There is an international break coming and I hope Slot and his coaching team stays at Melwood to ironout all the issues with the shape and the height of the block. No more going to fucking Dubai, Slot! Use the break to pore through the games we lost and those games that we need a stroke of genius to win it.
The fixtures list after this are easier fixtures which we are expected to win all or at least draw 1 or 2 matches for all of them.
The bad (where do I start) :
Konate. Poor ass performance. Was extremely weak in challenging Haaland for the first goal. Was lazy in challenging Doku for their third. Didn’t even bothered to run forward to disrupt the opposition who was standing off him…
Robbo. Was indecisive for closing down Nunes for their first. Was lazily offside for our disallowed goal.
1 shot on target all day long is dismal. Even if you add in the disallowed one, it is just 2 shots on target all day long.
Midfield trio was effectively nullified. They cleverly played around Szobo, lured out Gravenberch and played through Macca. Slot didn’t have an answer for it…
Failure to integrate the new recruits. Frimpong and Isak had fitness issues which can understandably make their integration hard. However, there are no excuses for not being able to integrate Kerkez and Wirtz properly when they are fully fit especially Kerkez who is premier league proven.
Set-piece tactics. It seems we don’t have an answer for the domestic game which has a more physical edge to it…We don’t have a fixed set-piece taker for corners. The corner routine looks very unrehearsed. How is Robbo being the furthest forward in our corners is still a mystery.
Slot’s tactics. His organisation of a mid-block and a low-block is very shockingly bad. The only time we look good was if we go a high line and go press very high up the pitch which leaves us very susceptible to long balls over our heads. He has abandoned that for this game.He then went back to making Salah too far wide and getting our full-backs to not overlap for some mysterious reason. His training methods can also called to question when Kerkez and Gakpo simply couldn’t work together at all.
Salah’s decision making is horrendous. He keeps going for the shot when the pass is easier and more available…WTF…
For a big lad he does get bullied from time to time. I always thought that his mental game was his main weakness. Seems to have difficulty staying focused for the whole game and is very reliant on VVD’s organisational skills and leadership. He also seems prone to some quite poor decision making and throws in the odd brain fart as well sometimes. That ‘clearance’ into Connor a good example.
Yet there was the manner. It really looked like whoever prepared the team for this didn’t have a clue how Shitty play. The subs seemed to confirm this and also indicated that whoever decided them didn’t know what was happening on the pitch with his own players.
It was a damning performance!
Losing is one thing the fashion is another.
Just looking at the starting XI from the corresponding fixture back in February. Apart from an injured goalkeeper and two players who wanted to leave, it’s virtually the same team as yesterday, isn’t it? It wasn’t a team that’s been ripped up and starting over.
We can analyse it until we’re blue in the face, but maybe it’s not simple or obvious why our form has been so patchy so far. Surely, neither the manager nor the players want these ups and downs any more than we do, but they’re the ones who can fix it, Arne Slot especially, so let’s give the guy time and support to sort it out.
Especially after two excellent results followed by an away game at City. Obviously there are lots of issues that need fixed, and who knows if Slot can sort these. But he’s earned the right to be given time to try
I’d imagine those calling for his head are doing so because we’ve now lost 15 games since the start of Feb and they don’t see any improvement in our football.
The end of the season will show. The matter of fact is that it’s Pep’s last season, and while he is still running the team and is competing, it’s not an era we’ve already entered, not unless they win nothing this season.
Can you imagine fans asking to sack Klopp after that 5-1 defeat vs City, before he even won the lot with us? We would have been nowhere close to where we are now…
The performance yesterday was a hesitant one. By design or otherwise we came across that way. This was a weak side that was there for the taking - a missed opportunity.