I genuinely don’t get that. By the same token, surely you’ve been watching long enough then to know that managers can talk themselves into additional pressure by the way they speak about their team’s problems. Even just focusing on Liverpool alone - Rodgers claiming he doesnt have the tools? Hodgson saying we have to accept the level we’re playing at?
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I don’t think we are in a full blown crisis yet but it is concerning enough for everyone from top to bottom to sit up and pay attention. Our recent league form resembles Fulham who is lying at 17th place.
The good thing is that there are 31 more league matches to go.By the 12th or 13th league game(we are on the 9th league game currently) which is close to the end of November, if there is no significant improvements in results and/or performance leading to us in the bottom half of the table, the board will probably call in Slot for a meeting and demand for answers.
You just quote 1 bit, and disregard the rest.
I don’t disagree. I do wonder, though, if those players were served well by being at Anfield in the stands last night instead of either working at Kirkby or resting away from the stadium. Soaking in that kind of negativity in person might have done more harm than good. But I’m open to being persuaded here.
Slot did mention that Virgil and Ibou went to the locker room to console Nallo after he was sent off, so there was a benefit there.
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Also, another disappointing thing about last night, was remaining in a 3 at the back shape when we were 2 goals down at home, while having a midfielder playing at CB. Chiesa chasing lost causes on his own. Great stuff. But oh yeah, we put 2 young CB’s off the bench, I assume to see if they would be of any use at this level, if a CB crisis appears.
Absolutely zero ambition.
Do I need to connect every dot? Cite every word that is relevant to the point?
You dont need a playing style for having the ball and a different one for long balls, because when you high press your style with the ball has to be aligned with your approach to defending. And that requires you are close enough to the ball when you lose it that you can put concerted pressure onto the ball to force them to play it where you want them to play it, which invariably results in them resorting to a long pressure-releasing ball that if you fail to win all of your prior good work is immediately undone
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Yeah, totally. I try not to pay any attention to it.
Hodgson is his own thing. The Rodgers comment on having the tools, pretty much got him sacked - not because of the football analysis, but because it was a jibe at FSG.
Slot is at the point where he can’t saying anything without his detractors using it as evidence of his incompetence, and yet saying nothing is not an option.
I agree with this post in many respects. Slot’s press conferences have become increasingly difficult to stomach in light of the context surrounding them. But I also try to take these kinds of post-match pressers with a grain of salt because I don’t think it’s fair to expect a polished and totally unvarnished take. He’s going to save the most direct and honest criticism behind closed doors - directly to his players, his coaches, and as an explanation for his superiors.
So, while I generally listen to every presser, I try to withhold too much judgment until I see what is happening on the pitch during the next match. And that’s where I agree with you most concretely - the results don’t reflect that the necessary changes are being implemented and executed.
That is a total cop out. Its an argument that just shuts down discussion.
And saying you choose to pay no attention to the ways he has spoken in unsatisfactory ways doesnt change that other people are thus making it real. It’s like wathing a bank run and saying “if everyone acted rationally and choose to keep their money where it is there wouldnt be a problem.” We can acknowledge that is true in a world where everyone does what you think what they should do, but also have to live in the world where other people are not doing that.
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Generally I still don’t mind how Slot is reacting to all of this publicly. It’s impossible to please everyone and I totally get it that he cannot be 100% honest (even if he’s trying to be simple and objective), he doesn’t have to be. My worry is much more what we see on the pitch. But I also understand that unfortunately what they say (or repeat like parrots), influences the “mood” on the outside and can play with pressure back on the inside.
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Wow, what a few days of reading. The ghost in this is the void left by Klopp. I just dont think Slot can fill it. In terms of, repurposing the club, upon the exit of a generational legend, then the death of what seems to be everyone’s at the clubs favourite player. A double whammy like that turns a situation chronic. This is what we face.
