I guess when he says 4-3-3, he does mean 4-2-3-1. It can happen with some people.
And Wirtz has played a little bit off the sides more on the inside, doesn’t mean he’s being asked to play like Salah, Gakpo, Chiesa or Ngumoha when he does.
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I think the club already viewed Ekitike as someone who can improve the team (or maintain the level) this season, not a young talent for the future.
The thing that bothers me is that we went £204m deep to get two strikers both for the present and future and left us with even more questions how it will work, with all the moves we made.
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Does anyone care if IT (i.e. if we were winning every game) was working out?
Slot has commented pretty openly that one of things he wanted to address with the squad building this summer was addressing how physically demanding the schedule is for Prem sides and having enough rotation options specifically for the players who were not used to those demands. He specifically called out Wirtz and Hugo, saying that if they were going to have to be everyday players they’d have to nearly double their minutes from last season. He also put Isak in that bracket because of his prior injury issues.
I think the pretty obvious take home is that while it might evolve over time into a best XI with all 3 of them playing, but that was not the vision we had in mind when signing them.
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The question about how both Isak and Ekitike work hasn’t been answered on the pitch, chiefly because they haven’t had much of a chance to both be fit and firing together yet. Unfortunately that won’t happen now this season, or if we get a glimpse, it will only be at the tail end.
Next season we will see! Will it be a 433 like one would usually imagine? If so, we need better wingers than the ones we have now. And at least one of them needs electric pace. Or will it be more of a 4231 with Wirtz in the 10 role, Ekitike playing from the left, but inside left, and Isak up top? Or will we have two elite/potentially elite options for a singular striker role, and end up with a Haaland/Alvarez situation as suggested above, where ultimately one will be sold?
There are so many open-ended questions about how we are supposed to function in the final third. The frustrating thing is we can’t get them on the pitch to sort it out!
Over and above all that is the question over the manager.
Is Slot going to do enough with the remainder of the season to continue in his job? If not, the questions over how our attacking players are going to work together will be answered by another manager, and without wanting to get ahead of myself, he would probably look at the attacking talent we have at Liverpool and relish the chance to harness it within a cohesive unit.
It’s up to Slot to show that he should be that man.
My mind is not made up due to the numerous factors at play this season. But I no longer see those who want a change as being unreasonable. I get it, and it’s a valid viewpoint, even if I wish we would hope for the best and back the sitting manager - no, the sitting Premier League winning manager - for the rest of the season while we find out. That’s what I’ll be doing.
You can’t win with some, just want to moan for moanings sake.
Yeah, I’ve seen that.
And if that’s mainly what explains it (of course it doesn’t for me), then congratulations Liverpool, I’d question the lot of them (Slot and the football decision makers above). That would be a bloody spectacular way/reason to do one of the biggest transfers windows we’ve ever had.
So what, we should first wait for each of them to individually fully adapt to the physical aspect of this league (fully aware that’s what can happen with some new players), prove they can play more minutes than previously in their careers (who’s to say they couldn’t have if they had to?), but not expecting them to have the answers how they should play/start together(!). It’s not even possible to avoid. And then either think of a way to play them together or if they know already, eventually show to the world what we had in mind… in a few years. Nice, Slot could be gone by the end of this season.
I know it could actually turn out to be like this at least in Isak’s case (as in needing more than a year to show his full potential as an individual here), but there are more reasons why and some questions marks remain for me.
By the way, it’s not only the mentioned 3, but other decisions like keeping Salah on a new contract, having Szoboszlai and Gakpo (also on a new contract) and obviously needing to have the right balance behind (only Jones has showed he can threaten game time among the double-pivot roles of Gravenberch and Mac). I’m not saying all mentioned should be automatic starters, by the way.
Clubs we signed our players from this summer; Leverkusen, Puskas Akademia, Bournemouth, Valencia, Preston, Eintracht, Salford, Parma, Newcastle.
The exact names on that list aren’t that important because on average, it’s pretty much the usual level(s) where we sign players from. The bigger fish usually eats the smaller fish, etc. Sometimes we sign someone from clubs of similar level (or slightly above) to us, but they don’t belong in the majority of incoming transfers.
So what has changed? We usually sign players from levels of clubs listed above where there’s less games/minutes played in a season. Is there something especially weak about the ones we’ve signed this summer, compared to before?
Obviously multiple factors decide whether some new players do well immediately or need more time.
Thing is there’s more than enough stuff worth getting worked up about, no need to try and turn the fact we have some quality depth into a negative too.
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Ok. So, I should have interpreted…
As
‘I will take a step back if you don’t mind’?
Take a step back from what? I haven’t referenced you in any of my posts so why do you feel the need to ‘take a step back’? ‘If you don’t mind’ so you are asking me if I don’t mind you stepping back? There was no question mark at the end of this sentence, so excuse me for misinterpreting your intent…..
The rest of your response contested my post, which in my opinion is not stepping back.
Your responses since, playing the funny bugger, suggests I was right with my interpretation.
Anyhow, there are more important matters at hand, like Arsenal away 
.
Actually saw some tactical football tonight against Arsenal. Not perfect but much better team performance. We just need the sucker punch!
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Sucker punch?
For most of the first half we were on back foot and defended well. Sucker punch might aptly describe a winning goal in those circumstances.
For most of the second half we were taking the game to Arsenal, and if anything, as we tired right at the very end, they would have been the ones with the sucker punch had they scored, as we were the better side.
Sucker punch almost implies an inferior side getting something they shouldn’t have, but we were the better side in that game, which was all the more remarkable given the attacking talent we had out.
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Who faded Slot/Salah? Or the Team as a whole?
So March, when our season came to an anti climax having lost to PSG/Newcastle, where the team and us Fans also lost a bit of interest.
Lol, yeah I purposely misinterpreted the opening sentence of @jaffod post. 
That 2nd half performance and his tweak at half time to stop their 1st phase possession was what we saw last year.
Hopefully he has got his mojo back.
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I think that if we had won it would have been unexpected. Even if we dominated possession in the second half our main objective didn’t look like it was to score. It would have been a sucker punch as imo they were unprepared for our tactics.
Your taking it all far to seriously imo. I mean picking on that bit that didn’t happen …
You did.
Admit it, apologise and move on.
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The number of passes we made in their half in the second half is supposedly a premier league record for teams playing at Arsenal. Even without pointing to an abundance of big clear cut chances I think you can say when you have wrestled control of a game like that had we have found a winner it wouldnt have been appropriate to call it a sucker punch
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And that’s it. Any further post on that topic will be deleted.
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People attacking Slot and calling for his head over our play this season must be feeling a little circumspect today after a performance that showed we can complete with anyone. Instead, their focus might switch somewhat to whether the players have really put in the consistent effort and commitment to win games this season. Against the bigger clubs we consistently put in a big shift and like Arsenal last night we tend to look superior. Against the lesser lights we have often looked listless, frail, unfit and workshy. It must be frustrating for Slot to be briefing players how to beat low blocks and other tactics only to see his work undone by players who maybe aren’t always putting in the required shift.
There can be many reasons for this and I still believe the Diogo effect has drained a lot out of our players. What is required is for Slot and the players to commit to the level of effort and focus we showed last night. Then all the criticism will go away.
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Both Slot and the players have been at fault, suggesting otherwise is nonsensical.
And yes, we all know that we can compete with anyone. That’s why the results and the performances have been so disappointing and frustrating.
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