Slot machine
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It's not like we could play much worse.
When Roberto Martinez took over Everton, he had them playing nice football and finishing fifth. I remember discussing this with an Everton supporter that summer, who emphasized that he was still unsure of Martinez. The reason was that Moyes had left an excellent defensive structure. When Martinez introduced his attacking emphasis, it was on the foundation of Moyes's defensive coaching, which the players had drilled into them, creating a nicely balanced team. As time passed, Moyes's defensive tactics were being unlearned and replaced with more or Martinez, and you could see Everton move down the table.
I cannot help but wonder if we are seeing the same in reverse now. In our first half, Slott introduced a bit of calmness into Klopp's attacking tactics, and the results were terrific. As time passes, Klopp's attacking tactics are being unlearned, and you see a different team that has lost its attacking identity.
That is not trying to downplay what Slott has achieved. Deliberately or accidentally, he has stumbled upon a formula that has gotten close to delivering the league. Get us over the line, and he would rightfully take his place among the LFC managerial greats. At the same time, I can't wonder about his effectiveness if the perfect storm of conditions is not available—Salah and Van Dijk's performance while acknowledging that his tactics contributed to Salah's resurgence, City and Arsenal collapsing, the benefit of attacking tactics from an all-time great still fresh in players' heads.
I cannot help but wonder if we are seeing the same in reverse now. In our first half, Slott introduced a bit of calmness into Klopp's attacking tactics, and the results were terrific. As time passes, Klopp's attacking tactics are being unlearned, and you see a different team that has lost its attacking identity.
That is not trying to downplay what Slott has achieved. Deliberately or accidentally, he has stumbled upon a formula that has gotten close to delivering the league. Get us over the line, and he would rightfully take his place among the LFC managerial greats. At the same time, I can't wonder about his effectiveness if the perfect storm of conditions is not available—Salah and Van Dijk's performance while acknowledging that his tactics contributed to Salah's resurgence, City and Arsenal collapsing, the benefit of attacking tactics from an all-time great still fresh in players' heads.
An interesting point. Not sure what I think of it yet but for certain we'll have a better idea after next season.
This season has surpassed my greatest expectations but I have not been impressed by Slot in the slightest over the past two months.
I'll be honest and I look at this view as trying to force a narrative. In Klopp's final season we scored 86 goals in the PL (2.263 p.g.) whereas this season we are on 72 to date (7 games to go) so virtually identical (2.323 p.g.), therefore we are on to emulate that. I think it's likely we won't quite match it but maybe by only by a couple of goals. Over the Last 10 games we've scored 22 so 2.2 per game, not exactly slowing down and those 10 included some of the toughest games of the season. The only time we've scored less than 2 in those games was this week against Everton. Overall that's currently 15 goals more than City and 16 more than Arsenal.
For balance we've conceded 30 goals (4 more than Arsenal and 5 less than the next lowest - Palace), 0.968 p.g. vs 41 in 2023/4 or 1.079 p.g., again virtually identical though I think it more likely we'll concede no more than maybe 36-38 this season, looking at the remaining games (4 at home).
We all knew Slot's style of football before he arrived so we knew that his teams try to exert more control. However, even if the style of football is undergoing a metamorphosis, the attack and number of goals scored hasn't suffered. What is interesting is that the possession stats for the Top 6 teams are massively down this season compared to last (though ours are down less, 61% to 58%) so maybe that's to do with a more competitive PL (Forest, Villa, Newcastle, Fulham etc.). City have the highest possession this season, at 61.2%, but it wouldn't have made the Top 3 last season.
Now we can say oh that's because of Mo. and Virgil but for every team it's the same story, top scorers have a major influence and ditto top defenders. If Arsenal didn't have Saka and Saliba they wouldn't be 2nd, if City didn't have Haaland and Dias they would be mid-table, where would Forest be without Wood and Milenkovic or if Newcastle didn't have Isak and Burns where would they be? Chelsea have the goals spread around more but then they've scored 18 less than us whilst conceding 7 more and what if they were without Palmer and Ceicedo?
