And a guy who had started to make significant errors towards the end of that season.
How do you/they know that? We can’t possibly say how the season would have panned out had Slot trusted Quansah more. Suggesting that had we played Quansah more, we’d have still won the league is an assertion that cannot be proven or disproven.
[quote=“Limiescouse, post:8551, topic:4281, full:true”]
There is a lot of room for differences of opinion here about how much a fan can trust their own eyes/instincts vs the judgement of a manager. It is totally reasonable to back Slot’s judgement on this, but there are differences of opinion there. [/quote]
Of course there are. Anyone is entitled to their opinion on anything Slot did in 2024/25. And I’m entitled to point out that whatever Slot did or didn’t do that season, we won the league. Objectively he did incredibly well. Any critique of Slot’s management of LFC in that season is going to struggle to get over that hurdle.
Put it this way. I think it’s a shame that Quansah and Elliot didn’t get more time, and I think they can both become good premier league players with more minutes under their belt. Would I go back and run the season again with them getting ten more starts each? Would I fuck.
Play the ball not the man. And please don’t confuse the brevity of me saying ‘we won the league mate’ with a lack of respect. It’s such an obvious counter argument to people now criticising Slot’s team selections, or tactics, or approach to recovery in hindsight.
I haven’t been unpleasant to anyone. I haven’t been rude. I haven’t insulted anyone. Which is in contrast to the amount of shit I’m expect to simply absorb because my feeling that at this point we need a new manager doesn’t also cone with a desire to argue the guy out of what he has achieved for us.
I know he/you was
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We all know Arne won the league. We all know the squad he won it with was created by Klopp, coached by Klopp. We all know it was still a great achievement, in his first year as Liverpool coach to win the league.
We all know that form dipped at the end of the season, and we all know that this season has been crap.
We all surely know that this current malaise cannot continue. Whilst still recognising that he won the league.
Lot of posts about Quansah, Elliot, Morton, Chiesa, Rio, Trent, Cody, 442, 433, half spaces, diamonds, fitness, Heitinga, Alonso and selling Mo Salah in between to get to the same conclusions.
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If we are going to let Slot go before the summer, this international break is the time. I signed in and saw loads of posts in the Slot thread. Did we pull the trigger? Nope. But it’s a nice round of discussions about Quansah 
My tuppence on that is I see both sides of it. Slot won the league and hardly used Quansah, but for me he is mostly impervious to criticism, as he brought home the big prize. If we want to go there, there is a case to answer as he could have used Quansah a bit more. Even if he is less inclined to use younger players, we had that title win in the bag with margin to spare, so the younger players could have featured more.
Apart from minutes given on the pitch, there is another aspect to how you handle younger players, and the best managers make them feel ten foot tall. That’s how Jurgen got a League Cup trophy out of the kids. For some of them it might be the pinnacle of their career. That was as good as it gets for how you fire up your youngsters and send them out to battle for the club.
Slot is not cut from that cloth. He is a bit too forthright, and Dutch, in the way he speaks about the young players. Almost certainly he is not intending to be mean, but he can, and should, improve in this area if he wants to maximize his own coaching.
As for this season, we signed Leoni and thought (mistakenly) that Guehi was in the bag, so letting Quansah go was not a bad decision at the time, especially as Slot didn’t really rate him. Provision was made to give the player a route back to Anfield and it remains to be seen if both parties exercise that option.
Leoni, Jacquet and Quansah might be the makings of the central defence for years to come, let’s see. We should probably add one more, and I also suspect one of the young trio we brought in a couple of months ago might make the grade. My money is on Ndukwe, but the point is well made that he is some way away from the first team set up at this time.
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I am also disappointed if we don’t have a new manager this international break. We need to rebuild both fan and player belief as soon as possible. This summer is World Cup time, so we don’t have much time to prepare and buy new players, while Salah, Robertson, and Konate are likely to leave, VVD and Allison, Jones are entering their final years, and both Mac and Szobo still haven’t signed new deals yet. Dragging a new manager in late could bring another messy season like this year.
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The problem, mate, is that statistics counter what you’re saying. Clubs firing managers in the hope that the squad will get a shock and perform better afterwards find themselves more often than not in a worse situation than before. There are numerous examples of this. Yes, there can be the odd exception where that gamble works, but it happens quite rarely. fsg are people driven by stats, and that’s why they won’t take a risky gamble with low odds of success (they are right to do so imo).
That’s why I keep saying: if there is a worthy replacement ready to take over (ie. Alonso), hand Slot his P45 today, without a hesitation. If not, keep tight and wait for the right man to come in when it will be the right moment for him and the club. If this season becomes a write-off, then so be it. It won’t be the last time, and certainly not the end of the world.
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9 man Spurs were the only team we comprehensively outran.
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Yes absolutely but we must analyse it to the n+1 degree where “n” is the analysis done to date.
We need to be certain about who gets the finger pointed at them.
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This.
If not, I don’t know what options we have other than crossing fingers and hoping the players wake up.
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If I believed in Slot as much as you do/did, yes, I would take the gamble. Because if Slot was as good as you think he was last season, playing the youngsters more wouldn’t have derailed the season, it would have improved it. How do I know? Because that’s what good/great managers do. His predecessor had no problem doing both.
The reality is that regardless of whether he’s flying in the league like last year or struggling against relegation fodder like now, Slot doesn’t trust the youth and his squad in general.
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I think the fact is that at the level of football we aspire to operate at, bringing a youth player through at centre back is incredibly difficult - the position is just too exposed and as we’ve seen this season, an errors can cost a lot of points over a season. The trio of kids we’ve bought look to have a good a chance as any, but even that is very slim.
The very fair point that I think is hidden in the assertion that it’s hard to bed in youth players at the top level is that when you have no discernable style, structure or cohesive meaning to your way of playing then anybody is going to struggle so it’s not an ideal situation for young players who haven’t yet got the experience and confidence to just figure things out for themselves.
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Personally I’m comfortable with saying Slot did an exceptional job last season on managing the transition post Klopp.
I’m also comfortable in saying things aren’t working this season. I can’t say why exactly as I sit outside of the vast majority of everything that goes on.
I’m honestly ok with both of those things being true.
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Not even the kids, Wirtz, Mac Allister, Konate, Gakpo, Isak, and Gravenberch are all struggling this season. And noway is theirs best ffs.
I wouldn’t change anything about last season, because we can’t know the path not taken. That’s not limited to youth.
And maybe I don’t believe in Slot as much as you think I do. Yet again, the respect I have for what he has achieved here is being mistakenly characterised. There is only so many times I can say that if it were up to me he’d be gone already.
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This is true.
But I think it’s also true that the players we brought in, who might be expected to struggle in the absence of a cohesive structure and playing style, have largely been OK. Wirtz, Ekitike, Frimpong, Kerkez - they all look good (Isak and Leoni are separate cases, for obvious reasons)
It’s the players who have been here a while - Konate, Gakpo, Salah, Mac Allister, maybe Van Dijk, Gravenberch and Jones to lesser extent - who have struggled the most.
These 2 are the biggest surprises to me.
I said way back that if you analysed our squad at the back end of last season, these 2 would be among a handful you would feel would be ok.
So the rot set in with Klopp?
I’m being naughty. Do not take me seriously