Arne Slot | Liverpool manager | Bald sack watch

Bosnian_fan said:
Speaking about rebuild is one thing, but it looks more likely he will be rebuilding his own rebuild.

If he actually had Kerkez, Frimpong and Isak playing at least at the level of Wirtz who himself has issues, then it would be fine.

His main issue are players signed last summer to improve team.
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I disagree. Our issue is partly that but also that senior players like Salah and Van Dijk have declined massively. Salah is a passenger most of the time and offers very little.

Mac Allister and Gravenberch have also had awful seasons. The former doesn’t even have a league goal and could barely run earlier this season.

Then you have Konate who is either very good or the worst CB in the league. Gakpo who has been so poor. I think he’s a fairly mid player tbh but for some reason we don’t win games he starts.

The new signings haven’t been amazing for the most part, but the title winners of last season haven’t been good at all. Only Szobozslai can really be give.ln any credit.

All of that is also ignoring that we’re terribly coached.
 
Klopper76 said:
I disagree. Our issue is partly that but also that senior players like Salah and Van Dijk have declined massively. Salah is a passenger most of the time and offers very little.

Mac Allister and Gravenberch have also had awful seasons. The former doesn’t even have a league goal and could barely run earlier this season.

Then you have Konate who is either very good or the worst CB in the league. Gakpo who has been so poor. I think he’s a fairly mid player tbh but for some reason we don’t win games he starts.

The new signings haven’t been amazing for the most part, but the title winners of last season haven’t been good at all. Only Szobozslai can really be give.ln any credit.

All of that is also ignoring that we’re terribly coached.
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Or... Hear me out: all of that is largely explained by terrible coaching.
 
B20 said:
Arne Slot on the possibility of missing out on the Champions League: "When I arrived here, we could only sign Federico Chiesa after a Europa League season. I'm completely aware of that."

It's just unbelievably snide. Towards the club, Klopp and Chiesa. Besides being bullshit.

I feel like @KirkDuyt should have warned us he was like this and had the same cold pragmatic approach to squad development and youngsters as Conte and Mourinho.
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Slot never really played the kids at Feyenoord either, but he won stuff so who cares :lol:

I knew he was a snide fecker though.

I'll warn the Liverpool board next time they sign a Dutch manager I promise.
 
B20 said:
Or... Hear me out: all of that is largely explained by terrible coaching.
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I don’t think coaching is responsible for Van Dijk switching off mentally, Salah physically declining to Space Jam levels, Mac Allister playing like his legs don’t work or Konate gifting goals.

It is responsible for our slow and turgid football we play.
 
KirkDuyt said:
Seriously though. Wait till he loses a few games in a row. He becomes a proper snide cnut.
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KirkDuyt said:
On Slot. Funny that England only now finds out he's actually a snide cnut, not some sort of happy camper.
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KirkDuyt said:
Slot never really played the kids at Feyenoord either, but he won stuff so who cares :lol:

I knew he was a snide fecker though.

I'll warn the Liverpool board next time they sign a Dutch manager I promise.
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I suppose you did mention it before. Still feel like you had a duty of care to us liverpudlian caftards to really make us understand what we were getting into.
 
B20 said:
I suppose you did mention it before. Still feel like you had a duty of care to us liverpudlian caftards to really make us understand what we were getting into.
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I mean, he did win you a league...

I didnt see the wheels coming off like this coming at all honestly.
 
Maluco said:
It’s the scale of the spend though compared to what they have done to the squad. It’s £450 million in one window and they only have two CBs, no depth in midfield, no wide options outside of a finished Salah and an awful Gakpo.

How can you take a PL winning side, spend that much money, and still have so many issues in the first eleven, never mind the squad?

They have signed a new CB for more money, but he will just replace Konate, who will leave for nothing. Surely they can’t have that much money left to buy two wide players, another midfielder, another CB and probably two FBs too?

I still think it’s a window that will haunt them for a long time. United are a couple of midfielders away from having a better first team and a better squad, a ridiculous notion a few years ago.
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Everything you say is correct, and I don’t really rate Slot, I think everything that could’ve gone his way last season, did. However, why isn’t Richard Hughes in front of the press? Or Michael Edwards? They signed these players.

