For me it’s a default habit, whoever is our coach and whether I like or dislike him, I listen to all pressers from start to finish.
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Got to hand it to you, that’s dedication.
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Fair enough, but your not particularly one of those that jump on every slight comment he may or not make.
That’s true. He had hard workers ahead of him. But they were ahead of him. He screened the defence alone and had a lot of space to cover. It was a 433, with the midfield three very much a one and then a two.
It’s a high quality senior team so the lines are compact. Especially since Fabinho didn’t drop between CB’s (he did that at the start while Klopp’s instructions were opposite, hence why it took him time to settle). If a single pivot is really alone and he needs to cover more than he can, something is wrong. Fabinho’s prime example of security and allowing the team to do the rest going forward was that Barca game at home, he was amazing that night.
Then we had different combinations of players in the #8 spot and how they behave in different phases. It’s natural that Thiago was a bit more deeper as the LCM when we did our build up than for example Hendo at RCM, who had a more dynamic role of both protection and support between Trent and Salah. Also, we would sometimes actually press in midfield with our single pivot #6 off the ball, and then the other two would be supporting him.
We used a bunch of different players in those roles from Coutinho to Milner.
So regardless if it’s a V-shape midfield trio or a 2&1 shape, nobody should really be alone and different players are best suited for those roles.
In this current team, we have some advantages and disadvantages in both midfield structures. I’m not sure whether Gravenberch would be ready to become single pivot, but a V-shape midfield would suit Szobo at RCM for example (the one he played in his first and Klopp’s final season). Then it also depends on our strikers.
Wolves!
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I think I would have to agree with Mascot on this one. First place I would upgrade is the wings.
Slot’s successful teams were always built on forwards and wingers who could press. Last season we had pressing machines like Diaz and Jota which were not replaced. Even Nunez (when he played) pressed more than our existing lot.
Playing Ekitike or Wirtz on the left is not going to fix that. Certainly Chiesa isn’t either.
Certainly, we bought a group of quality players but we really didn’t replace the key qualities that are reminiscent of a Slot team.
With a good press, I think we will discover that our midfield isn’t as bad as people think.
Some of our current players will have to get there and they have showed improvement in that area, though still room to get better.
Ekitike will have to press with quality if he wants to be our main #9 here.
Last season we had Szobo as a single #10 or almost second striker and obviously if you want to have both him and Wirtz on the pitch, then one of them will have to play in a different position.
Then of course, as a general topic, since not every press attempt can work, when we do revive it, there’s also defensive transition and how we defend in our half, in a compact block (how our line holds, acts, etc.).
We have noone who does the hard work in midfield. Noone who slows the opposition down.
It’s a bit of an obsession of mine. Even under Klopp I wanted a player who could do that. For much of that time we were lucky to have Hendo backed by Milner and Fabinho.
I feel we have to think outside the box. If Slot remains in place he likes that box shape (more a 424 than a 4222) going toward a 4222 could save us a lot in wages (Gakpo and Salah are well over paid for what they offer us atm).
I haven’t a clue what Slot teams ‘do’ we haven’t seen anything coherent since he arrived (except the initial 4 months).
Imo we need to upgrade on Gravenberch who is too limited. I can not understand how wingers are going to address our biggest problem which is oppositions slicing through our midfield. Then our next problem of getting out of defense when the opposition put a little pressure on us.
The more pressure we put on opponents the less defending midfield has to do.
Opposition had to use three defenders vs Robbo/Mané on our left side and three vs Trent/Salah on the right.
More or less the reason why Fabinho was enough in DM.
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They can force them into a predictable position or reduce the time in which the opposition has to pick out a pass.
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They can reduce the time one of Macca or Grav need to step out of position to confront or to cover our fullbacks.
Basically all the benefits of a good high press will benefit our midfield. If we don’t have wingers who press we can pretty much forget about this strategy working well.
The press starts at the front and not when it gets to midfield.
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There’s a fair amount of ifs there 
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We don’t seem to be doing that atm. Why will things change?
I don’t disagree with much of what you have to stay - my particular dispute is whether our lack of ability to rotate along the wings or at CB is caused in large part by a lack of meaningful depth at those positions. We have actually been remarkably fortunate this year that injuries have not cost us Ibou or Gomez for extensive periods, as has been the norm in past years. But in any event, the lack of depth there has given Slot little choice but to ride out periods of poor play from Konate. Same can be said on the wings with Salah and Gakpo, where the lack of credible cover has left us running them back time and time again.
I agree that Slot makes it more difficult by refusing to use players like Chiesa and Endo and Rio. But his lack of affinity for the former two was well known going into this season, and Rio is still only 17 years old. It seems unrealistic to expect Slot to use players he doesn’t believe are credible options when you know the kind of pressure that comes with managing a club with our expectations - especially when his own position is not secure.
That is a disconnect between Hughes and Slot. If Slot doesn’t want to use those guys, they should have been moved on and replaced.
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Well the first is that we don’t have the personnel to do that… why I feel that what we lost was not adequately replaced.
I think I read an article at the end of 2025 indicating how our pressed sequences and high turnovers dropped significantly this season which just really reinforces the impact Diaz and Jota’s loss has impacted us.
If we still had them, would we continue pressing? I would guess yes. But obviously I don’t know for sure.
Any opinion has “ifs” to it, I’m just highlighting a big difference between last season (when our midfield was better) and this season.
That was one of my first questions as we got closer to our first official game of the season against Palace, how our pressing from the front would look like, knowing that we would go with Ekitike and Wirtz behind him and they would likely start the season, needing to play a lot of games immediately. Knowing also of course that Salah all these years was our “slightly” special player who we camouflage in certain moments of the game and that Gakpo (for me he initially started the season pretty well, then had a drop, then improved a tiny bit, then dropped again) lacks aggression.
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The worst is when people have a go at his pressers and a quote he has said and haven’t actually watched or listened to them and slagging him without context.
Our press was so good he would just pick up the pieces from the long hopeful passes/clearances of the opposition.
Whereas our press now is poor and he would then haveca different variety of opposition pressure to cover.
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I see both Ekitike and Flo try to press and Mo to a lesser extent, it is them not doing tge work it is the setup behind them.
I and a few others have continually stressed that we cannot understand our supposed pressing shape or commitment in our setup to press coherently.
Everytime our forwards are pressing there are easy outs for the opposition either through the middle or out wide.
Slot just hasn’t figured this out and he has all season to do it or isn’t committed to it and one of the reasons I don’t have faith in him.
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Which is what we have seen with Gravenberch who just can not deal with it at all. There’s been a drop off from him for over a year now.
It isn’t Grav that is to blame at all this is all on the coaching and team setup, we don’t commit to the press, it is Arne’s insistance on plus 1 at the back. Which I wouldn’t have a problem with if it was working.
Our defensive shape other than a low block is pretty gash.
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