Save Our Season

[Best Believe It]

I'd be interested to see if we put a new formation in place. There's no question that the Premier League is going through some changes in terms of playing style and things are coming back in vogue that maybe weren't a few years back. Would be nice to feel like we're getting ahead of that in some way.

 

[Squiggles]

I'd be interested to see if we put a new formation in place. There's no question that the Premier League is going through some changes in terms of playing style and things are coming back in vogue that maybe weren't a few years back. Would be nice to feel like we're getting ahead of that in some way.

Here's hoping. Slots’ plan to stop 6ft 7 (the tallest CB in the league), Dan Burn, in both games was to put Mac Allister on him. That choice does not fill me with confidence. It suggests he is not the manager who will get this group to cope with the physical and direct approach we are seeing again in the league. It's the thought process of an idiot.

 

[JohnnyRocket]

If we suddenly shift to a back three it will just showcase the sense of cluelessness in the club at the moment - and will stink of Rodgers final year where he experimented with anything that might work.

Also a back three is a fundamental shift in how a team plays and sets out. Amorim is still struggling to to get it entrenched at United 18 months on. And also, aside from VVD and Konate, our only other CB is Gomez, who is guaranteed to break if asked to play more than once fortnight.

Slot and co would be better served forgetting about a back three and actually implementing some basics. Like getting someone to own the defensive midfield position. Like playing players who will work hard and are in form. Like protecting the full backs more. Like getting the pressing system right.

 

[Best Believe It]

Here's hoping. Slots’ plan to stop 6ft 7 (the tallest CB in the league), Dan Burn, in both games was to put Mac Allister on him. That choice does not fill me with confidence. It suggests he is not the manager who will get this group to cope with the physical and direct approach we are seeing again in the league. It's the thought process of an idiot.

Yeah that was weird

 

[Best Believe It]

If we suddenly shift to a back three it will just showcase the sense of cluelessness in the club at the moment - and will stink of Rodgers final year where he experimented with anything that might work.

Also a back three is a fundamental shift in how a team plays and sets out. Amorim is still struggling to to get it entrenched at United 18 months on. And also, aside from VVD and Konate, our only other CB is Gomez, who is guaranteed to break if asked to play more than once fortnight.

Slot and co would be better served forgetting about a back three and actually implementing some basics. Like getting someone to own the defensive midfield position. Like playing players who will work hard and are in form. Like protecting the full backs more. Like getting the pressing system right.

It's not really, we've sort of done it at points this season, where one of the full backs drops in and the other one bombs forward. In a way it would compensate a bit more for a lack of a traditional holding midfielder and might get both Isak and Ekitike into the side. I agree that throwing shit at a wall is not a great sign, but at the same time I would rather have someone who adapts to the players he has rather than a sort of ideologue like Amorin who only has one way of playing.

 

[JohnnyRocket]

Its an interesting football philosophical question.

Do I prefer the manager who is adaptable and changes tactics based on the current team and league. Or do I prefer the manager with a crystal clear view on how he wants to play, and over time builds the team to achieve that.

You could argue that Klopp as Liverpool manager only had one way of playing. But it did take him 3 years to put together that great team of 2019 - 2021. On the flip side you have Amorim who still looks a bit lost trying to implement his rigid philosophy.

I think I respect the manager that stays steadfast in his philosophy and sticks to it and builds a team over time based on it. But if that goes wrong, you've wasted 3/4 years.

 

[Judge Jules]

I don't see this as a simple either/or. A manager does need to have clear ideas and be able to communicate them, but he also needs to be able to adapt them when the need arises.

Klopp could certainly do so BTW. For example, when we beat Tottenham to win no.6 it was three weeks after the end of the Prem season and our momentum was gone. Klopp knew it and had us playing far more within ourselves than usual on the big day.

 

[Woland]

I prefer the pragmatist to someone whose ego is dominant. My way or the high way just isn't it for me. It doesn't work anymore. There's too many moving parts.