It's easy to take out the best two players and say ... what if. When Haaland has a great season City win the PL. If Mo. had say only 18 goals (placing him joint 3rd with Wood in the PL Top scorers list this season) instead of 27 would we still be top? Possibly because we'd still have the highest Goals Scored in the PL and with a GD still 3 goals better than Arsenal's.
Yes Slot inherited a far better team than most on this forum (inc. me) gave them credit for - but he has forged a title winning team by virtue of becoming a little more defensively sound (those 3 goals yesterday really hurt our stats and the perception) allied to continuing to match last season's goal tally.
The Summer is going to be VERY interesting this year (I can already see BB, Bino and Moran salivating at the prospect) and it will be even more interesting to see how the team professes / regresses next season when Slot has had a full pre-season and a few of his own players, at his disposal.
I think thats giving Slot a massive disservice in all honesty. He has taken over a team without signing a single player to fit his style of play and still had us top of Europe, a cup final and soon to be champions.
I'd rather say it has shown us what a remarkably good manager he is, and that we'll from next season see is more of a Slot team which will evolve further when he adds the pieces he needs.
The old Ross narrative that managers aren't important have been proven wrong.
He hasn’t found a solution to the opposition tactic of tightly stick to Salah and press the hell out of us because the ball won’t stick up front.
Give salah the ball is our main tactic, so its worrying that he's struggling
It's worth remembering that, at the start of the season, we acknowledged that in terms of experience, Slot was more comparable to a Rodgers-type appointment than someone like Rafa or Jurgen. There wasn’t a standout candidate for the role or anyone we were desperate to bring in, which meant going with someone who was always going to need time to adapt. The man has never played or coached outside of the Netherlands. We shouldn’t let the fact that he's now on course to win the Premier League cloud that perspective or start comparing him to managers with far more experience.
That said, one fair criticism is that, despite studying our campaign last season, Slot has repeated some of Klopp’s missteps. Klopp went full tilt at every competition. He did rotate, but he wasn’t willing to sacrifice any trophy. Slot was more pragmatic and willing to let go of the FA Cup, but has failed to rotate enough across the season. The approach may marginally differ, but the outcome is the same: a first eleven that looks worn out when it matters most.
In fairness to Slot, though, the fact that even Klopp made those mistakes shows just how difficult it is. Every manager, no matter how good, has blind spots and makes errors. And when you look at the level of abuse Pep and Arteta sometimes get from their own fans, it's clear that the criticism managers face is often completely out of proportion to their achievements, their ability, and what they've done for the club's.
Slot now has a tough job in the summer to liven up the first team and also the bench. He simply has to build a squad he trusts using and fully appreciate the demands of playing in the Premier League. His methods of keeping players off the injury table have worked, but there's very little that can be done to prevent cumulative mental and physical fatigue over a ridiculous football calendar other than rotation. Ultimately we need to cap the amount of minutes our first eleven players play and share those minutes around more. We'll see if those lessons will be learned by December/January.
I will say that I would rather start very strong and finish poor, rather than vice-versa, because we are less likely to be under any illusions about the work needed in he summer. If we had finished as we started, FSG would give us a pot of beans and tell us to go again. Proactivity in squad management has not been a strong point of our leadership and management, so hopefully Slot has a mandate and a budget to do what he needs in the coming months.
That said, one fair criticism is that, despite studying our campaign last season, Slot has repeated some of Klopp’s missteps. Klopp went full tilt at every competition. He did rotate, but he wasn’t willing to sacrifice any trophy. Slot was more pragmatic and willing to let go of the FA Cup, but has failed to rotate enough across the season. The approach may marginally differ, but the outcome is the same: a first eleven that looks worn out when it matters most.
