It’s not, blame should be shared between him and the directors. As I said, the squad needed a centre-back (at least) and a versatile attacker, the only thing we’ve heard so far is about selling Robertson. That tells you everything.
Slot has just overtaken Klopp’s 20/21 run where he returned 6W 4D 8L vs Slot’s current 5W 6D 7L. The problem for Slot is that things haven’t really improved massively, so we don’t feel out of the woods at all, and moreover as @redwhippet says below
we can only imagine what this will look like for (a) securing future targets and (b) keeping a hold of existing players that are performing. I need to be honest and the talk of Szobo negotiating has me with this face plastered on me:
The only tiny positive is that when we weren’t performing under Klopp, we had an ageing squad that were considered by the media to be over the hill. This team has the potential to grow so that’s the only glimmer I am holding onto.
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But we’re not in the Rodgers type mess and that’s my point.
I guess that’s part of the issue with the type of manager Klopp or Mourinho or even Ferguson is. You rely on their personality and when that goes you’ve a vacuum that is impossible to fill. It’s why the club needs to be the appeal and not the manager. Be interesting to see what happens when Pep leaves City…
As for the mess, that’s largely on the field and you hope a new manager can sort. As a club we’re in a lot less of a mess than Chelsea, United, Spurs, potentially City if Pep goes. Even Villa you’ve got an obvious clash between manager and recruitment teams.
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Him and Edwards did the work on replacing Klopp. And no one was saying they failed to do that last season. In fact there was universal praise for the appointment they made.
Replacing Klopp was a borderline impossible job but we literally ended up with the best outcome anyone could have hoped for. Now they have a decision to make on Slot but it doesn’t mean for one second they made the wrong call at the time.
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Umm we signed Leoni and got sabotaged for Guehi. Versatile attackers, you’ve got Ekitike, Isak, Wirtz etc.
So that’s not the problem
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We won a league title under Klopp’s successor.
I’m curious what you thought was predictable or projectable about this outcome.
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I have an issue with this. They’ve both been around for some time, especially Endo. If you don’t trust them, then either get players okay to come on as subs that you do trust or get kids from the academy you do trust.
Slot says he’s learned about the nature of the PL and overusing a small group of players but in reality he has learned nothing.
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Disagree with this. We were caught out penny pinching. If we paid extra and forced Palace’s hand we would have had him by now.
Too clever by half.
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I think Slot needs to up the emotional tempo, especially at Anfield.
Under Klopp, we had these 10/15 minute emotinal spells in games, the high press, the desire to win the ball back, klopp charged the fans, that charged the players and chaos reigned.
Apart from Flo, Rio and Ekitike maybe, there’s not a player in the squad that inspires the fans imo.
Sure we have control and possession in games, but there’s no fear from the opponents.
We’re like a red spurs
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I have another issue with LFC (read Hughes) trying to pretend that we are okay with losing out Guehi.
You fucked up.
You either want a player or you don’t. This is a non-trivial investment in a current England international, in a position we desperately need reinforcements in. Not to mention the homegrown quota buffering.
And how do you think Guehi feels hearing about him being a “market opportunity”? Yeah that really made him want to join us eh?
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I agree. We’ve all got our ideas about the causes of this situation and it could be many things (or a combination of them) that have brought us to this point.
As you say, so many of the existing players have been way off it. Often as many as nine regular first teamers from last year in the same side, playing as though they’ve never met.
Personalities? Attitudes? It’s clearly not a happy ship, whatever the videos from the training ground may show us. Something made Salah speak out, or Virgil openly critical.
It’s horrible to witness this, and I don’t want to see or even think about LFC kicking out a title winning manager, but all of this went beyond a blip months ago, and every (rare) decent performance is often followed by a more disappointing one.
Perhaps we’ll have to wait for an explosive interview or book from an ex-player to find out for sure, but when the manager/coaches don’t know the answers how are we supposed to?
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They sent basically all of our homegrown squad players packing, making it harder to find other alternatives to Guehi by reducing the homegrown number to a bare minimum.
On top of that, not buying a winger and deciding that Gakpo and a 34-year-old Salah are enough.
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Perhaps this user below sums it up the best
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At 85m total outlay?
I think we all know that our financial model doesn’t support the idea
I don’t understand why people think we can get an identical replacement to the player before. Teams need to evolve both in playing style, tactics and personnel.
So in potential wide players we have Ekitike, Frimpong. And Isak has dipped out wide as well.
Our recruitment has not been perfect but I believe its not the issues you mention.
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They claim they were/are, and have acted like it. At some point it seems the most likely explanation is this is genuinely how it transpired
That is pretty clearly not the case. We wanted Mbappe. We dont want Mbappe at 400k a week and 100m transfer fee. Want is always conditional on market factors
If you accept their position on Guehi - a situation where we can do a good deal get a bit better now and tide us over until we’re ready to move on the principal target who will be the main stay of our backline into the next decade - then our moves make sense. The question will continue be why they thought we could get through this season unscathed without making that principal decade defining move now
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It’s not necessary must be Guehi, but I can’t believe we’re ignoring the need to buy a new defender.
The worst case is the board has already given up on this season, keeping Slot to be the scapegoat for everything. Need a defender first, then a new manager. If there’s no investment this winter, I’m worried for any new manager too.
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Not talking about this window (that was too late).
We had an agreed personal terms and wages with Marc’s party. We just needed to force Palace’s hand with a few more millions. We just needed to force Palace hand with a few more millions which was totally within our financial remit. But we decided not to do that and allowed Glasner to throw a strop and cause the deal to fall apart. Glasner was never going to stay regardless of whether Guehi stayed or not so it was stupid of Parish to indulge him in that way.
I doubt anyone will come without some backing. Slot was a bit unique in that sense I think.
Ok no problem. I can’t help think there was a bit of a middle finger moment to it though.