Don't know. On the face of it I'd be happy with him. Heard people say he loves his slow football as well though. Haven't watched enough to know but if that's true it'd put me off him.
Arne Slot | Liverpool manager | Bald sack watch
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In the latest edition of the United Hour Podcast, we interview Duncan Drasdo of MUST - covering ticket prices, new stadium, INEOS and what fans should be demanding from our club.
Also, due to technical issues we couldn't put a notice up for the previous episode which was about the game against Bournemouth and other stuff. If you'd like to listen to it, click here.
I still think it was a very weak season last year, Arsenal had their worst season out of the last 4 or 5 years and City probably had their worst season ever under Guardiola but yeah with the way you started the campaign you'd have likely won the title even if City were their usual winning machine selves. That's fair enough.
It is quite amazing the similarities between Slot and ETH. Our first season was good under ETH but you look back now and can see the cracks starting to show, particularly towards the end of the season. We won a lot of tight games with Rashford scoring the winner but the following season when Rashford tailed off dramatically we struggled badly. Much like you with Salah.
This season you look very similar to us in 2nd season under ETH. You even have the same tactic of playing with a giant gap in the middle of the pitch where the opposition can just take control easily.
You did very well to get the points on the board last season, but I said it back then that the pattern of a lot of your games was you being on the ropes then getting a goal (or two in quick succession) from almost nowhere. A lot of your wins this season have followed a very similar pattern, you've just not managed it anywhere near as often because the overall performance level has dropped.
Your results flattered the performances a few times, but you built a wave of momentum that carried you through much of the campaign (which is to your credit). This season, the results have caught up.
Given that your actual final standings last season were the worst of any league winner since Leicester in 2015/16 and would have seen you finish 3rd in five of the other eight seasons between, and that you finished 10 points clear of 2nd despite Arsenal gaining five points on you in the final four games (after you'd secured the title and were on the beach), I don't think it's particularly unfair to suggest the lack of competition definitely helped.
You talk about the wins against the run of play this season, but who knows, if you'd manage to follow last season's habits properly, maybe you'd have built a similar head of steam. The three games you lost against Palace, Chelsea and United are exactly the sort of games you turned on their heads with two quick goals last season.
I am not quite sure I recognise that image from last season. For the most part, we deserved to win the games we won, and didn't win the ones we didn't deserve to win. That was also mostly borne out by xG from game to game. It is true that we were quite opportunistic at times, but even with our opportunistic approach we still did more than the opposition to win it in those games, in terms of creating chances and controlling games. There's been no opportunism this season, and I suppose this is why Slot is constantly moaning about the low block making it difficult for us to win game. Last season, we were comfortable with conceding possession to good effect and we are not this season.
We definitely took our foot off the pedal at the tail end of the season, and that is obviously because there was no one in touching distance to worry us, so in that sense it made winning the title easier. I don't think we'd have struggled to see it home either way if Arsenal had tried a bit harder to stay close though.
Slot talks a lot about undeserved losses this season, but I think the pattern overall has been that we've actually won more points than we deserve. And thoroughly deserve to drop the points we've dropped. Also from October onwards. I did a quick look just to see if that is borne out, and and xgstats has us with 4 points fewer xPts than our actual tally.
If you got him in i think he could do a good job for two years at least. He may need one year to build the team though and get them playing the way he wants.
That was the case up until november or so.
Since then, we've morphed into a dystopian version of Van Gaal's final season, with lots and lots of possession, at a pedestrian pace and zero risc apetite.
With the signings that where made, Liverpool should be an all action attacking beast. Obviously hasn't worked out that way.
We're basically reliant on set pieces and Ekitike or Wirtz pulling rabbits out of the hat for our goals now. There's nothing in our collective patterns of play to produce goals. Every team we play is better organised and fitter than we are.
Well, you've got your Liverpool-fan specs on and I've got my United-fan specs on, so we've obviously got our own biases at play.
I've admittedly not watched you very much outside of our matches, but I did follow the likes of Sky Sports News, etc. and I lost track of the number of times they'd be talking about how well your opponent was doing, only for you to score (often twice) not long after, and that was true from the opening game against Ipswich.
I'm also not really saying you weren't good for the points you won, but that it probably wouldn't have felt particularly unjust if some of those games had ended with you dropping points. The opportunism you mention seemed like it paid off every single time and, as mentioned, was something that regularly turned a fairly even match into one that you were completely on top in. It's basically an element of luck that ran out for you very quickly this season and caused you to revert to a more conservative approach, where the confidence was flowing for much of last season, which was further helped by never really having to look over your shoulder.
Replace Ekitike and Wirtz with Rashford and Fernandes and this sounds like a post that could've been written by a United fan a few different seasons the past six years.
You'd have to scrap set pieces from the sentence.
I think you could have scrapped it for us as well if not for Szoboslai. He is the set piece strategy.
