All the changes we made seemed necessary to me. The main question I had was letting Diaz go, but he wanted out so we sold him for a decent fee.
I think Salah is a big part of the issue now, as he is off form and he is quite below what he once was, on the wing. I think the formation we are playing is lacking to my mind, as it needs elite wingers and we don’t have that any more.
Broken record but midfield diamond, Wirtz at the tip, get him on the ball as much as possible, behind two of Isak/Ekitike/Salah. Width from Kerkez and Frimpong, Grav at the base to tuck into a back 3 if the fullbacks are caught high up in transition.
As it stands it looks like a new thing is trying to emerge, and it will, but the formation and personnel need tweaking. This season is the sandwich between what was, and what will be. We might still win a big prize, there’s loads to play for, and loads of time, but obviously we need to see an improvement.
At the moment, AS is having to act like a manager of an International team, where players from differing clubs, differing countries etc, are thrown together and expected to perform as a team over a couple of games or in a tournament of sorts.
These signings are his players now, and while some of the old guard still make up the numbers in the mix, I’m sure once enough time has passed on the training ground, in matches and so on, his own LFC model in his form, will eventually materialise.
As a fan, patience is difficult to display, especially on the back of last seasons win and open top bus celebrations that captivated an entire City. Yet patience, along with trust and faith is what is needed in these early days of transition - LFC, the players, and AS have certainly earned that from us. COYR
In the summer one of the commonly aired ideas was excitement for what Slot’s idea of a refined version of his side looked like and some confusion over the answer given the players we were targeting. It was like “I’m not sure I get where Slot is going with this, but I’m excited to see it.” I am really looking forward to when we find out the answer
I think there needs to be a detailed breakdown of how we’ve played.
You can’t play well for 90, I thought both Arsenal and Bournemouth we played ok, Everton we did, some say oh we only played for 30 but I think we had them in our pocket til their goal.
My major issue is all the swapping around, if it has to be done fair enough but what parts had to be done yesterday.
While it looks flashy when Grav runs forward with the ball, especially when it clicks and leads to goals, if done too much it leaves a hole in midfield that teams have started taking advantage of.
Arne needs to tell Grav to mostly stay put like he did last season and feed Flo and the forward line or recycle if no avenues open. It’s physically impossible for him to keep running like that and still recover his defensive position. He will burn out before January.
Calls for his head are obviously laughable and I doubt anybody with any sanity is parroting that line, but I don’t think he should be beyond criticism. His comments after the game yesterday were a bit bemusing to say the least, the first time I can really remember thinking he was talking a bit of guff and not giving his usual frank assessment of a game which suggests to me the pressure has got to him a bit this week.
What I think he’s trying to evolve to is a total footballing team of multiple interlocking parts, with players positioning and repositioning themselves in reference to the ball and the opponent.
Complaining about Isak not getting the penalty because of the one given against us in Turkey despite him not having a strong opinion on our penalty because he hasnt seen it back yet and accepting you cannot really compare the two because its different competitions with different standards.
When putting my son to bed there I was looking at the official team photo he has on his wall from last season. 6 of the 9 players in the front row are now gone. The squad also lost one it’s most popular characters, for many of the team probably the first time they have grieved a friend. Add to this lots of new personalities arriving with their own insecurities and egos.
Suffice to say Arne has had a lot to deal with. He has enough credit in the bank for fans to give him some grace while he figures things out
Some of the current issues may be stemming from the
significant turnover that has taken place in the coaching staff as well.
Whatever the cause, Slot has to find some functioning setup as soon as possible. He can’t afford a bad season with the club having spent a record amount of money during the summer.
There are already fans claiming that he only won because of Klopp’s squad, which is highly ironic since, up until recently, that was considered as his greatest achievement.
People who claim the title is down simply to Klopp’s squad, they can try and I am sure they will not win shite. It’s a great combination of players who worked great as an unit with a manager who utilise them well.
I think most fans are sensible, but the voices who are writing him off because of this slump know nuts about football.
If he won the title with Klopps team…
Then he has a couple of seasons with his new team. Everyone else has a couple of seasons, he surely has the same?
Jurgen’s squad was getting old, and it did need refreshing. There were players like Quansah and Elliott who made very little contribution to the title, players like Trent and Diaz who actively wanted to go, players like Nunez that everyone wanted to see the back of, and one who died.
We needed to spend that money.
The only players the club sold and we are now missing, is Luis Diaz, and if you think we should have forced him to stay, you have not been paying any attention to his this club has operated for a decade.
We miss Trent, as maligned as he was. Kinda reminds me of when Sterling left and people were saying Ibe was as good, if not better. Well, in my view neither Bradley or Frimpong have shown they can do that job. They need a bit of time and consistency, and maybe it will work out. At the moment its a real consideration for Slot.
