Arne Slot - Head Coach (Part 1)

The Albert
5401

I’m extremely irritated by the way our recruitment teams behave from time to time - and we’re talking about different eras. They left Klopp with three recognised centre backs in 2020/21 where two of them fit throughout the season would have likely resulted in us retaining the title. Of course all three got injured within the two months of season’s start.

That said, after weeks of disastrous experimenting, Klopp settled on playing Phillips and Williams as centre backs and got us playing much better football, with restored focus and confidence, leading the side to the top four.

Do you see Slot doing anything similar? I don’t. Slot can’t make these players feel like they are ten feet tall. He’s reluctant to use Ngumoha, I don’t see him doing much with other young lads that are highly regarded within the club. What he’s been doing lately is more from Rodgers’ 2014/15 book, i.e. joyless, self-preservation mode when he has some of the best and the most exciting players in modern football at his disposal. Ngumoha, one of country’s most exciting talents that has hardly let him down in the small amount of minutes he’s had on the pitch so far, was supposed to be fast-tracked into the first team after Diaz’ departure, too.

I want to believe that, in the aftermath of Jota’s tragic death, cursed Isak pursuit and failure to get Guehi transfer over the line, Hughes and co. sat down with Slot to revisit season expectations. I’m sure that, if that had really happened, one of those expectations would have been “continue playing controlling, attacking football, enjoy yourselves as much as you can under these circumstances - we’ve only just started rebuilding the side, it will continue the next summer, we’re counting on you”.

Hughes didn’t leave Slot short in terms of numbers, though. I’m pretty sure there were two players in every position at the start of the season. Yes, Gomez, Endo and Chiesa aren’t players of required quality but that didn’t stop Klopp for making the most out of the former two. Slot has mostly been ghosting them until he had no other choice but to play them.

I will also remind you that Hughes was the one who headhunted Slot - who delivered the title in the first season - and who brought in some rather exciting players since becoming the sporting director. However, I’m reserving judgement on Hughes because it seems that what he does in the next 6-12 months will define his Liverpool stint (identifying Slot’s replacement, overseeing the succession plans for Alisson, Van Dijk and Salah, handing out new contracts to the right players etc.) but if you look at what he’s done so far, I’d say that Slot would be much closer to the sack than him if it was a straight choice between the two.

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5402

We weren’t doing any better when he had more options at hand.

Well said and that’s what’s annoying me the most about Slot. He doesn’t make the most of what he has. Klopp believed in improving players through training and enabled them to perform by trusting them. Slot on the other hand, gives the impression that if given the opportunity, he’d toss away those he doesn’t fancy.

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5403

And Slot is the one kept on saying he wants a smaller squad. Can’t have it both ways.

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5404

And he shouldn’t have to. Liverpool FC cannot be a serious football club if the only way we can be successful is to have a messianic figure as the manager. The club were correct in their assessment that they needed to find a structure that was less reliant on the manager as a mythical figurehead, and allowed the club to be successful with normal human beings running the playing side

So that being the case, it isn’t really fair to pick at Slot because he wouldn’t be able to make Phillips and Williams feel like Klopp did. He isn’t supposed to. And surely the point of spending £400m in a way that’s we’ve never done before, is that this quality of player doesn’t need a bear hug from a Bavarian God to put in a performance?

Personally I think it’s looking increasingly like everyone involved (and you can include Slot in this) in the planning and strategy started getting high on the smell of their own farts after the title win.

I’d like to think that this is an ongoing process. But one of the big problems is that we never hear anything of this nature from Hughes or Edwards. It’s really obvious that this is an ongoing project. But when is Hughes going to stick his head above the parapet and actually try and take some pressure off his manager? From a purely practical point of view, Slot is coaching himself into difficulty because he feels under results pressure.

Either the summer strategy was a failure or it’s the first act in a bigger process, but in leaving Slot to front all the questions and scrutiny on this Hughes is looking much more in self preservation mode that Slot.

We don’t know, do we?

It might be that Slot indicated to Hughes that he was happy with the options he had for each position, and he was ready to use Chiesa and Gomez as part of his squad. But the evidence of last last season really suggested that he didn’t want to. Had I been in Hughes position I would said “Are you sure about that?”

Or it might be (and it’s more likely) that the conversation was along the lines of “it’s a lot of business to do in one summer, can you make do?” In that case, I’d go back to the previous point and suggest that Hughes taking a bit of heat off his manager might be a decent thing to do.

Personally, I think it’s really odd that a ‘manager’ who has previously used pacy wide players wherever he’s been finds himself with a lad who just wants to cut inside, a lad who’s pace has gone, once who was never good enough, and a 17 year old he doesn’t think is ready. It’s impossible to know who we ended up like this, but I’d be staggered if Slot wasn’t saying “OK, but can you just get me one?”

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5405

That’s where the strategic leadership needs to be at him. Football teams need big squads now. You can’t navigate a season with 18 players. Proof of this is our league winning campaign, where we looked goosed from March.

5406

and ever since.

5407

As Mac Allister alluded to (which many will take as an excuse): but you can’t change so much so quickly and still expect things to be coherent. The margins are so tight in the PL that a team that is familiar with each others can and will often compete and beat a team of strangers.

Football is a team sport and many things inclusing the press, moving the ball around quickly, and finding teammates in space require familiarity. And as long as we can’t field a relatively consistent lineup, I don’t care how skilled a manager is but the team will struggle.

