Arne Slot | ex-Liverpool manager | The Bald sack watch is over

Mike Smalling said:
Szoboszlai is a very good player, come on. Ekitike and Isak can obviously be very good, when fit. Same with Allison. Gravenberch is decent enough.

The have a serious lack on quality on the wings tough, both at fullback and forwards. And their CBs are getting more and more average.
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I don't think any of those are close to good enough to lead an actual title challenge. They would be good enough as supplemental players to the likes of peak Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold, but if they are the stars themselves, then absolutely no chance.

They are the kind of players that an ambitious mid-table club would sign to try to get into the top 4.
 
I really thought we were 100% going to keep him until Villa. With the CL to play for we played like we didn’t care. These owners aren’t stupid and are very careful. They know will be absolutely no blowback by sacking him at this point. My concern is I’m not convinced they really want Alonso. Otherwise it’s a no brainer. On a good note united are keeping Carrick. Why.
 
Let’s be real for a moment here, Liverpool yo-yoing between a competitive season and barely scrapping/missing out on CL has been a thing for years, even under Klopp.

So it’s not some grand mystery that their board is keeping him on. He won them a league after all and they (and Slot himself) will point to that pattern and back themselves to be back challenging next year (whether that turns out to be a delusion, however likely, is unknowable at this moment)
 
brozonis said:
I don't think any of those are close to good enough to lead an actual title challenge. They would be good enough as supplemental players to the likes of peak Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold, but if they are the stars themselves, then absolutely no chance.

They are the kind of players that an ambitious mid-table club would sign to try to get into the top 4.
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Meh, I kiiiinda agree.
You guys gave us the league in august though (as did everyone else without any logical reason why), so we are obviously not too bad either.
If we play 3-5-2 and have better cover in defence we will survive. Anything else are wishful thinking.
 
HappyCamper said:
Have u ever wondered why you don't get a serious reply ever? It's not because your winning mate.
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I think its mainly because I'm correct!

Tell me the five current players in your squad that you'd build a successful, title winning team around?
 
That’s a very diplomatic way to say that Slot is incompetent and needs to be fired.
 
MaMa given red said:
Just watching the highlights from last night.

A question I keep asking and never get an answer to, but who actually are there good players now?

Szoboszlai at a push but he's overrated.
That Rio kid looks promising but the rest of that squad is shite, mid table at best level.

It's funny how Liverpool fans just think a new manager will fix it!
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It’s akin to United under ETH. Some of the players were much better than the system.
 
Bale Bale Bale said:
I don't think Salah's his biggest fan.

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Shots fired but he's not wrong.

You can point to players being out of form or age catching up with some of them but it's the managers job to put in a system that suits the players and to integrate the new guys. Slot's just failed at practically everything this season and his post match quotes would worry me if I was a Liverpool fan.
 
His situation is looking more and more untenable. Who is the favourite to succeed him if Alonso is off to Chelsea? I would hate for them to appoint Iraola, but even more so Nagelsmann.
 
Despite spending who knows what in the summer they have an ageing defence. New “Yoro” signing had a bad injury, VVD is the worst I’ve ever seen him. Roberson off. Kerkez is wank. Frimpong is worse. Nobody can expect a jota thing and that is genuinely horrible.
Mcallister is a shadow, gravenberch who was amazing is now average (I think this is a slot thing)
Ekiteke out until 2027.
Isak injury prone and jury seems to be out on how good he actually is
Wirtz - looks like an u15 playing in men’s football.
Massive issues everywhere .

If Slot stays he’ll be sacked before Xmas. Then next season is fecked too. Unless they find a carrick.
 
Reading the Salah statement Liverpool would be mad no to go for Iraola as a new coach but i guess they will award the start of the next season at least to Slot..
 
The Purley King said:
Despite spending who knows what in the summer they have an ageing defence. New “Yoro” signing had a bad injury, VVD is the worst I’ve ever seen him. Roberson off. Kerkez is wank. Frimpong is worse. Nobody can expect a jota thing and that is genuinely horrible.
Mcallister is a shadow, gravenberch who was amazing is now average (I think this is a slot thing)
Ekiteke out until 2027.
Isak injury prone and jury seems to be out on how good he actually is
Wirtz - looks like an u15 playing in men’s football.
Massive issues everywhere .

If Slot stays he’ll be sacked before Xmas. Then next season is fecked too. Unless they find a carrick.
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Stevie me maybe? :confused:
 
Bale Bale Bale said:
I don't think Salah's his biggest fan.

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Feel like Alonso isn't the guy who plays "heavy metal football" either. So there's that. Anyway, I think fans mostly care about winning. Arsenal fans used to be absolute hipster football purists that sold their soul the moment Arteta and his shit brand of football showed up.

