Oh well. I missed yours. 
At least we agree on this point though.
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Yes, I’m aware of the shrine in the changing room and training ground,
for me, it was a great gesture by the club, it showed how much he was liked by everyone at the club.
perhaps it could be removed at the end of this season?
but i stand by my point, its not the 1st time a team has lost 1 of its players suddenly, or a player has lost a loved one.
And it didnt affect the team, in the way its been suggested that its affecting us
On the 29th Dec 2007 the Motherwell FC Captain Phil O’Donnell collapsed and died on the pitch, the club went onto finish in 3rd place in the league on 60 points.
Motherwell finishing 3rd is a huge achievement to them.
Also Cameroon went on to beat Columbia after Marc-Viien Foe collapsed on the pitch and died later on.
And as we keep saying we can’t assume one bunch of human beings are the same as another bunch of human being.
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I agree with most that it’s probably a small factor but not a major one. I’ve already made my point that I think it’s a combination of
- winning the title- a 10% do in motivation- especially of we concede early, makes a huge difference in this sport.
- as champions, opposition teams wanting to make a statement against us
- the integration of about 10 players. There is little to no discussion of this and the affect this could be having on the team. Before we went on our barren run, Slot mentioned how he was expecting to start the season poorly based on the changes and was surprised we were getting the results we were**
But to reply to the quoted text above about the Christmas party, what if Jota was sold? Would it still feel weird if he wasn’t at the Christmas party? If he was sold, there would be his absence around the club as well. And I’m aware there’s absence from being elsewhere and absence from death, and they are very different things, but still I don’t put Jota’s death up that highly on the list of why it has gone wrong.
** This is why I am sure Slot will get far more time than people here believe. If our owners reacted and made decisions based on fan pressure like other clubs, then slot would be in trouble. But it is clear any discussion Slot had with the LFC hierarchy prior to season start would have mentioned the expectation that it will be a slow burner as he tries to integrate these players. I’m ok if I’m dead wrong, but I feel there is absolutely no chance he is out this season. I actually don’t think the owners would pull the pin off we stayed next season slowly.
There hasn’t been any dissent inside the ground despite losing to the mancs and being bummed 3-0 by Palace and Forest.
There has been zero fan pressure.
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I normally find the “x tactic was found out” trope to be lazy, but I do think there is a big element of that going on and Slot has found that his football doesnt have many answers of what to do when teams dont do exactly what we want them to. Now teams are not taking the bait and instead sitting back off us we’re not just more blunt and struggling to create much of meaning, but we have increasingly responded to that in ways that create our own vulnerabilities.
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No but I don’t think we’ve got bottom yet, so that will probably come. And even then, I don’t think the owners are going to make their decision based on the fans.
EDIT: If I used “will” instead of “would” it would have been clearer. My bad.
I wonder how the current team would react to been told this…
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Didn’t low itch his arse and then smell it?
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Repeatedly.
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Nose picking, eating what he picked, scratching his balls and then smelling his hand, you name it.
But hey, a fancy scarf meant he’s a gentleman.
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Yo Arne…
Pick it, Lick it, Flick it… GOAL..!! :0)
From my perspective, this season was always a write off after Diogo. You can talk about your colleagues and how quickly you recovered, but footballers at the top level have very small worlds, much smaller than most of our worlds.
Probably shouldn’t have flogged off Lucho and Darwin for some glamour puss shite from the Bundesliga who refuse to run, but we’ll see.
Makes me laugh to see people talking about Glasner and Iraola, because they both make me shit myself from boredom.
What’s Owen Coyle up to these days?
Wirtz and Ekitike to me arent the issue, Frimpong is having a set back after set back.
for me, Isak and Kerkez are the questionable ones at the moment based on CURRENT evidence…
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Reminder that we won the league in September but then Diogos death started to effect our performances.
yeah im not really wanting to discuss it at length, had to hurt and still be hurting in moments but just as an equivelance from a different era, our lads won the FA cup after the Hillsborough Tragedy and won the league the following season.
society has moved on from male stoicism and additudes change etc etc, but that team watched 96 (at the time) people perish…
maybe my point doesnt help…apologies if it upsets anyone… i wish peace be to everyone greiving DJ.
singing his song or saving him a seat shouldnt in my mind be a major factor in players onfield performance
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It’s almost as if grief is not as linear or as straightforward as, say, the Deutsche Bahn. Sometimes it arrives late.
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Lots of factors. But the top one for me isn’t really slot’s fault.
I was denying it to myself for the longest time, but it was to high turnover of players. And especially turning over players for whom we have no adequate bridging cover. Nobody to ride things through for a smooth transition.
- Diaz. Think it’s obvious. Whatever Gakpo does, he doesn’t possess Diaz’s abilities off the ball. And this season he’s also having a stinker on the ball.
- Nunez (yes). We should have pumped our transfer brakes HARD when Diogo passed away. We lost too much of our in-your-face identity.
- Not forcing through Guehi. Without Trent, the ball goes to Konate and our forward momentum dies. A lot of our patterns of play are dependent on timely and precise passes from the back. When Konate delays by taking 2-3 touches the players in front of him stop running as they can see the sequences they’ve practice fall apart in real-time. Guehi is a far better passer and teams wouldn’t be able to cover other players and dare him to make passes because he will.
- Rio’s ability to contribute has been wildly overestimated. He may grow into a Sterling at some point but he’s certainly not ready yet.
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