Arne Slot | Liverpool manager | Bald sack watch

[RobinLFC]

I'm not acting like you play PSG every week.
Look at your last 3 league games against Wolves, Spurs and Brighton. You scored a fortunate goal in all three of them and were lucky not to concede more. One point flattered you.

Why are you talking about the potential mentality of other teams and ignoring your own? The players have stopped playing for the manager. Van Dijk literally admitted that you gave up against Man City last weekend.

How confident are you that you'll beat Fulham? They have been resting for weeks whereas you've just taking a pasting in France a few days ago.

We could beat them 3-0 or we could get beaten 0-3, so I genuinely don't have a clue. If pretty much every game could go either way, I'd say my projection of 10 points out of 21 is fair. The only extremely likely game we're losing out of those remaining is United away and even that is a game where form usually goes out of the window.

 

[Anustart89]

Klopp left Slot an aging group of players. Slot has the huge task of rebuilding the team. I think he is doing a fantastic job. Pools fans should be grateful and give him a new 5 years contract.

That should really be the club’s job and the problem is that the hierarchy doesn’t seem to understand what they were good at under Klopp.

Sold the hard workers and replaced them with tippy tappy players, two of which cost close to £250m in transfer fees alone while not working towards a succession plan for van Dijk and Salah. Long may it continue.

 

[FrankDrebin]

He'll be gone in the summer and Alonso will replace him. I can't see beyond this scenario really.

 

[iHicksy]

Klopp left Slot an aging group of players. Slot has the huge task of rebuilding the team. I think he is doing a fantastic job. Pools fans should be grateful and give him a new 5 years contract.

Absolutely this. Just like when Fergie retired. What Liverpool need to make sure they do is avoid United's mistake of getting rid of their David Moyes too soon. If Moyes had stayed i'm sure United would have dominated English football for the foreseeable future, given the money and time. Pool should look at how United still haven't found the right manager and use that as inspiration to invest in Slot.

Personally i'd give him a new contract to solidify in the player's minds that he has the backing of the board. You're quoting me aren't you you silly goose, this was in jest.

 

[Steve 007]

I saw last night that Konate is on the verge of signing a new contract. They have Jeremy Jacquet coming too, so they are pretty sorted for centre backs in theory.

The way they are playing right now they will likely not be in Europe next season so they won't have the money or the need to bring in lots of new players for next season.

Konate is nowhere near good enough. He’s 26 so he’s a mature enough player. His standards and the amount of mistakes he’s made this season do not warrant a starting role. He’s there as they have no choice. They likely will be in Europe as Chelsea are so bad too.

 

[RobinLFC]

That should really be the club’s job and the problem is that the hierarchy doesn’t seem to understand what they were good at under Klopp.

Sold the hard workers and replaced them with tippy tappy players, two of which cost close to £250m in transfer fees alone while not working towards a succession plan for van Dijk and Salah. Long may it continue.

I don't entirely agree with that.

Van Dijk:
- We signed Leoni who we deemed good enough that we didn't want to loan him out again, but he tore his ACL early in the season.
- We actually agreed a deal with Palace for Guehi but they backed out because of issues on their part. Blame can be partially put on Liverpool because we fecked around too long for a mere £5m for such an important position, but we were after him and did agree a deal so there's that.
- Signed Jacquet for next season.
- Working towards a contract extension with Konate.

And that's only the things that we know off, there's also rumours about getting Quansah back for example. While one might argue it's not enough, it's also definitely not "not working towards a succession play for Van Dijk".

Salah, I think the consensus was all along that you can't replace him like for like so I think we tried to spread the goals out over multiple incomings, i.e. Isak and Ekitike, Wirtz to a lesser extent. Obviously if we thought Salah worthy enough of another big contract, we expected him to be at top level as well at the very least for this season, so an immediate replacement at RW wasn't the top priority and that wasn't necessarily wrong imo. Right now we're already linked with wingers like Diomande and Touré as incomings (not sure how reliable those are tbh) and bigger names like Barcola and even Olise (both not realistic imo). So seems like we first wanted to bring in more goals and still counted on Salah (as evidenced by his new contract), and are now looking for replacements on the wing given his drop-off and departure.

