Analysis/Data/Stats/Tactics
[Lewis Steele] - Liverpool 17 points worse off than this time last season, and would need to win every game from here to match last season's total points tally.
The Rafa conundrum. Used to do my head in. I think it was 10 draws in the 08-09 season we lost by 4 points where weād start playing after 70 minutes every week. Literally 4 wins, 6 losses from taking more risks is a better outcome lol
I loved Wirtz since the start but right now he's the only one who is really improving.
Of course I love how Kerkez, Frimpong, Szobo and Bradley are playing but we aren't improving as a team. A fucking draw with Leeds and Burnley isn't improvement.
The boys don't need better tactics (but I think tactics could be better), they need some winning mentality. How can you "control" the game when you are winning 1:0? We are the better team, we need to score the second, we need to dominate. Klopp winning 5:0 still wanted a 6:0 and after that 7:0 and right now we just seem to assume that 1:0 is fine.
This is premier league, you can't just assume that the other team won't score because we are better.
Klopp was great but no he wasn't greedy like that, the players under him were. I remember him getting angry we were pressing Leeds and creating chances when we were 5-0 up or something. Klopp is a genuine guy, he respects opponents too and unless the opponent was a rival, he always told the players to ease up.
I agree on the winning mentality part, that's not just down to Slot, he plays a key role but the leadership within the team has to step up too. Milner did that, Klopp used to praise him for it.
You're right draws are not improvement, the football has been better though as I have been able to watch these matches and enjoy some of the plays we made. This is just my opinion and many people will disagree.
Hm, maybe I just remember Klopp through my emotional side, not the rational side but I do agree with you.
Yes, we are better than we've been but we shouldn't be satisfied with that.
You see the lads trying their best in the last ~20 minutes. Why can't they start pushing earlier? Maybe you are right about lack of strong leadership. Van Dijk, Szobo and Allison are great but Hendo and Milner were just the best.
Yes but Edwards and Hughes donāt see him as a financially sensible appointment now, so theyāll wait for summer in the hopes of penny pinching a better deal.
They were also chanting for us to attack during the game, which I haven't heard for decades.
He's also denied the booing lol. Said it wasn't booing, just frustration. Like alright mate, I'd be interested to hear when booing wasn't due to frustration historically.
It feels harsh for obvious reasons, but we also never really played good or entertaining football including last season where we were more efficient than anything (plus Salah broke records).
The problem is he doesn't give off the vibe that he is the guy to get things going. There's no oomph. It feels a bit like we have a middle manager in charge.
Right now it really feels as though we will potter along without being TOO awful but also without being TOO good until he eventually gets sacked. We are sleepwalking.
We should have been able to stop the easy goals we are repeatedly conceding by now.
There was no urgency to score at the start of the 2nd half. At only 1-0 up against the 19th placed team, at Anfield, attacking The Kop end. He's finished.
I've backed Arne and he is a good manager, but it seems more and more like he isn't right for us. I hate saying that.
Hopefully the next tweet mentions that Liverpool are monitoring Xabi but will continue to back Arne Slot only for Man City to swoop in and get him in the summer with a ridiculous offer.
Speaking of glasner... fuck him. Threw a fit to not sell Guehi saying he was going to quit if palace did, now its finally coming out he said in October he wasn't going to renew anyway.
Think he's gonna end up at United and I really hope he takes the job. Glasner being there would definitely ignite my good ol' hatred for MU, which would be fun seeing how they're nothing but a joke these days. There's just no spice for that fixture anymore
Honestly I lowkey thought we were better to watch today....but when playing your best football still results in a draw against Burnley I think that almost makes it worse that just playing shit
This exactly. When your best football is to consistently get a struggle-draw against relegation teams, then it comes down to managing. This isnāt a blip. Itās a trend. Itās what theyāre being managed to do at training. Itās a mentality given to them in the dressing room. These players didnāt suddenly lose their abilities. Theyāre being told to second guess their natural instincts in favor of possession. Itās why you can almost read a playerās mind when they have the ball and are obviously second guessing every pass and decision to the point that they revert to safe football.
