Job security - arne
- Thread starter LeTallecWiz
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
I am surprised most people don't get this. Managers, like people, don't exist in a binary state of good or bad. There is a continuum.
Most good managers can contribute to and take advantage of a good environment and ride that wave. Slot is a good manager; Rodgers was a good manager. When that environment or that perfect set of circumstances doesn't exist anymore due to various reasons, you often see the results collapse.
Great managers can bend the environment to shape success through tactics, personality, and sheer force of will. Since I started supporting Liverpool, we have had two great managers - Klopp and Champions League Rafa.
Some of us have been posting doubts since the PSG game and have been accused of being reactive, throwing toys out of the pram, by the usual set of superfans. The only response we got was that you need to be loyal.
I deeply respect Slot and will be forever grateful to him for delivering the PL. He did not turn into a bad manager over the summer. He is as good as he was last season. He is now in an environment where his tactics are no longer working, and he doesn't have the answers. By the way, Slot may turn out to be a great manager in 10 years' time. But for that, he needs to make mistakes and figure things out.
Klopp worked brilliantly for us because we got him at the right time in his career. Klopp, directly out of Mainz, might not have been a success for us. We are too big a spotlight for a young manager to figure things out.
This is the best post I've read on the situation bar bodgers being a good manager
PAUL JOYCE: Arne Slot’s to-do list: get Isak running, drop Konate, beef up midfield
Defensive troubles
Liverpool are on course to concede 63 goals in the league this season; they have not leaked that many since 1964-65 (73 across a 42-game campaign).
The vulnerabilities that Forest exposed were evident last season and the inability to stem the flood of goals does not reflect well on Slot or his players.
Ibrahima Konaté has been in protracted contract talks for more than a year and his deal expires next summer. If Liverpool announced today he had extended his stay, there would hardly be an outpouring of relief. The France centre back needlessly conceded a corner from which Forest opened the scoring and his performances are increasingly haphazard.
Konaté finished the 2023-24 campaign out of the team under Jürgen Klopp and behind Jarell Quansah, who has since joined Bayer Leverkusen, but he appeared rejuvenated under Slot in the first half of last season. Uncertainty has since reared its head again.
Joe Gomez has played only 43 minutes in the Premier League this term and if the manager does not trust him to bolster this defence, at a time of injuries, then what is his role at the club? He could play against PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday, given the strain on resources, but will he be rewarded if he plays well?
Liverpool have started a defensive rebuild with the signings of Milos Kerkez, Giovanni Leoni, who suffered an ACL injury and is out for the season, and the goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili forming part of their £450million summer splurge. But that has only scratched the surface.
Regardless of what happens with Konaté, 26, Liverpool need to recruit a centre back who can compete for a starting berth. But if Slot’s side, now in the bottom half of the table, are not in the Champions League next season, does that compromise their attractiveness? Gomez had interest from AC Milan and Brighton & Hove Albion on deadline day and probably needs a move next summer. Andrew Robertson is in the final year of his deal. Conor Bradley’s injury problems are a concern and constantly repositioning Szoboszlai at right back removes too much from the midfield. Van Dijk and Alisson will each have one year left on their deals come the summer.
=====
Slot has lost the Midas touch
The head coach retains the backing of the Liverpool hierarchy and he deserves that support given it is only seven months since he won the Premier League title. There is an appreciation of what a summer of transition entails — Liverpool went from having a settled team to a big influx of new players on the back of significant outgoings — and the challenges it creates. For instance, Isak and Wirtz have played together for only 267 minutes.
But Liverpool cannot keep losing. Slot must prove his conviction that “there is a way out, especially with the quality players we have” is correct.
There were listless displays last season but, more often than not, the Dutchman’s half-time team talks or in-game tweaks provided a solution to problems. Of late, he has identified the issues but been unable to come up with the answers. His Bazball-style substitutions have become counterproductive and the same mistakes keep on happening. In their past 30 matches across all competitions, Liverpool have won 14, lost 14 and drawn twice. Slot’s credit in the bank will not last for ever.