In hindsight we had far from a perfect summer but at the time it looked like good incomings, even though quite a lot on here pointed out that it might've impacted the balance of the team. Which has happened, to be fair, but (and that's my opinion) a lot of that is down to Slot and him not having the slightest clue how to incorporate the players and make them play together with a clear vision. If the rest of the team was up to their previous level, the new signings might've had an easier time settling in. Jury is still out whether they're all just not as good as they previously played, or it's the manager that's making them play that badly. I am firmly in the latter camp since it's too much of a coincidence that all of them are awful at the moment, and for me Slot is the main culprit, he just doesn't have a clue what he's doing and everyone suffers because of it.

I disagree that our squad is aging or too old, even when Klopp left us. What we could be lining up as next season:

Marmadashvilli (25)
Bradley (23) Jacquet (21) Van Dijk (35) Kerkez (23)
Gravenberch (24)
Szoboszlai (25) Wirtz (23)
Frimpong (25) Isak (26) Ekitiké (24)
​

That's no starter over the age of 25 at the start of the season apart from Van Dijk. And that's with the likes of Konate, Leoni, Mac Allister, Gakpo, Jones, Ngumoha all on the bench and under 27 years old. Not saying they'll all start in those positions and/or are good enough as a regular starter in a PL title challenging team (Frimpong, Gravenberch as pure DM, fullbacks, even GK unsure), but there'll be new signings as well and this is definitely a squad that's up for improvements UNDER THE RIGHT MANAGER. If we get another one in who does as badly or even worse as Slot, then we'll have to admit that all of those players are probably not as good as we (as Liverpool fans) thought them to be, but as of now, I am definitely holding out hope for that squad, it's imo Slot who's doing the damage here.

 

[MaMa given red]

We could beat them 3-0 or we could get beaten 0-3, so I genuinely don't have a clue. If pretty much every game could go either way, I'd say my projection of 10 points out of 21 is fair. The only extremely likely game we're losing out of those remaining is United away and even that is a game where form usually goes out of the window.

They are far more likely to win 3-0 than you are. You've only scored 3 goals in your last 5 games.

How many points did you expect to pick up in March from games against Wolves, Spurs and Brighton? I'm guessing it was more than 1?

What you don't seem to be acknowledging is that this is a team that have given up. There's no fight in them whatsoever. You look more like a team in a relegation battle than a Champions League place battle.

 

[Berbasbullet]

What are you basing this on though?

They look all over the place defensively and can't score goals. I'd be amazed if they pick up more than five points from their remaining seven games.

They’ll win home games and the teams below them won’t overtake them. They probably have a new caretaker manager bounce in a weeks time.

 

[MaMa given red]

Konate is nowhere near good enough. He’s 26 so he’s a mature enough player. His standards and the amount of mistakes he’s made this season do not warrant a starting role. He’s there as they have no choice. They likely will be in Europe as Chelsea are so bad too.

I think he's very hit and miss.

I don't think Chelsea will be in Europe either. There's only 7 points separating 5th to 13th.

 

[RobinLFC]

They are far more likely to win 3-0 than you are. You've only scored 3 goals in your last 5 games.

How many points did you expect to pick up in March from games against Wolves, Spurs and Brighton? I'm guessing it was more than 1?

What you don't seem to be acknowledging is that this is a team that have given up. There's no fight in them whatsoever. You look more like a team in a relegation battle than a Champions League place battle.

They are not, as evidenced by the betting odds. Good thing is we’ll find out soon enough which one of us was closer to reality!

