Post Match EPL Tottenham (A) 1-2 Sat 20th December 17:30

[dee ★]

Yeah I'm not into the personal insult thing when it comes to (non-owl head) Liverpool managers but he's looked more and more out of his depth the longer 2025 has progressed. Granted he's still in place and it's too late do anything this season given the low likelihood of funds to change the squad and the lack of obvious replacements.

However, that doesn't mean I feel this is now anything other than a treading water season where the general capability of the individual players will keep us 5-8th overall, the higher the better. The manage is a 'Rosco' manager

 

[localny]

Yeah, not mad about it, but still DB is too strong. For me, he deserves a little grace and a little time having solved our defensive problems. Now he needs to solve our fluency and attacking problems. It's one step at a time. No way were we going to solve the two together IMHO with so many new players.

We were fortunate to have a highly emotional intelligent manager for a decade. Slotto doesn't seem to know his own failings and blind spots. He's merely human. the last guy was our messiah. There's no replacing that.

 

[darkstarexodus ★]

If he played Chiesa more, a lot of my complaints would go away.

Not because I think Chiesa is the solution to all our problems. But because his lack of game time is the most striking indicator of poor man management and failing to use resources available at Slot's disposal.

 

[Frogfish ★]

Our attack hadn't worked well this season, we know that. And that was with a full team. Yesterday Salah, Gakpo, and Isak were not on the pitch from the beginning, are people expecting free flowing attacking football / goal threat galore all of a sudden? That's just wishful thinking.

On top of a stuttering attacking, we were conceding goals when we pushed forward, either from a soft midfield or from defensive mistakes. The 3-0, 4-1 results are not one-off. Who do you think fixed the problem? We ain't scoring but we are at least not conceding easy goals anymore, isn't that down to Slot's changes?

Credit when its due, the results don't come by themselves. We are still not doing too well, but we take the 3 points and move forward, and hopefully we will continue to improve to get to a level to possibly win something this season.

That sort of ignores how many goals we've scored though - I posed the stats vs Arsenal earlier, we've scored 28 to their 31. The difference is in defence, where we've conceded 25 to their 10. There's your main problem - the defence. If you score more then you can concede more and still win (see City 41 - 16) but it has to start with conceding less, which leads to more confidence to control or see out games.

 

[Frogfish ★]

With the lack of cohesion and patterns of play so far you’d think we were bedding in a lot of new signings. Yet we’ve created the second most chances in the league this season. The other 18 teams must really be shit given how awful we’ve been.

Most big chances I saw from a recent chart. We won't mention those conceded (bottom three I think it was) !

 

[Frogfish ★]

I would assume both are goals would have counted as big chances yesterday, what actually classifies as a big chsnce.? Like does it have to be over a certain xg?
Would also think we were more creative early on in the season but since we've reverted back to full on slot ball that creativity has dried up

That is a direct result of our conceding over and over and losing 9 from 12 ! Of course we reverted to more defensive, less chance-taking, tactics in an effort to stem the flood.

 

[Frogfish ★]

Chiesa...

Klopp with Elliott?

 

[KopRed]

That sort of ignores how many goals we've scored though - I posed the stats vs Arsenal earlier, we've scored 28 to their 31. The difference is in defence, where we've conceded 25 to their 10. There's your main problem - the defence. If you score more then you can concede more and still win (see City 41 - 16) but it has to start with conceding less, which leads to more confidence to control or see out games.

It is the approach we have taken. We have tried to attack like last season in the beginning but we do not have a cohesive frontline leading to us losing balls high up while committing too many players forward. Lesser teams park the bus, wait for our attack to break down and counter to score.

Slot has done some tweaking in the last few weeks. We don't look as attacking but we don't look as porous as before. We are getting results but are being accused by some as being not "attractive" enough. It's about being pragmatic instead of asking for the "attractive" football we cannot produce at this moment.

 

[Frogfish ★]

Dirty bastards.


View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DShFHkQDXdV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

 

[Frogfish ★]

Slot has done some tweaking in the last few weeks. We don't look as attacking but we don't look as porous as before. We are getting results but are being accused by some as being not "attractive" enough. It's about being pragmatic instead of asking for the "attractive" football we cannot produce at this moment.

Agree with this.

 

[mark1975]

Agree with this.

