Don’t think we can really plan for it, a year or more down the line can change a lot of things. It’s simply too unpredictable. Both Quansah’s development and our situation at CB.
He was sold and we have an option, but I don’t think it’s anything more than an option. If it was something different, we wouldn’t have sold him.
Objectivelly, the chances are higher that he will not return here than he will.
This. It’s perhaps something that should be addressed to Hughes and/or even FSG but I’m afraid we aren’t seeing enough on the pitch to think “OK, I can see the big picture, the football is there but it’s obvious that we need better players in this and that position”.
Again, all of this is very reminiscent of Rodgers’ in 2014/15. I’m just waiting for that loss where everything falls apart - maybe we’re saving it for our trip to Old Trafford where they secure CL football, while we get relegated to Europa League… It would be poetic after the years of relative hurt we inflicted on them, eh?
However, unlike in Rodgers’ case, I think that FSG learned their lesson and maybe losing faith in Slot could be the reason behind them keeping the powder dry this time around. I choose to believe that Liverpool transfers are made with a defined style of football in mind, not with a particular coach in mind.
The needs of the squad are clear - I am, however, afraid that it will take another big summer for all of those needs to be addressed (Alisson, Robertson and Salah possibly leaving, Konate, Gomez and Chiesa probably leaving, Mac Allister’s future under question mark, Frimpong looking more like a right winger than a fullback).
My opinion on Slot since the really bad run this season was that he needed to be replaced but I didn’t think it would happen until the end of the season since there were no viable alternatives available. That has now changed. While the ship has been steadied and the results have improved somewhat, I am not seeing the performances on the pitch where they need to be. What, we have 4 draws in our last 4 matches in the league? That’s nowhere near good enough. If that continues we won’t finish in the top 5. The situation has now changed in that Alonso is available and presumably ready to start another job immediately. Assuming he was high up on the club’s list following Klopp’s departure and still is, why would we not make the change? I don’t want to be a club that sacks its manager every 18 months, but there is a genuine opportunity here. The club have proven they like to be opportunistic. Well then, go bring Xabi home.
And if Xabi don’t bring the improvement? Then what? I think Xabi is a good manager and if Slot leaves he would probably be the most likely replacement but we are behaving as if he is the 2nd coming.
I don’t think our squad is perfect, and realistically, we are pretty imbalanced: lack of wingers, lack of a stable right back, lack of alternative CB. It’s a poor summer plan with Hughes, but it’s far from the worst, and we do deserve a much better performance. Yes, we’ve had a lot of changes in the summer, but half the season is gone, and we still don’t have a single game-winning comfortable feeling in my memory, and there’s no sign of improvement.
We’ve seriously could lost Champions League football next year. we’ll almost certainly lose Konate, Robertson. VVD, and Salah is a year older. Meanwhile, Gravenberch, Szobo, and Mac only have two years left in their contracts. I can see a very dangerous situation we could face next summer, and the rebuild could be endless.
I don’t think Slot can turn the situation around with the current squad right now. If they don’t trust him, then sack him. If they do, then please do something to improve the squad.
We have a thread dedicated to Man Utd, taking the piss out of the car crash they are. Sacking managers, incomprehensible tactics, poor signings, club generally falling asunder.
And here we are, one point ahead of them, with our other blood sport victims Chelsea also closing in the CL spots.
We SHOULD be beating fucking Burnley. Whether thats on players or manager.
We’re in a four way fight now for fourth with Utd , Chelsea and Newcastle , who are all improving. Our mini renaissance is over and we’ve drawn our last four , spunking six out of nine points against the newly promoted sides. No matter what we can dig out in the cups I see a very realistic prospect of us not making CL next year and for that reason primarily I think he should be sacked now.
Yeah, exactly.. Us missing out on the CL next season is a very real possibility at this point.
Our “resurgence” have seen us play the newly promoted sides four times and we haven’t manage to win a single one of these games. We are one point clear of the chasing pack, we should have been at least six/seven points clear. It’s true that none of the chasing teams have hit the stride but it’s also true that our run of games won’t get any easier either.
I don’t think it is a matter of tactics and what’s not when the most basic skills in competitive football is not there.
Football is a contact sport with a lot of fast sprints and running. You need to at least have a good period of physical conditioning, proper squad usage and sufficient tactical coaching to let players recognise when to slow down the play without burning out the players totally.
Last season, our team could fall back to defend in numbers , break out in fast and rapid counter attacks while being running the opponent down physically. They also recognise when to slow down and when to be direct. Fringe players back then like Endo, Quansah and even Chiesa ( and Jones to a certain extent) started games and played more.
Something changed in physical conditioning of the squad starting from the end of last season. The squad could no longer can out-run the opponent anymore. They couldn’t do fast breaks even if they wanted to. The coaching team somehow failed to rehabilitate Macca as well in the pre-season.
