This aged well
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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?
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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.
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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.
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Has Slot been sacked yet?
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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.
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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.
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What does nothing look like?
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Haven’t you been watching our games? 
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.
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I was expecting something more Daliesque.
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What?
From me?
As an aside my ex was called Dali and made much less sense than me. So watch out. 
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Ha you’ve already written off a 22yo as not ‘Liverpool standard’. Doubt Vini Jr or MBappe would agree
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Slot deserves huge credit for pulling back, adapting and making us competitive again.
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Bradley proved he is Liverpool standard, because he’s been part of the first team squad for a few years now. Now he has to prove he is standard to be the first choice RB at Liverpool for long periods. He definitely has the potential to do it, even though he’s not a young talent anymore. Hopefully he gets there.
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He’s only just turned 22. At the same age Robbo still had another year at Hull
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Yeah, you get all kind of different careers. Nobody should be surprised with the level of performance last night, because he had a few games like that before. But I think we’re all aware now that the next step is to prove it he can do it for much longer periods than before. Injuries permitting and form.
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I don’t believe he is. But like i said one offs are no use for anyone.