Yes they went to Dubai and celebrated. They had 8 days between the Arsenal game and the Brighton game which was the penultimate one of the season. Still had Saturday and Sunday to train which is about what you’d when you’re playing three games a week anyway.
Is it that different to players heading off on holiday when European leagues take their winter break?
I’ve never said we didn’t have issues last season. Rarely does a team fly through an entire season without something. But are people really suggesting had we given our all in those last two weeks things would be different now? We’d have worked out the issues in those four days they were away even though we haven’t been able to do in a full pre-season and a third of the next campaign?
Even when we weren’t flying in the second half of last season we were better than this and better than pretty much everyone else overall. Even the losses to PSG and Newcastle (did a bit of their own celebrating mid-season too) are hardly unimaginable losses given the quality of those two teams.
I don’t really know what the point I’m trying to make is anymore. I guess I just don’t believe a trip to Dubai has resulted in them all downing tools for six months or not having the time to fix the ways teams found to start playing against us in about February or March time.
As for Slot, the bloke lives away from his family about ten months of the year. If he wants to have a few days holiday with them after winning the title so be it. Maybe he’d have been better reading a book on a beach instead of behind a set of decks but either way he’d not have been on the training pitch so I don’t see why it matters other than how people choose to perceive it.
Yes, we are in a bad spot. And yes it looks like the players could give more effort.
But sometimes it’s all part of the whole undone jigsaw puzzle.
When tactics work, players feel encouraged and emboldened to give more effort.
And I’m doubting Arne like many. But I’m not having this bullshit about this being a continuing malaise from last season.
The overriding reason for the squad revamp was to overcome low blocks. It hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it wont happen. We’ve had two non-defeats, okay they weren’t 7-0 romps. so what!
These 2026 wins you’re pooh poohing, these were considered hallmarks of champions at the time, winning while not playing well. But now that we are not performing it’s a sign of a bad team?
I never grumbled about Diaz but plenty here did last season as well. “running into a cul de sac, should’ve passed earlier, trying too much, not physical enough” blah blah. And don’t get me started on Nunez.
This!
My dad loves the energy from Diaz, but he understood my frustrations with Diaz shortcoming…and just like Gakpo, the opposition learned how to block off his “trick”. I got extremely annoyed many times that he tried to dribble in our own half, ended up giving up the ball.
Saying that, Diaz and Nunez both put in energy to interrupt the opposition’s defence…which we do not really do right now.
And don’t forget the whole “he’s not as good as Sadio” comparison.
Mate, Sadio himself wasn’t as good as Sadio Prime when he left. And players like him are unicorns, you can’t replace them. You hope someone comes along in the future with all those attributes in one package.
Yeah I got poo poo’d for saying Diaz dragged us through to the finish line with his performances on and off the ball from Feb onwards, he had the same never say die attitude as Sadio and I wished some showed now.
I don’t think I ever really warmed to Diaz. I didn’t like the way his dad acted, I didn’t like how the club went above and beyond support around the kidnapping and his response to the club laying on private planes and the like to get him to the UK was to immediately start shopping his son to Barca.
It’s hard to argue that we aren’t missing his drive and tenacity right now - but it should be said that he mostly players as a striker in the second half of the season.
I’m still pissed that he didn’t show up to Diogo’s funeral and, instead, partied with a bunch of influencers - especially after Diogo’s gesture in support of his father. But it is what it is. He’ll have to live with his decisions.
Diaz was a good player who in hindsight we should have tried to keep. Especially instead of certain others however some of the nostalgia on other players. Nunez last 6 months was like watching a regular appearance by Eric Meijer but we still get people talking about how we shouldn’t have sold him. Isak has done very little but it’s still more than that last 6 months.
i snipped your post down, no disrespect intended, read all of it.
regarding the team and four games or so to go…thats 1 tenth of the season, and i had an issue with it at the time, at the very best, it gave everyone a stick to beat them with if things turned pear shaped, and it has. i accept it probably hasn’t had much of an affect on this seasons run of pour results, but i still revert back to it as being disrespectful to the competition (let’s not debate that though, the back and forth’s were done at the time and i respect the opposite stance, i just don’t agree with it) and showing a certain lack of …maybe not proffesionalism…but a lack of something i want to see associated with our clubs attitude to football…
as for the part i did quote, that’s Slots perogative to not relocate his family, and also his problem to deal with, i’ve heard it used before as a sympathy card and whilst i dont want to seem too heartless…stiff shit…
…ultimately but, you are probably correct, if he’d just done it really quietly, read a book or sat on a sun lounge, then that really isn’t as bad on the optics as lording it over everyone in Ibiza while the league is still being played.
i agree with Jaffod though that everything that happened at the end of last season, the whole package, really doesnt look so great now when the chips are down…
was Nunezs last few months as bad as Isaks first few?
i cant be arsed looking at the stats, but im not seeing this massive upgrade in what has occured, im still sure it will come, but to date?
probably whats more worrying is, despite what the actual gap between the players quality is, what is Slot doing to our centre forwards that makes them look so out of form?
Well, I never warmed to his father! I thought Diaz was very professional as a player. By far our best dribbler of the ball and tenacious. His crossing and link up with his team-mates could have been better and that is where Gakpo offers us more. Of course, it would be nice to have that all in one package, but time caught up with Sadio.
@jaffod was amongst the first people to call out the biases against Liverpool from referees. People started paying attention and while a lot of people don’t 100% agree, they are noticing those biases or corrupt behaviours. So, spoke sense and still does on that issue. And to be fair he has bemoaned our form since February and March and the lack of urgency in the team after winning the league. The end of season stats may just sugar coat how the team performed. He has been consistent in that view, agree or disagree.
Rough and ready bloke? We don’t know each other, any of us. But I’m with him in the virtual pub. We just might let you buy us a pint. How gracious of us
That’s fine, people will look at these things differently. But it’s also important to be accurate. Those trips to Dubai and Ibiza were between the Arsenal and Brighton games, so two to go rather than four.
And most teams with little to play for are somewhat going through the motions on that final day anyway, that’s why you often get some mad results. Also, let’s be fair, the Palace game was always going to be about the title celebrations rather than the game.
And as for Slot, you’re right it is his choice not to relocate them. But with a daughter finishing school I think it’s entirely understandable.
At the end of the day we’re all human. We can lament what we see as a drop in effort but who amongst us isn’t thinking about winding down at work in the next couple weeks? Who amongst us wouldn’t take every opportunity to see their family if we’d had to move away for work? We hold these people to ridiculous standards that most of us don’t live to. They took the opportunity to enjoy their success, just as Newcastle and Palace did and they earned that right. I find it really hard to tie that to the situation we’re in right now.
