He learns far too slowly however if he stops fucking up he might hang on.
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Agree. We were still losing second balls and West Ham were toothless, much like Frankfurt. After some good play in the first half we were under too much pressure in the second half, defensive organisation was shaky. At one point two consecutive tackles were made and that one player with the ball still got through until VVD put it out. No real outlet to move the ball quickly when attacking.
At least there was no inverted fullback with wingers stuck outside (goals were from Gakpo moving into the goal area after great work from Wirtz, and a Gomez cross), so things can change.
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Bigger test in midweek. Sunderland will come to Anfield wanting the win.
It’s still a massive week for him. The first step to getting back to normality is ticked off.
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Nope, because he’s going to bring Mo back in for Sunderland and we’ll lose 
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If we lose at home to Sunderland he deserves to be sacked.
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A stay of execution. He made some good and hard choices for today. Benching Mo being the hardest call. I honestly think Mo is through, and it’s a shame, but all good things and all. He’s had an amazing run here. Should return from AFCON as an impact sub, think he’ll look to go in the summer. Slot has to stick by this until he has a new winger.
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Sunderland are 6th best team in PL this season. Will be tougher than today!
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I get the sense you’re enjoying yourself
Oh really , care to elaborate ?
Today was better. Looked like a 4231 to me, though you can also pick out times it was a 2-2 box in the middle. Big call to drop Salah. It was the right call. My slight concern is Mo will be straight back in against Sunderland and the hard won solidity we saw today will evaporate.
We have stunk the place out for so long that it’s impossible to say if this is a corner turned. We will only know that after a few more games. But a win and a clean sheet to stop the rot was welcome.
The system Slot played today, with Wirtz as the playmaker, also gave us some signs as to the probable future direction. Add Semenyo and Guehi as soon as January comes round and kick on. I’m still backing us to finish top four, and if we can start to click and play at the sort of level that swatted Real Madrid aside, anything is possible in the CL.
Cautiously optimistic here. After so many losses, the emphasis is on the cautious part.
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I guess he opted for Szobo in the right half-space instead of Wirtz for more protection for Gomez. We might see Wirtz back playing off the sides, Szobo, Jones can also do it.
By the way, what’s interesting about our last 2 opponents, they put a lot of focus on overloading against out left side.
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4-2-3-1 today. I called it. 
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Me too, well sort of!!
Great that he made these obvious and vital changes, but now there’s the problem of (amongst other things) leaving Salah out next time and the time after if needed. I love Mo and he’s a legend of this club one of our best ever, but for me it’s a no brainer - we need to be solid, stop conceeding soft goals and get back to basics for a while, while racking up wins. But for a fan like me it’s easy to just say leave Salah on the bench, we’ve all seen time and time again at many clubs and at international level that managers often bottle these decisions with the huge players, even if it seems the right call. Let’s see what Arne does next. Job very well done today though.
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I can’t put too many hopes as West Ham were (almost) as bad I’ve seen them play but I think that today was the first real look at post-Salah future.
Key takeaways:
- it’s imperative Wirtz gets on the ball as much as possible
- it’s imperative that the whole team plays as close as possible to the main striker, be it Isak or Ekitike
- it’s imperative that lads start getting more aggressive after losing the ball
We saw a lot of the same issues that have been plaguing the side for a while, especially after the 70th minute. Had West Ham scored, we wouldn’t have been able to complain. If Sunderland get physical with us, it will be Nottingham Forest all over again.
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I actually disagree, we dropped back a bit on 70, was a bit more like Slot from last season.
They got a free kick and that’s all I remember, other was offside
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Not yet!
I miss Darwin.
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Bowen should have scored for sure. It would have been 1-1 and who knows how we would have responded.
And Hugo should have scored and made it 2-0.
If your referring to the edge of the box one? It’s not really a should have scored because it’s the only one I remember when about 3-4 of our players managed to push it about to the point Bowen hits and sends it wide.
It’s no closer than Hugo’s half shot.
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Statistically aggression hasnt been our issue. Making tackles and successful ones has. For me the key takeaway is that our pressing is off because it’s not organised well enough and too easy to play through.
Otherwise wholly agree with what you’re saying.
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