All moaning about the international break. Hasnt affected city, United, chelsea, or villa. Lets see if arsenal break out this excuse today as after losing 2 or 3 they are the only team who have a genuine argument its caused as issue.
1 Like
But it has affected United - they suddenly win games 
Before yesterday City won the last 12 league games by two or more goals. It was close yesterday so maybe it affected them too.
1 Like
Using a cartoon to aid conversation is riveting
Iâm arguing the self-evident here, but of course the international break affected us. Slot handled it poorly and the players made a mess of it. Other teams with more experienced managers in the PL did better. Big surprise.
We didnât turn to shit overnight.
2 Likes
The best thing about yesterdayâs appalling performance is that Arne will learn from it.
I suspect weâre not going to lose again for a long time.
3 Likes
I had a look at the Feyenoord squad, and it is a mix, with a few internationals but not necessarily those that will be playing a lot of minutes. That is something he will need to learn from.
TBH, the unchanged starting lineup was something that surprised me given the number of matches coming up. However, I felt it was the change of formation after the substitutions that I thought did us no favours.
Of course, you have to give credit to Forest. They looked at the first three games and found a way to counter us.
After the Utd game, Slot got a lot of praise for how he broke down Utd tactically, so this will be an interesting test of his tactical knowledge and can he identify how they nullified us tactically and adapt, or was it more down to us not doing what we have done in the first 3 games of the season?
2 Likes
No we didnât, but even under JĂźrgen we often had off days like these where the whole team just wasnât playing well, and it didnât necessarily have to do with international breaks either. Sometimes, these things just happen.
6 Likes
Espirito Santo definitely won the tactical battle, but the main problem was ourselves. We won 35% of the duels playing at Anfield against a lower table team, and the passing accuracy plummeted compared to the first 3 weeks. This canât be attributed to just what the opposition did.
Like others have stated, Forest played really well, but it was our own non-performance that made the difference.
8 Likes
I suspect a combination of the two really. Pretty confident Slots tactics and instructions didnât include giving the ball away on a number of occasions, whilst Forest stuck to their plan throughout and brought on their fast wingers to good effect as the match wore on.
Moments also change games. If Diaz doesnât hit the post, and instead scores after he made a chance from nothing, or likewise when Macca clipped the ball to Jota and he hit it straight at the keeper, Forest would have been a goal behind and having to then chase. Would have meant we have more space to exploit and probably go on to score again.
Maybe Slot should have started a few of the fresher lads, but as pointed out elsewhere, if a different starting 11 played and lost weâd all say he should have gone for it again with the same 11 that have played so well in the previous matches.
A frustrating afternoon for all, likely a reality check for Slot, but also something against which now to enact change, that is easier to do when things have gone wrong.
What we now need is a positive reaction against the next low block team. Games coming thick and fast now, so will be interesting to see how the team, and Arne, react.
4 Likes
Pep said it was the worst first 30mins in his time with City and they should have been 3 down at HT. They got lucky with a deflection from Haaland. Chelsea lucky also. Villa were poor before Everton capitulated again.
United arenât on our radar anymore. Why would we be worried about the battle for 8th?
9 Likes
They played well and had a game plan, what nullified us is the players inability to pass the ball to red shirt with the correct accuracy, timingand weight
1 Like
What I always admired about Kloppâs tenure is that whenever there was a setback, he managed to get the team back on the rails very rapidly.
Iâm now interested about how Slot will react to this loss, and how he will bring back his lads on track quickly.
3 Likes
I think itâs also worth mentioning that for all the moaning about how Arsenal and City wouldnât lose such a game, Guardiolaâs record against Santo is 5-1-3. Artetaâs is 3-0-2. Obviously different clubs and contexts, but it would be foolish to underestimate Santo.
4 Likes
Not to mention almost all their players were rested. Had we faced a team with more international weâd have cared betterâŚmaybe??
We could do with either no training before the match or starting with players with least number of minutes/miles in their bodies
1 Like
I donât think they did. They came with a game plan to make it difficult for us to get any rhythm with being in our face, niggly fouls and then themselves frequently falling over. They acquitted themselves well, but there was nothing novel about it or particular insightful for other managers to take from it. I think Slot will view it purely in terms of how we responded to pretty predictable challenges.
First half we didnât play particularly well, but still created several decent openings. Some required good saves from the keeper and some we fucked up with bad decision making before we could get a shot away but still represented us being able to cause them problems without having had to exert real control of the game. Slot would have wanted us to treat that second half as an exercise in fighting to earn more control on the game and from there the additional chances would come. It seems too many of our players saw that we created chances without having had to win control of the game and so focused on trying to force chances from the bitty possession we did have. The longer the second half went on the more impatient and ragged it became.
There is obviously a good amount for Slot to take away from the game, but I think it is far more about how he gets his players to commit to what he wants from them when things are not easy than it is about any sort of tactical questions to solve.
4 Likes
Next break itâs Chelsea the game after so it will be interesting to see what changes.
2 Likes
If we had less than 9 points from the first three games we would be talking crisis?
We won three in a row in a businesslike manner.
One loss doesnât define the team or the manager.
I really expect a response.
10 Likes
With the 3 wins we had and the fixtures list in the league I (maybe many others too) secretly hoping for a 6 or 7 wins run.
Came to an end shortly after the international break and thatâs annoying.
1 Like
We probably should, I am of the belief that you shouldnât lose home games.
Probably met one of the worst lot to be honest to meet especially at that point.