In fairness to Slot, though, the fact that even Klopp made those mistakes shows just how difficult it is. Every manager, no matter how good, has blind spots and makes errors. And when you look at the level of abuse Pep and Arteta sometimes get from their own fans, it's clear that the criticism managers face is often completely out of proportion to their achievements, their ability, and what they've done for the club's.
Slot now has a tough job in the summer to liven up the first team and also the bench. He simply has to build a squad he trusts using and fully appreciate the demands of playing in the Premier League. His methods of keeping players off the injury table have worked, but there's very little that can be done to prevent cumulative mental and physical fatigue over a ridiculous football calendar other than rotation. Ultimately we need to cap the amount of minutes our first eleven players play and share those minutes around more. We'll see if those lessons will be learned by December/January.
I will say that I would rather start very strong and finish poor, rather than vice-versa, because we are less likely to be under any illusions about the work needed in he summer. If we had finished as we started, FSG would give us a pot of beans and tell us to go again. Proactivity in squad management has not been a strong point of our leadership and management, so hopefully Slot has a mandate and a budget to do what he needs in the coming months.
Is that true? @King Binny I can't find any attacking stats by area (Left, Centre, Right). It would be interesting to see. I don't feel we favour him though I do feel it goes astray more often when fed into him.
Not stats but something indicative I posted in the PL Opposition thread
Dated 26 Feb 25
Liverpool’s right-sided long passes towards Salah have become unstoppable
Liverpool’s tactic of playing long passes towards Mohamed Salah is a basic approach that follows the most important rule in football: getting the ball to the best player on the pitch.
Under Arne Slot, Liverpool have been increasingly using Salah as a direct outlet (article dated 26 Oct 24). The Egypt forward’s immaculate ability to receive long balls in the most uncomfortable situations is only bettered by his threatening runs behind the opponent’s defence.
However, that rudimentary approach is complemented by multiple solutions to get the best out of the Liverpool players, while making them harder to predict.
This season, Slot’s side have been using an up-back-through move (dated 26 Sep 24) that starts with a direct ball towards Salah, before he plays a pass backwards while a team-mate attacks the space, with the final aim of finding the third-man run.
Thanks Binny!Not stats but something indicative I posted in the PL Opposition thread
Dated 26 Feb 25
Liverpool’s right-sided long passes towards Salah have become unstoppable
Liverpool’s tactic of playing long passes towards Mohamed Salah is a basic approach that follows the most important rule in football: getting the ball to the best player on the pitch.
Under Arne Slot, Liverpool have been increasingly using Salah as a direct outlet (article dated 26 Oct 24). The Egypt forward’s immaculate ability to receive long balls in the most uncomfortable situations is only bettered by his threatening runs behind the opponent’s defence.
However, that rudimentary approach is complemented by multiple solutions to get the best out of the Liverpool players, while making them harder to predict.
This season, Slot’s side have been using an up-back-through move (dated 26 Sep 24) that starts with a direct ball towards Salah, before he plays a pass backwards while a team-mate attacks the space, with the final aim of finding the third-man run.
That info graphic was dated 19 Mar 2025 though. 😛 (When I saw Bournemouth's left, I wondered if Kerkez could be the "answer" to our attacking threat after TAA is gone.)
People are blaming coaching, players, tactics etc.... Players are leaving one important factor out. Only people in this forum knows of his power, I don't think he is aware of his capabilities. We have not won the title yet, and we get threads like "Where would you rank the 2025 LFC Champions" and "Is Slot the now the 6th best manager we’ve ever had?"..
This person has history of derailing our season with his jinxy post.
He can rectify it by posting something negative @Dreambeliever
This person has history of derailing our season with his jinxy post.
He can rectify it by posting something negative @Dreambeliever
At no point did I say managers aren't important.
All I am saying is that success in everyday life or as a football manager is a mix of talent, environment, and circumstances. 2013-2014 Rodgers was the best since King Kenny. His reputation took a 180-degree turn the following season. You can frame it as he was lucky he had Suarez. But Rodgers assembled the SAS attack and created the environment for Suarez to flourish.