We constantly go on in this country about the director of football model but in other countries, those guys have to speak. If they’re making signings, so they should.
 
B20 said:
Or... Hear me out: all of that is largely explained by terrible coaching.
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I'm often left wondering what people believe is the job of a coach/manager, when they list all the players who've been performing below par as if to excuse the manager.

That said, I believe the post you quoted is full of excellent reasons why Slot should remain in the job for the foreseeable future!
 
IrwinwasbetterthanCarlos said:
Everything you say is correct, and I don’t really rate Slot, I think everything that could’ve gone his way last season, did. However, why isn’t Richard Hughes in front of the press? Or Michael Edwards? They signed these players.

We constantly go on in this country about the director of football model but in other countries, those guys have to speak. If they’re making signings, so they should.
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This is true, they are the first to hide when it all goes wrong and the coaches bear the brunt of it!
 
Maluco said:
This is true, they are the first to hide when it all goes wrong and the coaches bear the brunt of it!
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IrwinwasbetterthanCarlos said:
Everything you say is correct, and I don’t really rate Slot, I think everything that could’ve gone his way last season, did. However, why isn’t Richard Hughes in front of the press? Or Michael Edwards? They signed these players.

We constantly go on in this country about the director of football model but in other countries, those guys have to speak. If they’re making signings, so they should.
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Notable first team players who left us during the summer were two defenders (Quansah and TAA) and two attackers (Nunez and Diaz), and we replaced them with three defenders (Frimpong, Kerkez, Leoni) and three attackers (Ekitiké, Wirtz, Isak). And we had all but added another CB as well if Palace own deal for a CB didn't fall through at the last moment. We left that too late and haggled too long about a mere £5m or so but imo that can only be partially blamed on our front office.

Was it perfect? Definitely not which seems crazy to say given the amount of £££ we spent, probably should've added a quality CB and just a backup striker instead of spending (too) big on Isak. But this all happened to a team who pretty much walked the league last season (also because the others weren't really up to standard but even then).

I think we could all live with Slot if he had us somewhere around where City and Villa currently are, and that's pretty standard in itself (2 points per game average which is usually needed to challenge for the league). But when you make the sum of the bad league position, the awful on-field play, and his poor remarks in pre/post game pressers, there's no reason why he should still be in this job. The quality of the players available to him is too high to be putting up this kind of displays week in week out, he has shown nothing since mid September that he's able to turn it around.

All that to say, it's not the signings, or at least not primarily. And Hughes and Edwards aren't absolved of blame either in Liverpool fan discussions as far as I can tell - maybe that's not highlighted in English media, can't comment on that.
 
RobinLFC said:
Notable first team players who left us during the summer were two defenders (Quansah and TAA) and two attackers (Nunez and Diaz), and we replaced them with three defenders (Frimpong, Kerkez, Leoni) and three attackers (Ekitiké, Wirtz, Isak). And we had all but added another CB as well if Palace own deal for a CB didn't fall through at the last moment. We left that too late and haggled too long about a mere £5m or so but imo that can only be partially blamed on our front office.

Was it perfect? Definitely not which seems crazy to say given the amount of £££ we spent, probably should've added a quality CB and just a backup striker instead of spending (too) big on Isak. But this all happened to a team who pretty much walked the league last season (also because the others weren't really up to standard but even then).

I think we could all live with Slot if he had us somewhere around where City and Villa currently are, and that's pretty standard in itself (2 points per game average which is usually needed to challenge for the league). But when you make the sum of the bad league position, the awful on-field play, and his poor remarks in pre/post game pressers, there's no reason why he should still be in this job. The quality of the players available to him is too high to be putting up this kind of displays week in week out, he has shown nothing since mid September that he's able to turn it around.

All that to say, it's not the signings, or at least not primarily. And Hughes and Edwards aren't absolved of blame either in Liverpool fan discussions as far as I can tell - maybe that's not highlighted in English media, can't comment on that.
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Lots of issues with this part though. All the energy was taken out of the attack, and it was replaced by two strikers who can’t really play together.

