Job security - arne

[Your_Daddy]

We have wingers in Rio, Gakpo and Chiesa.
We need a different formation
Lets go 4-2-2-1-1

--Conor---Konate---VVD---JoGo

-------Grav------Alex-----

Dom------------------------Rio/Chiesa

--------------Wirtz-------------

--------------Ekitike/Isak----------

Need a different manager. He'd rather start with 10 men then start Chiesa in meaniful games

 

[Your_Daddy]

That's not hindsight, it was bloody obvious we needed them. Who didn't think we needed them?

Wait, i skipped past that. He said that's hindsight? LMAO

 

[Your_Daddy]

We didn't sign a single winger, CM, CB that was in hindsight obviously needed. Our situation is not all on Slot

Insane thing to say, it was clear as day we needed a DM/Deep Playmaker since the rat was going. A CB was needed too and speedy winger

 

[Modo]

Need a different manager. He'd rather start with 10 men then start Chiesa in meaniful games

 

[Woland]

The Chiesa issue is a major problem at the minute. He's dead good and is most suited to replacing Diaz and giving us balance, but Slot won't have it, wouldn't even pick him in our European squad until fate forced him to. That alone is enough reason to bin the dickhead. Get someone who isn't going to marginalise players just because they've got an ugly wife.

 

[Squiggles]

What was it supposed to look like? Amid all the talk around Liverpool and their disappointing form at the start of this season, that is perhaps the hardest question of all to answer. What were they trying to do? If it had worked, how would this team have played?

The champions spent £424m (about $550m) on new signings in the summer, but if all had gone well, they would have spent an additional £40m ($53m) to land the Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guéhi. The England international would, at the very least, have given an extra option at the back (the injury to Giovanni Leoni has diminished their defensive options further), allowing Arne Slot to rest Ibrahima Konaté, whose poor form continued in the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday. An early City penalty was a direct result of Konaté getting in Conor Bradley’s way as Jérémy Doku cut in from the left.


But Konaté’s partnership with Virgil van Dijk is proven. In past seasons, it has been far better than this. While neither central defender is playing well, Liverpool’s baffling openness this season has been less about individual form than structure – and that’s despite, in recent weeks, returning to last season’s midfield.


Against Aston Villa last weekend, Slot selected an XI consisting of 10 players who were at the club last season, plus Hugo Ekitike. On Tuesday, against Real Madrid, there was one further change, with Florian Wirtz replacing Cody Gakpo. Liverpool won both of those games, but neither Villa nor Madrid tested their obvious vulnerability to direct balls played behind the full-backs. Going back to basics, trying to make the transition to something new and more incremental, may not quite have been an admission of hundreds of millions wasted in the summer, but it probably was an acknowledgment that there had been an attempt to change too much too quickly.

Soccer teams are delicate organisms. Even on a purely tactical level, without considering the infinite complexities of psychology, changing one element of a lineup has an impact not merely on the other 10 elements, but on the coalitions between them. Take out Trent Alexander-Arnold, for instance, and Liverpool no longer have a player at right-back who naturally inverts to become an auxiliary holding midfielder alongside Ryan Gravenberch, shielding the centre of defense while liberating central midfielders Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, while also being capable both of sweeping long passes to switch play and accurate quick balls forward to release Mohamed Salah.


Slot had become convinced by the end of last season that opponents had worked Liverpool out, to an extent a consequence of the club’s limited transfer activity last summer. There was, anyway, always going to be a moment when this became discernibly his side rather than Jürgen Klopp’s. To that extent, significant change was inevitable and necessary. But what was the intention? If all had gone well, how should this side have looked?

Liverpool signed two centre-forwards for a combined fee of £210m ($276m). Perhaps the plan was always to play only one of Alexander Isak and Ekitike, to keep them fresh, to have one always ready to come off the bench, much as West Brom once did with Romelu Lukaku and Shane Long. But given their cost, that’s an extraordinarily privileged position to be in, even if either could theoretically operate wide in extremis and so provide additional squad depth.
Julian Nagelsmann, the Germany head coach, has defended Florian Wirtz after criticism of his slow start to life at Liverpool, pinning some of the blame on the team's poor form and finishing.

Wirtz, a £100m summer signing from Bayer Leverkusen, is yet to register a goal or assist in the Premier League – though he has created 16 chances – while Arne Slot's side have struggled to sustain their title defence. The attacking midfielder started as Liverpool slumped to a 3-0 defeat at Manchester City on Sunday, a result which left them eighth in the table.