Slot has been very impressive in the way he has gone about competing for the league. He has brilliantly adapted to the circumstances. But I still have doubts about how he will perform if this set of circumstances is not available. How am I doing him a disservice when I have already stated in my previous post that he joins the list of LFC managerial greats in his very first season?
Just as Rodgers was not as good as everyone made him out to be in 2013-2014 and not as bad as everyone made him out to be in the following season. Regardless of how his managerial career has progressed, he deserves considerable credit for the 2013-2014 run.
Managers who can shape any circumstances and make the environment bend to their will are once in a generation. Klopp was the closest I have seen to that in my lifetime.
If Slot doesn't live up to his billing next season, that doesn't make him a bad manager. He will have my utmost respect for what he delivered this season. But I am not going to place unrealistic expectations on him to repeat the success next season and then call him shit if he fails to live up to the billing.
This is the best I could find (still not found any attacking side %s as yet.)Not stats but something indicative I posted in the PL Opposition thread
Dated 26 Feb 25
Liverpool’s right-sided long passes towards Salah have become unstoppable
Liverpool’s tactic of playing long passes towards Mohamed Salah is a basic approach that follows the most important rule in football: getting the ball to the best player on the pitch.
Under Arne Slot, Liverpool have been increasingly using Salah as a direct outlet (article dated 26 Oct 24). The Egypt forward’s immaculate ability to receive long balls in the most uncomfortable situations is only bettered by his threatening runs behind the opponent’s defence.
However, that rudimentary approach is complemented by multiple solutions to get the best out of the Liverpool players, while making them harder to predict.
This season, Slot’s side have been using an up-back-through move (dated 26 Sep 24) that starts with a direct ball towards Salah, before he plays a pass backwards while a team-mate attacks the space, with the final aim of finding the third-man run.
Does this combined with binnys show we move the ball predominantly towards the right wing? I.e. mo?This is the best I could find (still not found any attacking side %s as yet.)
This is such a great take. Would expect nothing less from one of the original Dirty Slots.
Also slight irony that we have also lost much of our calmness too recently.
Very long read, in case any one is interested.
View: https://x.com/DavidSegar_/status/1901700041762324766
In his first competitive game in charge of Liverpool, Arne Slot made it clear how important he thinks duels are.
The Dutch coach was unhappy with his team in their goalless first half at Ipswich Town in August 2024, where they had won just 41.5% of their duels against the newly-promoted side.
“I have to give credit to Ipswich, because they were aggressive, they were not afraid, they were playing one-v-one all over the pitch to defend us,” Slot said after the game. “Then it is about winning your duels and winning your second balls. I think they won more than us and that’s why it was absolutely an equal game in the first half.”
The Liverpool boss took off Jarell Quansah for Ibrahima Konaté at half-time at Portman Road and his team were more controlling, winning 54.5% of duels after the break and going on to win 2-0.
Slot will be hoping he can figure out how to get his team competing better in duels again soon, though, because their numbers have dipped notably in recent games.
Given they lead the Premier League by 12 points with nine games remaining, it would be a little unfair to suggest that Liverpool’s season is unravelling. However, their first back-to-back defeats under Slot have cut their opportunities of success in 2024-25 by two thirds in the last week.
They were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain on penalties after a 1-0 defeat at Anfield on Tuesday, before being beaten 2-1 by Newcastle United in the EFL Cup final on Sunday in a performance that some have described as the worst in a final from Liverpool this century.
There are numerous things you could point to as to why things went wrong for the Reds. Mohamed Salah was playing in the 10th final of his career and once again failed to score an open-play goal. He now has just one penalty goal to his name in those 10 final appearances for Liverpool and Egypt and failed to make any mark on the game on Sunday. Salah did not attempt a shot or create a chance in a game in which he played 90-plus minutes for the first time in his Liverpool career.
It would be wildly unfair to blame the man who has 32 goals and 22 assists this season, though. It is perhaps a little concerning that Salah hasn’t scored a non-penalty goal in his last five games, but others really need to step up.