Im then completely surprised the club authorised the wholesale changes it did to the starting 11 from that backdrop. It was a bad series of decisions, that has left the heart of the club wanting for comfort and certainty, the relationships that have been lost and require building anew, simply take time to establish. We’ve no mojo and its obvious, it isnt just tactics, it’s a labouring spirit. It can be seen in every touch, nothing we do looks right, and that has to be mentality. The heart of the club Klopp rediscovered for us, is for now, quite lost.
Poor Slot to have found himself amidst this, which will be a career defining challenge.
The situation is not unlike Ferguson and Wenger exits. Where huge holes were left to repair. We are at risk of a downward spiral, and that continuing and worsening. I really hope Slot sorts it because the last thing we need is a new manager. It would be the worst case scenario to follow after all this. Then we drop into the madhouse of demanding instant success, like Manure did, scalping managers every 2 seasons. We’ve got to be careful as this door is opening.
I feel he has until the Inter Milan game to show some stability, or he’ll be back to Holland in the New Year.
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Do you really think it’s going to shut down discussion? Here?
I’m saying it as a matter of fact, now some people (here and elsewhere) have thrown their cards on the table regarding slot, nothing he says, whatever he says, is going to met with nothing other than howls of indignation.
If the villa game does not go as hoped, he’ll be called out however he chooses to respond. And if we win, he’ll be called out for his comments about that too.
This is part of the frustration of the last couple of days. You in a conversation with me. Ostensibly responding to the arguments I am making, yet constantly instead responding to arguments you dont like that other people, people who arent me, are making.
Whether it is the intention or not, responding to someone saying they dont like something by saying “well there are people who just will react negatively to anything” does just shut conversation down
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If there are any positives in the fact we have been losing games on the trot, is that if there was any ‘big bollocks’ complacency creeping into our make-up, from new players or old, then the harsh criticism that gets catapulted towards the manager, players and backroom staff, from a knowledgeable fanbase, will soon put paid to that…
Hard work, grit and determination in following a tactical playing plan is what will get us out of this trough… and as fans, we will all benefit in the future if AS becomes that much better at his job afterwards.
The problem is that you keep explaining things that I didn’t even disagree with, my last sentence was in sarcasm.
It’s your general standpoint that I disagree with, not whether the situations were different, or whether we need to expect/aim for CL spots or not.
just putting this out there and i will be blunt about it…
i wonder how the mood is in the changing room and training centre?
Dutch people in football do like a fallout, and we have how many Dutch people in the team and behind the scenes?
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@Dutch just punched an Ajax fan just because you said that
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So in a conversation with you about football (and I generally like talking about football with you, because you always have interesting points to make) I can’t talk about the wider ecosystem football takes part in?
We are talking about Slots pressers and comments and whether his statements are congruous with what we are seeing on the pitch. If we are thinking about what he should be saying, I don’t think it’s bad form to be bearing mind that there is a mood growing around Slot such that it’s impossible for him to say ‘the right thing’.
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You do need to have a variety of playing styles as teams change how they play when they play it long. Some try and win the 1st ball, Palace with Mateta then others like Man U don’t really cntest the 1st ball and look to pick up the 2nd. Then there are teams which has a focus on swarming our players when they receive the 2nd ball.
Also, as I have mentioned before, our playing style can effect the long ball, Man U were successful 1st half as we weren’t able to push them back effectively and they were able to get players forward, 2nd half they were pegged back and when they played those long balls they didn’t have players in the areas to press or win the 2nd balls or we had time to bri g the 1st ball down.
As you say teams press us differently when in possession and it seems the man marking one is the favourite.
With all the above and the way teams are trying to beat us, it isn’t easy for Arne to have a set game plan and that as I said comes down also to our players being able to adap, i.e if you are being man marked drag their player where they don’t want to go to make space for others and lots of other ways to lose your marker.
You seem to think it is simple for Arne, but maybe not, I doubt he will have come up against these types of teams and tactics before coaching Liverpool.
Coaching in the Premier league is the hardest as there are varied styles and coaches that are adaptable.
Lastly my criticism of Arne is that I am at a loss at times what our playing style is and the one I do see seems ponderous.