Arne Slot - Head Coach (Part 2)

https://x.com/thisisanfield/status/2056093766394535965

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I don’t get it…Was his tactic so simple that it took 29 PL games and 1 LC final for the Klopp effect to wear off and for the real effect to be seen?

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Really? So, we have a manager whose family still lives in Holland after two full seasons, and we have a DoF who lives on the south coast after two full years in charge of the club? This for me is unacceptable, and the club hierarchy shouldn’t tolerate this.

I for one applaud Salah for coming out and making this statement. He’s unleashing what we have suspected since quite some time: that there is a rift between Slot’s ideas (and possibly Hughes’) and at least a good part of what his players think the direction should be. The fact that many players liked Mo’s post tells it all.

The message is very clear: Slot must be sacked. fsg/Edwards/Hughes have no choice anymore imo.

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Yup, I did repost the same video and it seems that the nerds who hired Slot didn’t even bother to do an eye-test at all…

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Yeah, it’s that dynamics which is simply unsustainable. Going by it, we’ll be in a relegation dogfight next season.

Don’t tell me that Edwards, a nerd in terms of numbers and dynamics, isn’t unaware of this. Maybe I’m wrong, but I simply can’t see Slot staying in charge beyond next week. And Hughes might quickly follow up if he continues to back Slot.

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Agreed. This is why this season has been so frustrating. The squad is currently good enough imo that it should have been able to retain the title in a season as average as this.

We maybe should have done more in the summer but if you bring in a winger or two, a DM and a CB this summer we’re looking boss for next season.

I wish I shared your optimism.

If the likes of MacAllister and Gakpo can re-discover some form, if Wirtz can adapt to the PL, if the 5 or 6 sick-notes can stay reasonably fit all season, if Ekiteke and to a lesser extent Leoni can come back quickly, if whoever is in charge actually works on a plan to service Isak/Ekiteke then we might not struggle as much as I think we will.

We would LOOK boss for next season, but the problem lies in what we do with the talent we have. As many have stated, MacAllister, Gakpo and to a lesser extent Gravenberch haven’t hit their best all season. Konate is talented but as Virgil fades his weaknesses are more exposed. Of those we bought last summer, again undoubted talent, but none of them apart from a spell by Ekitike have set the place alight. Maybe Kerkez is doing his job best of the new players.

The problems aren’t really with the talent, more with application.

Hughes being so far from LFC is pretty mad…How does he even run the planning and supervising of the football operations from so far???

As for Slot, the club cannot force his young family to relocate as his young son is still in a Dutch school. What the club can do is to have Hughes give a formal PIP to Slot and conduct a progressive discipline program with verbal warnings and written warnings of not meeting the KPIs and the lack of work discipline. Failure to meet the KPI and PIP’s objectives will mean a sacking. It can be argued that the same needed to be done to Hughes by Edwards.

It is fucking jarring that the senior players in the squad has a stronger work ethics compared to the Head Coach.

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Our current squad’s strength is more than enough to rival top 3 comfortably next season if we have the right manager that actually gives a fuck about physical conditioning.

The time we had for pre-season is largely the same for all the other clubs. And it will be largely the same for the coming world cup season. The coaching will matter more than ever…

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The only transformational summer is yet another gouging of the squad and an increasing sense that the club has no connection to the area. Slot hasn’t been arsed enough to try and move his family over, intentionally lives near Manchester airport to fly home whenever he fancies it. Our DoF lives 6 hours drive away. The ownership show up a couple of times a season. We’ve sold, or are in the process of selling, everyone who came through the academy.

We all know that we’re only seen as a money-making investment by the ownership but Klopp was able to use that to connect with the area and fanbase. Develop talent, produce talent, play in a way that reflects the desire and passion of the fanbase.

What are we now? A manager who wants football painfully slow and boring, who tells the fans we’re too stupid to understand what he’s doing and that we don’t understand transfers. A club with players left and right who are running down contracts or saying how happy they are to leave once they are out the door.

Who are we? What are we trying to do? Why are the fans being talked down to after sitting through this horrorshow of a season and gaslit by being told we don’t even know what we are looking at?

We’re losing a decade of careful development.