 

[Steve Bruce]

https://www.teamtalk.com/liverpool/...ournos-saying-same-liverpool-decision-reached

I don't know how great these journos are with liverpool but in this article teamtalk have put together what they think is the top 5 journos and state that one is the most reliable when it comes to liverpool and they all suggest Slot is staying and he has credit in the bank still. So hopefully this is true

 

[Raul Madrid]

Imo city, arsenal and Liverpool are the best run clubs in pl. They have maintained competitiveness and the cl. United imo prove that it is not easy to stay competitive as they have spent lots of money and have struggled for consistency . United have backed managers though and some have done well in short term.

 

[RobinLFC]

Imo city, arsenal and Liverpool are the best run clubs in pl. They have maintained competitiveness and the cl. United imo prove that it is not easy to stay competitive as they have spent lots of money and have struggled for consistency . United have backed managers though and some have done well in short term.

We did so under Klopp and the first season after he left when the structure and players might still have been in place from under his leadership. Apart from that, not much "best run club" about us before and after his tenure. It's still more likely that FSG are your regular US owners who lucked out with an all-time great manager hire rather than them being actual great owners.

 

[Raul Madrid]

We did so under Klopp and the first season after he left when the structure and players might still have been in place from under his leadership. Apart from that, not much "best run club" about us before and after his tenure. It's still more likely that FSG are your regular US owners who lucked out with an all-time great manager hire rather than them being actual great owners.

This isn't the best comparison but madrid and barca success has mostly come with all time great coaches like Mourinho, guardiola, Enrique, ancelotti and Zidanetoo. Flick is a great coach that won a treble with bayern too. The reason I say its not the best comparison is because they maintain cl more easily than Liverpool and arsenal. That may be down to the pl being more competitive. Madrid and barca have generally had more money than Liverpool and arsenal and that is rhe reason for their success.

Rodgers and slot both did well and won or came close to winning. Imo you for the most part are well run unless klopp left behind enough for Liverpool to win. We will see guess. Klopp seems selective of hos clubs and he said Liverpool had good players and a good structure in place in the book believe us by melissa reddy and that is why he joined them.

 

[golden_blunder]

They are far more likely to win 3-0 than you are. You've only scored 3 goals in your last 5 games.

How many points did you expect to pick up in March from games against Wolves, Spurs and Brighton? I'm guessing it was more than 1?

What you don't seem to be acknowledging is that this is a team that have given up. There's no fight in them whatsoever. You look more like a team in a relegation battle than a Champions League place battle.

Look at United with Amorim and without. A management change can have a huge effect. We’d be down with spurs again for the second season in a row if Amorim had stayed

 

[NewGlory]

The way they're spunking money on players and throwing out silly contracts gives some hope they're not that smart.

Agree the last Summer transfers ended up being pretty horrible. In their defense -- don't think anybody could have predicted it. The quality of Wirtz, Ekitiké, Isak, Frimpong, Kerkez, and Mamardashvili are beyond reproach. Some of them may (probably will) still turn the corner, but their integration has taken a while. I don't follow Liverpool, unless they play us (or hear things from my annoying Liverpool fan friends), but their poor integration can be as much on Slot + toxic environment in the dressing room as anything related to recruitement.

My best guess is Slot is unable to deal with egos of some underperforming big stars, such as Mo Salah and VVD, which is affecting the whole squad, possibly disproportionally so the new arrivals?

United’s recent transfer activity has been a lot better than Liverpool’s, both in terms of bringing players in and removing players.

You mean _resutls_ have been better. We haven't signed better players, our results have been better, which means the integration of players has been better, and to be fair - ONLY because we sacked our manager and brought-in the steady-hands-Carrick. We were NOT better than Liverpool, under Amorim

Come again? A competent club would have signed a CB last summer, or not spend the amount they did last summer.

They did sign a CB - Giovanni Leoni. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL in September and ended his season, which can happen to anybody, and is nobody's fault, really

I'm not so sure many Pool fans would agree. Certainly a couple of my mates that support them don't particularly care for who runs them, even taking into account the title last season.