Nagelsmann has called for patience with the Germany international, however. "To be honest, the overall situation doesn't make it easy for Flo," he said. "The whole club isn't as stable this year as it was last year. It's much harder to slip into the team now.



"If you look at the game against City, they were actually the worse team over the 90 minutes. So it's also difficult for Flo to make a big impact. Ultimately, the overall situation is such that he just needs a little more time, which is normal. You see that with other players who move to the Premier League too."



"We all know what he's capable of and it's perfectly normal for a player of his age to go through a bit of a dip in form," Nagelsmann added. "We can't expect him to perform at the same level for three years straight." "Instead, we all need to support him a little bit so that he can clear his head here, and then maybe Liverpool could also help him out by scoring some of the chances he creates. That would be one idea, because ... they somehow don't like to shoot the ball in, that's also part of the truth."


But where was Wirtz, who cost £100m ($131m) plus add-ons, supposed to fit? He was seemingly promised he would play centrally, which helped persuade him to move from Bayer Leverkusen to Anfield rather than to Bayern. At the start of the season, Slot’s preference appeared to be for Wirtz as a central creator in a 4-2-3-1. But that, it turned out, left Liverpool hopelessly open at the back – something apparent even as they won their first five games of the season.

Wirtz may adapt but, for now, he is struggling with the physicality of the Premier League. It’s very hard to see how he and Salah, for whose lack of natural defensive capacity Liverpool have always had to compensate, can play in the same side without risking the midfield being overwhelmed – at least not in the Premier League; Madrid simply did not provide the same physical challenge.


In fact, it may be that no more than two of Isak, Ekitike, Wirtz and Salah can play together. Even if the summer were part of the transition to a post-Salah future, it’s very hard to understand what the plan was, unless Liverpool always had in mind some sort of 4-3-1-2, with Wirtz to play behind Alexander Isak and Ekitike, with width provided from full-back, which would at least help to explain why they signed Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong. In a world of direct play and long throws, perhaps a front two is the next part of English soccer’s 1980s revival.

But for now, Liverpool stand as a cautionary tale of how you can take a very good team, throw money at it, and make everything much worse.

 

[Your_Daddy]

The Chiesa issue is a major problem at the minute. He's dead good and is most suited to replacing Diaz and giving us balance, but Slot won't have it, wouldn't even pick him in our European squad until fate forced him to. That alone is enough reason to bin the dickhead. Get someone who isn't going to marginalise players just because they've got an ugly wife.

Who's wife's ugly Arne Slut's or Federico Chiesa's? Can't be Fede's, she's gorgeous

Edit: i have just seen a photo of Arne's wife... no comment

 

[MomoWASright]

The noobs will take a while to get in on our jokes here.

 

[Beamrider]

The noobs will take a while to get in on our jokes here.

Do we create a sticky thread to help or would that spoil the fun of watching them work it out?

 

[Modo]

He'd probably think that Frimpong really is dead

 

[SummerOnions]

That's not hindsight, it was bloody obvious we needed them. Who didn't think we needed them?

LFC, apparently

 

[MomoWASright]

Do we create a sticky thread to help or would that spoil the fun of watching them work it out?

Would definitely spoil it. I want them to lose their shit about it so we can call them a pre Madonna.

 

[Your_Daddy]

The noobs will take a while to get in on our jokes here.

Fill me in

 

[Your_Daddy]

LFC, apparently

Think they enquired Wharton - Palace said not this summer, and they wanted Guehi despite signing Leoni.
Barcola and Fofana were all considered too.
Can't expect them to spend 650-700 mill in one summer.
The manager just needs to work with what he's got the BALD fraud

 

[Tinto]

Think they enquired Wharton - Palace said not this summer, and they wanted Guehi despite signing Leoni.
Barcola and Fofana were all considered too.
Can't expect them to spend 650-700 mill in one summer.
The manager just needs to work with what he's got the BALD fraud

It's looking more and more that the spreadsheet boys are the frauds. The kindest you can be is to say they are just extremely naive

 

[Markeh]

The noobs will take a while to get in on our jokes here.

is it a joke though? i thought you just had to move to greece and get your whole female rating system reevaluated

 

[Your_Daddy]

It's looking more and more that the spreadsheet boys are the frauds. The kindest you can be is to say they are just extremely naive