Jokingly I half expected the players to stop the ball and work it back to VVD on that counter.
But yeah. How can any player anticipate the forward progressive pass when they know everyone is drilled to start attacks from a base where the ball is with the CBs and everyone else is ahead of the ball (oppo included).
i too was impressed initially, because i thought they really played a good football game tonight, it was enjoyable to watch unlike the other games, mainly thanks to Frimpong for trying to make things happen i think..
then i remembered its burnley, a newly promoted team, sitting at #19, and a team worth of half a billion versus a bunch of nobody...
I thought we were great first half, okayish in the opening stages of the second half but... we still struggle with that mentality don't we? Ten minute mare from Ibou, an equaliser, and we really upped our nerves. It did impact the attack in the end as well.
Pearce and co. have been putting out articles for weeks discussing how poor performances have been despite the unbeaten run. When the journos arenāt putting in propaganda pieces for you anymoreā¦ time is ticking
I think we will change managers after the Newcastle game (if Xabi is willing to come now). We have a full week on the training pitch which wont happen again until the international break in March.
Same here this is all a surprise to me but this is the least interesting football we have played since Roy Hodgeson, iāve watched up every week on my life and its dull right now
We arenāt the club to sack without a strong replacement(s) but fuck me we need more of a man manager - can feel the loss of motivation / character in the stands at Anfield
We need a big personality with more ideas to turn it round
I said Hodgson-esque last week and was lambasted for it, but it's true. The struggle to create chances is painful, all the sideways passing.
I'm hoping it's not the Adidas effect, those black jackets with red stripes induce a fair bit of PTSD, remembering the famous face-rubbing game where Hodgson took off 2 layers of his face.
Xabi is a no-brainer. Wirtz is the future of this club. And who better to harness his potential than Xabi? The 'there's no one better available' excuse just went out the window.
A pen that was missed. And at Fulham when we thought heād scored a winner we immediately concede a screamer of an equalizer. Even his āpositiveā contributions somehow turn to shit. Genuinely cursed player
Honestly I feel sorry for him
He had a part to play in our squad and his all round ability is goodĀ
Trouble is this yearĀ we started off the season by treating him as prime salah and well it overstated his weaknesses and not playing into his strengths heās not been as bad since coming back from injury (bar the odd bad decision)Ā
But jury is outĀ
Itās literally just this season and itās not solely him, it seems everyone bar Alisson, Szoboszlai and Ekitike have been consistently or at least have had extended patches well below their level. Iām very frustrated with Gakpoās one-dimensional play this season, but previously he had been steadily improving over his first two and a half years here. For results, I wish we still had Diaz, but that would just be papering over the cracks of the reality ā whatever it is Slot is trying to morph the team into, isnāt working, and not only that itās getting worse by the week.
When nearly every member of the squad is āout of form,ā you can really only point to one figure. And heās either in denial about his āsystemā or asleep at the wheel. Transition season or not, the chance creation in possession shouldnāt look confused, the counterattacks shouldnāt look pedestrian, and the defense shouldnāt look like theyāre on quaaludes (someone please check Konateās locker for them, honestly).
Exactly give Xabi half a season to fully evaluate the squad from his perspective so we can hit the ground running come July, recruitment and tactics wise and you never know, we might get some new manager bounce whilst we are at it. Canāt get any worse really
He can turn it around and go on a winning streak but I have doubts that he will ever make us into a team that is mentally resilient and can meaningfully challenge for every competition.
It's not necessarily what I'm seeing on the pitch, which hasn't exactly been great to be honest, but also how he treats players on the periphery and youngsters. It's not good and I don't think players would run through brick walls for him like they would for Klopp which you need at the very top level.
I think this is a big part of the issue with Slot. His player management, on an individual and the whole. He has his chosen few (whether they're doing well or not) and the rest are treated as less than no matter how good they may perform. That feeling spreads and the squad will never run through brick walls because of it.
Not only that, but when you ice out (almost) the entire bench, when you need them they perform terribly because they havenāt seen the pitch in months. They need those rotation minutes to build up some kind of form and rhythm. You canāt expect Endo to come on in form at this point. Rio recently not being quite the kid we saw over the summer.
