Winning because of the players, rather than in spite of what you have to work with?
no.
think of Man City as the extreme example.
they have the pick of the best players in the world, yet they dont win games becuase they simply have better players, they win games becuase they are a better team.
Klopps Liverpool were a great example.
Mo Salah didnt score all those goals simple off the back of being a good player, he had a team that made him the player he is.
a team should be greater than the sum of its parts.
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I think we’re all a bit guilty of projecting our feeling about the manager and the idea of change into our predictions of what it will take for him to keep his job.
That’s what I think you are doing here, at least as much as me when I say I think he’ll be the manager next year regardless of anything as long as he gets back in the CL.
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The thought of having to watch another year of slow-paced possession football after this season does not make me happy. The man plays football not to lose rather than to win.
As far as I’m concerned, he should leave this month, or else definitely in the summer.
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Look I am not a fan in total with how we play.
But look at the last season under Klopp, we played a very gung ho fast style of footy and it became like a basketball game and we ended up falling off the pace due to conceeding too many goals.
It is finding the right balance that eludes most managers, Slot had this right for his 1st 6 months but the last 10 it is off, but that is also down to not having the pace in the team to take advantage of potential fast breaks.
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He was right because most coaches had no answer to our possession-based football, which wasn’t as annoying then as it is now. The big difference is that back then, we played 22 games in the Premier League up to January, winning 16, drawing 5, and losing only 1, but the football was just as boring in most cases as it is now.
I understand from a Dutch Feyenoord fan that this is the kind of football he played there too, and he’s not going to change it.
BTW, for pace, we have Ekitike, Rio, and Fringpong.
Rio doesn’t appear to have outright pace and Ekitike, for me has it but doesn’t use it enough, Frimmy though is scaringly fast.
However, these all are struggling for fitness are or too young atm.
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That’s not explaining the whole situation though, we’ll probably have to make a decision whether we also give him a new contract.
I have no issue believing he’ll be here at the start of next season if we are in the CL, but there’s a decision to be made.
Not sure if we can go into next season with him having less than a year left.
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I agree. And Xabi (like Slot) is still a young head coach. Even if Slot wins us three PLs and CLs in a row from now on, there is still a good chance that we might eventually see Xabi come to Liverpool, at some point in his career.
I agree that Slot’s time with us will be decided by how we do until May, as there is that contract situation to clarify. But we have to give him some slack too. The amount of small, intermediate and really nasty injuries is piling up as we speak. First Leoni, then Isak and now Bradley out for the season is mind-blowing. Add to this all the niggles we’ve had to a galore of players, forcing changes all the time… it’s not a simple job for Slot to instate a consistency in our game this season.
And please don’t forget the shadow of Jota’s tragic passing. It’s still very present, at every game, in everyone’s mind.
Bottom-line, Slot deserves a lot of time to get things right, but it would be nice to see us getting some consistency before the end of the season. The last few games have been encouraging. If only injuries weren’t disrupting us all the time…
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Not Xabi’s thread, but…
I wonder if some of these top ex-players even plan to be coaches for a long time.
Also why you actually might see Real and such clubs going relatively soon for those options and almost wasting them (though some have returned…) and players accepting. Basically sink or swim, knowing that it could end quickly.
Xabi could be an interesting candidate soon or one day, but if it doesn’t happen for different reasons, there will be other options.
My view here is Xabi, is currently the shiny new thing on the shelf. And that’s it. Head says there’s no need to go there.
It’s a bit like the shiny new guitars I keep looking at while my modded, cheap and old non fashionable brand thingy is more than enough for my needs. There’s no need to chase the shiny new thing.
However, I need a shiny new van…
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I’m sure you also need a shiny new still camera. 
It sort of feels like when we had Rodgers and Klopp became available. Power struggles, average results, and coaches being shown the door as sacrificial lambs.
Xabi, like Klopp back then, was surely the club’s first choice. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Hughes is already on the phone.
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Alonso’s agent is the same as Iraola’s, and Hughes appointed the latter as Bournemouth manager, so at least on that level, there’s already a positive relationship established.
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Really?
Everything I have heard is that he played fast, attacking football with pace coming from the wide players.
He was hired as a continuity appointment to Klopp’s aggressive style.
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That’s what I had heard too, and why he was chosen by the club as Klopp’s successor.
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Why can’t we? Sounds like the perfect scenario to me. He either starts strong and we agree a new deal or we make a call and let him go without having a huge payout.
Biggest mistake this season for me was fielding all the new players in the first eleven straight away. Yes, Andy needs to be managed game by game, but Kerkez and Frimpong should both have not been starting the first game together.
Wirtz is complete class. But he should’ve started on the left rather than Slot rejigging the whole midfield.
We get in two pacy fullbacks who like to bomb up and down the line………….and Slot initially played them inverted, thereby negating their strengths. He kept Salah and Gakpo out wide, leaving them continuously isolated.
Slot finally went more pragmatic only after dropping Mo. He should’ve arrested that mad 71 year worst form run much earlier by going back to basics (such as actually playing Joe for a few minutes as the right back).
Had Slot started with more or less the same team as last year and had some of the new players initially coming off the bench, we probably would have been in a much better position. It would have allowed a more smoother transition.
Example: Wirtz initially starting wide forward, and after getting up to pace, being brought in to the centre (where he started his first few games).
Yes, many players have been off form (Salah, Alexis, etc). There’s also the great loss suffered that would affect players psychologically. For me, it was too much change too soon.
We are some way off 3rd, and there are many teams a good run away from 4th place. We need to get 4th locked up by the end of the season, and hopefully get far in the CL. On our day, we can still beat any team.
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I’ve mentioned before about the family element, with Slot’s wife and kids still living abroad. I don’t think he’d want to go into a third year without a commitment from the club, so he can move his family over, rather than seeing them in patches during the international break.
I thought they had moved over.