Arne Slot - Head Coach (Part 1)

A large part of this lack of confidence is also probably down to not playing with a consisent teammate as the number of changes due to injury, recruitment, fitness, etc. Game-to-game is staggering.

It’s not that horrible to watch, it’s dull but not horrible.

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About a year into his contract, when we won the league, personality wise, I didn’t know who Stot was. Now, about half way through, I still don’t really know. The closest personality type (for me) is Benitez but without the emotion/fire.

The overriding thing that comes across is growth is needed, i.e. that he is learning and indeed is far from a finished article. Will Liverpool give him the time to continue to grow?

I remember at the time adoring Benitez, and a lot of that was down to how he represented us in the battle with the owners. You could see how much he loved Liverpool.

In retrospect he was a bit of a mad bastard. He has fallen out with owners everywhere he has gone, and part of me thinks he thrives on that kind of confrontation.

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Yeah he was, in hindsight, far from perfect and I’m not saying Slot should be like him. The similarities I was leaning towards were that both probably over think everything and aim for perfection which, they then find hard to translate that into reality through a combination of a lack of appropriate / adequate communication and timing of events. Ironically, winning the league the first time of asking has not helped him as the bar is now so high that even Duplantis would struggle to scale it…

Indeed, it is not a given that Klopp would have succeeded at Chelsea or ManU or even Arsenal if he had joined them instead… timing is key and time will tell if Slot will find more success here.

Suffice it to say this is only my take on it.

edited to correct the wrong sequence of the sentences…

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Both recovering from serious injuries.

We are being really poorly coached, the players dont look fit and our mentality is weak, imagine playing against 9 men and hanging on for dear life.

Again, I know…

But I’m sometimes disappointed when they talk about team news and don’t mention some of those almost forgotten ones.

Doesn’t have to be in every press-conference, but it would be nice to know from time to time what’s their current status and how far are they.

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I think it’s stubborn and principled. He’s made some poor decisions but I think he’s a better coach than he’s given credit for.

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A CL win and a CL final with THAT squad…and then a genuine title tilt with another talented but injury-prone and threadbare squad. He definitely punched above his weight.

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It’s very likely that had Benitez been supported and not undermined, he would have ended the wait for a league title more than 10 years earlier.

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Yes, Jarell Quansah.

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Well Grav to be fair, you could also state Dom is more reliable now.

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First time poster here :waving_hand: the way I see it, we wanted Slot to change things cos we were leaking goals right through the midfield and were lacking confinedence. He’s done that by packing out the midfield and making play slow and controlled. It’s awful and frustrating to watch but its just about done the trick. If we can keep getting points like this while the new players gel, then confidence and fluidity will hopefully come from it. At the start of the season winning games playing poorly was the sign of title contenders, now it’s not acceptable haha

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Welcome to the forum mate!

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I do agree that we needed more control when Slot came in and he did that initially and we also still had teeth with our press.

At the moment though the slow play is restricting our attacking impetus and making it easy for teams to defend.

Also the same slow play continues even when we are in a good shape, there seems a lack of the inspiration to change the tempo, playing at one tempo makes it easy for the opposition.

Variety in play and tempo makes the opposition unsure and hesitant.

Oh and welcome

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Yea i agree with that, just think maybe it’s a conscious decision while the players get their confidence back and learn to play with new team mates. I’m quite the optimist haha, but I fully expect 9 points from the next 3 games before Arsenal!

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I expect the same and also expect the performances to be brilliant.

It is post games that is the issue for me, where I see flaws and doubts creep in.

Welcome to the madhouse :wink:

The changes that Slot has implemented are a band aid and are not sustainable in the long run. The question is whether or not he can have us playing expansive football again without being wide open at the back.

So far, it doesn’t look like he’s any closer to figuring it out and it’s not because of the new players. It’s not their fault that we can’t defend set-pieces or the minute we try to be a bit more adventurous like against Brighton we end up giving up numerous chances.

There are serious issues with his coaching, which he won’t be able hide forever by slowing the tempo to a standstill and relying on gifts by the opponent.

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Welcome to this calm oasis of rationality and zen like sanctuary

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