After Dan Burn and Alexander Isak had given Newcastle a deserved 2-0 lead, none of Liverpool’s main attacking options looked like they would score, and it took forgotten man Federico Chiesa to finally do anything of note with his stoppage-time strike, but it was too little too late for the Reds.
Tiredness has been cited as a factor after Liverpool looked ragged on the giant Wembley pitch. That may well have been the case after they had to play extra-time on Tuesday against PSG, but while Slot clearly has his favourites, he has rotated more than most this season, so it may not be as simple as saying Liverpool’s players are reaching the point of burnout.
The EFL Cup final was Liverpool’s 47th game in all competitions this season, with eight players featuring in at least 40 of those. In the Premier League, only Nottingham Forest (23) have used fewer players than Liverpool in 2024-25 (24, level with Arsenal and Newcastle).
However, in all competitions this season, only Chelsea (7.2), Ipswich (4.4), Manchester City (4.3) and Tottenham Hotspur (4.3) have averaged more than Liverpool’s 3.9 changes to the starting XI per game of Premier League teams. It should be noted that Chelsea’s high average is primarily due to their Conference League campaign, where they’ve played a number of fringe players.
That rotation has slowed in recent weeks, though, and nine of Liverpool’s 10 outfield players who started the EFL Cup final also started both legs against PSG. That continuity would perhaps have made sense if they’d played better against Luis Enrique’s side, or even just sneaked through, but when the team was announced on Sunday it wasn’t overly surprising that Liverpool looked lacking in energy and belief for much of the contest.
In truth, Liverpool were bullied by Newcastle and – as Slot acknowledged after the game – one area where the difference between the two teams was especially noticeable came in contesting duels. A duel is defined as a 50-50 contest between two players of opposing sides in the match. For every duel won there is a corresponding duel lost depending on the outcome of the contest.
Disagreeing with the notion that tiredness in his players was to blame, Slot said: “This game had nothing to do with running, it had only to do with playing duels… This game went exactly the way [Newcastle] wanted it to, a fight with a lot of duels and a lot of duels in the air. And if we play 10 times a game of football through the air against them, they win it probably nine times because they are a stronger team through the air than us.”
Newcastle won 57.3% of duels (51/89), and 68.0% of aerial duels (17/25) in the final. Curiously, Liverpool actually bettered Newcastle in duel success in their Premier League meeting at Anfield only last month, winning 55.2% of total duels (53/96) and 64.3% of aerial duels (9/14), though the visitors were without key midfielder Joelinton that night, who as we’ll get to, rose to the occasion at Wembley.
Duels can be a tricky metric to analyse. For example, Bournemouth have the worst duel success percentage in the Premier League this season (47.6%), but could very well end up qualifying for the Champions League. Crystal Palace have the lowest aerial duel success (45.0%) but in recent weeks have been one of the strongest performing teams in England’s top flight.
However, in Liverpool’s case, their record in duels has often mirrored their overall success in recent seasons. The last season they averaged more than a 50% duel success rate in the Premier League was in 2019-20 when they won the title (50.6%).
They had the worst duel success rate in the Premier League in 2022-23 (47.5%) when they finished fifth. That was part of the reason they almost entirely refreshed their midfield the following summer.
It worked to an extent in 2023-24 as their percentage rose to 48.9%, though there were still only four teams with a worse average in the Premier League as they ultimately fell out of the title race to finish third in Jürgen Klopp’s final season at Anfield.
With Slot at the helm, Liverpool seemed to be doing better in duels, and at the turn of the year, had the sixth best success rate in the league (51.2%). However, since the new year they have the fourth worst (48.0%). With their current rate of just under 50%, they very easily could finish over that marker for the first time in five years, but they will need to arrest their recent slide.
We analysed prior to the final that the midfield battle would be a key factor in the game, and so it proved. Joelinton and Bruno Guimarães won nine duels each from 13 and 14 attempts respectively, while no Liverpool midfielder won more than three.
