We’ll have a better understanding of who Slot really is by the season’s end. He’s never went through a crisis before, he’s learning as he goes.
If we start looking like a real contender again, he’ll be as secure as ever. If the season ends with a whimper, it will only be a matter of time. Either way, the clock is ticking.
We haven’t got a single point after falling behind. 5 losses in 5 occurrences. Not a good sign.
We get 2 clean sheets in our last 2 games then turn up at City wth no defensive plan to deal with Doku, who has no end product if you show him the line.
It seemed today that Conor got isolated too many times against Doku and the time he did really well, Ibou stepped in and gifted the ball back to Doku for the penalty.
My major concern is what we are trying to do on the ball when we are playing out from the back. City plan was obvious and the same from other teams, let Konate have the ball.
Then it is a matter of time before they force us down the line, trap us and win the ball back easily or pick up the long hopeful ball.
Ibou has to be brave and play a vertical pass to a midfielder or forwards feet. But that is also down to Arne, if Ibou can’t do it, play someone who can if that means moving players around then so be it.
why are we rebuilding? That’s the bit that keeps getting waved away. It certainly was not to retool an aging team as you cannot reconcile that explanation with the specific moves we made - who was actually allowed to leave vs who we committed money to keeping.
I think there has been far too much acceptance of the necessity, the unavoidability, of changes so extensive they were always going to be difficult to manage. There was a certain amount of turnover that had to happen after last season’s limited changes and some forced on us that we might not have chosen to make, but that is part of the context for the other decisions about how much else to do outside of those required moves.
The reality is we changed because as good as we were last season Slot felt we needed changes to hit the heights he wanted to see it’s his vision for how we’d play - to out PSG PSG. To accomplish that we have significantly changed the personnel and tweaked our shape. I’m not going to judge it after half a season, but this is very much a choice and it could have been managed with more continuity
For me, in his conversation with Szobo, at one point I thought the topic was Hargreaves himself. Horrible watch.
No, I had doubts when journalists wrote immediately after the news that we still want Isak after Ekitike (and then getting Isak) like, it’s all good because Ekitike can play on the left. Then I had to do a little research how many times he played there.
I still have doubts how this works out with both of them.
My gut feeling is Slot is wanting a diamond 4-4-2. So would look something like
Would be fine if we ever looked like playing that, at this moment we havent
Its still an interesting idea, as the vogue set ups always fall out of vogue, and this 4/3/3 press system has been front and side +10yrs now, before that it was the extra tight 4/4/2 even 4/5/1. Im sure it will swing away from the press soon anyway.
I think we would’ve tried it by now.
I don’t think that’s the plan.
Unfortunately for Slot, the next few league fixtures from now to the end of December looks very winnable in anybody’s eyes. Failure to win all of them barring one or maximum 2 draws will be a major blow to Slot’s quest for a contract renewal.
UCL wise,the fixtures look very winnable too. He has to win all barring a maximum of 1 that to ensure we get a bye into the round of 16 as a seeded side. If we end up going in knock-out phase playoffs, that will be an extra 2 games that we don’t really need…
The promise that Slot showed in the first 2 thirds of last season isn’t there to be seen anymore.
Very too easy to play against and reactive.
Yet he obviously prefers that box system 4222. System however Gakpo and Salah prefer coming from wide and those 2 are his favourites?
For a supporter watching it’s painful. There’s a lack of cohesion and to me the leaders and communication is all wrong.
The problem with 4222 from what I see is we finish with 424. When pressing well this isn’t a bad thing. Take against City our very early press was reasonable once Ekitikè and Szoboszlai had sorted it out and weren’t both in the same space. It collapsed because Salah, Mac and Gravenberch didn’t, couldn’t, or wouldn’t stay disciplined.
When we press it’s at best only reasonable so it gets beaten fairly easily by good teams and when it is our block looks horrible. Against City Gravenberch for example was looking to sit in space not covering anything whilst Bradley was getting bullied by Doku consistently. Mac over commits and gives away silly free kicks.
Our 2 midfielders look lost and our advanced players aren’t good enough deep to help them out when we try to play out (except Szoboszlai but he’s a funny one, when he looks like he takes responsibility he’s good when he doesn’t it falls to pieces).
There’s a mix of poor tactical nouses and poor mentality. Fix one and we can start going forward. Against RM we fixed the mentality both Szoboszlai and Gravenberch took responsibility and played on the front foot. Against City Gravenberch disappeared not defending and not passing forward, he took the easy options.
Hate to say this but we don’t look anything like the Slot team from last season. We now play more like a team of Sloth. Slow and lazy. These laboured perfornances needs to stop asap.
Well, he’s upholding the first part of the deal - PSG were dreadful in the first few months of the last season!
I told my friend last summer that this was the summer where we either become the next Bayern or we become post-Wenger Arsenal. So far, it seems we’re much closer to the latter. We tried with the big money, ready-made signings instead of sticking with our tried and tested strategy of mostly bringing in players who are on the verge of becoming top class but aren’t quite there yet. The intention was good but the enactment leaves a lot to be desired, unfortunately.
So it was you…
I go on a break from forums this season and all you guys contrive to turn the club shit.
It’s all of you. Most specifically @SBYM
Personally I’m asking when and how the decision was made to go all in on the transfer market this Summer just gone and not address anything the season before?
Was it a timing issue? Letting Slot get a view on the squad? Target availability and so on.
Multiple factors. The demise of jota didn’t help either.
I really don’t want to say I told you so. But Isak should have been firing.
All fingers point to giving the coach enough ammunition and he just isn’t delivering.
Agreed, although I wouldnt have put it that way.
And yet we’ve seen it time and time again with lots of signings.
And so it points to a failing on the coach’s side. We’ve got the talent. He hasn’t delivered.