I would if we ever produced attractive football, but we don't. We're as dull as fucking shit to watch regardless of the result, relying on moments of ingenuity from players who could be producing it much more frequently. And before you bang on about stats, we "should" be up there in the scoring charts, with the talent we've got. Luckily quite a few of them have weighed in, unfortunately only Ekitike looks like a frequent threat in this system and even he is feeding off scraps. The defense is shite, but that's only half the problem, the rest is the tentative tactics, the nervousness and the complete inability to control a game.

If you've got Szobo, Macca, Gravenberch, Jones and Wirtz around your midfield and they aren't controlling the game, there's something fundamentally wrong. The system is so fucking dull and vague, it's hard to see what Slot is trying to achieve and it's not a new thing, we were performing for about 20 minutes in games last season and luckily doing enough damage in short spurts to get points, the whole nondescript functionality of this team has just deteriorated (what we see with our own eyes) into games where 15 top class professionals look so defeatist and lacking in purpose. They can't all have turned to shit and we can't just go "well Slot can't be responsible for Jones giving the ball away". He fucking coaches them! If they don't know what they are doing and they are repeating the same mistakes, it's on him. Completely.

 

[Modo ★]

Klopp with Elliott?

Slot with Elliott? At least Klopp played him.

 

[jan]

Yeah they were about to collapse because they were ran ragged by 10/9 men...

That's another issue. We look so much slower, weaker, less physical than almost every other team.

Get Klopp back in with the inhalers.

That's the weird thing that keeps bothering me. Why does almost everyone in the team look so slow, weak and unfit this year? Some reverse Chiesa shit

 

[Frogfish ★]

Slot with Elliott? At least Klopp played him.

Hardly. Mostly on the bench and in cups.

 

[Modo ★]

Hardly. Mostly on the bench and in cups.

I don't know why you'd even argue that, it's not even close and you know it.
Just check transfermarkt, you'll see how bad it was last season.

 

[jan]

Shaqiri would be more apt if trying to make that comparison. Elliott played quite a bit

 

[Al_Gatto ★]

I would if we ever produced attractive football, but we don't. We're as dull as fucking shit to watch regardless of the result, relying on moments of ingenuity from players who could be producing it much more frequently. And before you bang on about stats, we "should" be up there in the scoring charts, with the talent we've got. Luckily quite a few of them have weighed in, unfortunately only Ekitike looks like a frequent threat in this system and even he is feeding off scraps. The defense is shite, but that's only half the problem, the rest is the tentative tactics, the nervousness and the complete inability to control a game.

If you've got Szobo, Macca, Gravenberch, Jones and Wirtz around your midfield and they aren't controlling the game, there's something fundamentally wrong. The system is so fucking dull and vague, it's hard to see what Slot is trying to achieve and it's not a new thing, we were performing for about 20 minutes in games last season and luckily doing enough damage in short spurts to get points, the whole nondescript functionality of this team has just deteriorated (what we see with our own eyes) into games where 15 top class professionals look so defeatist and lacking in purpose. They can't all have turned to shit and we can't just go "well Slot can't be responsible for Jones giving the ball away". He fucking coaches them! If they don't know what they are doing and they are repeating the same mistakes, it's on him. Completely.

Nail on the head - tepid, slow football. Four shots on target, yawn. Packing the MF to try and get control. Virtually every player underperforming.

But it's Mos fault. Or the ref. We got every decision vs Spurs but I can see Slot trotting out the Isak injury excuse for weeks to come.

 

[Glen C]

Its the lack of tempo and pressing that is pissing me off the most. i just dont get why we move the ball around so slowly as it serves no purpose and just helps the opposition. Why do we no longer press from the front anymore?

 

[Brizzle ★]

Its the lack of tempo and pressing that is pissing me off the most. i just dont get why we move the ball around so slowly as it serves no purpose and just helps the opposition. Why do we no longer press from the front anymore?

Yes, and when we have Gakpo and Salah playing, we never drive to the byline to whip the ball in and its much easier for defenders to deal with crosses when we cut inside to whip in

 

[tomasjj]

Yes, and when we have Gakpo and Salah playing, we never drive to the byline to whip the ball in and its much easier for defenders to deal with crosses when we cut inside to whip in

And due to low tempo and wide forwards cutting in; there is a low block waiting and reduced lateral spaces.

Such a messed up approach

 

[Dreambeliever]

I'm not asking for a statement win though, or sweeping all before us 5-0 every week. I'm not even asking for swashbuckling, scintillating football.