 

[Beamrider]

Here's hoping. Slots’ plan to stop 6ft 7 (the tallest CB in the league), Dan Burn, in both games was to put Mac Allister on him. That choice does not fill me with confidence. It suggests he is not the manager who will get this group to cope with the physical and direct approach we are seeing again in the league. It's the thought process of an idiot.

I remember before Burn scored against us in the League Cup final last season. Gary Neville specifically called out that our defensive set-up wasn't right as they were taking the free kick, I think he specifically mentioned the threat from Burn, and then he scored.
It's probably the only time I can remember a pundit / commentator saying something that then happened immediately. And it pissed me off that Gary Neville, worst manager in Valencia's history, could see it, and our coaching staff couldn't.
But it was only the league cup and we were pretty much nailed on to win the league, so I got over it.

 

[peekay]

Its an interesting football philosophical question.

Do I prefer the manager who is adaptable and changes tactics based on the current team and league. Or do I prefer the manager with a crystal clear view on how he wants to play, and over time builds the team to achieve that.

You could argue that Klopp as Liverpool manager only had one way of playing. But it did take him 3 years to put together that great team of 2019 - 2021. On the flip side you have Amorim who still looks a bit lost trying to implement his rigid philosophy.

I think I respect the manager that stays steadfast in his philosophy and sticks to it and builds a team over time based on it. But if that goes wrong, you've wasted 3/4 years.

Just get a winning manager. We will always find reasons to like him, till he stops winning.

 

[Halmeister]

I remember before Burn scored against us in the League Cup final last season. Gary Neville specifically called out that our defensive set-up wasn't right as they were taking the free kick, I think he specifically mentioned the threat from Burn, and then he scored.
It's probably the only time I can remember a pundit / commentator saying something that then happened immediately. And it pissed me off that Gary Neville, worst manager in Valencia's history, could see it, and our coaching staff couldn't.
But it was only the league cup and we were pretty much nailed on to win the league, so I got over it.

To be fair, I've noticed this a lot with Carragher and Neville on commentary. I can understand why people don't like them, but I do, and find their insights illuminating.

I can't remember if it was Carra or Neville against Newcastle again this season, just before they scored the equaliser. They called out the high line off the freekick. Further alarm bells have been going for me since Carragher has been calling out Slot for his tactics early on in the season. They know their stuff, and they're rightly picking out the flaws in our game.

 

[Markeh]

i wrote a long post the other day with my worries about slot basically being too much of a student of the game but i deleted it because it kind of read like a gcse business studies text book. man management and innovation featured extensively.

 

[beejay]

The summer transfer business does suggest we will morph into some variation of 5 at the back.

Frimpong and Kerkez are best suited to that style, Wirtz is a No 10 behind Ekitike and Izak.

We are short on CB's in that formation but Leoni would have been an option and obviously we missed out on Guehi at the last minute. Plus we might have used Gravenberch deeper.

Who knows but the money we spent must have been a succession plan for the loss of Trent and Diaz who wanted to go, Jota and in a year Salah. That's a big step change in our output.

When everyone is fit and we get past the January window we might see a different system

 

[SaRed]

The summer transfer business does suggest we will morph into some variation of 5 at the back.

Frimpong and Kerkez are best suited to that style, Wirtz is a No 10 behind Ekitike and Izak.

We are short on CB's in that formation but Leoni would have been an option and obviously we missed out on Guehi at the last minute. Plus we might have used Gravenberch deeper.

Who knows but the money we spent must have been a succession plan for the loss of Trent and Diaz who wanted to go, Jota and in a year Salah. That's a big step change in our output.

When everyone is fit and we get past the January window we might see a different system

Perhaps the data nerds just forgot we rejected Amorim and brought in Slot.

 

[dee]

i wrote a long post the other day with my worries about slot basically being too much of a student of the game but i deleted it because it kind of read like a gcse business studies text book. man management and innovation featured extensively.

Get ChatGPT to rewrite

 

[Markeh]

Get ChatGPT to rewrite

i blurted out a few badly written sentences saying what i thought of slot to chatgpt and asked its thoughts:

Is your assessment accurate?


A lot of what you’re saying is completely reasonable based on Slot’s profile and what’s visible on the pitch.


