That’s not strictly true. We did improve in terms of possession (See the BBC momentum chart linked). However, we only started to get the ball into dangerous positions after the subs.
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Yeah the change in possession was apparent immediately from the second hlaf kick off, but we didnt do much more with it. And I think it’s an open question on how much of that was us earning the increase in possession vs them letting us have a bit more time on the ball
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Also, Anderson coming off after fatigue set in. We scored 0 goals against Forest while he was on the pitch in both games. It’s incredible how our midfield and attack look like boys playing against men whenever the opposition starts posing a physical threat like Anderson and Sangare did yesterday.
That said, I don’t know what’s going on with the first half of the games this season. Off the top of my head, Crystal Palace, Newcastle at home, Forest yesterday - it’s like the lads are competing in how to play as badly as possible within the first 45 minutes.
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I find that mutually exclusive. That being said, I do think he knows football, he just doesn’t know how to fix us or has the stubbornness of Amorim.
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Must learn to read what the polls are about before responding to other’s posts!
Sure however you can not sack an entire squad.
Also the manager always shares the blame. He is responsible for squad cohesion, will and anything else really.
The thing is we seem the same each match now. Poor to terrible 1st half. Holding on. Which is the opposite to what we were doing at the beginning of the season when we ran and ran for nothing. Now we do nothing and get nowhere.
2nd half there’s some half time adjustments that get us level pegging. Our superior ability sometimes pulling us over the line.
It’s like we do no coaching during the week. Wait for half time, holding on to our squeaky bums, make some coaching decisions and hope that’s enough.
Our squad is good enough to go into most EPL games with a clear plan to dominate. What we’re doing is to try and conserve ourselves for the second half (and I feel the numbers are showing this).
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I saw a crappy first half, then a relatively steady first thirty minutes in the second half, and finally a positive performance in the last 15 minutes, which saw us create some good opportunities.
The silver lining I take from this is that we improved towards the end instead of tiring down as we usually do. Of course, that had also to do with the fact that Forest were completely gassed after their Thursday trip to Turkey. That must have made it easier for our boys.
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I don’t think we sack him if we qualify for CL and has a good run in this season’s CL. I have been leaning towards Slot out, but after the weekend it has become very clear to me that he is dealing with a lack of quality, particularly on the wings. Salah and Gakpo are not starting quality. They were awful against Forest. 17 year old Rio comes on and is more effective in 15 minutes that Salah and Gakpo combined. That and with the host of injuries this season, I think Slot has had a very difficult challenge. That said, we are playing boring football and I still have massive doubts about Slot. But I do think he deserves a little grace here.
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Lack of quality is the least credible excuse. It’s not just the wings; it’s not just the midfield or the back four. The entire team has massively underperformed so far, which can only point to issues with the coaching. We ought to have been far, far closer to the top even with all the injuries and the newcomers.
Slot does have valid excuses, but no one can claim with a straight face that he has been doing well for as long as a year now.
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Sometimes an older player’s form will drop off suddenly. Sometimes a player will struggle to catch up if they had a disrupted pre-season because of injury or a late return. Sometimes a player’s head will be elsewhere by difficult contract talks. Sometimes they might lose an edge or even get cocky after winning stuff the previous year.
There are no end of reasons a formerly stellar player can run into form issues, but when we think about our season what is more likely? That every returning player bar Dom has simultaneously experienced their own individual issue, or that there is something systemic explaining how all of them went to shit at the same time?
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I voted no, but the door is still ajar for me to have my mind changed. If they win the Champions League, I’d be inclined to keep him. If they go on a long win streak and finish in the top 4 by some distance, I’d be inclined to keep him.
But as of today? He’s gone. I think he’s short on ideas and I think he’s not great at man management. Slot out. Xabi in.
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I cant decide either, but having been staunch Slot out, I’d have to admit to recent second thoughts. More to do with the situation he was placed in by the board, and it remains an ongoing short sharp shock approach to transition, that said, its then more plausible to conclude the club intend to keep him at least 2-3yrs, come what may barring abject embarrassment, because it must be their model, and it unreasonable to think he could have even steadied it this season, and arguably not for at least another 12 months, I’d say, until at least Slot has had attempt at integrating what must - has to - be coming [again] in the summer. I think they knew it all along and are trying a wall street approach to squad transition. So stability is for now more important than league placing. So Slot stays.
I feel secure because the succession plan relies entirely upon a fella who’s consistently said no to LFC suddenly saying yes.
We shouldn’t exclude the possibility that we hit the perfect storm this season: Jota’s tragic death leading to a complete mess to our pre-season training, added to a massive (in part unenforced) turnaround in the squad, with a lot of outgoings and new incomings, some players losing their legs a bit, and most importantly, a lot of freak injuries hitting us badly and leaving us short in some positions, especially right back and central defence. That’s a lot.
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We do have injuries at RB and CB but to say that there is no depth is not very true at all.
For the pure RBs, we have Frimpong, Bradley and Ramsay. Frimpong and Bradley is injured. And we still have Ramsay that didn’t look too out of place against a PL side. Slot deciding to put Szobo/Jones is simply removing the CM depth to keep someone he doesn’t like out of the lineup. That shows really poor squad management.
As for CB, it is slightly short but still not end of the world. We have VVD, Gomez and Konate and Williams and Endo as an emergency option. Leoni is the only LT injury.
Klopp actually used a Nat Phillips and Williams CB pairing ( with the occasion Kabak cameo) to secure a top 3 league position finish with 8 wins and 2 draws in the final 10 league games while Mr Slot is struggling to even crack top 5 against 2 sides who changed managers recently.
Just look at FK Bodø/Glimt. They have no fucking business in the RO16 of the UCL but they have a coach that knows how to fully utillise and properly train his squad, claiming the scalps of the likes of Man City, Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan.
Right now, we are just creaking by, hoping to not lose…
There are bodies around the squad, that’s true. But we have particular problems in a few positions, where we have been left very short.
The wide positions are where we have really screwed ourselves. Our wide players are Gakpo and Salah, covered by a seventeen year old lad we need to manage and a player we expect to play more at right back.
This has meant we’ve had to play Salah and Gakpo through really poor form, and neither have serious competition to really worry about.
Slot needs attacking changes off his bench and all season he hasn’t had any.
Christ I’m sick of this argument (with apologies)
Firstly Klopp secured a top three finish because (I think it was) Chelsea unexpectedly lost on the final day. I think I remember it was in the balance all the way to the last game, which we had to win. And he had some outrageous luck in the run in, including his bloody goalkeeper heading in a winner against West Brom. So let’s maybe wait until it’s a fair comparison to make?
Secondly, Klopp was a fucking unicorn as a manager and there isn’t another one of him knocking about. The whole point of this club punching its weight in the transfer market was that our manager shouldn’t need to be a once in a generation genius, pulling centre backs out of his arse to get the team over the line.
Simply put, one player should not make or break a season, but it wouldn’t half have made a massive different to have Diaz or a Diaz replacement in the front line right now.
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Is Ramsey the new Chiesa? 
I thought one of the reasons Arne was selected was because of his adaptability.
His sides didnt play exactly the same - one season his side would largely create from the flanks, the following, through the centre. So i’m not sure he has to rely on wingers performing, although obviously injuries at right back have created challenges.
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He isn’t giving Ngumoha or Chiesa chance after chance and they are failing to take it. It doesn’t matter how badly Gakpo and Salah perform, they will get to start.
Chiesa isn’t good enough. Seems a nice guy but a headless chicken on the pitch. Slot is clearly protecting Rio which is the right thing to do IMO
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