Arne Slot - Head Coach (Part 2)

[Limiescouse]

It was a partnership that would have been devestating

[JibJab]

I was reading yesterday about the end of the Rodgers era, just to refresh my recollection of that time period. I forgot that we had a 13 game unbeaten run in January-March of 2015 (sort of like the 13 game unbeaten run we went on at the turn of this year). But that didn’t save him, ultimately because he kept pissing off FSG with his undermining comments during pressers and because Klopp was available.

Slot has not attacked FSG in the same way, and Alonso ain’t Klopp (though I think Alonso would be welcomed by the supporters here with enthusiasm).

I suspect that FSG sees Slot as an extension of themselves, while Rodgers too often was an oppositional force. And that’s what’s saving him right now.

[Limiescouse]

@JibJab

I forgot that we had a 13 game unbeaten run in January-March of 2015 (sort of like the 13 game unbeaten run we went on at the turn of this year). But that didn’t save him, ultimately because he kept pissing off FSG with his undermining comments during pressers and because Klopp was available.

That was the period where we found success with a back 5. It worked until it didnt, and once it stopped (the solutions identified revealed by someone as lowly as Swansea if I recall) we went on to look just as clueless as we had before.

[mattyhurst]

Yeah Swansea spotted a way through it. I was at the game and we won with a deflected Henderson goal.

Was as painful as watching us now, we got beat easily a week later at Man Utd.

[wyld.at.hrt]

@mattyhurst

Yeah Swansea spotted a way through it. I was at the game and we won with a deflected Henderson goal.

Wasn’t that a Coutinho worldie that he chalked up to the ‘system’

[mattyhurst]

Nah it was this one, Gary Monk was the one.

Swansea City 0-1 Liverpool

[Notasuperfan]

@RedWhippet

Regardless of that, he is seeing the next season out.

FIFY

[mattyhurst]

I doubt it, if performances continue like they have and there is nothing to suggest otherwise then he will end up much like Rodgers.

After all they will have given him the tools to succeed and if that’s what he claims will turn it around if it doesn’t then?

[ISMF]

@Hope.in.your.heart

The immediate question when you see the lack of effective forward press, is why?

Is it due to players being unable to do it, or is it a tactical instruction? But why would Slot be so daft to bin a way of winning games which worked so effectively last season, and allowed him to win the PL title?

I think it’s rather inability or unwillingness from the players. Still can’t work out why though. Maybe there is a genuine physical struggle and fatigue within the team, hindering our usual strength and work rate on the pitch.

One of the primary reasons I believe it’s tactical is that the switch from pressing occurred last season after we effectively won the league (and still had the likes of Diaz, Jota, and Nunez).

Go back to the time and you have lots of YouTube videos and discussion around Slot experimenting for next season.

I think the difference is purely philosophical.

If you consider Klopps style, it relied upon

• Aggressive pressing when losing the ball
• Explosive transition moments
• Winning ball high up pitch before defenders can position
• Embracing the chaos that is created from the intensity

Fundamentally when I think of Dutch football these are opposites. I am guessing (from what Slot says rather than what we see in the pitch). He favours control, making ball do the work, more patient build ups, more of a technical rather than physical dominance.

I think that’s a choice he has been made. You can see it come through in interviews for the disdain he has for the English game/Premier league. To much reliance on the physical side and hoping that at the World Cup the team that wins plays more like Barcelona so that teams will start copying that style or philosophy instead.

[sgs]

I could be totally wrong, but what you’re seeing now IMO is more situational than philosophical…

[ISMF]

That’s my long winded way of saying I think he aspires to Cruyff/Dutch/Barcelona school of football. Not a physical, gegenpressing, heavy metal type of football.

[koptician]

@wyld.at.hrt

Wasn’t that a Coutinho worldie that he chalked up to the ‘system’

Was the system…”outstandin’”?

[sgs]

I think it lies somewhere in between. I watched his Feyernoord team. They were quite physical…

[koptician]

@ISMF

That’s my long winded way of saying I think he aspires to Cruyff/Dutch/Barcelona school of football. Not a physical, gegenpressing, heavy metal type of football.

I mean I’m not opposed to the idea but…

• without a modicum of physicality we won’t compete for the title again, let alone win it.
• How many windows is he going to take to form this new version of Liverpool and how realistic is that?
• I get Alex/Hugo/Flo being brought in for that (although I still think Alex at that price, with his injury history, and his age, was way too expensive and those funds should have been utilised elsewhere). But Frimmers and Milos don’t fit that ethos. Neither are technical enough. If compared to Trent and Robbo, both are downgrades in terms of technical ability.

[ISMF]

@sgs

I think it lies somewhere in between. I watched his Feyernoord team. They were quite physical…

Where they a side that pressed the opposition ?

I honestly don’t know as I don’t watch Dutch football, only the odd CL game that involves them

[GaryBarlow99]

@sgs

I could be totally wrong, but what you’re seeing now IMO is more situational than philosophical…

You are.

[Bonus]

@ISMF

@Hope.in.your.heart

The immediate question when you see the lack of effective forward press, is why?

Is it due to players being unable to do it, or is it a tactical instruction? But why would Slot be so daft to bin a way of winning games which worked so effectively last season, and allowed him to win the PL title?

I think it’s rather inability or unwillingness from the players. Still can’t work out why though. Maybe there is a genuine physical struggle and fatigue within the team, hindering our usual strength and work rate on the pitch.

One of the primary reasons I believe it’s tactical is that the switch from pressing occurred last season after we effectively won the league (and still had the likes of Diaz, Jota, and Nunez).

but yet on Saturday after the Chelsea he said in the press conference…

Yeah, I said after we scored the 1-0 and then we got a big chance for the 2-0… didn’t you see me screaming off the sideline? ‘Go back, go back, defend your own box, defend your own box.’ Are you really thinking this is serious?

to me it sounds like he wants the team to keep pressing and going forward,

it may not be tactical as you suggest

[sgs]

Yes. It was a very intense team. Sometimes too much which got them in trouble in Europe

[JibJab]

Well, then what he’s implying is that the players can’t or won’t listen to his instructions, which I’m not sure reflects on him any better.

[Barnestormer]

This is how cannabis can influence an entire nation and render it ponderous