Criticizing, blaming the coach, calling players crap… feeding the negativity… will not change anything except lower the confidence the squad.

Familiarity cannot be built without consistency. Let’s get that first and then hopefully we have a chance to turn things around.

5408

Thing is he said this after the season.

5409

We did have some bad luck this season, but Slot has made many wrong choices since the season started. It’s easy to list them out:

  • Used Kerkez as a defensive fullback, which limits his strengths. Not suitable at all.
  • Dropped Ekitike and played Isak when Ekitike was basically carrying our attacks.
  • Played Wirtz too far away from the opponents’ box, limiting his skill set.
  • Messed up the right flank and wasted Salah’s strengths.

He’s trying to fix each issue, but I have a feeling that he has no idea about the profiles of the new players. It’s proven that he has no say in transfers and squad decisions, but taking months to know how to correctly use new players isn’t a good sign IMO.

5410

I said the same last year the core of teams in the Premier league have improved and tactically have switched on coaches that are adaptable in their approach and variety of play.

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5411

Wasn’t his presentation and pitch to Wirtz meant to be instrumental in him coming to the club? How has that gone so wrong?

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5412

Agreed in part, we were energetic, positive and played with intensity, then we scored the equalizer, dropped off and went back to what we were doing it was so disheartening to see us do so well then drop the gears and the same old happens. We did then score what looked like a winner but it was probably against the run of play.

It is a hard one as we have become a little more resilient and results have improved, am I wrong in wanting us to loosen the shackles, increase the intensity and go for it more?

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5413

who is boasting? It is a fact that we have an unbeaten run? It is a terrible period for us footballing wise but Nobody is asking you to think that this unbeaten run is the greatest thing ever but neither is there a need to pick apart every nook and cranny just to look for things to hit the team with over a factual statistic.

5414

It is the hope that kills, after a succesful season and what looked like fantastic summer acquisitions, we look worse.

However, I have no problem with a transition season if there is light at the end of the tunnel, if I/we can see an identity in how we want to play and progress.

Hate harking back to Jurgen, but most of us could see and feel that there was going to be good times ahead.

Again it is the hope that kills.

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5415

Obviously non football.

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5416

Great post!

5417

Yes players have to step up, but you also need a manager/coach to believe in the players, to lift them and inspire them to to get that extra 1% out of them that helps make a difference in games.

Our players on the bench, if they do come on and perform, just don’t have a belief that they have a chance of starting the next game as Arne doesn’t seem to reward meritocracy, he just goes back to his favored players, how can that inspire them to want to make a difference?

I don’t want to hear from our DOF or Edwards, they are there to help facilitate the coaches job and with all the recruitment I can’t see how any decisions would be made without Arne’s input.

I don’t rate Amorim, but I do like the side of him that he believes in his philosophy, although for me he is too blinkered to make tweaks.

I just want Arne to show us his blueprint of what he wants us to become and stick to it from a philosopy point of view and just make tweaks when player availability dictates.

Lastly, stop talking about negatives, focus the players on what we do well, play to our strengths and not just focus on what the opposition does.

Bring the confidence back.

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5418

Well fellas and ladies, we all have differing ponts of view, but I am loving the mostly mature way of the discussions going on and not the one sentence extreme hyperboles.

Keep it up!

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5419

Stats of new players in different aspects from past clubs are one thing (how Eintracht wants to defend from the front is not necessarily the same how we want or need to). Slot spoke how when he first met Ekitike, they spent half the time speaking about the defensive duties needed. It’s clearly an area he had to and has to improve and not the only one (we started the season with Wirtz and Ekitike, that was probably not best equipped to press in the best possible way).

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5420

But Kerkez is a defensive full back, I think a lot of people got the wrong impression what we were getting with him. Perhaps the assists against City and Tottenham grabbed too much attention.

Does that mean he should be tucking in as the 3rd CB when we build up, not necessarily. But we’ve seen him used in a few different ways; tucked in, released higher and wider and more let’s say classic (like recently). On the ball, I see a very limited player.

His dad (not that I view him as a football pro) said a few days ago that he doesn’t understand the shouts about Kerkez’s attacking game (like it’s something that needs to be unleashed). In his words, he’s not someone who will go on to beat players, but he’s exactly that - a defensive full back (in his opinion one of the best in the game and defensively the best in the game, of course he’s highly subjective as a parent) who’s best skill or pride is not being defensively beaten.

Fine if you ask me, I just want Kerkez to play a simple game and not complicate too much. Calm down a bit, be less aggressive and use his brain.

It took me our first season friendly when I felt like he was our “Kyle Walker” move. Perhaps wanted to have Bradley and Frimpong attacking more on the right side and Kerkez or Robertson being more reserved on the opposite left.

We did drop Ekitike a few times instead of Isak and yes, I didn’t like it. I understood he “had to” start Isak here and there, but the examples against United and Forest I didn’t agree with.

Wirtz was playing closer to our midfield at the start of the season yes, but with time has been moved further up and off the sides in half spaces.

We lost one of our key players on the right side and it’s hard to predict the future. We agree 2 more years with Salah and you never know when the drop might arrive. It can be unpredictable, sudden and rapid when it does. It’s easy giving out new contracts (fans also have to realize that not all players can get new deals and not at the same time).

For me the issue is that we’ve added a bit too much in terms of moves, keeping our special player we protected in Salah, but then adding more ‘protagonists’ that either cannot offer that balance soon enough or actually are the future special ones who will be protected like Mo is.

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