épieur

I would love to dunk on Hughes, truly, but I can't really point any fingers at him except that we bought two centre forwards for a manager that doesn't seem have a plan for two centre forwards. This is 95% Slot turning a really good team rubbish. It's not about the wrong choice of tactics, formation or player selection. It's about a failure of implementation. The quality of the stuff we're doing in training, the mentality fostered in the side. I don't know how he's going to fix it. I hope he does, but I think he won't. There's still a bit of time for him to turn it around.

Right. We're losing this.

Gakpo was better than Diaz when Diaz was made to play centrally. I think Diaz put in better performances from the left than Gakpo before that though.

Yes. Nunez had the best possible platform for expressing his talent he could ask for. He just used it to blam it into row z.

Frankfurt were proper gents. All "we'll let you play if you let us play and may the best team win". Game's gone now that there aren't any other teams being saps like that.

that graph is hilarious. f***inghell.

He looks to be finding a new weight to his passing lately as well.

All I know is Klopp would have had a proper plan for integrating him and would be sure he'd come into the side proper hard enough to hold his own at high intensity. Slot had great plans for him when he signed him apparently, but f*** knows what they were. It's been left in the wind.

This. There's games where him and Grav both play well but it doesn't come together as us controlling midfield. Can't see beyond the manager there.

And Klopp would obviously defeat the "never go back" prophecy. Every midfielder is immediately 10% better in his hands and every forward 20%better. And soon enough we can play with more intensity than any team in Europe. Confidence players suddenly grow a backbone. He'll have things to iron out but I think people underestimate what a fabulous coach he is and what he will instil in his players. The only stumbling block for him would be his own motivation.

I don't think it's a system issue. The main thing is that while he dialled back the organised intensity Klopp instilled to good effect last season, it is now starting to look like he doesn't know how to dial it back up now that he needs it. We're f***ing soft to play against and don't know how to win control of a game. It boils down for me to a concern that the standard and quality of training is simply not high enough.

I am not saying his job should be under threat or anything. I just find myself wondering how Jurgen is doing and if his batteries have recharged about now.

Your mom overshares.

Under Frank I saw them as a team always able to make life difficult for us because they were so tactically strong but ultimately just didn't have the quality to see it through against a team like ours. I am hoping for the same today but with less tactical quality on their part. Mainly because Slot seems very annoyed lately that other managers are making changes to try and make it difficult for us.

So what do you do if you can only get one spare then?

It certainly does.

I am not talking of just that moment. Every action he had was basically just trying to get a shot off. We were up 5-1 so it was inconsequential that he was being selfish, except that it annoyed me a bit.

Yes to both of these points.

Of course it is. It just means there's no real consequence to it. In general I don't mind a bit of selfishness in a striker, but he was so single minded about it that it might give a manager pause about starting him the next game if he's going to play like that.

Ah. Well that wasn't clear at all. I think it was as much him being a little clever in the timing of his run. He has a unusual centre of gravity for a lad his size. He's running with the ball at his foot and as a defender you probably feel like the ball is 3-4 yards away over on the other side of his frame and how do you even engage with that?

That bit annoyed me. He's always had selfish moments and that's generally fine for a goalscorer but the whole performance was about getting himself on the score sheet and it was obviously to the detriment of the team performance. I'd start Chiesa.

Has to be really. Mac can't do anything right at the moment and I don't know if Endo is still alive.

I love how he's decided that'll have to be one of the other lads losing their place to Wirtz. What a player.

That was one of my only concerns with him. That he seemed to lack power in his shots. Absolutely not the case in a red shirt.

The egoism on display was annoying. If he wanted to prove he should have started maybe focus more on playing well than snatching at every opportunity to get on the score sheet. Could have set up a a goal or two if he had a mind for it.