Arne Slot - Head Coach (Part 2)

[RedWhippet]

@Noo_Noo

It’s all over the various outlets now

And all referencing the same random X account.

[LucasLeiva]

I got if from a different source

[Noo_Noo]

Guilty, I didn’t look. Colleague at work just mentioned it.

[wyld.at.hrt]

@RedWhippet

And all referencing the same random X account.

Party pooper

[rab]

@koptician

https://www.thisisanfield.com/2026/05/ex-liverpool-midfielder-tyler-morton-untouchable-lyon-fire-sale-2026/

Literally exactly what we needed at 6. He would have definitely gotten his chance to shine under Klopp but Slot is blind to his squad. Makes sense as his substitutions this season have also been blindly picking players and putting them where they are sub-optimal

He was at the club when Klopp was there. The season we bought four new midfielders he was sent on loan to Hull and McConnell was kept around.

Had he stayed last season he would barely have played given Gravenberch’s form. A player Klopp seemingly overlooked but then thrived under Slot.

It’s easy to look at him now and think we should have kept him but we bemoaned the sale of Diaz leaving us only Ngumoha as an alternative to Gakpo. Imagine last summer someone said we didn’t need to add to midfield because we’ve got Morton coming back from Hull. He also doesn’t get to where he is now being a bit part player in a struggling side instead of taking a step down to somewhere he can play every week.

Occasionally we’ll sell a young academy player who’ll go on to do decent things elsewhere. Its part and parcel of the game. But for every Morton or Nico Williams there will be a dozen Jordan Ibe, Rhian Brewster, Bobby Clark or Ben Doak’s.

[DrDamn]

@Livvy

It seems like he generally doesn’t value homegrown players.

Not fair, he loves his Dutch players

[koptician]

@rab

Occasionally we’ll sell a young academy player who’ll go on to do decent things elsewhere. Its part and parcel of the game. But for every Morton or Nico Williams there will be a dozen Jordan Ibe, Rhian Brewster, Bobby Clark or Ben Doak’s.

He doesn’t belong in that category.

He did get minutes under Klopp

He could have given Grav a rest even last season when his legs had fallen off in the second half of the season, especially after 70 minutes.

He is MORE than good enough to do that for LFC and we didn’t need to see him doing what he’s doing in France to know that about Morton.

[Limiescouse]

@ZinedineBiscan

I don’t think Slot is anywhere near his level of man-management or relating to players on a personal level, and if it is a mitigating factor in how this season has gone then imho Slot is still culpable for it by failing to address the effect it’s had better.

A couple of the players have commented on Slot being good with them over some issues they were going through. Some may point to that to argue against this hypothesis, but it is one thing being able to do that on a 1-1 level when a direct report brings an issue to you and another to be a leader of men who proactively brings a group collectively through a stick period

[WooltonRed]

I think some people are getting a little over excited here. Let’s see what happens after Sunday’s game. Maybe nothing will happen.

[koptician]

@rab

Occasionally we’ll sell a young academy player who’ll go on to do decent things elsewhere. Its part and parcel of the game. But for every Morton or Nico Williams

Again disagree. Nico wasn’t good enough as he still isn’t good enough to be a Liverpool RB. He is defensively suspect. At least with aren’t we go so much more in terms of creativity and possession and ball progression from the back there could live with the deficiencies.

Nico is….okay…offensively. But I believe Trent is slightly faster and definitely bigger/stronger. Conor was easily the first choice even if Nico stayed and he’s not shown anything at Forest to warrant any regret in letting him go. He wants to be a starting RB in. PL team, good for the lad. Just won’t happen at a title-challenging one

[Limiescouse]

@redfanman

The concern I have with any lack of rotation under Arne is more the indirect impact - where it raises question marks around his handling players outside of the core group. I do wonder if the high turn over of players at his earlier clubs has either hidden this issue

Yes this is a sharp observation. A lot of focus is on his use of players as a cause of one of our failings. However, I think it is probably better to think of it as a consequence of a core failing of his ability to get solutions in players outside of the starting XI. It is a real skill to be able to get something useful out of players 16-18 deep in a squad. Without that you require a perfect storm of events to be succesful and so its rare people can be successful over the medium to long term without having it.

I think it’s reasonable to think a lot of what we’re seeing comes from Slot having a narrow perspective on who he can rely on meaning we’re never going to be more than a couple of injuries away from being in trouble and resorting to collections of new players having to be bought to right a previous season’s wrongs

[WooltonRed]

[Mascot]

@rab

Occasionally we’ll sell a young academy player who’ll go on to do decent things elsewhere. Its part and parcel of the game. But for every Morton or Nico Williams there will be a dozen Jordan Ibe, Rhian Brewster, Bobby Clark or Ben Doak’s.

Totally. In fact we need these lads to go on and have good careers. It’s easy to laugh at rinsing a team for £20m for an academy player who goes on to nothing. But if that happens too regularly, then that income stream just dries up. If we want to be getting good money for these players then we need to accept that they’ll go on to well, and a small number of them might look like really good players.

There are sticks being used to beat Slot with that are totally fair, and some which are unfair. But the one around young players is the most unfair of them all. It’s the one I have the most problem with because it’s not only unfair, it’s totally detached from reality. It’s where criticism of Slot starts to feel like a bit of a frenzy where anything that can possibly be used to whack him with is being gleefully seized on.

In the case of Tyler Morton, the lad was 22 when he departed and he was not going to get the football at Liverpool he needed to fulfil his potential. If he’d stayed, on the fringes of the squad and playing the odd cup game, he simply does not become the player he is now at Lyon. And it isn’t tenable at Liverpool Football Club to drop a young player in and tolerate the learning curve and mistakes players need to go through unless they are an outrageous talent.

Ireola has a good reputation for developing youngsters. But that’s a reputation it’s easier to build at a club like Bournemouth, where the pressure is off. Let’s see how that would work out for him somewhere like Liverpool where he would be under pressure to win every game.

[Maria]

This rumour of Araola as the favourite to take over, is gaining momentum on social media. We should all know by this coming Sunday night or monday morning who’s in charge.

[Thomas1195]

He might have actually jumped ahead of Grav had Klopp stayed for another season, since unlike Grav he is an actual CDM.

[Thomas1195]

I have to say that the way Slot got rid of homegrown players em masse really disturbed me during last summer.

[ZinedineBiscan]

The one I find difficult to forgive is Quansah. The fact Konate has gone on to spend most of this season looking like Bambi on ice has made it look an even worse decision than it did at the time.

[Mascot]

@ZinedineBiscan

The one I find difficult to forgive is Quansah. The fact Konate has gone on to spend most of this season looking like Bambi on ice has made it look an even worse decision than it did at the time.

It’s a terrible decision if you a) know the Konate is going to go to shit and b) the deal you think you have over the line is about the fall apart.

The biggest issue I have with selling Quansah is that they should have held on until Guehi was done. A lot of trust in Palace/Glasner to behave honourably cost us dearly there.

[Mascot]

@Thomas1195

I have to say that the way Slot got rid of homegrown players em masse really disturbed me during last summer.

Any transfer decision will have been a collective one.

The whole point of making Slot head coach rather than manager is that you aren’t making multi million pound strategic decisions on the basis of the autocratic whims of a single person.

[The_Hermit]

Red stapler guy is in a new great show on Apple TV called Widow’s Bay.