épieur

Endo. A lot of Madrid fans don't like tchouameni exactly because he's not very good on the ball. Maybe not quite that but I expect not too far off. It will be sell to buy at any rate.

We have one of those. We need a dm who can also play ball.

This

Perhaps bazdev deserves some credit for his post back in June where he was only harrangued.

Yep. There were two areas of concern developing last season: That we were content to play s*** and win, because we could still create really good chances from little. In some ways, slot was actually ahead of the curve that the rest of the league has embraced with direct football last season. That dialling down the intensity Klopp instilled has made it difficult for us to regulate our intensity. Yes PSG were great, but we simply couldn't live with that intensity. Under Klopp, that would have been meeting a team playing to our level in terms of intensity. Then we got outfought by Newcastle the week after. Like properly outfought. That's all amplified tenfold this season. What I truly don't get is what happened to his in-game management. It was really good last season. He's rolling dice this season. The early days impression I had was that he was shooting for something between Wenger and Klopp in terms of playing style. I have no idea how he actually wants us to play this season. What are we even aiming to play like?

He's a lot like Gravenberch in the best possible way. If we hadn't gone down the Wirtz route, or if wirtz' future is in the front three, or if Mac Alliser somehow ends up leaving, then him and Wharton would be a great addition to midfield. I think Anderson's off the ball work suits a team like ours better, but we probably need what Wharton does more, given that we already have a Gravenberch.

Other potential options: De Zerbi Thiago Motta Emery Gasperini If they get fired by their current trigger happy employers: Alonso Nagelsmann(?) If Gasperini weren't 67, I'd go for him. He did great things with Atalanta and the intensity of his teams would suit us well. Really hard to see who the next big thing is, if Slot or Alonso isn't it though.

It needs a big change from the hole we've dug ourselves into. It shouldn't need big changes from the player material we have to deliver some better performances. I'd shoot slot out of a cannon tomorrow if Klopp said he'd come back. I'd do the same for Enrique. I don't see any other managers that I'd even want to offer an interrim job to right now, let alone any managers who would take an interrim position right now. And I sure as hell don't want to give someone like Iraola a longterm offer as things stand. This could change in a few weeks. But for now I don't think we're that desperate yet.

There's a lot that happened where I was sure there was a plan for it, that has yet to materialize. I think Frimpong could be worked into a back four. His forays aren't that different from peak robbo, and I don't think he's defensive game is worse than TAA. But we aren't using fullbacks like that so far. His integration has also been disrupted by injury. Ekitike and Isak - Again, Isak's integration has been thoroughly disrupted, but in the minutes he's had there's been no evidence of a plan more sophisticated than "one will alternate with the other." Which is a s*** plan to spend 200m on after selling your left winger. I still struggle to believe that. Not signing a midfielder could have made sense if Wirtz had hit the ground running. Alas... I think Slot is most of all guilty of intellectual hubris. He had a plan in his head for his new signings and give zero consideration to how well that might pan out in reality and just executed all of it on day one rather than piecemeal. If he had given Wirtz and Kerkez the Klopp integration treatment, there would be a lot less pressure on them. We'd also be better of performancewise. But that would also mean Slot carrying the pressure for why expensive new signings aren't playing more rather than the players for their poor performance in the deep end.

Not always. I was surprised in the summer that he predicted Frimpong to be no more than backup for Bradley and a tactical option. Turned out entirely correct there. And he's done a "why Liverpool are so easy to play against" video as well. And plenty of "why Amorim sucks" videos. Yes he sensationalises a bit, but there's a substance behind it way deeper than you get from most other analysts.

And if we win two in a row, we'll all feel a bit different, same as we all did after the two we just won in a row before city. Those two wins kinda hit home for me how quickly things can change in football. We should beat forest handily. I am expecting, and kinda hoping, they will show up with a quintessential long ball performance. We need to see if Slot has at all wised up, or just been trying to convince coaches not to play like that because it's unfair. I think we will win too, going on what we saw against villa and real. Not that I am expecting great performance per se, but there was a formula there that ought to put them to the sword, even in the face of long balls and low confidence. Losing is definitely very possible. If we do still end up losing and, like Brentford, deserving to lose, then the odds are very much against him staying for long. What I think will happen is that we'll come out OK in the next period of games, to look secure in a top four position. Enough for the sack talk to die a bit. Which can be a good or bad thing, since stabilising for top four was last year's ambition, not this year's. Then the rest of the season, especially CL, will tell us whether there is a project worth persisting with for next season or not.

Slot will be more fired up for this one than any game in his career and that has nothing to do with our current predicament. Let's see if he can transmit that to the players.

You're uninvited from discussion with me for at least a week. I'm upset with your rude and annoying ways.

You get a longer reply after all, not because you deserve it but because the patronising nature of it still annoys me upon seeing it again this morning. No, I don't know which way the arrow is pointing. I know which way I am very inclined to think it is pointing. Same stuff as back in October - systemic problems with mentality and quality of training. That was then. Now we're two very good wins and a bad defeat down the line. The defeat doesn't mean much to me, except to dispel the budding hope that we've clearly turned a corner. Losing was always more likely than winning, and with this team losing poorly is only a short step away from losing. Performance notwithstanding, I don't think it erases the improvement we saw in the two games before that, anymore than those two games erase six defeats in the seven games prior to that. If we had won, the vibe, here and elsewhere, would be that now we're snapping at the heels of Arsenal and we're still in it. We lost, so it goes a different way. I just can't move myself from that having been in play before kick off to "slot must go" on the back of away game against Manchester City. It might still end up there. And maybe not even that far away if we keep being turgid. But I don't believe it is a foregone conclusion that we will be, even if it is a distinct possibility. Like I said, the next few games will tell us far more about Slot's future than this one.

I went and verified because my first thought was "there's no way that's true". It's obvious bs. The only way to believe that is to lose all perspective on our performances.

Adam Clery thinks he's been way better than everyone thinks, so I am clutching at that straw. He's also been a bit unlucky with others squandering the chances he's created. Still waiting for him to be more than Smicer II. Vlad had a good game too now and then and was perpetually unlucky, except for his final game. FFS, I am now remembering how I nearly always had patience for Vlad and hoped we'd keep him after all. Don't lead me down this road again, flo.

He looks very heavy. Needs to get leaner and find a spring in his step.

They were good

People have lost their f***ing heads. Think for a moment if that could possibly be true and give your head a wobble. We accumulated 18 points more than them from January till end of season. We're on level points with them right now.

No I don't.

If we hadn't just won two games with good performances, I'd be right there. Right now, it's all a bit up in the air for me. I just don't know which way the arrow is pointing from the all this. If we hadn't just won two games with good performances, I'd be right there. Right now, it's all a bit up in the air for me. I just don't know which way the arrow is pointing from the all this.

A game like that is far more telling for where we are with our shortcomings really.

Losing away to city isn't anything of anything to me regarding his performance. More interested in our response in the next game.

That just goes to explaining why Macca has been the main man though, doesn't it? Don't agree. They were all very good. Macca was the best midfielder in the league though. Sure. He's been dreadful since his recovery, except for the last two games. Not arguing that. Jones should have started ahead of him. A part of me does wonder, regardless of everyone else also turning up and playing teams too stupid to just go long, how much of our resurgence in these past two games is simply down to Mac Allister playing at a decent level and gluing the midfield together. We've had games this season where both Gravenberch and Szoboszlai have played well, and that still didn't come together to make a coherent midfield performance, even though it ought to be.

This.