Ekitike has integrated very well, and I’d say that he has been a success so far, even for the amount of money the club laid out for him.
Wirtz and Isak both need time, for different reasons. Wirtz because he is in a different league now and has to adapt, and Isak because he’s off-form, and now injured.
Kerkez obviously needs time too. It comes as a bit of a suprise, as he should be accustomed to the PL circus by now, but there must be an issue somewhere. Hopefully something which can be adressed going forward.
Frimpong will be a success if he can stay fit, I’m sure of it.
Mamarshvili is a good back-up goalie for Alli.
It’s far from plain sailing for Slot, but not entirely bleak. And we should try to forget about the transfer fees. It’s just money after all, the least interesting part about football. Let’s just take the players as if they had all the same transfer value, and look at how they develop.
Ekitike has started well, completely agree. The big ‘project’ for Slot will be in integrating the new talent and forming a new team, with a few more changes presumably coming soon, such as in central defence.
On the one hand I agree that the price doesn’t matter so much, and it is part of the mad world of football. On the other hand, the price, especially when you pay a lot, is an indication as to how important you anticipate the player will be for you.
At that point 125M Isak and 116M Wirtz should both become important players for us, and I’m looking to see how Slot solves it as we move forward.
It might be something as simple as the difference between playing for a side that often has 2/3rds of the ball versus a side that had it less than half. The modern fullback position is incredibly demanding both physically and mentally, and an attacking possession side really accentuates that mental challenge. He is probably playing a significant portion of the match needing to think more carefully about what he needs to be doing, where with Bournemouth it was very frequently either defence or counter.
I believe that Slot was basically indicating that the fans are backing him as well through this tough period of time. I do not see anything wrong with that.
There are also people paid to make decisions even taking a different context into calculation. Yes, it’s absolutely different to play for Bournemouth (even if we’re not talking about a negative side here, they are pretty good which in a way made some of their players extra attractive for big clubs) for one season and then go to Liverpool with the idea to be the starting LB for years to come. Not every young player from a team like Bournemouth who was in the team of the year is destined for the top. I mean, I didn’t watch a lot of Bournemouth games last season, but I’m a bit disappointed with some aspects of Kerkez’s game. I think the public felt we were getting this dynamic full back great going forward, but needed to show he can defend at the top level. I’m seeing something different. Even technical weaknesses and that’s regardless if you play for Bournemouth or Liverpool. Some players will get there with time. Some won’t. We’ve seen numerous examples of both scenarios.
Slot must have asked for a real press for the RM match and everyone committed. Made it easier for the defence.
The question is will we keep this up?
It’s been difficult to fathom what we have been doing defensively for some time now. Is the RM match a turning point or a one off?
Obviously it takes more than deciding what we want to do to actually do it. And consistently. It’s not achieved by turning a switch on, having a talk like “let’s do it”. Work in training, games, understanding each other better, time… all of it makes it happen.
Last night, he said we wanted us to either press real high or defend in the deepest possible block. No mid-block, nothing in between. There will be other games, different opponents, circumstances. Where we might do some of it differently. That’s all natural.
We’ll try to keep our principles or revive them even more. It takes more than one or two games, but of course these are now proper signs of improvement. And there is no resting, you have to keep showing it. There is no medicine for bad games and results in the future, there will be, but what else can you do other than work to make them as few as possible.
Slot said very openly in his post-match conference that we aren’t able to be as effective against low-block teams with a direct style than against teams who actually try to play football and build up their game from the back. Aston Villa and RM are two teams doing that.
But of course, the confidence of winning against strong teams who were in excellent form previously to their game against us, will give the lads huge confidence. Hopefully it will enable them to translate their good performances against low-block teams too.
Which makes me wonder what football Cheaty will play on Sunday: will they want to play football, or will they adopt the same style than the likes of Brentford, Crystal Palace etc.? We’ll see.
As they say one swallow doesn’t make a summer neither does one game silence the critics. He played well last year against Madrid and didn’t carry it forward. So lets see if he starts performing to that standard all the time.
They are definitely more direct these days, I presume because it suits Haaland well. One game at a time, though, but this step back in terms of starting XI and integration of new players should have been done earlier. I’m not saying it would have made our results better but it would have taken some pressure off new, underperforming signings.
You say that despite our pressing being half hearted for quite some time.
Effective pressing helps against the long ball as well as teams that ‘play football’.
I’m sure Slot understands this and he can say what he likes before and after matches. It doesn’t change what’s actually been happening.
What we have seen is an effective press against RM. Mainly due to the players making the effort and doing it effectively. Whilst against other teams we’ve been seeing something that resembles nothing.
I don’t care if we press or not I do want to see something coherent and we just haven’t. Watching Szoboszlai running as fast as he can to catch up with our retreating defence the whole length of the pitch is not amusing to me.
Long ball or not, we had to improve our defending from the front, being compact, defending as a team, defensive transition.
Long ball cannot be an excuse for the poor run of performances and results we had. But I also don’t expect managers to be 100% honest and go into full detail. Of course you find other ways to explain things. Slot still does this pretty good, in my opinion.
You deal with it with long balls, or better to say in a protagonist team that we are or want to be again, we get our principles back working so that most teams struggle against us, regardless if they hoof it long from the get go or play out from the back.
And when the long ball does arrive, because it’s impossible to prevent everything, no matter how good the press is, you bloody have to defend it and win second balls. Some things never change.
