that Benteke was a "Rodgers signing" whereas Firmino was a "committee signing". For me, they should have sacked Rodgers as soon as he asked for Benteke because when he got the job, he sold himself as a wish.com guardiola who would play beautiful stuff ans therefore Andy Carroll would have to be shot even if we didnt have any other strikers. With Slot, we don't know who has pushed for what?!?!?

My feeling is that the fact he has one year left on his contract is what could **** Arne.....because I think it will force the club to do something. If he had 2 years left, it is much easier to accept the issues, agree the remedies and drive on. But having said that, there could be a scenario where they extend his contract but from a financial payout point of view, it costs lfc the same to sack him. That would be easy for lfc to do.

I thought that Alonso would take it to be honest. He is free, lfc legend and the coach that has developed wirtz and Frimpong into the players that they are. But maybe the fact that he has previously favoured a 3 man defense could screw his chances???

Having said that, the 3421 formation that Alonso used a lot at Leverkusen would actually suit the liverpool squad imo.

Both developed further under Alonso but Wirtz was a regular for two seasons before Alonso took over at Leverkusen and was already regarded as one of the best young players in the world.

It was Peter Bosz that put Wirtz into the team as a teenager and kept him there.

Frimpong started to establish himself as a first teamer there the season before Alonso arrived but was under Alonso that he really blossomed.


Not sure Alonso's preferred way of setting up a team whilst he was at Leverkusen would suit our current squad.

His set up relied on his CMs being mobile, aggressive and good on the ball and also relied on a few of them being able to progress the ball from deep positions.

His back three were all mobile CBs with the RCB and LCB also being very good on the ball.

We struggle to have three CBs fit at any given time and we have no ball progressor at CM and defo are not stacked in terms of physicality/mobility there.

Think Alonso would need four or five new first team players to recreate a version of how he set up his team in Germany.

He also tried going with three or five at the back a number of times at Real Madrid and often would use Valverde as a RWB (Not unlike Slot using Szobo as a RB) . He also when he went with three CBs at Real, would have at least one, sometimes two being great ball progressors which is why he would put Tchoo as a CB instead of being in midfield.

Think if Slot playing CMs as defenders and what not bugged folk, then best get used to the same from Alonso.

[frank the tank]

I was thinking more that our 2 full backs would really suit his system and also both Wirtz and Szoboslai as attacking players. Would 3 CB formation help Virgil prolong his career even longer?? Him centrally with either Konate or Leoni in his right hand side and a new cb also on his left? Maybe robbo would do one more year as a squaddie and be able to play LCB as well???

Or are none of them really suitable apart from konate who might have left by then??

[memzey]

Why are we tactically worse this season do you think?

That's a really good question. I'm not sure I'm competent to give it the answer it deserves but I'm happy to share my thoughts and observations.

The question does assume that we are, in fact, tactically worse than last season. I'm not entirely convinced by this but something is definitely going on. In terms of our setup and tactics, I see two big changes from last year.

One, is that our squad is poorer this term, in the aggregate, given all the factors already discussed. This forces us to play a certain way, with a certain line up, that is suboptimal when compared with 24/25. Loss of the unicorn of a player Trent was to one side (that was not a surprise but unavoidable), the biggest issues here are loss of Diaz and (the real) Salah. I am loath to add injuries to this reasoning, as all teams have to plan for them, but it would be odd to not acknowledge that they have been unusually distributed this season and have played a significant part in our struggles as a result. Their timing and positional concentration have been most unhelpful.

The second is that something strange has happened to English football in general this season. I read a (looooong) piece by Tomkins the other week where he called it the "en****tification of football" which I think wraps it up quite nicely. Most top flight games this season seem to be attritional bore fests, in a way I haven't seen in decades. This despite, or perhaps due to, the fact that teams going all the way down the table are packed with high quality players. This isn't a defence of Slot specifically but it does put complaints about our performances and style in proper context. I don't think the fans of many (or any) teams in the EPL will say that their club are playing better football this season than last. I could speculate as to why that is but it seems to be the case to me and we are one of 18 or 19 out of 20 in that bucket.

I don't think either of these issues are caused by the coach and would not be addressed by sacking the coach.

[Le Chef]

We don't know the details though....for instance;

1. Who pushed for Salahs new contract?? Was it Dicky or Arne?? Maybe both?
2. Who pushed that starting the season with just gakpo and rio as left wing options was acceptable??
3. Who agreed that we should cash in on Diaz??
4. Who said we should buy Isak......for all that money and knowing he wouldn't be fit.

These are just a few questions that will need to be answered honestly in an end of year review. And maybe it was Arne that was on the wrong call of these. But I doubt it was on all of these. Under Brendan Rodgers for instance, its well known that Benteke was a "Rodgers signing" whereas Firmino was a "committee signing". For me, they should have sacked Rodgers as soon as he asked for Benteke because when he got the job, he sold himself as a wish.com guardiola who would play beautiful stuff ans therefore Andy Carroll would have to be shot even if we didnt have any other strikers. With Slot, we don't know who has pushed for what?!?!?

My feeling is that the fact he has one year left on his contract is what could **** Arne.....because I think it will force the club to do something. If he had 2 years left, it is much easier to accept the issues, agree the remedies and drive on. But having said that, there could be a scenario where they extend his contract but from a financial payout point of view, it costs lfc the same to sack him. That would be easy for lfc to do.

I thought that Alonso would take it to be honest. He is free, lfc legend and the coach that has developed wirtz and Frimpong into the players that they are. But maybe the fact that he has previously favoured a 3 man defense could screw his chances???

Having said that, the 3421 formation that Alonso used a lot at Leverkusen would actually suit the liverpool squad imo.

I'd say RH is responsible for the sales and buys. with input from AS, no way was Diaz getting at £200k hike at the age of 28, its the same at Barca, RM =, AS is there to coach - RH does the dealing - Both should right be under the Slotlight this season as its been ****e !

[Charly]

Does anyone think if our play is as poor as it has been for the rest of the season that the players will still be in his corner?

I dread facing off against PSG if we get through.