I spent much of my free time last week watching some videos trying to understand what went wrong and how we could improve. they didn’t all cover the same thing but it was interesting how there appeared to be failings across all the different phases of play and it is hard not to see them as coaching failures.
Those failings look to have left players exposed. Our best moments were probably when we had flashback moments and were able to hit quick transitions. Too often though we found ourselves having to play from deep against too many players.
Better fitness, taking higher lines and moving away from that +1 defensive system Arne favoured may not fix everything - and may bring its own problems - but would probably see us increase the number of and success rates of our pressing and allow us time to fix anything else that needs fixing.
Not disagreeing with any of that but we also need decent back-up. For instance, the wide positions. As you say we need to replace Mo and Gakpo, but we also need to replace Chiesa and Ngumoha isn’t close to being ready yet. Same with Konate. Even if Gomez stays we need cover for him. People are massively under-estimating how thin the squad is.
In what way is Ngumoha “not close to being ready”?
He came in and regularly impacted Premier League games. I understand not wanting him to be first choice but to say he’s not close is wild - he’s very clearly more than ready for the PL.
I think one of the things that ultimately undermined Slot was a very narrow view of what a player needed for Slot to trust them. We saw very early on his rejection of Bajcetic because of perceived limitations passing the ball. We saw Endo largely ignored. Chiesa is still only a few years removed from being the best player in the Euro final for Italy and was treated like he was a joker. Baj obviously needs a bit of luck health wise, but you can quite easily see the effective size of the squad increasing by 4 or 5 players next season considering only those already on our books with the introduction of a new manager, and that’s before you even consider the hopeful revitalization of players who stunk the place out while playing last season.
A CB and RW are essential, and for CB what you’d be looking for is someone experienced enough to partner Virgil from day 1 giving the kids time to get comfortable before fighting for their spot. Outside of that you bring Tsimi and Elliot back and you probably dont have that much that NEEDS to be done.
At RB you’re going to want a target in mind you can go for, but some combination of understanding of Bradley’s situation and how the new guy will viw options already at the club (Ramsay, Endo) might mean not having to do anything there. Likewise with LW. Ideally with the season Cody had you’d want someone to come in to light a ricket under his arse, and someone who can play there allowing Cody to play through the middle to spell Isak would be good. But depending on how the new guy views Chiesa, Rio, and Wirtz’s place in the team, it may not be essential.
Squads always look worse and thinner than they are in reality on the back of a manager getting sacked. The main question for me is less about quality but more about how much toxicity from last season remains that needs to be excised
I think he is a bit more ready than that, but in the games he played this season I think he showed that there is still a lot of development for him to go through.
It would be shocking if there wasn’t but he won’t progress unless he is regularly around and playing in Premier League games. The fact he can come in and always look dangerous, always create shots is the main thing. His output to minutes is excellent.
Sure, if we get rid of half the players and disregard the ones we do keep then the squad will look thin.
But Ngumoha, Gakpo and Gomez are all quality footballers you would hope would be more trusted and improved by a new manager. That’s why they’ve sacked Slot because he couldn’t do it. And yes, Konate has gone but Jaquet is already secured.
Even Chiesa we could see being a good squad option. And I’ve been about as dismissive of him as anyone but if Iraola can get a tune out of Ouattara, Kluivert, Semenyo and Tavenier you’d hope he’d get more from Chiesa than we’ve seen thus far.
I was trying to be realistic about what can/should be attempted in one window, especially with a new trainer coming in. Ngumoha is fine as a second choice LW. If we can upgrade on Chiesa that would be great, but that means buying three wingers this summer.
I think that’s a hugely optimistic appraisal. Recklessly so.
Endo and Chiesa are not good enough and haven’t been for two seasons now. We’ve seen enough of these lads and it isn’t fair on whoever the next manager is that they are expected to not only get to grips with the leap up to managing Liverpool, we’re also placing the expectation on them to turn Endo and Chiesa into serviceable footballers. I mean Slot could have played Chiesa more, but Slot didn’t make him unable to control a football at 28 years of age.
You can’t hang anything on Bajcetic. I thought we’d uncovered a diamond when he broke through, but he’s spent two years picking up a succession of injuries and there is more chance he will never get right than there is him suddenly looking like a footballer again. Ramsay is in a similar boat.
Elliot is the only player discarded by Slot that I think has a chance of coming back under a new boss, and that’s really dependent on what else is going on in the squad.
That’s my concern with a lot of them. And it’s why he’s on a hiding to nothing if we think he can get by on an outfield squad of ten good players and ten more kids, permacrocks and lads past their best.
Mac is another one, for me. He looked this season like his legs are gone, so think his days of doing well as part of a high-intensity press are probably behind him.
This is the key. Iraola hopefully can get his feet under the desk quickly and if players like Chiesa get a chance to impress (or not) early in preseason we could look a hugely different side without much change. CB is a huge area of concern for me (more than any other position than perhaps RB) as I just don’t think the combination of lack of PL experience, age, recovery from injury and susceptibility to injury of our current four are sufficient for a 50-60 game season.
Ramsay has been fit for over half season but was simply not given a look in despite glaring problems in the position he plays in. There are several other players in a similar boat, just as there are numerous players who some people want to see leave because they played regularly but did so poorly.
My point was not argue that they will all be salvaged, or even to make a case for any of them individually. But that there are enough to them to expect that we will be able to get more out of several players next year than we did this, making the gaps that need to be filled far less extensive. Where exactly that will come from is impossible to say, and all I was doing was pointing to possibilities.
Of course, the degree to which anyone agrees with this is going to be heavily influenced by how their view on the job Slot did and what his failings were
We talk about him as though he’s 37 not 27! No chance his legs are gone I think there were a number of factors not least of which being rushed from injury in the 24/25 season and never looking quite right after that.
It would do good for him to not be an every game player and I hope Wharton comes in for that reason but I don’t buy that his legs are gone. I actually think he’s one of those that might benefit from a stricter fitness program.
Very true. Or he might have had enough of being a bit part player and want to move on.
My point is more one of it being highly unlikely and highly inadvisable to try and do ten new players (I think that’s the figure Jabu is up to now) in one window. We probably do need a slightly bigger squad of players the manager trusts, or is at least willing to call upon for more than the odd minutes here and there.
That may mean whilst people want the likes of Gomez, Chiesa or Gakpo replaced immediately, some of that business may need to wait and we might need to see what Iraola (or whoever it is that comes in) can do with some of those fringe players.
We absolutely have some business to do and I’d love to see us go back to being a bit cleverer and less big spender. But we’re not doing ten players, we might not even do five plus Jacquet. But we absolutely shouldn’t be in a rush to sell the likes of Gakpo or Jones or maybe even Chiesa until we see what the new man can do with them. Only exception for me would be someone like Mac in order to make room for someone to offer us a better balanced unit.
I will say he always looks knackered even in the warm up. Seeing those pictures of Alisson and knowing how many breaks from training we had (and then half of the training we did have being shit like “catch the tennis ball”) I do wonder how well some of these lads have been looking after themselves off the field.
I hope everyone gets a clean slate but I dont want a repeat of Slot’s first summer because they want to give the new guy time to run the rule over the squad. We need signings.