From self proclaiming himself to be a super coach last season to the latest clown out of his depth this season
Slot has been poor this season and Liverpool are underperforming, no doubt about that. However if you look at Liverpool over the past 6-7 years you'll see that one player that made them really special is pretty much finished at the top level and others like VVD are on their way out or have moved on. Yes, they've spent a lot of money in the summer, but it never guaranteed that they'll have been able to keep their insane levels and standards up after losing such integral players to it.
It's like expecting your old car to perform as new, even if you do change around some components around it, it's never going to be that car again because the engine is failing.
It's like expecting your old car to perform as new, even if you do change around some components around it, it's never going to be that car again because the engine is failing.
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Their success was built on the foundations of a workhorse in midfield and an excellent attack, led by Mo Salah. Van Dijk and Alisson were the final pieces of the puzzle and that's what got them over the line to start winning things. I'd probably add Alexander-Arnold and Robertson in there as very good supporting members of the team.
It's been over a decade now since Klopp came in and things started to change for them, so it's no wonder that they're no longer the force they were.
Most of their "peak" side (including the manager) has gone, and those that remain are simply in the twilight years of their career. Alisson is 33, van Dijk 34, Robertson 31, and Salah 33. Even Gomez is 28, and he's been crocked half the time so is unlikely to have the same sort of longevity.
Current signs are that they've not manged the rebuild particularly well.
If anyone can vouch to money/galactico signings not necessarily translating on the pitch, it's us. There are never any guarantees.
Just on this, the fact your xG would be good doesn't really counter Alex's point regarding creating chances/goals in quick succession - that's exactly what the xG would reflect, rather than your overall performances.
Tbf playing well in spurts while being pedestrian or looking inferior to the opponent was trademark Fergie zombie football circa 11-13. It’s just a natural product of having your team filled with quality winners who aren’t quite there physically anymore.
I agree. I've said many times that Liverpool's league win last year reminded me a lot of SAF's last league win, with Van Persie instead of Salah. And it was considered to be one of our "lesser" league wins, I'd say.
I always remember going to Old Trafford in 2012 to go and watch us play QPR. We were absolutely shite all game apart from a 10 minute period in the 2nd half where we suddenly came to life and scored 3 goals. Then we went right back to looking shite. Won the game 3-1.
That happened all the time in that 11-13 period.
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Yes. My point wasn't that they weren't worth the wins by the final whistle, but that the games were very much in the balance right up until they capitalised on basically their first good opportunity. Teams simply do not score close to most of their half-decent chances, but it felt like Liverpool did exactly that in many games last season, but have perhaps been on the other end of that a lot more this season.
A lot of the xG timelines of their matches from last season support that, with them being quite close right up until they grabbed their first goal, often swiftly followed by another with the very next chance.
To their credit, they were very clinical, and they were also quite good at hitting back fairly quickly when conceding.
They were definitely worth the league last season, and I think the comparisons to our final two or three seasons under Fergie are quite good, as we did a lot of scoring in bursts then.
I’ve made the comparison myself a good few times, and similarly we had absolutely no challengers that season too.
The moment Wolves opened up and went for it after the 3 subs, both teams looked evenly matched attacking wise.
This has to be a worry for Liverpool, as this is what Slot did early in the season and it soon got found out after fluking the first few games, and clearly how he wants his team to play.
What also has to be a worry is the way Slot keeps saying the same things after games like this, which is basically they were unlucky, and the opposition had few chances yet still won, etc.
This has to be a worry for Liverpool, as this is what Slot did early in the season and it soon got found out after fluking the first few games, and clearly how he wants his team to play.
What also has to be a worry is the way Slot keeps saying the same things after games like this, which is basically they were unlucky, and the opposition had few chances yet still won, etc.
Can’t blame him. Spurs were only missing 14 players and that took Liverpool off their game.
Set them up for failure by over rotating the front line.
If they get Champions League qualification, and move into next round, its the right call though
If they get Champions League qualification, and move into next round, its the right call though
Just a real idiot starting the game with that attacking lineup. It’s an insult and Spurs were rightly encouraged by it.
He is making sure he won’t be there next season. I think Gala will fancy themselves to go through too.
He is making sure he won’t be there next season. I think Gala will fancy themselves to go through too.
Getting a point at Anfield against Spurs is quite good.
Hahahaha
They are so so bad. Half of their team has no legs at all. He might actually get sacked this summer.
He needs sacking now. With alacrity. Worry about interrim afterwards.
Still won them number 20...
I wonder if he still gets the sack even if they get top 5 at this point. They seem to have lost faith in him.
Salah did.
Ornstein said the club are behind him.
. I’m not sure the Liverpool fans will be at this rate .Can't see him being Liverpool manager next season. But also don't think he'll be gone before May. Two more months, try to finish in top 5 and do something in CL and Fa Cup. Even if he fails, departure won't happen before seasons ends. They probably think that's fair after the title last season.
Spurs were crap. Liverpool were even worse.