There are recurring themes:

1. “Student of the game” → Strong theory, weak adaptability


Slot is known for pre-planned, system-based football. Managers like this often struggle when:

• their structure is disrupted,
• opponents shift mid-game,
• or players aren’t executing at 100%.

The predictable substitutions you mentioned do support the idea that he reverts to pre-set solutions rather than reacting dynamically.


2. Motivation and intensity


Liverpool were built on emotional energy and physical dominance under Klopp. Slot’s calmer, more academic approach can feel like a motivational drop-off, especially when the intensity dips. That contrast amplifies any tactical shortcomings.


3. Premier League adaptation


There’s truth in this:

• The Eredivisie is slower, less physical, more “coachable” tactically.
• The Premier League is chaotic, transitional, and unforgiving.
  Translating Feyenoord ideas into PL reality is not straightforward, and the squad profile Slot seems to prefer may not match the league’s demands.

4. Recruitment and squad building


His preferred player types — technical, system-first — can be risky in a league where athleticism and individual problem-solving matter more.


So yes, there’s real logic in questioning whether his squad vision suits England.


Alternative thinking (equally plausible scenarios)


Here’s where your interpretation could be right or there could be other explanations:


1. He might simply be early in the adaptation curve


The first season in the PL is brutal even for elite managers. Many who later succeeded (Arteta, Ten Hag, Ange early on) looked naïve or rigid at the start.


2. Injuries, squad churn, and takeover noise matter


If the squad isn’t fully aligned or fit, it exposes tactical systems that rely on coherence.


Slot’s approach isn’t plug-and-play like Klopp’s heavy-metal pressing; it needs rhythm and repetition.


3. He didn’t build this squad


Slot inherited:

• a midfield in transition,
• an attack with mismatched profiles,
• full-backs tailored for a different tactical world.

Some decisions you’re attributing to him might be structural leftovers.



4. “Predictable subs” can be misread as “trusted structure”


Some managers prefer stable substitution patterns because it maintains automatisms.


If results aren’t coming, that looks stubborn — but it can also be an attempt to stabilise a team still learning the system.



My verdict


Your argument is consistent and well-supported, especially about:

• lack of adaptability,
• questionable suitability to the Premier League,
• overreliance on theory,
• predictable in-game management.

But — it’s not the only valid interpretation.


Some of what looks like naivety might actually be transitional pain, not inherent limitations.


If Slot still can’t adapt after:

• one full season,
• one full transfer window of his choosing,
• clearer squad identity…

Then your theory stops being speculative and starts looking definitive.

 

[Tinto]

Slot was lauded for making us calmer and more controlled last season, which is fair enough.

But I just realised we actually ran out of steam around a month earlier than in Klopp’s last season despite this more controlled approach over Klopp’s heavy metal.

Slot’s lack of rotation and having favourites undermined everything. Klopp won the Milk Cup with a bunch of kids whilst Slot lost playing his favourites.

We had good luck that the league was pretty much won around the time of that final

 

[bluebell]

We are probably not going to spend a penny this winter, and its understandable. How does Slot fix the squad?
Ekitike on LW is looking like it might be a possibility and then we have Rio. I think we need a double pivot of Alex and Grav with DOM @ RM

Brad----Konate---VVD---Kerkez

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

Dom-------Wirtz-------Ekitike

-------------Isak-----------------

Play compact and catch teams on the counter. I know this will piss off Salah

 

[Markeh]

We are probably not going to spend a penny this winter, and its understandable. How does Slot fix the squad?
Ekitike on LW is looking like it might be a possibility and then we have Rio. I think we need a double pivot of Alex and Grav with DOM @ RM

Brad----Konate---VVD---Kerkez

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

Dom-------Wirtz-------Ekitike

-------------Isak-----------------

Play compact and catch teams on the counter. I know this will piss off Salah

salah read your post and deleted all associations with liverpool from his social media profiles

 

[Red Mullet]

We are probably not going to spend a penny this winter, and its understandable. How does Slot fix the squad?
Ekitike on LW is looking like it might be a possibility and then we have Rio. I think we need a double pivot of Alex and Grav with DOM @ RM

Brad----Konate---VVD---Kerkez

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

Dom-------Wirtz-------Ekitike

-------------Isak-----------------

Play compact and catch teams on the counter. I know this will piss off Salah

Forget Salah, he’s fantasy football now.

