Arne Slot - Head Coach

The Albert
6916

If Ramsey was the only issue of this kind, I’d agree with you. But he has done it with a lot of other players, of whom some have departed the club already.

I think that without wanting to see Slot’s back or something, we can agree that he has an issue with trusting players and giving them the confidence to perform at their best level. Instead of this, he complains about a lack of depth in the squad, players being tired etc. while simultaneously refusing to give minutes to the squad players and the developing youngsters. That’s not good enough for me.

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6917

I think that is being overly dramatic.

The ownership is stable and committed, the club is in great financial health, and there is a core of a squad that is young, hungry and has already won a league.

United have been a shambles off the pitch for decades. The comparison just isn’t reasonable.

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6918

While your points about Klopp’s tactical plan regarding integrating Williams and Phillips are absolutely valid, there are parallels to be drawn between the way he handled that situation and the way Slot handles the right back situation.

Klopp played his two key midfielders at centre back at the time, resulting in an unprecedented bad run of form. He tore down that plan in response and came up with a new one that involved two League One/Championship standard centre back starting every game, so everyone could play in their best roles, making it easier for all of his players to follow his tactical instructions.

Slot, on the other hand, gave Ramsey his debut (and lad had a really good outing in all honesty) and then continued fielding his best midfielder and club’s best player this season in an unfamiliar role whenever his senior right backs were unavailable, quite possibly undermining the best tactical plan he came up with this season (that lopsided formation during Salah’s absence, where Szoboszlai played as a right midfielder of sorts).

I don’t think Ramsay is the second coming of Cafu but I think he’s less of a risk with Szoboszlai, Gravenberch and Konate covering him than Szoboszlai not playing further forward and/or in his best role. Also, I don’t think that Slot’s constant putting down of Ramsay will be of any help to anyone. There are a lot of sticks to beat Slot with at the moment but that one hurts me. He doesn’t have to play him if he doesn’t think Ramsay’s good enough but he should really either frame it better or just stop talking about it.

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6919

I’ve said previously they simply slotting Ramsay into right back solves our issues in midfield which is in my opinion our biggest concern.

We’ve had plenty of games with our so called strongest midfield trio and still had teams walk through us.

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6920

Majority of my views on Slot have been expressed by many forum members.

Just thought to put out this point. It seems the players do not have much respect for him. I applaud Slot’s decision to bench Salah. Scapegoat or not, Salah is no longer the force he once was and would have more impact as a substitute. However, Salah directly challenged Slot’s authority by going to the press. The players seem to back him up on this too. There are other subtle hints, for example, when Jones, Robertson and VVD issues a statement or media line on the team, it conspicuously excludes Slot.

Slot or the next manager might have a challenge in managing this power dynamic.

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6921

You’re lurching from the squad isn’t good enough to the above. It can’t be both. It absolutely could happen and I’ll nail my colours to the mast and say that with Slot in position to the end of the season and missing CL, we are looking at least 3 - 5 seasons of building up again.

6922

Yes, and after winning the league using a similar style we then decided to throw it out of the window and here we are…

6923

Nobody can predict the future. 5 years is a long, long time in football.

That’s more the question for people running the club in off the pitch matters.

On the pitch, it was clear that we would have to change the team, bit by bit. How fast and how much in a certain window? That’s always up for discussion. Last year we went for it (perhaps more than it was healthy, including all moves, not only incoming transfers) and also had a tragedy which influenced things also. That’s not to say I saw Jota staying here for a number of years, but I was 99% sure he’d remain here at least one more season as a backup striker. I believe the original plan was to have Isak first choice and Jota backup.

Powerhouse is pushing it a little bit. We won things, but we weren’t serial winners.

Even if we fail to qualify for the CL this season and we change the head coach, we remain in a good place as a club. It’s a tough league where every season some clubs will be disappointed to be out of it. Gotta get back as soon as possible.

We went from a few goals short of the quadruple to finishing outside the CL and went out in the QF of the EL. It’s not a major shock (losing to Atalanta in the QF of EL), but yeah bad seasons can happen in between really good ones. For different reasons.

So let’s not forget that very shortly after the depression of our midfield being finished in 2023, big questions how we would replace some key players (some of those questions remains today though), but especially how we’d do post-Klopp and rebuild the directory level of the club (yes, we do have to prove that this combination of Edwards higher up and Hughes in the operational role is best for us going forward), we won a league.

6924

I do want Slot out. And I’ll be candid it’s not just about results. As likeable as he is, I don’t believe he aligns with the philosophy of this club, and the longer he stays, the more damage I think we’re doing.

A simple analogy. Imagine appointing Mourinho. He’d probably be successful at first, almost certainly win a trophy. But everyone accepts he doesn’t fit our values, our football identity, or our long-term direction. That’s exactly how I feel about Slot.