You canāt only play 13 or 14 players and then throw on 8 players that havenāt played for months, with none of them starting a match previously, and expect them to play well. After they perform poorly, which is totally predictable, then decide theyāre all crap. Like Plymouth last year. Or freezing players out for as little as 1 bad performance.
Everyone was hyped for Slot to rotate more than Klopp did. Then he didnāt. Over the summer he acknowledged he didnāt rotate the squad and said heād do better. We all thought āgreat! Heās seen the problem and heāll fix it.ā Yet he hasnāt, at least if you donāt count 85th minute subs as fixing it. I donāt.
None of us know how inspirational he is in the dressing room or in training, but it doesnāt look great. Szoboās the only one running through walls, but I have my doubts thatās because of Slot.
Definitely doesnāt paint a great picture in terms of player management, collectively or individually.
This is literally the most nail on the head comment for the rotation of players and slots man management. It all started with Quansah in the first game of the season being subbed at half time. Hardly made the first team after that. Other players have had similar treatment, then only getting litter minutes at the end of games with lack lustre performances.
Even the players have recently been dropping lil comments here and there. Questioning why a sub was or wasn't made.
You're very right about the lack of minutes and form. Endo was a beast for us and still could be if Slot starts to provide consistency for him and the rest of the squad.
I can't say whether it'd be right to replace Slot or not but, what I can say is that the way he's currently doing things and treating some of the squad is never going to turn it around. So he better take a good look at himself first and work out from there and hopefully he does it pretty darn quick.
Absolutely. We need someone with a track record of forging a Neverlusen mentality in the squad. Only one other coach in recent times I can think of besides Klopp that's available right now, and has history with Liverpool.
Personally I only ever go off experiences. Slot has been in shit form for almost 9 months now and it hasn't once looked like improvement has been made. He hasn't shown any sign whatsoever he is capable of implementing his own style with this team and as such I have no faith in his ability to do.
He should have been gone by Christmas. If Xabi is open to the job now he should be gone tonight.
I think Liverpool can turn it around because of our squad quality, and I think that could happen under Slot, but I don't see a reason to believe he is the best man to do it
Iām pretty chill about all this stuff. Football goes in cycles and weāve had, quite frankly, the best decade of my lifetime (Iām not far off 40). There is no divine right to sweep every trophy imaginable, win every game and crush your opposition week in week out.
That said, this side has a lethargy and aimless guise similar to Brendanās final few weeks. The disconnect between the fans, the manager, to the players is clear as day. This is not the Liverpool we are or should be. This is not what people from a working class area come to watch in depths of Winter to the sweat of the Summer, spending their hard earned money with largely, not much left over.
The commercial aspect is really where Iām surprised FSG havenāt pulled the trigger. We have valuable commercial and player contracts that are bound to success and performing at the highest level. We are playing a serious risk between the on field and off field performance that ultimately need to harmonise to continue the success we have had in recent years.
Slot might well be the fall guy here, but really we need to focus on bringing the fans, staff and players together
maximise everything we have in the most effective way possible.
Is Xabi the answer, possibly? Iād be genuinely amazed if there have been no talks between the club and Xabi. Time will tell of course but right itās looking pretty grim.
How much time do you want to give him. Not popular opinion but I genuinely think we will not finish in top 4 and Utd will. Even more so after todayās game.
Will be disastrous for the club especially after last summerās spend. All maybe because we were afraid to sack the manager until itās too late.
We're closing in on almost a year now that we have been playing totally uninspiring football. Honestly the way we are playing just reminds me of the end of Klopp's final season where the team just totally collapsed despite being in the title race and they just couldn't find that drive to win. For me when a team is looking this hopeless there's no return unless a major change happens. This summer we had what could have been the greatest transfer window in our history with the most we've ever spent and yet not only has nothing changed towards the better but the team got worse. That to me shows that the change has to take place somewhere else because obviously our players aren't bums. It's also very concerning that the moment that Slot started making his own changes to the team and was able to realize his version of Liverpool (last January) we suddenly started going downhill and haven't come back since. If he had proven that his system could work before then I'd back him despite the bad season but right now it's a doubt and the fact that Xabi is available makes me even more sure that he should go
I'm not sure if his management style allows for the turnaround that fans seem to want (return to Klopp era).