A right back who isn’t really a comfortable right back, and a centre back who was very inexperienced to be expected to contribute right away.

All of this has resulted in chaos at right back, a player who wants to leave playing every game at CB, no proper defensive midfielder, Gakpo playing way too many minutes, your best number 10 deployed at right back, Ekitike unsettled after a strong start and Salah’s decline with no one to step in.

It’s as close to a disaster as possible for 450 million and you wouldn’t want to be trusting those responsible with any more money. It’s not all bad. I think Ekitike and Wirtz will be brilliant given time, but there has been a massive wastage of the Coutinho money and the squad planning has been terrible.

How can you not have the squad for all competitions after spending 450 million on a title winning team? It’s hard to excuse them.
 
Rewind 6 months. They’d smashed the epl and spent 500m on Isak, Wirtz, Kerkez, Frimpong and Ekitike

Everyone. Literally everyone…thought they were just gonna carry on and arguably be even more dominant this season.

Teams have dropped off before… but I can’t think of many from 1 season to the next that have fallen quite so far. I know they’re only 6th. But people had them so far ahead even before the new signings
 
Pughnichi said:
Rewind 6 months. They’d smashed the epl and spent 500m on Isak, Wirtz, Kerkez, Frimpong and Ekitike

Everyone. Literally everyone…thought they were just gonna carry on and arguably be even more dominant this season.

Teams have dropped off before… but I can’t think of many from 1 season to the next that have fallen quite so far. I know they’re only 6th. But people had them so far ahead even before the new signings
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I didn’t.

Not going to claim to be some Nostradamus that saw them being THIS bad, but I didn’t think they’d win the league. Everything went for them last season, certainly til the title was done and dusted. That happens, that’s football. Doesn’t happen two seasons running. Though I admit, I was raging at the injustice of those 5 wins at the start… Newcastle battered them with 10 men.
 
Maluco said:
Lots of issues with this part though. All the energy was taken out of the attack, and it was replaced by two strikers who can’t really play together.

A right back who isn’t really a comfortable right back, and a centre back who was very inexperienced to be expected to contribute right away.

All of this has resulted in chaos at right back, a player who wants to leave playing every game at CB, no proper defensive midfielder, Gakpo playing way too many minutes, your best number 10 deployed at right back, Ekitike unsettled after a strong start and Salah’s decline with no one to step in.

It’s as close to a disaster as possible for 450 million and you wouldn’t want to be trusting those responsible with any more money. It’s not all bad. I think Ekitike and Wirtz will be brilliant given time, but there has been a massive wastage of the Coutinho money and the squad planning has been terrible.

How can you not have the squad for all competitions after spending 450 million on a title winning team? It’s hard to excuse them.
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Right back was the obvious one from the get go. Frimpong is one of those weird players like Marcos Alonso, Di Marco and possibly Porro, that’s a wing back. Not a full back, not a winger, but a specialist wing back. To attempt to just stick him in as the right back in a back 4, in this version of the Premier League when he’s about 4’11”, was ludicrous.

Watched them opening day against Bournemouth and he got completely bullied off the ball by David Brooks, a waif of a winger that’s beaten cancer twice. Players like Semenyo, Sarr, Mbeumo, Outtara would just road grade him.
 
Pughnichi said:
Rewind 6 months. They’d smashed the epl and spent 500m on Isak, Wirtz, Kerkez, Frimpong and Ekitike

Everyone. Literally everyone…thought they were just gonna carry on and arguably be even more dominant this season.

Teams have dropped off before… but I can’t think of many from 1 season to the next that have fallen quite so far. I know they’re only 6th. But people had them so far ahead even before the new signings
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There were some, myself included, that pointed to their shortcomings of last season, and that so many big signings in such a short time rarely works.

It seemed like he won with a team on autopilot more than anything, like France reaching the WC final in 2006 had virtually nothing to do with Raymond Domenech.