 

[Farkmaster]

salah read your post and deleted all associations with liverpool from his social media profiles

It'll save him some time when he's sold.

 

[bluebell]

Will getting another winger help us? Semonyo is the closest player to Sadio there is out there? The signing of the Georgian for PSG changed their fortunes.
I personally think Slot needs to get the team playing right, the internationals spoils any momentum. FIFA could suggest that all internationals in a single block in the season which won't break the season up so much.

Slot has to use that massive head and work out what to do. I would play compact and use the pace of Isak, Gakpo and Ekitike.

 

[Brizzle]

I like this new guy, who obviously isn't a new guy.
Who is it?
Rosco?
Brendan?
Spider Neil?

This is a long way of avoiding saying "Who's your daddy?"

 

[Brizzle]

The summer transfer business does suggest we will morph into some variation of 5 at the back.

Frimpong and Kerkez are best suited to that style, Wirtz is a No 10 behind Ekitike and Izak.

We are short on CB's in that formation but Leoni would have been an option and obviously we missed out on Guehi at the last minute. Plus we might have used Gravenberch deeper.

Who knows but the money we spent must have been a succession plan for the loss of Trent and Diaz who wanted to go, Jota and in a year Salah. That's a big step change in our output.

When everyone is fit and we get past the January window we might see a different system

for me the summer transfer window couldn't have shown LESS that we are aiming for 5 at the back. If everyone is fit we can't even field a back 3. We can barely get back with 2 CBs in our squad. If we were moving to a back 5 we would need to sign 3 CBs

 

[bluebell]

Looks like Slot will stay at least till Jan. What in your opinion does he have to do to steady the ship? We lost at home to bottom place, Forest. Its clear the players aren't gelling. If we play compact, teams can beat us with set pieces, and if we play the highline we get countered with a ball over the top, and their fwds out pace our defenders.
The quality in MF play has been shocking, we seem unable to string consecutive passes. We did sign a defender but he sustained a season ending injury. Konate seems to being his best impression of Djimi Traore.
In your opinion what does Slot need to do, because we are so easy to play against?

 

[King Binny]

PAUL JOYCE: Liverpool’s right flank used to be potent — now it’s a problem

Mohamed Salah took his cue even before the ball had landed at the feet of Trent Alexander-Arnold.

A West Ham United attack broke down on the edge of Liverpool’s penalty area and, as a ricochet squirted the ball out to the right back, Salah was already on the move.

Alexander-Arnold’s pass would prove majestic. Struck with the outside of his boot, it arrowed straight as a dice but then, somehow, veered sumptuously around Edson Álvarez to arc perfectly into the stride of his team-mate.

Liverpool went from box to box in ten seconds in that Premier League game at the London Stadium last December, though Salah was denied by the chest of the West Ham goalkeeper, Alphonse Areola. For once, a missed opportunity did not matter. He still scored and provided two assists in a 5-0 victory.

Looking back now, what is so striking about that passage of play is the way everything unfolds so effortlessly.

Where once Liverpool’s right flank felt so potent, now it has become problematic; a symbol of the struggles that the head coach, Arne Slot, must unravel to arrest a calamitous run of form that has left his position increasingly precarious.

It speaks volumes that almost half of all attacks from Premier League opponents now target that side of the Liverpool team, a significant rise from 33.2 per cent last season to 47.2 per cent in this campaign. The fact Liverpool have less attacking threat on that side of the pitch exacerbates the issues.

Salah is central to both trends. There should be little surprise that the departure of Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid at the end of last season impacted him more than most. Their partnership was established over eight campaigns, many of them hugely successful, during which they played together in 316 out of a possible 448 games. That equates to 70 per cent of matches.

Attacking patterns were ingrained and, as with the aforementioned example, the link-up between the two became second nature. But stability has since given way to unpredictability.