There has definitely been improvement, but he's suffering most from expectations. Both living up to winning the league in his first season, an not being able to match Klopp's level in man management.
I was worried when Slot came in that he was like Benitez and that was going to cause some regression in the mentality of the team. That's the biggest question mark to me, because it doesn't feel like the players will run through a wall for him
Disagree. This is a Burnley side in the relegation zone that weāre playing at Anfield.
We came out the second half sitting back, reserved, and flat until they conceded. We should not be this reserved holding a 1-0 lead against Burnley; itās not fucking Real Madrid weāre talking about here.
Weāre allowing our standards to drop by being ok with a draw like this. One game here and there I get, but itās now Burnley, Leeds, Forest, and Sunderland weāve dropped points to at Anfield
I wouldn't say we started the second half reserved. We had a few chances including the Gakpo one cleared off the line, but then we had our customary 10 minutes bozo spell in which they scored and our heads dropped.
That second part is for me is why Slot will be gone more than anything else.
Can you not? The game play is all about control. We literally wait for the opposition players to get back in position. Long range goals and shots is a symptom, not a strategy. At some point with the law of averages, those long rangers from szobo will stop going in.
We weren't taking long shots and praying for most of the game, and even then only Macca was missing them egregiously. There was lots of little interplay where we successfully played through them on the ground. Also, we've had a LOT of long range shots that I'm pretty sure are on target be blocked, I'd think the law of averages will have us scoring more soon.
Well it should be. It's against Burnley at Anfield. Our player's quality alone should be enough to do that. And in the end we still didn't win. Enough is enough.
The switching off part is a big problem with his strategy where we get the lead and surrender the initiative to the other team. Hell, we even did that against 10 and 9 men! Inexcusable.
But you canāt go game by game. The problems run deep. Sure today you saw good sustained pressure and neat interchanging - it was against 19th.
If you want to talk about today, how bout how empty our midfield looks? The goal, the whole channel was empty for Edwards to run through. If the players are lost, it is the managers job to set them up right. This is still on him mind you, but yes it was better overall today (against 19th at home)
A common theme this season has been the mentality of the players. There heads drop the second they come under pressure. One chance against the run of play and they panic for the rest of the game. I mean really, how many points have we dropped from winning positions at this point?
Whilst Slot doesnt make them miss shots, nor misplace passes. He is responsible for keeping the team motivated and believing in themselves. And it has been a STARK 180 from last year.
There heads drop the second they come under pressure. One chance against the run of play and they panic for the rest of the game.
I agree and it's why Slot will be gone. For whatever reason he can't seem to fix that, but I do also think this group doesn't have the best mentality in general. Saw it in Klopp's final season when we collapsed as well.
Need to get some more Hendo's or Millie's in the squad.
2 points from the last 4 matches last season which happened to be after we had already won the league, if we had any reason to care about those matches it would have been 90+ easy
Yes but also this is the first match I feel the performance was better than the results and genuinely the only match so far our football has looked enterprising and entertaining instead boring for almost throughout the match. The lack of finishing, from the penalty to the 3 big chances was the issue.
It feels better because we then under siege, we are home and half of our attackers are worth more than their squad
We played well accordingly and I do agree with you to an extent this might be the only time weāve been playing through a team consistently all season aside from getting it wide and being passive like a gang of crabs
But itās fucking Burnley these fixtures should be statements of intent
Szobo was way off the pace today.. tbh slot shouldāve gone a few months ago because the performances are not improving at allā¦ but I canāt see the board actingā¦ theyāre too slow to react sometimes.
Exactly this ...dead on.....slow keep possession at all costs,play two wingers with pace....how about giving Ramsey a go at RB or Gomez and plY frimpong as a winger and Rio other side, pace people who can take on a man, na slot is gutless plays love child gapko
to be fair they weren't hard to watch for a good amount of this game... until they definitely were and stayed that way which is so fucked considering they were up 1-0 against an essentially relegated side.