I still think Slot is more EtH than anything
 
IrwinwasbetterthanCarlos said:
Right back was the obvious one from the get go. Frimpong is one of those weird players like Marcos Alonso, Di Marco and possibly Porro, that’s a wing back. Not a full back, not a winger, but a specialist wing back. To attempt to just stick him in as the right back in a back 4, in this version of the Premier League when he’s about 4’11”, was ludicrous.

Watched them opening day against Bournemouth and he got completely bullied off the ball by David Brooks, a waif of a winger that’s beaten cancer twice. Players like Semenyo, Sarr, Mbeumo, Outtara would just road grade him.
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I really do think it raises eyebrows. Like what was the actual plan with him? What was the plan with Isak/Etikite? Were they expecting the two CBs to play every game? Is Gakpo actually rated at the club? So many questions about their planning.
 
IrwinwasbetterthanCarlos said:
I didn’t.

Not going to claim to be some Nostradamus that saw them being THIS bad, but I didn’t think they’d win the league. Everything went for them last season, certainly til the title was done and dusted. That happens, that’s football. Doesn’t happen two seasons running. Though I admit, I was raging at the injustice of those 5 wins at the start… Newcastle battered them with 10 men.
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Haha. Chill out Michel

I didn’t quite explain myself properly. I was referring to media really. Regardless of platform, Liverpool were gonna be unstoppable.

I am sure there were some off the mob (as Aluko would refer to us) that could see their demise on the way. Just ashamed to admit I wasn’t one of them
 
Maluco said:
I really do think it raises eyebrows. Like what was the actual plan with him? What was the plan with Isak/Etikite? Were they expecting the two CBs to play every game? Is Gakpo actually rated at the club? So many questions about their planning.
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The CB thing is really weird, because they did basically the exact same thing the last time they won the league, and it backfired then too.

They won the league with van Dijk, Gomez, Matip and Lovren as their CB options, knew Matip and Gomez were injury prone, sold Lovren, and brought in no one.

Last season, they won the league with van Dijk, Konate, Quansah and Gomez as their CB options, knew Gomez was injury prone, Konate had one eye on the exit, knew age could catch up to van Dijk, sold Quansah, and brought in no one.
 
Their title win last season had a lot of echoes of Fergie’s final title win. That was the last hurrah of our great 07-09 team, in the same way it was for their title and CL winning side. Propelled by the goals of a world class forward giving his last great season with a really weak field chasing, title all but secured by Christmas.

As for Slot, whilst following Klopp was a big ask, he inherited a team that was very well drilled with a defence that had played together for years. I can imagine playing for Klopp long term must be exhausting as I’m sure he was incredibly demanding, so coming in and just being a bit more chill is probably what the squad wanted and needed, certainly in the short term.

Reminds me of Martinez taking over from Moyes. For 6 months the players enjoyed being left off the leash, but then the lack of all those boring defensive drills Moyes had them doing started to bite and it fell apart.

The only thing he did that impressed me was moving Gravenberch, but even that I think opposition managers worked out how to combat.
 
Alex99 said:
The CB thing is really weird, because they did basically the exact same thing the last time they won the league, and it backfired then too.

They won the league with van Dijk, Gomez, Matip and Lovren as their CB options, knew Matip and Gomez were injury prone, sold Lovren, and brought in no one.

Last season, they won the league with van Dijk, Konate, Quansah and Gomez as their CB options, knew Gomez was injury prone, Konate had one eye on the exit, knew age could catch up to van Dijk, sold Quansah, and brought in no one.
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It really is mad to be that negligent at that level. They then had the chance to correct it in January and brought someone in for the summer!
 
I think he’s gone at the end of the season if they can bring in Alonso. He’s a club legend and would get time to rebuild the team.
 
How many more losses will it take for him to join the Premier League scrap heap?
 
Tactical masterclas yesterday. Great trainer, lovely guy, shiny dome.

Never doubted you Arne.
 
He’s not going anywhere. He won them a prem and they will most likely qualify for the champions league.
 
It's nice to see the shite manager luck has moved to Liverpool. Let's hope Pep fecks off and they bring in a dud, too.
 
Absolutely shite.

We've been lucky with quite a few recent games and how they ended up, performances have been a disgrace.
 
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