Yeah I have such Liverpool-fan friends, as well. I remind them of 30 years of no premiership titles, until FSG took them over and won them two EPL titles, and a Champions League. I know FSG are not perfect, but they are *universally* recognized as amazing negotiators in the transfer market. Some signings work, some don't but comparing their competence to the shit-show of Glazers, or still-questionable INEOS rule...

As recently as last summer, INEOS's top striker choice was Delap, and we only got Sesko, because Delap snubbed us. Similarly, they were not going to sign any goalkeeper, leaving us to the mercy of fecking Onana, until the last second.

I believe what we are seeing is that - Wilcox is UTTERLY incompetent, but we thankfully have Chris Vivell, who is very competent, especially in signing young prospects, so depending who wins we see mixed results. Also, we do need some experienced players, where Vivell seems to have less say

 

[IrwinwasbetterthanCarlos]

Imo city, arsenal and Liverpool are the best run clubs in pl. They have maintained competitiveness and the cl. United imo prove that it is not easy to stay competitive as they have spent lots of money and have struggled for consistency . United have backed managers though and some have done well in short term.

They were, they’re not now. I think City started going backwards when Txiki decided he was going to leave. Their transfer dealings have been wildly hit, and often miss, in the last few seasons. Phillips, Gonzalez, Grealish, Nunes and Marmoush. That’s over a quarter of a billion on not very much.

As for Liverpool, they got Klopp, which was huge, but they also got a bit lucky in the transfer market. Coutinho (who was always wildly overrated) paid for Van Dijk and Alisson and I don’t care how good their data was, no one saw Salah being what he became. They’ve not been great lately, because the investment this summer should’ve been done over 2 or 3 seasons. They let the team age out, much like we did between 2008 and 2013.

 

[MaMa given red]

Look at United with Amorim and without. A management change can have a huge effect. We’d be down with spurs again for the second season in a row if Amorim had stayed

That's one example.
Look at Spurs with Ange, then Frank, then Tudor.
Look at us with Ten Hag then Amorim.
Look at Chelsea with Maresca then Rosenior.

Making a change doesn't always mean things get better. If you make the wrong change, you get worse!

 

[golden_blunder]

That's one example.
Look at Spurs with Ange, then Frank, then Tudor.
Look at us with Ten Hag then Amorim.
Look at Chelsea with Maresca then Rosenior.

Making a change doesn't always mean things get better. If you make the wrong change, you get worse!

Personally I think Chelsea did the wrong thing with maresca.
We and Spurs should have known better with those appointments

 

[Posh Red]

Agree the last Summer transfers ended up being pretty horrible. In their defense -- don't think anybody could have predicted it. The quality of Wirtz, Ekitiké, Isak, Frimpong, Kerkez, and Mamardashvili are beyond reproach. Some of them may (probably will) still turn the corner, but their integration has taken a while. I don't follow Liverpool, unless they play us (or hear things from my annoying Liverpool fan friends), but their poor integration can be as much on Slot + toxic environment in the dressing room as anything related to recruitement.

My best guess is Slot is unable to deal with egos of some underperforming big stars, such as Mo Salah and VVD, which is affecting the whole squad, possibly disproportionally so the new arrivals?


You mean _resutls_ have been better. We haven't signed better players, our results have been better, which means the integration of players has been better, and to be fair - ONLY because we sacked our manager and brought-in the steady-hands-Carrick. We were NOT better than Liverpool, under Amorim

They did sign a CB - Giovanni Leoni. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL in September and ended his season, which can happen to anybody, and is nobody's fault, really


Yeah I have such Liverpool-fan friends, as well. I remind them of 30 years of no premiership titles, until FSG took them over and won them two EPL titles, and a Champions League. I know FSG are not perfect, but they are *universally* recognized as amazing negotiators in the transfer market. Some signings work, some don't but comparing their competence to the shit-show of Glazers, or still-questionable INEOS rule...

As recently as last summer, INEOS's top striker choice was Delap, and we only got Sesko, because Delap snubbed us. Similarly, they were not going to sign any goalkeeper, leaving us to the mercy of fecking Onana, until the last second.