Cut bait. We got the Arne Slot appointment totally wrong and walking a league title where second place only got 74 points isn’t enough to convince me he’s the right man. He’s not the only problem but he is the biggest one. The culture has been decimated, the standards obliterated, the accountability gone. This is how you lose a fanbase, how you alienate your core supporters and how you turn into a lifeless husk - a ā€œfranchiseā€.

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Sorry everyone I meant if a new manager was in place and not if Slot was still here. I think certain players who have been off form this season would come good under a different voice.

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In terms of what kind of improvements we could expect next year, I was looking at games in which we threw away points in injury time.

We could have taken a point in games against Palace, Chelsea, Bournemouth, City, and Wolves. We could have hung on for wins against Leeds, Fulham and Spurs.

That’s 11 points dropped just in added time which in my opinion is a failure of mentality and plain old giving a shit.

Those 11 points would have us on 70 points now, and comfortably in third place. Not a successful season, but a more respectable one, and maybe not quite the pressure on Slot that has materialised this year.

A counter argument would look at the number of points we have taken deep in injury time, and suggest they balance out. We might look at whether Slots habit of taking off defenders and throwing on attackers might leave us vulnerable, and that would be very fair.

Slot is under pressure and should be sacked for his role in the awful performances, but this kind of switching off and failing to see out games is mostly down to the players, and rank fucking stupidity. Some of them have got away with murder. They can all like Mo’s post, and try to distance themselves from the shitshow. But whatever happens next it needs to be addressed

The first step to some kind of recovery is simply giving a shit.

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Sorry but haven’t some of them been down to destabilising subs and the performances have still been shit.

Drawing 1-1 to Burnley, losing 4-1 home to PSV too many bad results. And lapses late on are perhaps indicative of a team that’s due another holiday the next day.

I don’t have an issue with Hughes being that far away but hopefully he has a pad closer. As for Slot it can’t help him at all.

If he can’t take the training then he has a team, whatever agreements they had isn’t working.

I don’t much care about FSG being miles away but that’s perhaps why Gordon was so important. Same they’ve been miles away for 16 years let’s not use this as it’s just a pile on of reasons to piss yourself off.

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I’m not offering this as a defence of Slot, as I say he should be sacked, and I did say you could point to the effect of computer game subs to try and turn draws into wins.

I’m trying to say that, whoever is managing us next year, this is a phenomenally stupid football team of lads who I don’t think give much of a fuck, and that needs sorting out. As evidenced by our inability to just simply see out games of football with minutes on the clock.

I’ve not even got started on the brain dead things they do when it’s not added time. A memorable City goal on the stroke of half time springs to mind when Jones gets himself in difficulty in our own half, nobody helps him, we concede a throw and then we just let them turn the throw in into a chance, and the chance into a goal.

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I don’t know if it’s always due to a lack of concentration when we concede a late goal. At those moments, we often have one less defender or midfielder on the pitch. No more Endo to bring on and tighten up the defense at the end, etc. How often has Slot substituted Konate and brought on Chiesa, etc.? Basically, his predictable substitutions towards the end of the game always lead to the same thing happening.

Edit

But generally speaking, there shouldn’t be any reason why we’ve conceded so many goals in the first place; something is seriously wrong.

https://x.com/footy_road/status/2055974390966394932

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Yeah, again, I acknowledged that. There has been elements of this, but it isn’t the whole story.

Maybe the players simply want Slot gone and are 'quiet quitting '.

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On this point specifically. What matters is how well they do their job and whether where they live impacts that. I don’t think it’s an issue that they may still live in Holland or the South Coast if that specifically doesn’t impact their performance in the role. Modern tech, commuting and staying over etc can all make these situations viable. In this sort of industry and roles where uncertainty is part and parcel then I don’t begrudge people not uprooting family - again if that specifically doesn’t impact their performance in the role.

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I’ve had some time to calm down and give it some thought. I tried to accept the reality of the fact that it looks like we aren’t going for anyone and Slot is staying and maybe Reijnen coming in will have a big impact.
But then I look at his big statement about this transfer window. Not only is he making a massive rod for his own back, he is piling on pressure on players who we haven’t even acquired yet. Nobody can guarantee things are just going to click into place.
With Jurgen you could see the players being blended in, the ideas coming into fruition, the levels going up. Our spine got gutted in 20-21, no fans at Anfield, and still we made it through in better shape than this season.

I really don’t see this brand of walking football working out in the long run.

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