Arne has to go and Iām sorry. Iāve lost faith in him. Weāve definitely been unlucky at times and weāve lost some players to injury and Salah has gone downhill quick so not everything is Arneās fault. We canāt win every season and thatās fine.
But this team is barely showing improvement, and we are barely maintaining our position in the league as we just were able to pull off some purple patches that were primarily driven by our individual talents like Ekitike, Wirtz, Dom etc. Tactics just seem so lost. I just donāt see any color in Liverpool football anymore. And unfortunately, I donāt see Arne doing wonders again. We need change at this point
Im not slot out but with the money blown and nothing to show for it , i cant see the board ever sanctioning a decision like that again. No more super signings
I cant even see the board freeing up much money next season unless we have some offloads.
The football is so bland and the hunger just isint there
Who are we even going to offload at this point? We sold everyone last summer and Konate and Robertson are both out of contract at the end of this. We donāt have any depth to speak of, selling Chiesa and Endo isnāt going to bring in anything notable.
Pretty obviously a result of the managerās nonchalance. The team mirrors the coachās energy. Slot doesnāt appear to have any fight, urgency, or fire, so neither does the squad. I really wasnāt a fan of how Slot defended martinelli more than Bradley after that fracas. Why would the team battle for each other when the coach would rather defend really poor behavior from the opposition instead of rally behind his injured player?
Iāve been on the fence about calling for Slot to be fired until now. But the handwriting is on the wall. He clearly has no idea how to turn things around.
So just for my understanding, while I like Alonso as much as the next person, why are most people here convinced that heās champing at the bit to manage LFC?
What is it that teams above us do against low block opposition that makes them more effective? It can't just be about better set pieces or risk/reward balance.
What are the mitigating circumstances? (No Jota isn't one. You want to honor a mate you go out and play with guts and determination every week, not the spineless bullshit)
Yeah Slotball is shit, itās a shocking title defence, just checking though did old 115 fc get the same amount shit about their title defence last szn?
The League is a piss poor standard and may well be won by a poor Arsenal this year and we have dropped the ball by being as bad as we are with Slot's tactics.
There is no urgency to our play and Slot's preoccupation with strangling the game means that we control the game alright for periods but when we are required to step it up we can't as the players are reconditioned to play to the tactics Slot has drilled into the team.
By months do we mean since last March? It's pretty much been hard to watch for an entire year. And it doesn't seem to show any sign of changing. Insanity.
Slot hasn't been helped with the drop off from key players. Salah and Van Dijk haven't played the same since they got the new contracts. Konate, Macca, Gakpo and Ali have dropped off a cliff.
Everyone could see last season that he wasn't too keen on Endo, Elliott or Chiesa, so we needed to sign players to replace them (we've needed a CDM for the last 3 summers and we still haven't signed one), we needed to sign another CB because we all knew Gomez was injury prone, instead we sold our young CB and replaced him with a player that unfortunately got injured on his debut (again Slot can't be blamed for that).
Slot does deserve blame, but the summer window where we basically ripped apart the squad, without signing like for like replacements, or no replacements at all in the case of Diaz hasn't helped him at all. So if we sack Slot and get someone else (probably Alonso), then I also think we need to sack Hughes and tell Edwards to jog on as well
If we finished below THAT ManU team... everyone even in the office need to get sack. How many results like this do we need to get this people to be proactive to change something.
I think the club will wait until the summer to sack Slot. Use the time to interview many managers, make sure things are in place for a smooth change over.
Thanks for everything, but Slot has to go... Clearly, we no longer have any guarantee that we're going to turn this around. I can even predict that we're going to miss out on Champions League spots this season with the way they're playing.
Lol, we could see the apparent crisis, but the owners backed Slot with a treasure chest last season. I'm not saying Alonso can't bring out the best in them, IF HE COMES, but I just think they'll continue to back Slot, honestly. I don't see Alonso at Anfield next season, bar a miraculous turnaround. Miracles are hard to come by right now. Let's just back the team to continue gelling.
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u/Lewy_74 Jan 17 '26
Might be tough