I believe what we are seeing is that - Wilcox is UTTERLY incompetent, but we thankfully have Chris Vivell, who is very competent, especially in signing young prospects, so depending who wins we see mixed results. Also, we do need some experienced players, where Vivell seems to have less say

It’s not just about quality. It’s about getting the right profiles in for the squad needs. United have been better than Liverpool at that lately.

 

[B20]

FLUSH. THE. TURD.

 

[NewGlory]

It’s not just about quality. It’s about getting the right profiles in for the squad needs. United have been better than Liverpool at that lately.

Right.

I assume you mean paying most of our summer budget for two #10s, for Amorim who stupidly moved Bruno to deep midfield, and needed two new #10s. Only to sack Amorim and now we don't know what to do with Cunha and Mbeumo, half of the time, playing them out of position

 

[Posh Red]

Right.

I assume you mean paying most of our summer budget for two #10s, for Amorim who stupidly moved Bruno to deep midfield, and needed two new #10s. Only to sack Amorim and now we don't know what to do with Cunha and Mbeumo, half of the time, playing them out of position

No. I mean spending money on premier league proven attackers and a new goal keeper as they were very clearly our biggest areas of need.

Liverpool spent huge amounts on two players to fit the exact same role, abother hundred million on a player who didn’t even have a natural role in their team, an neglected the gaping hole in their defence.

 

[always_hoping]

Out of Europe out without a whimper. The defeat tonight confirms a trophy less season after spending 500 million in the summer.

 

[Lay]

He persists with Mac Allister who is fecking woeful. Not sure why he keeps starting unless they have no one else

 

[IrwinwasbetterthanCarlos]

Four more years! Four more years!

 

[Superunknown]

He just needs time. Another 3 more years should do it.

I recommend them to switch to 3-4-3 and to put Wirtz in that two-man midfield.

 

[Sandikan]

Right.

I assume you mean paying most of our summer budget for two #10s, for Amorim who stupidly moved Bruno to deep midfield, and needed two new #10s. Only to sack Amorim and now we don't know what to do with Cunha and Mbeumo, half of the time, playing them out of position

Or alternatively we've moved from a team who finished 15th to one currently sat in 3rd, hugely down to the attacking signings.

In case you forgot we had an attack of Garnacho, Zirkzee, Hojlund and Amad last season.
Absolutely criminal squad management.

 

[thegregster]

Not really Slots fault all these average players dont have Salah to bail them out this season.

 

[djembatheking]

 

[thisisnottaken1]

Or alternatively we've moved from a team who finished 15th to one currently sat in 3rd, hugely down to the attacking signings.

In case you forgot we had an attack of Garnacho, Zirkzee, Hojlund and Amad last season.
Absolutely criminal squad management.

Exactly. Our attack last season was genuinely bottom half.

 

[Judas]

You've got to allow this managers time. He's earned the right to keep up the good fight. He's won as many titles as Klopp in England, he's quite clearly something incredibly special.

 

[Abizzz]

He gave them their first and only top flight league title in front of fans in my life time. Deserves a new contract.

 

[SilentWitness]

Please Everton, for once in my life put a nail in a coffin.

 

[DarkLord1984]

They should give Slot another couple of years and go for Shelvey once he leaves.

 

[whitbyviking]

I don't entirely agree with that.

Van Dijk:
- We signed Leoni who we deemed good enough that we didn't want to loan him out again, but he tore his ACL early in the season.
- We actually agreed a deal with Palace for Guehi but they backed out because of issues on their part. Blame can be partially put on Liverpool because we fecked around too long for a mere £5m for such an important position, but we were after him and did agree a deal so there's that.
- Signed Jacquet for next season.
- Working towards a contract extension with Konate.

And that's only the things that we know off, there's also rumours about getting Quansah back for example. While one might argue it's not enough, it's also definitely not "not working towards a succession play for Van Dijk".