View: https://x.com/borbely_imre/status/1992930169485754469
Defensive troubles
Liverpool are on course to concede 63 goals in the league this season; they have not leaked that many since 1964-65 (73 across a 42-game campaign).
The vulnerabilities that Forest exposed were evident last season and the inability to stem the flood of goals does not reflect well on Slot or his players.
Ibrahima Konaté has been in protracted contract talks for more than a year and his deal expires next summer. If Liverpool announced today he had extended his stay, there would hardly be an outpouring of relief. The France centre back needlessly conceded a corner from which Forest opened the scoring and his performances are increasingly haphazard.
Konaté finished the 2023-24 campaign out of the team under Jürgen Klopp and behind Jarell Quansah, who has since joined Bayer Leverkusen, but he appeared rejuvenated under Slot in the first half of last season. Uncertainty has since reared its head again.
Joe Gomez has played only 43 minutes in the Premier League this term and if the manager does not trust him to bolster this defence, at a time of injuries, then what is his role at the club? He could play against PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday, given the strain on resources, but will he be rewarded if he plays well?
Liverpool have started a defensive rebuild with the signings of Milos Kerkez, Giovanni Leoni, who suffered an ACL injury and is out for the season, and the goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili forming part of their £450million summer splurge. But that has only scratched the surface.
Regardless of what happens with Konaté, 26, Liverpool need to recruit a centre back who can compete for a starting berth. But if Slot’s side, now in the bottom half of the table, are not in the Champions League next season, does that compromise their attractiveness? Gomez had interest from AC Milan and Brighton & Hove Albion on deadline day and probably needs a move next summer. Andrew Robertson is in the final year of his deal. Conor Bradley’s injury problems are a concern and constantly repositioning Szoboszlai at right back removes too much from the midfield. Van Dijk and Alisson will each have one year left on their deals come the summer.
=====
Slot has lost the Midas touch
The head coach retains the backing of the Liverpool hierarchy and he deserves that support given it is only seven months since he won the Premier League title. There is an appreciation of what a summer of transition entails — Liverpool went from having a settled team to a big influx of new players on the back of significant outgoings — and the challenges it creates. For instance, Isak and Wirtz have played together for only 267 minutes.
But Liverpool cannot keep losing. Slot must prove his conviction that “there is a way out, especially with the quality players we have” is correct.
There were listless displays last season but, more often than not, the Dutchman’s half-time team talks or in-game tweaks provided a solution to problems. Of late, he has identified the issues but been unable to come up with the answers. His Bazball-style substitutions have become counterproductive and the same mistakes keep on happening. In their past 30 matches across all competitions, Liverpool have won 14, lost 14 and drawn twice. Slot’s credit in the bank will not last for ever.
View: https://x.com/borbely_imre/status/1992930169485754469
Slot slammed for 'classless' antics as Liverpool hold 'emergency' talks
Manager’s behaviour in May blamed for starting the club’s current malaise
www.standard.co.uk
View: https://x.com/____PM1O/status/1921996071976272164
Slot's second season is in stark contrast to his first, when he stormed to the title with little competition from rivals. The celebrations began early for the Dutchman and his squad, with Arne Slot pictured in Ibiza during the run-in, in which Liverpool failed to win any of their final games of the season.
Manchester United legend Paul Scholes believes the rot started then, with Slot's "disrespectful" and "classless" antics catching up with the squad.
Scholes said on The Good, The Bad & The Football: "I think this started towards the end of last season, do you remember when they won the league? The bad form started, they went away, went to Ibiza or something. Honestly, Arne Slot was DJing.
“DJing in Ibiza. But that’s, that’s before the season’s done, that’s what I mean, I think that’s disrespectful that, before the season’s done, I think it’s classless that."
