Arne Slot has been left \u2018utterly broken\u2019 by the transfer decisions Liverpool made in the summer, but he must \u2018suck it up\u2019 instead of rolling out the excuses.<\/p>\n
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Liverpool woes<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m not suggesting for a second that things are ok at Liverpool<\/strong><\/a> at the moment but as a general viewpoint on his position or any other managers position \u2013 surely when clubs employ managers they do so on the basis that that particular guy will be the right guy to sort out situations when they go a bit wrong \u2013 not just there\u00a0for when things are going right. Otherwise you have surely got the\u00a0wrong guy in.<\/p>\n Years ago (and I mean many years ago) a manager was often trusted to go into a new season \u2013 clean slate \u2013 do whatever\u00a0he felt he needed to do \u2013 however good, bad or indifferent things had been. As he was usually the most qualified\u00a0to see what needed to be done to improve. Nowadays\u00a0you go through a bad patch and if you are not careful you\u00a0are ousted before you can attempt a recovery.<\/p>\n Football\/life is about the bad times aswell as the good. Klopp had a few nightmare periods \u2013 not least\u00a0the one where he had no defenders (the VVD injury season) \u2013 everyone kept reasonably calm and thought well whatever needs to be done Jurgen will know best. Thats the role of a manager in any organisation is it not? If Slot cant be trusted to find a solution then (putting the not insignificant fact he won the league straight away) he wasn\u2019t the right man\u00a0to start with \u2013 and Liverpool made an error in employing him \u2013 much like so so many clubs do.<\/p>\n More than likely he is the right man \u2013 but these days with player power the way it is \u2013 you never know. Its why a manager has to be more important than any player \u2013 see Fergie, Klopp, Pep, Wenger etc. \u00a0<\/p>\n That\u00a0makes it 6 defeats in the last 7 games for Liverpool<\/strong><\/a>. Were it not for the 7 wins from 7 to start the season, we would have been much worse off . The contrast in results before and after that palace defeat is stark even if the performances haven\u2019t differed a lot.<\/p>\n It\u2019s made me wonder what has changed in these past few weeks. Overall I\u2019ve realized the following:<\/p>\n \u2022 Lack of form from key players- Salah & VVD are crucial to the way we play. Both have experienced a dip in form compared to last season alongside Konate.<\/p>\n \u2022 Match fitness\/sharpness- Isak saga ensured he wasn\u2019t able to train properly pre-season but more importantly Macca\u2019s disrupted preseason has hurt us. He is important in the way he retains and regains possession for us.<\/p>\n \u2022 Defensive frailty- VVD & Konate are not having the best of seasons, but Kerkez especially seems to be struggling<\/strong><\/a>. We are rotating RB slot between Bradley, Frimpong & Dom but kerkez seems to be the undisputed LB even if he\u2019s been struggling. He looks short of confidence overall and struggles with positioning while defending. I do blame slot here partially since one of the better attacking LBs in the league last season has been shackled tactically and he and the team seems worse for it.<\/p>\n \u2022 Pressing- Maybe slot is unable to setup team-wide press and last season was muscle memory from klopp era but imo this is a major contributor to our woes. Combined with our tendency to concede early, we struggle to get the ball back when opposition teams just try to retain possession. The loss of Nunez and especially diaz here is a major reason why.<\/p>\n \u2022 Bedding in new players: Wirtz was a generational talent we felt we couldn\u2019t miss out on, same with Isak transfer (unnecessary probably, with Ekitike being in the form he was in.) Slot seems to not know how our best lineup anymore or the best setup to utilise all the talent we have on our hands.<\/p>\n \u2022 Tactics- Throwing on all your attacking players when chasing a goal doesn\u2019t necessarily lead to a win. Having that\u00a0 many attackers has been responsible for the lack of balance our team has during the end of games and has lead to last minute losses v palace and Chelsea in particular. Hope his subs improve going forward.<\/p>\n There are a lot of things LFC supporters are criticising Slot over, not least of which has been unexplained disregard for Chiesa. Having said that, I do hope we win atleast 1 if not 2 out of the 3 remaining matches before the break. Fail to do so and the pressure on owners to sack would become massive and while he has not been performing like one would hope, I\u2019d rather we take the time to identify and interview potential candidates for rest of the season<\/strong><\/a> than simply sack him and worry about replacement late.<\/p>\n While he doesn\u2019t seem to generate much confidence with his demeanor, he still deserves to see out the rest of the season to try and fix the mess we are currently in because I refuse to believe we can\u2019t do better with the quality we have.<\/p>\n YWNA \u00a0<\/p>\n Arne Ten Hag<\/strong><\/p>\n So when we first announced slot would take over from klopp I went and watched a bunch of games from his eredevisie years to see what I could expect. I watched about 20 or so.<\/p>\n He had the curious habit of having his entire midfield overload the box when attacking. In the Dutch league this (strangely) never gets punished. But I knew that if he used this tactic in the prem there would be a lot of counter attacking balls over the top. We had actually already seen this tactic from a bald Dutch manager and it didn\u2019t work out very well at all.<\/p>\n Slots Dutch teams also favoured short passing, carrying the ball and traditional wingers who would cut the ball back to a CF.<\/p>\n Honestly I didn\u2019t think he would be successful at all. I thought at best he\u2019d try these things, we\u2019d lose a bunch of games and he\u2019d either realise this tactic doesn\u2019t work here and change or he\u2019d get fired.<\/p>\n Imagine my surprise when he basically just tweaked klopps tactics to be less gung-ho and won the league<\/strong><\/a>. I figured I was wrong about him and he\u2019d clearly realised his eredevisie tactics wouldn\u2019t work and adapted.<\/p>\n The season we are having now, is the one I expected to have last year. The difficult part about it is that slot seems unwilling or unable to see the way he\u2019s got us set up isn\u2019t right for a highly counter attacking premier League. What\u2019s worse is he had a blueprint for success last year and for absolutely no reason at all, changed it. And we\u2019re losing, but he still going on TV and talking about how he doesn\u2019t know how to fix it.<\/p>\n This is worrying.<\/p>\n Defeat to villa , Madrid and city (all very likely) will see him sacked I think. With either iraola or inzaghi coming in.<\/p>\n How did someone who won a league, look at his tactics and say \u2013 you know what? Let\u2019s rip it up and start again with the same tactics ten hag used \u00a0<\/p>\n Knocking Real Madrid off their perch<\/strong><\/p>\n I remember some emails from LFC fans in pre-season talking about becoming the biggest club in the world<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n The way they are going they might not even end up as the biggest club in Merseyside\u2026..<\/p>\n It\u2019s delicious I tell you. Just delicious. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Shunt LFC<\/strong><\/p>\n
Abhinav, Mumbai\u00a0(poor kids thrown to the wolves)<\/strong><\/p>\n
Lee\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Nishul Saperia (especially as Man Utd don\u2019t look like absolute rubbish right now\u2026but on that I will still await the next match for that to come back)<\/strong><\/p>\n