People keep throwing jabs that we aren’t Chelsea or United and we don’t sack managers. But honestly, over the last 12 months we’ve looked closer to those clubs than at any point over my entire adult life.

If Slot were at any other club, we’d be mocking him as a cheque-book manager.
Spending hundreds of millions. Breaking our transfer records. Moving out young prospects. Then publicly complaining about squad depth.

Yes, the sporting structure leads transfers but we don’t sign players the manager fundamentally doesn’t want. We also have one of the highest wage bills in the league. Does anyone seriously believe that if Slot had said “I don’t want Isak get me a CB or FB instead,” the club would have gone ahead with that window anyway? The volume of signings, the cost, the extravagance… it was massively outside our established philosophy. We signed some players because we could. That reflects what he wanted.

I also agree with the view that Slot doesn’t use his squad the way a top manager should. He has very clear favourites. He barely integrates academy players, and he’s broken the mentality that defined us, fighting to the end. That identity was the club. (It’s why the Kop has been so powerful) Now this team can’t play more than 60 minutes with intensity. That’s not just conditioning that’s mentality. And even when we were winning early in the season, the mentality was off. There is no escaping that falls squarely on the manager.

Part of this comes from Slot himself and the way he communicates. Some of what he says is unbecoming of him and of us as a club. At times it borders on gaslighting. His comments about the Europa League, and about being only able to sign Chiesa are perfect examples. We all know he inherited a squad capable of winning the league and under the right manager, I think we would have won it this year. This squad had been one of Europe’s best for years.

I also don’t like the tactics he insists on. They don’t suit many of the players he inherited, that’s why we look worse than the sim of its parts. That’s on him he’s too stubborn to revert to something that does. Talking of stubbornness the Harvey Elliott situation is the epitome of this. Yes Villa add the ones at fault and are to blame. However we choose how we respond. We’ve chosen stubbornness over pragmatism, and that hurts us and hurts the player.

Slot may be a good coach. But I don’t believe he is not the right coach for Liverpool. And the longer we wait, the deeper the hole becomes. To me I can see him at a club like Spurs. I don’t think Europes elite will be lining up for his signature.

There are so many concerns beyond the results. This is what really concerns me. That’s why at this point I would welcome an interim manager.

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6925

And I’d be very cold to compare Ramsay’s situation to Nat and Rhys.

It depends, from situation to situation. Klopp also had his periods of playing players out of position, ignoring some other ones as a result. We had Milner playing a full season and still covering at full back, even though he didn’t like it.

Klopp also had Calvin Ramsay, he was part of bringing him here and said pretty openly that we didn’t realize he had a back issue after the medical and after the deal was completed. Luckily, the fee wasn’t big, but it’s questionable whether we would’ve signed him if we knew everything in time.

Yes, Slot in general does have to prove whether he’s someone who’s ceiling is such to be at a big club in England and consistently get it to fight at multiple fronts. We saw that bad seasons can happen even after some of the best ever.

Now, can he also learn with time, yes he can. Will he merit that time post this season? We’ll see.

That was always the potential issue of finding a title winning gem under the radar (for us fans, the industry must have known him well). Experience at the top level and especially in the toughest league in the world.

And there’s no way I’m taking credit off him for that title winning season, no title winning season (especially in England) can be oversimplified. Of course he took over a better team in 2024 than Klopp in 2015. I do thank Klopp for solving some issues and reviving some of our principles in 23/24.

6926

Think it was less a lack of interest and more having burnt themselves out following the announcement a few months earlier. Given the condition of the squad getting to and winning the league cup final and the emotions of Klopp leaving.

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6927

What is the philosophy of this club and how real is it? Especially when I see down you mention the power of the Kop. Is that a bit overrated, don’t you think?

Really? Though I think that’s a too general statement, covers a lot of time. What are we exactly comparing here, Liverpool as a club or as a team in the last 12 months to Chelsea and United I guess in different problematic times (not that United had a lot of those…) since when?

Why necessarily Slot? It’s his second season at one of the world’s biggest clubs and the first with such a transfer window (and he’s not the main responsible for that, he’s part it). Wouldn’t it rather be Liverpool as a club? But remember our summer of 2024, we didn’t do much. And then we made big steps in 24/25 and the club concluded with Slot that it’s an appropriate time for more changes than you’d normally have. The number of changes is not so much the problem as both the balance of the squad and there were some factors we cannot control (when are Newcastle prepared to sell Isak and when or if Palace are prepared to sell Guehi - the counter argument to that is more, what were our alternatives).

