We are now scared to play Palace home or away.Our indicision to buy Marc Guehi earlier in the summer is telling on us.We did it last minute.com.
I doubt it would have made much difference. He’d have been as exposed as our current CB’s. I imagine he’s quite relieved and I doubt that he’ll come to us now.
As expected a bunch of excuses about his squad and injuries. He cannot get away from that bench. Theres no excuse. He also took players he refuses to use and threw them in for 90. He subbed Robertson off though.
Excuse 1. Players struggling to play 3 games in 7 days. Answer. That's your job to get them fit to do it. We don't have midweek off as lfc. Excuse 2: squad not big enough. Answer: you wont use a lot of them. You spent 400 odd million. Its plenty big. Excuse 3: someone might get injured. Answer: you ai assisted injury software hasnt stopped that so far so throwing a game where half the bench were never ever getting on is madness. Excuse 4: the club always does this. Answer: no it doesn't. The club doesn't throw competitions and you just did. You got the same last season in the fa cup and lost the plot with elliott and chiesa and refused to use them after it. We might use some players but we respect the opposition and the paying crowd as well Any more Mr slot?
I think home game under the lights with everything to prove. If players can’t get up for this followed but Madrid and the TAA sideshow mid week then will be a worry.
"Against Brentford it was two days after we played Eintracht Frankfurt away and I saw a team that is struggling to play three games in seven days, but it is not an excuse," he added. "I've seen the struggles some players have had in pre-season. It's a new challenge to play in the Premier League and Champions League, three games in seven days. "Our squad is probably not as big as people think it is. There has not been a change in the way we look at this." please log in to view this image
Can't really believe this talk of the sack, since when did LFC sack managers after a few poor games? It was always a strength of the club that we didn't just change every five minutes in panic, but it seems that many modern fans have fallen into the same mind-set of other clubs' fans who demand instant and sustained success. Hodgson was ditched because he clearly had no ambition for us to be anything other than upper mid-table, and that just won't do, but I don't think we can accuse Slot of treading water just yet. It seems like there were some fans who really didn't take to him from the start but were quiet because of last season, but have jumped at the chance to criticise now. I'm as disappointed as anyone at the current situation, but talk of the sack after a handful of games makes us sound like the Chavs. Some of his decisions have been odd, I fully agree - but it could be a desperate attempt to find a solution to the very poor performances this season of some of his senior players that he should have been able to rely on to carry us through. Of the senior players not suffering from injury, only Szoboszlai can hold his head up imo - the rest need to sort themselves out. Is that Slot's fault? Would a new manager somehow turn that around? Who knows - it's just speculation either way. He has a responsibility to find a solution, but they all need to - the answer is to all work together, and that includes the fans. In my opinion, of course.
I'll admit I am one of those who didn't think much to Slot's appointment, but if a year has passed (a year in which he won the title) and fans are still not convinced by him surely that is a Slot problem. He just doesn't connect very well. He has taken a big risk in clearly walking away from the LC for the game against Villa, if it doesn't pay off you do have to question his ability to get out of this slump, a slump that btw hasn't just been over the last 7 games, we've been woeful in most games this season but had the luck at the start. Things should have started to gel and turn around by now, but they look and results have got worse. As to the last point, Working together means Slot has to give the fans something to cheer about, last night he disrespected all those fans who paid to watch
I think that every time I see a game with second-string players, regardless of the competition - but that's just one of the aspects of modern football I don't like. To discuss your other points - I knew nothing about Slot before he was appointed so I had no preconception of him, but I was probably disappointed that we didn't get Alonso. Last season he was criticised (a lot) for not rotating and this season he's getting criticised for doing it too much. Obviously these are two extremes and you'd think the right balance lies somewhere between the two and I don't think he's got it right. Also, as I've said several times, I think there were just too many new faces thrown in at once. I think he's made a few bad decisions, but I'm just saying it's unlike our club to sack someone because of a slump and I'd be surprised to see it happen - unless he told them he wanted to leave. I would give him until Christmas to see if there are signs of an improvement. I know some will argue that it'll be too late by then and we should take steps to fix things while there's still time to recover the season, but as I said earlier I’m not convinced that the poor individual performances of players are his fault and so it's pure speculation as to whether another manager could improve them. Of course, it's the manager's job to solve problems, and though some of them are of his own making I don't think they all are.
i went into the season quite disillusioned from the transfer window which , as i've said a few times , i thought weakened the squad rather than strengthened it but who takes ultimate responsibility for that i don't know but i'm sure Slot had major input re the ins and outs .
I wondered the other day whether the club waited 12 months before spending to see how Slot got on. Hence a change from our usual small scale transfer windows.
He's been all over wirtz so I can only assume he really wanted him. Wirtz said he was convinced by slot. The isak and Ekitike stuff. Again Ekitike talked about being convinced by slot so I can only assume these were firmly agreed. Frimpong and kerkez? Who knows. He doesn't seem to have a clue what to do with them. I bright up time and Again this summer about a cm being priority but in the end slot and Hughes let nunez go and also Diaz before iska arrived so they were committed to that forward line. We had an issue with Diaz wanting to go the second he got a trophy. At that point we were looking at gakpo, salah and nunez with chiesa I had said a fast winger was needed after we got Ekitike who I thought in preseason linked well with wirtz. Isak now seems lunacy for 125mil. A fast winger and cm would have done a lot for us. However as of now I am convinced another manager could turn this exact squad around with a 4222. Isak and Ekitike are very different players. Isak wants to go away and finish. Ekitike wants to come short and play. Szoboszlai and wirtz are excellent 10s but need help behind. Frimpong and kerkez are hard running wide full backs not narrow passing players. Gravenberch and macallister could do as twin 6s Konate and vvd are still the outstanding cbs. No salah, no gakpo, no jones needed. They can all be subs in those narrow forward areas. Endo can cover at 6. Plenty of players. First job is get them fit. Second job is to make the best use of the available squad We do not have fast wingers. We just dont. So passing it up there means it runs lateral then passes back. The days of salah running behind are gone. Im convinced this squad would so better as a 4222 than a 433/4231. I think we could do a 343 but I'd prefer not to do that.
Decent summary of past and present "crisis periods"... https://tomkinstimes.substack.com/p/this-run-is-nowhere-near-as-bad-as
I've already said that I don't want Slot sacked and I don't like seeing fans turn on a manager so soon after a great, title winning season. It's usually the keyboard warriors who start the chatter and this then gets picked up by the media and is put out as Liverpool fans in general wanting this, that or the other. I always use the match going fans as the barometer. I wasn't on board with Slot's appointment. His early behaviour of ignoring the fans after a game and his, let's say, unusual comments in his interviews, reinforced my hesitation. As the season progressed though, he looked to be warming more to the fans and his interviews were open and honest as he started to realise that he was no longer at Feyenoord. His coaching last season was spot on. There was a pattern forming of the team not playing their best in the first 45 minutes and coming out after half time really fired up which was down to whatever Slot was telling them. He was clearly motivating them and the response was epic. Last season's first team picked itself. Slot saw it worked and seemed unwilling to take a chance on rotating. This season has seen a lot out and a lot in and he doesn't know yet who his best team is hence the chopping and changing. We have bought some individually great players who, from my amateur perspective, don't look like system players. I trust Slot to work out a new system to fit the players he's bought and the players he already had simply because he has to.