In fact, of all 16 players who featured for Liverpool at Wembley, only Konaté (3/4), Salah (2/3) and Chiesa (4/4) won more than 50% of their duels.
Given the relatively small number of duels that can take place in a game, losing a handful can make a big difference to percentages, but what should be concerning for Liverpool is that losing out in most of their duels is becoming a growing trend.
Of their six least successful games for duels this season, three have come since the start of March, while last month’s unconvincing Premier League home win over Wolves also features in the top 10. That includes an astonishingly low 32.5% (27/83) success rate in their Champions League last-16 first-leg win at PSG.
In total this season, Liverpool have only won more than 50% of their duels in 15 of their 47 games, and have only done so three times in their last 17 games in all competitions.
Duel numbers also include aerial duels, where Liverpool have actually been quite good this campaign, largely thanks to the dominance of Virgil van Dijk and Konaté. In fact, they have the highest percentage of successful aerial duels in the Premier League (54.9%). As mentioned, it was an area where they struggled on Sunday, though, winning just 32% against Newcastle (8/25).
That was in part due to the Magpies’ clever corner routines that saw the very tall Burn move away from the middle of the penalty area where Van Dijk and Konaté were, instead only having to beat the diminutive figure of Alexis Mac Allister in the air, which he did with ease, especially for the opening goal of the game.
Not every team will be made up of as many giants as Newcastle, though, and so as far as improvements in duels go, it is ground duels where Liverpool could do with bettering their numbers.
Across their first 37 games in all competitions this season, Liverpool won 48.4% of their ground duels; that’s not an amazing figure but it’s close enough to 50% to not have them necessarily be a deciding factor in games.
However, in their last 10 games, they have won just 44.4% of ground duels.
This could simply be a result of becoming more of a target. At the start of the season before anyone knew how good Liverpool would be under their new boss, perhaps opponents weren’t as ready for them. Since their domination of the Premier League and impressive performance in the league phase of the Champions League, teams know Liverpool are a force to be reckoned with, and that extra efforts must be made against them.
Ryan Gravenberch has been a surprise success story in a deep midfield role this season, and earlier in the campaign one of his biggest strengths was his success in duels. As of 3 December, the Dutchman had the second-best duel success of Premier League central midfielders with 64.7% (min. five appearances). However, he has won just 51.2% since then, only just inside the top 50 central midfielders in the division in that time.
His overall percentage in all competitions of 56.8% is still well above regular midfield partners Curtis Jones (47.9%), Mac Allister (46.3%) and Dominik Szoboszlai (45.3%), so perhaps on occasion Gravenberch could do with more help in that area, with regular late sub Wataru Endo on 55.9%.
It should also be noted that with nine games remaining, Gravenberch has already played 3,515 minutes for his club this season, almost twice as many as he did in the whole of last season (1,847), and almost four times as many as the season before at Bayern Munich (938). Only in the 2020-21 campaign at Ajax has he played more minutes in a single season (3,949).
Ending the season with ‘only’ the Premier League title to show for it will still make this one of Liverpool’s best in modern times, but they can’t afford to sleepwalk to the end of the campaign.
There were elements of bad luck about the PSG defeat, but essentially it has been two hugely important games in a week where Liverpool’s opponents have looked more energetic and determined.
The international break may have come at an ideal time for Liverpool, and they must right the ship when they return to club football in early April. After all, there is still work to do to seal the title.
Updated till 17 Mar, before the latest games vs. Everton and Fulham.
Hey everybody, we've got reasonably good vision according to that graph.
It's impossible to argue that we're not fatigued and running on fumes. Well, impossible unless you're our manager.
Wonder how much of it is he fucking hates most of the bench, so it's like"no we aren't tired so stop fucking asking me to rotate"
Unsurprising chart is unsurprising
Next you'll post stats about Salah being shit since then as well
(Love you really binny x)
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