LMAO, i wouldn't say that, defo holes in our squad and its obviously not complete yet. These players were bought for the next 5-8 years. They bought top players... just for the wrong manager lol. Give that team to Naglesmann, Iraola, Zidane, Luis Enrique even Vincent Kompany and we'd be dominating teams and walking the league i don't think people understand how star studded this team is.
Slot just has horrible tactics that don't work, won't work and can't work

 

[Tinto]

LMAO, i wouldn't say that, defo holes in our squad and its obviously not complete yet. These players were bought for the next 5-8 years. They bought top players... just for the wrong manager lol. Give that team to Naglesmann, Iraola, Zidane, Luis Enrique even Vincent Kompany and we'd be dominating teams and walking the league i don't think people understand how star studded this team is.
Slot just has horrible tactics that don't work, won't work and can't work

Alright, what team should Slot be playing then?

 

[Your_Daddy]

Alright, what team should Slot be playing then?

Lol.

Alisson Becker
Frimpng Konate VVD Kerkez
Gravenberch Sbozolai
Jones (for balance purposes)
Fede Hugo Florian

When Mo wants to stop being a greedy lil bitch, he can play his way into the team
p.s.
if you play frim and milos as attacking full backs (which is what they are and not inverted full backs or full backs that can form a back 3, they'll look good) but the main thing is, Slot can't be managing that team. He'll have us playing a slow, non-intense, passive, non-chance creating, style of football that only a terroist can dream of

 

[Tinto]

That midfield trio is the closest we have to Hendo, Fab and Gini.

Got to admit that's the midfield I would go with as well.

Szobo long range passing from deep is surprisingly good and Jones gives us ball carrying ability that we've been missing since selling Diaz.

 

[Squiggles]

Alright, what team should Slot be playing then?

Norwich's

 

[Your_Daddy]

That midfield trio is the closest we have to Hendo, Fab and Gini.

Got to admit that's the midfield I would go with as well.

Szobo long range passing from deep is surprisingly good and Jones gives us ball carrying ability that we've been missing since selling Diaz.

And guess what, he'll NEVER do it. Won't even try it!

 

[Red Mullet]

Lol.

Alisson Becker
Frimpng Konate VVD Kerkez
Gravenberch Sbozolai
Jones (for balance purposes)
Fede Hugo Florian

When Mo wants to stop being a greedy lil bitch, he can play his way into the team
p.s.
if you play frim and milos as attacking full backs (which is what they are and not inverted full backs or full backs that can form a back 3, they'll look good) but the main thing is, Slot can't be managing that team. He'll have us playing a slow, non-intense, passive, non-chance creating, style of football that only a terroist can dream of

Frimpong and Allison are dead though

 

[Red Mullet]

That midfield trio is the closest we have to Hendo, Fab and Gini.

Got to admit that's the midfield I would go with as well.

Szobo long range passing from deep is surprisingly good and Jones gives us ball carrying ability that we've been missing since selling Diaz.

Jones’s ball carrying ability is limited to a 1m^2 area from where he’s received the ball. This is usually 1-2m from our 18 yard line

 

[Red Mullet]

I think we need a new assistant coach to put the cones out. #bronckhurstout

 

[Squiggles]

Under Klopp, defeats were understandable. When we lost, it was usually due to fatigue in the press or a lack of rotation. There was a logic to it. You could see why it happened, and most of the time, our system still held up against almost anyone. Very few managers ever cracked it consistently. You could target Trent, but he’d usually respond by creating two goals. This version of Liverpool feels far easier to dismantle. There’s no single area of control, no universal fix that holds the team together. You can go long and bypass the midfield entirely, as most sides have this season. You can rough us up and dominate the middle third, like Newcastle did in the Carabao Cup final. You can copy City’s approach, tightening the midfield and playing in tight patterns until we’re chasing shadows. You can attack down Salah’s flank or isolate Konaté. You can exploit the lack of protection in front of the back four, or the gaps around Mac Allister when teams move the ball quickly. You can even change the game by provoking a rash tackle from Kerkez. That’s the difference. Under Klopp, there was usually one narrow path to victory against us. Under Slot, there's a fucking menu of delicious options. I feel like I'm rushing to a damning judgment quicker under Slot than I'd typically be drawn to, but the sheer amount of issues I'm seeing week in, week out is really making me doubt him. I'm just a fearful of playing Forrest, Leeds or Sunderland than I am facing City, which says it all.