And by the way, I have no issues with our net spend last summer and if other football public wants to mock us. Go ahead, I don’t care. Give me the ability to do that (responsibly!) 10/10 times. It’s what the club are working on 24/7 365. I’ve seen us not having (enough) money. I choose having money every day of the week. Then it depends HOW we spend it and how the players initially do. Because no, a big net spend does not mean you immediately become a better team. We’ve seen it many times, here and especially elsewhere. In the long run, of course it improves your chances, but even then we see what United accomplished compared to City for example.

That is fair, as an isolated stance.

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6928

Probably a stance I agree with.

6929

When you think of Klopp, Rafa, Kenny when it came to players coming in there was a clear vision. It might not have always worked but you could tell the vision. Players were bought to fit within a system, to fit with the type of football the manager wants us to play. We very much have always tried to build teams to help us over achieve.

By contrast Chelsea and United have taken an approach of throw enough money and hoping something will stick. Player x is world class let’s buy him. Rather than how does that player align or fit with the team, do we have a player who can already do this job, what’s the redundancy etc it’s why players like Salah, De Bryne and others had to leave to be successful.

I don’t think there is a poster here that can confidently say they know what Slot had planned. This is a major problem because it’s not the net spend that’s the problem it is the amount of change that occurred without a seeming plan. We underwent revolution and not evolution. Half a dozen new players starting games together. No transition, no slow integration. Instead half a dozen players out of a title winning team or benched, new players put straight into the first team.

All these things I would say are more symptomatic of Chelsea or United than Liverpool.

I would argue the approach to youngsters as well.

As for role of the Kop, I feel it is immensely important. For most of my life we have rarely had a great squad (except recently). We have massively over achieved as a club, especially in Europe. That difference for me is down to the atmosphere.

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6930

I thought the way he did it was atrocious as was the way he shoehorned Isak in over Ekitikè.
Really poor management imo.
I could go on. What I found interesting was what happened with Diaz, I know Slot doesn’t decide these things however why did Diaz want to leave so desperately?
Brendan Rodgers was much better.

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6931

Diaz was paid peanuts, that’s why he left. Meanwhile, Gakpo got a new 250k-per-week contract.

I also suspect that Slot also treated TAA not that well behind the scenes.

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6932

That a newly constructed young team would have the wheels fall off in the last quarter of the season after challenging (leading) up until then is maybe the most predictable thing in the world. But what you would also predict from a situation like that is they get better from the experience and are ready to go again the following year.

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6933

All those would’ve signed immediately to have the ability to spend as much as we did last summer, without that meaning we’re changing the club’s principles.

Vision is something that can be very individual in the eyes of fans. Rafa worked on a limited budget, but even as an admirer of him, he did more than a few transfer moves that raised eyebrows, let’s be real.

I only saw Kenny at the helm in his second stint and there was also Comolli at the time, also some big weird moves in the transfer window.

I have a pretty good idea what Slot had planned, but where they (the club, together with Slot!) started losing me with what we’re trying to build was when I couldn’t really figure out a functional XI with all the moves we’ve made last summer. I could imagine a team with Szobo and Wirtz in if they both merit starting, but the moment when it broke that we still want Isak and are prepared for another record, after Ekitike. Keeping Salah. Okay, just how will we play?

Transition of new players is not under our total control. We would all love to have all signings here before the first day of pre-season but even in the best transfer window that’s hardly possible. Some shit happened and for some of that shit, there is no (single) guilty party. Losing Jota, Isak arriving so late, Guehi not arriving at all.

I think the atmosphere at Anfield can be immensely important. But isn’t often enough in my opinion. They have the chance to be that more often. But that has something to do with the culture of the people (the Kop isn’t an ultra type of place and it doesn’t have to be).

The difference for me this season is in the balance of the team. We have mostly a reactive crowd, it’s true that you gotta give them something first.

I felt Klopp was very frustrated with the lack of atmosphere (I especially remember his disappointment after successive draws against United and Arsenal at home), after the Annie Road development was completed. I felt that was another reason why he thought, no, I don’t have the energy anymore to lift this place and be the coach, father figure, philosopher, activist and cheerleader.

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6934

So … you do believe he’s the right coach for Liverpool? Bit of a plot twist I wasn’t expecting based on the rest of the post :wink:

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6935

Its everywhere on a forum tho, its the style, everyone is looking for the punchy witty interaction. Even more reserved posters do it. Like us :sweat_smile:

@GermanRed point does have merit tho, and I have held off raising it on here. But if we cock up this transition from Slot, then there we are, 5 yrs in the doldrums again.

I honestly think the club has been infected with high corporatists. We are a club based on a lions heart honesty, raw genuineness, which comes from inspirational speak. All of our great managers were wordsmiths, cannae folk, who could mesmerise and inspire, Slot is not this type at all.

1 Like