There's no reason to continue to live in Klopp's era IMO. They can get Iraola and see how that works out for them if they truly want it.
 
I know this season hasn't been great for Liverpool (putting it mildly), but Slot is getting a lot of flack from their fans and his own players, after winning a league title.

It isn't like the premier league trophy has been regularly paraded around Anfield the past thirty years. I thought Liverpool were supposed to be a "classy club"?

The atmosphere isn't even a "thanks for the league title but maybe it's best to part ways" mood. I'd swear this guy was the new Roy Hodgson.
 
JSArsenal said:
I know this season hasn't been great for Liverpool (putting it mildly), but Slot is getting a lot of flack from their fans and his own players, after winning a league title.

It isn't like the premier league trophy has been regularly paraded around Anfield the past thirty years. I thought Liverpool were supposed to be a "classy club"?

The atmosphere isn't even a "thanks for the league title but maybe it's best to part ways" mood. I'd swear this guy was the new Roy Hodgson.
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Are you for real? Have you paid any attention this season?

Any fan of any club in the country would feel the same way in the same position.
 
JSArsenal said:
I know this season hasn't been great for Liverpool (putting it mildly), but Slot is getting a lot of flack from their fans and his own players, after winning a league title.

It isn't like the premier league trophy has been regularly paraded around Anfield the past thirty years. I thought Liverpool were supposed to be a "classy club"?

The atmosphere isn't even a "thanks for the league title but maybe it's best to part ways" mood. I'd swear this guy was the new Roy Hodgson.
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The mood would be very different if we had the same results but some semblance of tactical nuance within matches.

It’s been so poor tactically though and Slot consistently says the wrong thing. After the Villa defeat he said scoring two goals at Villa Park was “quite good”.

We’re on course for fewer points than United in the Moyes season, fewer points than we were on course for under Hodgson and the highest number of goals conceded in a 38 game season since 1915.

That’s after spending £450 million on players, most of which look poor under his management.

Winning the league last season doesn’t give him free rein to fail in such a spectacular way on every front.
 
Unfortunately the defeat at Villa could prove to be one too many. He should have limited it so he keeps the job. They could still finish outside top 5 and if that happens he's not staying for sure.
 
Teja said:
Feel like Alonso isn't the guy who plays "heavy metal football" either. So there's that. Anyway, I think fans mostly care about winning. Arsenal fans used to be absolute hipster football purists that sold their soul the moment Arteta and his shit brand of football showed up.

There's no reason to continue to live in Klopp's era IMO. They can get Iraola and see how that works out for them if they truly want it.
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Agree. Alonso’s football isn’t really Klopp-style “heavy metal football” — formerly known as gegenpressing, which is basically just German for counter-pressing — even if there are some shared elements.

If anything, his style reminds me a bit of Mourinho’s Madrid at their best: the side that scored 100+ league goals. Fast, ruthless counter-attacking football when the game allows it, but also more direct, controlled attacking play when needed. Not chaos-ball, not sterile possession either. Just very good, efficient football.

The basics are pretty clear: solid, no-nonsense centre-backs; aggressive, rampaging full-backs or wing-backs; brains in midfield; and attackers who can combine quickly. At Leverkusen, Xhaka was absolutely central to that. At Madrid, unfortunately, Kroos and Modrić were gone and the board never gave him a Zubimendi-type player to replace that control.

I don’t think Alonso is some wild tactical revolutionary. What he did at Leverkusen, and at times at Madrid before things went sideways, was build very balanced teams that could play excellent football in different ways. That’s probably his biggest strength: adaptability.

His teams can shift between a back four, a back three, or a back five depending on the opponent and the players available. The structure matters, but he doesn’t seem dogmatic about the formation itself. He adapts to what he has.

For Chelsea, I think the key will be whether they can give him a proper Xhaka-profile player: someone who can dictate tempo, organise the team, act almost like a quarterback, and be a bit of a team dad / playing coach. Basically the kind of role Jorginho once had for Chelsea, even if the player profile isn’t identical.

So no, he isn’t Klopp 2.0. But he also isn’t some boring safety-first coach. He’s closer to a pragmatic, flexible, modern organiser who can make a team play fast, vertical and intelligent football when the pieces are right.
 
Liverpool's summer transfer strategy is a cautionary tale. You cant make revolutionary changes by spending 400+million quid at a go.
 
Red Pumpkin said:
Agree. Alonso’s football isn’t really Klopp-style “heavy metal football” — formerly known as gegenpressing, which is basically just German for counter-pressing — even if there are some shared elements.