Salah, I think the consensus was all along that you can't replace him like for like so I think we tried to spread the goals out over multiple incomings, i.e. Isak and Ekitike, Wirtz to a lesser extent. Obviously if we thought Salah worthy enough of another big contract, we expected him to be at top level as well at the very least for this season, so an immediate replacement at RW wasn't the top priority and that wasn't necessarily wrong imo. Right now we're already linked with wingers like Diomande and Touré as incomings (not sure how reliable those are tbh) and bigger names like Barcola and even Olise (both not realistic imo). So seems like we first wanted to bring in more goals and still counted on Salah (as evidenced by his new contract), and are now looking for replacements on the wing given his drop-off and departure.

In hindsight we had far from a perfect summer but at the time it looked like good incomings, even though quite a lot on here pointed out that it might've impacted the balance of the team. Which has happened, to be fair, but (and that's my opinion) a lot of that is down to Slot and him not having the slightest clue how to incorporate the players and make them play together with a clear vision. If the rest of the team was up to their previous level, the new signings might've had an easier time settling in. Jury is still out whether they're all just not as good as they previously played, or it's the manager that's making them play that badly. I am firmly in the latter camp since it's too much of a coincidence that all of them are awful at the moment, and for me Slot is the main culprit, he just doesn't have a clue what he's doing and everyone suffers because of it.

I disagree that our squad is aging or too old, even when Klopp left us. What we could be lining up as next season:

Marmadashvilli (25)
Bradley (23) Jacquet (21) Van Dijk (35) Kerkez (23)
Gravenberch (24)
Szoboszlai (25) Wirtz (23)
Frimpong (25) Isak (26) Ekitiké (24)
​

That's no starter over the age of 25 at the start of the season apart from Van Dijk. And that's with the likes of Konate, Leoni, Mac Allister, Gakpo, Jones, Ngumoha all on the bench and under 27 years old. Not saying they'll all start in those positions and/or are good enough as a regular starter in a PL title challenging team (Frimpong, Gravenberch as pure DM, fullbacks, even GK unsure), but there'll be new signings as well and this is definitely a squad that's up for improvements UNDER THE RIGHT MANAGER. If we get another one in who does as badly or even worse as Slot, then we'll have to admit that all of those players are probably not as good as we (as Liverpool fans) thought them to be, but as of now, I am definitely holding out hope for that squad, it's imo Slot who's doing the damage here.

Squad is relatively young and league quality isn’t great so you might get away with minor surgery. I do think a massive overhaul is needed to be a title winner though. Minimum RB/RWB, 2xCB, DM, LW and maybe forward if Ekitike is out for a year. I always rated Marmadashvilli but now he looks a mess, inspires no confidence, so if Allison is out you need a new keeper too.

If you persist with the full/wing backs you have now and Konate signs you’d still need a CB, CM and LW, maybe a striker depending on Ekitike.

All bets are off if you try to build around Wirtz. Back to the original point I guess.

I was honestly one of the ones who thought you’d be a genuine title favourite for 5yrs after last summer, now I can’t believe how unbalanced you are and don’t think a manager changes that without major squad surgery.

 

[Mb194dc]

Liverpool made terrible signings and Salah form fell off a cliff. I don't think he's the problem. A new manager won't make them much better.

 

[Dave Smith]

Slot needs to be kept at all costs, only Liverpool manager in 35 years to win a title in front of fans for them. I say give him another half a Billion and let the genius cook.

 

[FortunaUtd]

Clearly you won't have been able to expect him to do any better at the end of this season, with the combination of Salah's decline, the board fecking up massively by failing to get a CB when the defense part of the squad is troubled and far too thin, and then an unprecedented injury crisis to most of their record transfers on top. He's also a winner who is not used to losing, can't expect him to deal with lack of success with the kind of expertise a poorer manager might have in that.
He deserves a chance, the board and the fans owe him at least another season with proper support.

 

[Drainy]

Anfield was like a funeral last night for the most part.