Post match: Liverpool v Leeds (EPL 1/1/26 5.30pm)

At least, sacking Aaron Briggs led us to not conceding some stupid set-piece goal..I guess that’s progress in a way???

It’s like Slot not believing in pressing or the players themselves are not getting the proper guidance in pressing.

THIS! (FROM TIA)
We have a lot of technical players.
LFC lack players outside of Dom and Ping Pong that are bigger, faster, stronger. Dom being all three and Frimpong having great pace. VVD was all three.
Squad construction and lack of athletes mean we have to play slow and careful, if not we ship 3 goals.

Slot knows this and hence why we play pedestrian football. When we go for it LFC is exposed on the counter. LFC vs a team with comparable players in midfield we lose the battle and get pinned back.
No win situation.

Sold all of the athletes on the team with grit, Diaz and Nunez. Nunez for all his faults would run and he occupied center halves and created space outwide for the wingers. Now we can’t beat anyone 1v 1.

Teams used to fear the counter, 3 passes and a goal, now we don’t have the horses to make it happen.

Top4 will be a miracle.
When Sunderland look miles better than LFC time to worry.
Hughes has royally messed this up.
Don’t know how we fix this in the near term and who to build around?

War chest was wasted.

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They remember a Nunez in his first 12 months not the one in his last 12 months.

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Hey Almighty, you seem unusually chill and zen today—everything okay? did you switch to decaf, or is it the magic of some happy pills like Zoloft or Prozac keeping the peace? :blush:
Are we holding off on the meat grinder for Slot?
very respectful

Didn’t like that Slot started Rio on the right and crowded the side - it was only when he went 4-2-4 in the last few minutes that Rio was on the left with Gakpo and Hugo through the middle.

Frimpong and Bradley had solid games and Grav has been our best player of the Slot era, I was particularly disappointed with Wirtz today.

Disagree with the first point - I think we looked ropey as in the last 20 minutes and anytime it was in the box we were scrabbling.

Absolutely we should have got a pen. I think Ekitike (sadly) needed to go down there but it should have been given.

I really think part of the issue is that when he is playing out left he always seems to standing in a spot the ball isn’t going to. He’s not getting on the ball enough facing goal. Also the movement around him when he has the ball isn’t enough - it’s like players aren’t on his wavelength yet.

100% to all this.
Another game where bringing on Isak for Hugo would have helped. Also don’t like Flo on the left longer term.

Just the set piece point: if he thinks our set piece efforts today are an appropriate way to unlock a low block then… we need to hire a set piece coach(es) quick smart. Sure Virg got free for one header but we need 3 or 4 threats from set pieces not just one. In fact I think any player we are considering bringing in it should be a key metric. I also think in the meantime and for the remainder of this season, Hugo, Ibou and another - Macca or Conor ? - need to also be working hard on attacking corners at training. It’s too easy to neutralise if we only have Virg.

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Wirtz is just strangely bad tonight. Not that there were many players who were great but he was just tentative, looking like he is not sure why he is there and what he wants to do with the ball. Definitely a huge contrast to the last few weeks when he had been influential. And on a side note, it’s amazing that for some fans, when Wirtz do great, it’s all down to his greatness and brilliance but when he does bad, it’s because players around him are not playing well enough.

I think Frimpong and Bradley did really well on the right, potential pairing on the right. Jones and Dom did pretty ok I thought but of course penetration is lacking last night. There was a free kick that was just outside the 6 yard, I thought Dom was frustrated that Wirtz wanted to take it. I thought it was natural Dom should have taken it but well on field, players do discuss on the dynamics at the moment.

having just cut the set piece coach, I didn’t expect much from the set pieces today. I have a vague sense of relief that Slot must have recognized how mediocre our set piece play has been, but realistically we won’t see much improvement before March at best.

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Talking about set piece, I had a set of 3 piece chicken at KFC

I avoided looking at the score this morning, although I did catch a glance of a picture of Virgil looking sombre, which made me nervous. Then sat and watched the whole match.
Absolutely abysmal.
Painful to watch.
This isn’t a blip, Slot has had plenty of time to integrate the new players and come up with a system that works and he’s further away than he’s ever been. The crowd were frustrated, which is completely understandable, and the players look like they hate their job.
Something has to change.

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I had intended to do the same, but saw a caption about the pen shout on socials and then checked the score fearing the worst. I don’t think
I’ll bother watching. Reading a solid novel instead.

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Yeah, do yourself a favour.

A bloody Jeffrey Archer novel would be better than that rubbish.

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I ended up watching the Sunderland-City match as well today. It was a far more entertaining match despite the same scoreline. I was struck by the fact that City built incredible pressure, but Sunderland was playing with remarkable energy and real passion. By comparison, LFC had neither today.

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A pleasingly mangled mixed metaphor…

To go back to the original metaphor, we now resemble a lounge pianist who aimlessly tinkles away all night without ever settling on a particular tune, and even when snippets are recognisable, they soon return to tedious note progressions.

FFS! Just play some Beethoven!

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A bit of Little Richard would be good.

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That made sense to me. Dom is better a bit further back. Wirtz has scored a couple for Germany from that position. Agree with the rest of your post though. Wirtz was as poor as I have seen him, especially in 2nd half

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