Tactically wise, the squad couldn’t even recognise when to slow down and when to speed up things now despite having two of the best playmakers in the world in Wirtz and Salah
The poor use of the squad is even more apparent this season compared to last season which compounds the effects of poor physical conditioning we have currently. Endo is frozen out with Macca joining him on the bench while Jones/Szobo/Gravenberch all looking utterly knackered by the 60th Minute. Gakpo looks as if he has never tried to beat his man before and couldn’t combine with anyone else outside Tsimikas and Robbo, We have 3 natural right backs where Bradley is very injury prone, Frimpong has his own injury issues, and Slot rather put jones/ szobo on RB rather than Ramsay…The amount of season ending injuries we have is also quite an anomaly as well compared to last season.
All in all, a lot of the issues we have now is down to poor fitness conditioning, poor squad usage and poor tactical instructions. The blame can only lie in the coaching team where Slot is the team leader.
Certainly there is a risk Alonso isn’t successful. That is the case with the majority of manager appointments. I do t think anyone is saying Alonso is the second coming. It’s just that there are major concerns about Slot’s ability to get us CL next season. Alonso was, if reports are to be believed- very high up on the list of managers to follow Klopp, perhaps the top choice. He is now available. There is an opportunity that may not be there in the summer. If the club still rates him then I think we have to make a move. This all assumes he’s ready to start immediately.
My take on this supposed uptick in form is that I dont take much positivity from it. I get you have to stop the bleeding, but it has done with an approach so distant from what Slot has told us his vision of football is, and with so little that is applicable or transferable to that type of football that it didn’t say anything positive to me about his ability to get back to the required standards. Playing 65-70 points per season football may be enough to stay in the job if there is a compelling story you can tell about how its building to something better, but it’s not going to be enough if it’s won playing a brand of football so at odds with what he pitched to Hughes at the beginning and so little to point to in the performances about he can ever achieve that again.
But yesterday I saw it. The result was frustrating, and there were elements of the performance that were frustrating, but this looked like the first step forward to the sort of team Slot wants since we initially retreated into this safety first football. The shape, the clear role for Wirtz that didnt screw everything else up. If this is the sort of football we play for the rest of the season it is highly likely to earn enough points to finish top 4 and Slot’s case is going to be much stronger when he sits down with Hughes to discuss next year. That is why I find it so interesting that yesterday seemed to be inflection point for how Slot is viewed. The first real audible boos. The level of dissatisfaction being palpable enough that connected journos have to put out “vote of confidence” pieces this morning. I wonder if that says anything about the margin for error the fans have for the less entertaining brand of football he wants to play? Moving forward is that brand of football only going to be viable if it can guarantee us 85 points a season?
I thought the performance was good as well. However, we had these kind of performances scattered throughout the season (Real Madrid, Villa, etc.) followed by a run of horrendous form. It’s the lack of consistency and clear style of play the concerns me. I hope I am wrong about Slot, but I’m just not convinced.
If Slot is sacked, what will happen to his assistants? We are talking so many changes on the field already and disrupting our current campaign. Would the entire coaching team get replaced at the same time? Let’s say LFC is appointing Xabi as the new head coach tomorrow, would Xabi (and Hughes) be bringing in the full replacement crews (assuming they can get work permits immediately)?
To be honest there are never any plans to sack a manager until they sack them.
We aren’t going make it public via sources or public, of course when you have the dreaded vote of confidence you can be expecting to have gone soon after.
If he was to drop completely out of the playoff spots in the CL and league position was to get progressively worse then he’s a goner. Club needs some form of Europe.
If he stays we finish top 10, get rid now.
We’ve also got the second highest points tally of any of the top six in the last six games. I’m in no way suggesting we’re good but realistically nor are many other teams outside of Arsenal.
Chelsea and United were goaded into sacking their managers by the managers themselves rather than results on the pitch. United have now hired the bloke who was sacked after finishing 10th in the Championship last season mainly based on the fact he used to play for them. And Chelsea hired a bloke who was sacked for finishing 7th in the Championship the year before that mainly because he was already on their payroll, albeit at their other club.
Again, that’s not to say we’re good and both clubs might have a short term bounce. But I doubt anyone would be chuffed if we sacked Slot and replaced him with Carlos Corberan. In fact I think this place would combust if that happened but that’s the level of coach United and Chelsea have hired.
i think (based on my personal reaction from a million miles away) is that i was so pleased with aspects of that first half, there was simply no need to revert to type in the second, but we did…
a combination of many factors, but my first instinct was that we had purposefully ‘put the brakes on’ in that second half… quite a few moments were slowed down (Dom being the alpha) …
so yeah, i get why it seemed so pivitol, because it felt like a moment when Slot said ’ we CAN do this (first half), but we’re gonna do that instead when we get ahead’, where as before the Arsenal game everything felt like he was still working his way through everything.
im also slightly worried that im being fooled into overrating that first half by what i see Ekitike and particularily Wirtz do, and just living on those positive moments…some of those touches from Wirtz were ridiculous…no wonder it was enjoyable to watch.
Yep, it is the hope that kills, like you I was really pleased with the 1st half performance, then to get served up with a damp squid of a performance in the 2nd half was so draining.
Huh? Why the last six games??? That is some weird benchmark…How about using the last 5 or 10 games as the form guide???
10 points in the last six games is the second highest tally for any of the top six???