I just want to see progress. I want to see some sort of indication that we know what we're doing and we're going in the right direction. I want to see some indication that the coach has a solution and we're working towards that. I want to see competence.

When Klopp first joined and we weren't getting the results early on, I was pleased (even when Bogdan was in goal and we were getting tonked by Watford) because you could see a new style of play emerging and a clear idea of what we were hoping to achieve.

This under Slot is getting worse. How many times have we gone 2 goals up this season, only to absolutely flap and bottle it. 5!? And it's still happening. We've become increasingly more toothless in attack. We can't control a game. We can't keep the ball. Not even against 9 men. I have no idea what our style is now, what our pattern of play is. It's not even as if we've shut up shop and traded in attacking play to be more solid. We were still horrendous at the back.

There was nothing good about that performance yesterday besides the result. If they don't go down to 9 men we don't win. And even then we were hanging on.

So three wins a row (2 away from home), 2 clean sheets in those 3, 4 wins in 6 and unbeaten in those 6 isn’t progress compared with 2 wins in the previous 6 and 3 losses in a row before starting to turn things around, isn’t progress?

Rightio then.

 

[Tinto ★]

For me, he deserves a little grace and a little time having solved our defensive problems. Now he needs to solve our fluency and attacking problems. It's one step at a time. No way were we going to solve the two together IMHO with so many new players.

The thing is he hasn’t solved our defensive problems. Not really. Otherwise we wouldn’t have drew against Leeds and needed Spurs to be down to 9 men to win. Also, we would also have lost to Sunderland if Chiesa didn’t run back like he did.

Basically, we still look very vulnerable when it gets chaotic in around our penalty area, just like we have all season.

 

[Sammy LFC]

It was an awful and horrendous team performance by an inept team manager, who has no clue whatsoever! I know we got 3 points with no clean sheet against 9 men of a spirited Spurs team who should have got at least a draw against a shambolic Slot's team who were all softies and without fighting spirit. I totally regret losing Isak to a terrible and horrendous tackle, and the defender should have sent off at once!

This shitty performance epitomize the state of LFC under the idiotic management under a very average low class manger in Slot,. And his weird team changes during the game, whereas, all his original team selection and substitutions were lousy and wrong! He is trying to give an image of a cool manager by putting his hands in pockets, but his brain was full of shit. He will not improve the team performances at all. LFC needs to replace him fast. Gold help us

 

[dee ★]

Klopp with Elliott?

A bit of a maturity gap but yeah point taken

 

[dee ★]

Its the lack of tempo and pressing that is pissing me off the most. i just dont get why we move the ball around so slowly as it serves no purpose and just helps the opposition. Why do we no longer press from the front anymore?

Exactly. Another thing is the multiple touches as we cycle the ball across the backline/deeper mids. I get not every pass has to be one touch and it is good to have a good scan to look for a free man/run but we are SOOOOOO slow

 

[Frogfish ★]

And Sammy LFC goes on my Ignore list. Fuck me his posts are awful tripe no matter what we do. I wonder if he even supports us!

And the twat hasn't even donated ! Which reminds me @Dreambeliever !!!

 

[peterhague]

If he played Chiesa more, a lot of my complaints would go away.

Not because I think Chiesa is the solution to all our problems. But because his lack of game time is the most striking indicator of poor man management and failing to use resources available at Slot's disposal.

Personally I find it silly to fixate on particular failings. I've always felt like that. It was the same with Benitez and how everyone used to hate certain quirks of his. I don't really get it.

I just look at results vs expectations and assess whether it's good, bad or indifferent. Obviously longer trends are important too, but that sort of detached macro approach seems like the obvious way to evaluate performance. If 5 is average and meeting expectations, then imo Slot's first season was 10. This season I'd say he's a 3 maybe. So overall a 6.5, better than expected. Yes the trend's in the wrong direction and there are legitimate concerns in the way there never really were at any point with Klopp, but it looks like we've recovered enough form to merit giving him the season. I think a lot of the more detailed analysis like his arrogance or inability to manage people is basically just speculative bullshit and people seeing what they want to see.

 

[Halmeister ★]

So three wins a row (2 away from home), 2 clean sheets in those 3, 4 wins in 6 and unbeaten in those 6 isn’t progress compared with 2 wins in the previous 6 and 3 losses in a row before starting to turn things around, isn’t progress?

Rightio then.