The deployment of Curtis Jones at right back in the 4-1 defeat by PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Wednesday made him the sixth different player to fill the full-back role behind Salah already this term.

Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong are viewed as first and second choice, but are both injured. Dominik Szoboszlai has been utilised there on five occasions, although Slot appears to have belatedly realised that is to the detriment of his midfield. Wataru Endo and Joe Gomez have been brief, in-game stand-ins.

That absence of continuity is bound to have an effect on Salah, whose output across a variety of different metrics is lower than last season. The abiding image of Salah from these difficult first months is of him in tears in front of the Kop after the opening-game win over Bournemouth, when the death of Diogo Jota was uppermost in everyone’s mind. The impact of that tragedy should not be overlooked amid the appetite for analysis.

While the Egypt international is having a similar number of touches per 90 minutes (49), fewer of those are in the penalty area (10.5 per game in 2024-25 versus seven in 2025-26). This highlights how Liverpool are failing to coax a player who supplied 34 goals and 23 assists last term into dangerous areas once again.

Szoboszlai is the player who has linked up the most with Salah, but the number of line-breaking passes from the Hungarian to his colleague is, understandably, lower than the amount he used to receive from Alexander-Arnold.

Overall, the percentage of Liverpool attacks coming down the right has dropped from 34.8 per cent in their title-winning campaign to 31.5 per cent during what has become a flawed defence of their crown.

In this instance, the statistics merely back up what everyone watching Liverpool can see with their own eyes; their build-up play has effectively collapsed down the right-hand side.

Indeed, a majority of attacks have come down the left (up from 28.6 per cent to 37.7 per cent season on season) which also feels surprising given Liverpool have had issues at left back, where Milos Kerkez has found it tough going since a £40million summer move from Bournemouth.

With Salah not piling up goals and assists — there have been five and three respectively — more attention is naturally paid to what he offers out of possession. Slot was asked about Salah’s contribution in this regard before the damaging 3-0 home defeat by Nottingham Forest last weekend and said it is “more important what he brings with the ball than what he brings off the ball”.

Had Alexander Isak been in position to dispatch an early chance that Salah did create, then the subsequent unravelling against Sean Dyche’s side might not have happened. Instead, there was a forensic examination of Forest’s second goal, which flowed down the right. That was followed by the sight of Mauro Júnior skipping beyond Salah far too easily en route to PSV regaining the lead on Wednesday.

Why would opponents not look to make hay in an area where the right back keeps changing, the right-sided centre back, Ibrahima Konaté, has endured a prolonged dip in form and the right-sided attacker’s first inclination is not to track back?

Marc Cucurella said as much after Chelsea’s last-gasp win at Stamford Bridge in October, when revealing that Enzo Maresca, the head coach, had told his side to target Liverpool’s right side.

Fast forward to the present and West Ham, Liverpool’s opponents on Sunday, played a 3-4-3 system when drawing 2-2 away against Bournemouth last weekend. If Nuno Espírito Santo, who must check on the fitness of the pacy Crysencio Summerville, repeats that formation he will surely ask El Hadji Malick Diouf to raid forward from wingback.

It should be noted that during the peak seasons under Jürgen Klopp, it was not uncommon for opposition teams to also target Liverpool’s right-hand side. In 2018-19 and 2021-22, two campaigns in which Liverpool were pipped by a point to the title by Manchester City, the percentage of opposition attacks on the right were 43.8 and 43.6. It was 45.1 per cent in 2019-20 when they won the title for the first time in 30 years.

But back then, Jordan Henderson would invariably move across from midfield and help snuff out those attacks and the whole team was less open.

The inconvenient truth for Liverpool is that they have become more unstable without Alexander-Arnold, which is ironic given he was a player who was frequently picked apart for his defensive capabilities. It is a harsh reality for Salah, who will be missing for a month from mid-December on Africa Cup of Nations duty with Egypt, that his influence is waning.

Does Slot stick, in the hope a sprinkling of stardust can be conjured out of nothing, or twist? Given Liverpool’s run of form, that decision is now all the more important.