If anything, his style reminds me a bit of Mourinho’s Madrid at their best: the side that scored 100+ league goals. Fast, ruthless counter-attacking football when the game allows it, but also more direct, controlled attacking play when needed. Not chaos-ball, not sterile possession either. Just very good, efficient football.

The basics are pretty clear: solid, no-nonsense centre-backs; aggressive, rampaging full-backs or wing-backs; brains in midfield; and attackers who can combine quickly. At Leverkusen, Xhaka was absolutely central to that. At Madrid, unfortunately, Kroos and Modrić were gone and the board never gave him a Zubimendi-type player to replace that control.

I don’t think Alonso is some wild tactical revolutionary. What he did at Leverkusen, and at times at Madrid before things went sideways, was build very balanced teams that could play excellent football in different ways. That’s probably his biggest strength: adaptability.

His teams can shift between a back four, a back three, or a back five depending on the opponent and the players available. The structure matters, but he doesn’t seem dogmatic about the formation itself. He adapts to what he has.

For Chelsea, I think the key will be whether they can give him a proper Xhaka-profile player: someone who can dictate tempo, organise the team, act almost like a quarterback, and be a bit of a team dad / playing coach. Basically the kind of role Jorginho once had for Chelsea, even if the player profile isn’t identical.

So no, he isn’t Klopp 2.0. But he also isn’t some boring safety-first coach. He’s closer to a pragmatic, flexible, modern organiser who can make a team play fast, vertical and intelligent football when the pieces are right.
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Interesting comments. I always thought he was some new era tactical genius based on the press reports.
 
sglowrider said:
Interesting comments. I always thought he was some new era tactical genius based on the press reports.
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Alonso is definitely a genius in the sense that he is very intelligent, he understands football perfectly and he is very intelligent outside of the pitch as well. I think he conducted his first press conference in German after two months! That is basically unheard off.

But in my view he is not some sort of mad genius like Bielsa or Pep employing unheard of tactics. He just knows every possible tactic out there and is able to change depending his teams tactics based on his own players strengths and weaknesses as well as those of the opponents. On top of that he is smart enough to tweak things as well so his 3-4-3 or 4-4-2 would perhaps look a bit different to, for example, Mourinhos but in general the set up should be recognizable.

There is no magic, just really good foundations. I hope his players buy into his ideas and are prepared to run for each other. If they do the team will be very, very hard to beat.
 
Red Pumpkin said:
Alonso is definitely a genius in the sense that he is very intelligent, he understands football perfectly and he is very intelligent outside of the pitch as well. I think he conducted his first press conference in German after two months! That is basically unheard off.
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I think you must not have heard of Schteeve 'The Brolly' MacLaren speaking Dutch after 5 weeks?
 
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sglowrider said:
I think you must not have heard of Schteeve 'The Brolly' MacLaren speaking Dutch after 5 weeks?
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Haha, I have! And I did catch the Rashford clip the other day speaking broken English to the Spanish journalists.

To be fair to the both of them, I unconsciously do the same and I'm not even a native speaker of English. Depending on the level of who I talk to I tend to dumb it down or try to speak as fluent as possible. That includes the usage of idioms, slight pauses, different vocabulary and change of rhythm.

I can't say "that is preposterous" to someone with a weak grasp of English. It's better to say "that is crazy". Can't say "that was a fortnight ago" you'd need to say "that was 2 weeks ago" unless you want the other person to think your talking about Fortnite.
 
sglowrider said:
I think you must not have heard of Schteeve 'The Brolly' MacLaren speaking Dutch after 5 weeks?
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What about David Moyes’ perfect pronunciation of Illarremendi almost immediately after landing in San Sebastián? I think it’s fair to say British managers just have a knack for languages
 
Red Pumpkin said:
Alonso is definitely a genius in the sense that he is very intelligent, he understands football perfectly and he is very intelligent outside of the pitch as well. I think he conducted his first press conference in German after two months! That is basically unheard off.

But in my view he is not some sort of mad genius like Bielsa or Pep employing unheard of tactics. He just knows every possible tactic out there and is able to change depending his teams tactics based on his own players strengths and weaknesses as well as those of the opponents. On top of that he is smart enough to tweak things as well so his 3-4-3 or 4-4-2 would perhaps look a bit different to, for example, Mourinhos but in general the set up should be recognizable.

There is no magic, just really good foundations. I hope his players buy into his ideas and are prepared to run for each other. If they do the team will be very, very hard to beat.
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Erm...Alonso played in Germany for 3 years. Retired at Bayern Munich.
 
The heavy metal football thing has always been a bit of a myth. They played that style in the very early days of Klopp but became successful with a much watered down version of whatever it was, with a lot more control and work horses in midfield notably. It's just a sound bite to tick the box of what fans want to hear.
 
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