I think you have functioning eyes. I'm 50/50 on whether you can employ critical thinking. There's a difference between scraping results undeservedly despite awful tactics/style of play, and improving and moving towards a discernible footballing approach that will yield results and success in the long term.

Look at the small sample size of our first 5 games in the league this season (though you could apply what I'm about to say over the entirety of 2025). You could point out that we looked defensively shaky in most of them, that we were throwing away 2 goal leads, that we were relying on last minute winners, moments of magic, going gung ho in the dying phases, taking off centre backs for attackers, emotionally chasing results, relying on "vibes" and "aura" to get us over the line. You can ignore all of that and clap your hands like a brain-dead seal and say we're fantastic and we're going to walk the league.

Or you could use your loaf and point out that that wasn't sustainable. That those last minute winners were going to dry up. That individual players need to improve. That we can't rely on Szoboszlai rockets every week or last minute penalties. We can't keep throwing away two goal leads or having teenagers win it from the bench. We need to gain more control and come up with a system that will minimise those outliers and variables to go a better way towards ensuring success rather than rolling the dice every week.

That brings us to today. Sure the results are "progress". But like the opening 5 games of the season, the cracks have largely been papered over. We were extremely lucky to pick up the points against NINE MAN TOTTENHAM. We were hanging on. We threw away yet another 2 goal lead against one of the worst sides I've ever seen in Leeds. We parked the bus at home to newly promoted Sunderland, relying on another late deflected effort and last minute Chiesa heroics to scrape a point. West Ham are shocking and we beat them without really creating anything. Brighton was a routine, nondescript home win. The last two are fine in isolation. But they're hardly worth crowing about in conjunction with everything else.

We still look turgid and tepid going forward. We still look extremely shaky at the back. We still have no control in the middle. There is no progress there and it doesn't bode well for the future to anyone that can use a few braincells to look beyond the scoreline. If nothing changes in terms of tactics and style of play, we'll continue to drop a lot of points.

 

[dee ★]

I think you have functioning eyes. I'm 50/50 on whether you can employ critical thinking. There's a difference between scraping results undeservedly despite awful tactics/style of play, and improving and moving towards a discernible footballing approach that will yield results and success in the long term.

Look at the small sample size of our first 5 games in the league this season (though you could apply what I'm about to say over the entirety of 2025). You could point out that we looked defensively shaky in most of them, that we were throwing away 2 goal leads, that we were relying on last minute winners, moments of magic, going gung ho in the dying phases, taking off centre backs for attackers, emotionally chasing results, relying on "vibes" and "aura" to get us over the line. You can ignore all of that and clap your hands like a brain-dead seal and say we're fantastic and we're going to walk the league.

Or you could use your loaf and point out that that wasn't sustainable. That those last minute winners were going to dry up. That individual players need to improve. That we can't rely on Szoboszlai rockets every week or last minute penalties. We can't keep throwing away two goal leads or having teenagers win it from the bench. We need to gain more control and come up with a system that will minimise those outliers and variables to go a better way towards ensuring success rather than rolling the dice every week.

That brings us to today. Sure the results are "progress". But like the opening 5 games of the season, the cracks have largely been papered over. We were extremely lucky to pick up the points against NINE MAN TOTTENHAM. We were hanging on. We threw away yet another 2 goal lead against one of the worst sides I've ever seen in Leeds. We parked the bus at home to newly promoted Sunderland, relying on another late deflected effort and last minute Chiesa heroics to scrape a point. West Ham are shocking and we beat them without really creating anything. Brighton was a routine, nondescript home win. The last two are fine in isolation. But they're hardly worth crowing about in conjunction with everything else.

We still look turgid and tepid going forward. We still look extremely shaky at the back. We still have no control in the middle. There is no progress there and it doesn't bode well for the future to anyone that can use a few braincells to look beyond the scoreline. If nothing changes in terms of tactics and style of play, we'll continue to drop a lot of points.

All so very true

I'm going to go cry in a corner and ask Santa for a nice bottle of Port for Crimbo

 

[Glen C]

Exactly. Another thing is the multiple touches as we cycle the ball across the backline/deeper mids. I get not every pass has to be one touch and it is good to have a good scan to look for a free man/run but we are SOOOOOO slow

i know right. Its like they need at least 3 touches to get it under control and then make a pass. I'm not sure what training Slot is doing but its not working. Its like they are going backwards technically.