goodrobotusses

Which it might just. For what it’s worth, my Rangers-supporting mate reckons Gerrard is clueless tactically and was entirely dependent on Michael Beale. Also says of the two, Van Bronckhorst did better in Europe, whereas Gerrard was more effective in the SPL because, quote, “he was good at getting them to run around kicking lads”. Hired by Christian Purslow no less. Good to have that added LFC connection. Did Purslow ever hire any other managers?

My view is that there probably won't be a good enough candidate available until summer and the only interim-to-permanent choice good enough out there is Klopp. And if he didn't want it, and I don't think he would, I'd probably leave Slot in situ for now. Realise that's an unpopular shout on here but each to their own and all that.

He's a Europa League manager IMO. We'd stagnate under him.

Bloated into irrelevance. Don’t want to piss on the chips of those qualifying for the first time, must be amazing for them, but Christ I don’t want to watch any of these games. FIFA and the confederations are killing the golden goose. Euros worse than it was since expansion, new CL format also crap, although I feel I’m in the minority on that one.

Here in Germany you can barely move for ads featuring former national team players. Klopp was also omnipresent for a while too, shilling all kinds of nonsense. Has died down a bit since he left us though. Still have my Klopp edition Erdinger half-litre glass, mind. “Weißbier ist Wochenende,” lads, and don’t forget it.

If we think Slot moans too much about teams playing directly or defensively, we’d be in for a treat with Xavi.

One of these days Gakpo is going to cut inside and lash a shot that pings in off Kerkez’s back, and then we’ll know what the plan was all along.

It's kind of amazing we could win the league so easily last season while having our No9 – no matter who played the role – be essentially a non-factor for most of the season. Really thought with the signing of two good strikers this summer, we'd find a way to have our striker more consistently involved, so we wouldn't be relying only on Salah. Instead the No9 still doesn't touch the ball and Salah's form has mostly fallen off a cliff.

Loved Diaz but this is an exaggeration. He could be a bigger crab than Gakpo when he wasn't on it. Playing in the middle seemed to add a bit of variety to his game though. Something that apparently never happened with Gakpo.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c997y4y253ko

I do wonder if part of Mac Allister's problem this season is that most of his Spanish-speaking mates were sold. Likewise, Robbo's best mates at the club were TAA, Kelleher and Jota. Salah was close to Tsimikas. We might judge these lads only as players vs. what we expected from the new ones, but these groups of relationships are important in a working environment. Salah's Twitter response to that "upgrade" tweet from one of those aggregator accounts early on in the season was quite telling in retrospect.

Yeah, think having someone with the emotional intelligence of Klopp, someone who also knew Jota and shares their grief, could be of massive help to the squad. The desire to help his former players and the club while it's hurting might be what draws him back, but he might just as much not want the stress and responsibility when he's got a nice life and has told everyone he doesn't want to coach.

Are you trying to give me an aneurysm?

If a good enough candidate isn't available. But waiting until summer and hoping one of the few guys I would prefer becomes available is also a risk if they turn around and say, "Nah, happy where I am." Then we're into second-tier guys territory and back to fights for fourth for the medium term IMO. Even if you see the two lads at the World Cup as top-level candidates (and I'm not big on either), you're getting in someone whose head is going to be elsewhere until the end of July. What do pre-season and recruitment look like in that case?

It won't alter my opinion about Slot's viability, I already think this isn't fixable. But if there is no one good enough or available enough out there now, it'll have to be a caretaker until summer. Best case, that caretaker is Klopp (even better if it's permanent), but if he says no, I'd rather we just give it to Van Bronckhorst than go through the psychodrama of Gerrard doing it. I've said already elsewhere on here that my concern is the long-term health of the club and that firing Slot is the easy part. My worry isn't one bad season, it's ensuring we remain a club fighting for the PL and CL in the next seasons. But looking at the list of possible Slot replacements, maybe that won't be possible with the next coach. I'm sure others will disagree.

You keep in touch with the coach and/or his agent through until summer until we know Slot has actually fixed it and those five wins aren't a temporary reprieve. I would be shocked if they aren't now quietly reaching out to coaches and agents.

It isn't if you want us to remain a club that competes for the PL and CL. Enough good and interesting candidates if we're happy to be back fighting for fourth every season though.

Rose floundered at Leipzig and hit a fairly low ceiling at Dortmund. De Zerbi is nutty and therefore suited to Marseille, don't think he's ever going to win anything.

Literally three names on that list I think could suit us and be successful, two of whom are already in top level jobs and the other with no apparent interest in coaching again for the foreseeable. A couple I'd be curious about simply because I don't know enough, so hiring them would feel like a punt. Kind of like how Slot did, only he had a record of winning to point to, whereas the likes of Iraola and Fabregas don't. Some others in there that have been successful but I don't think would be a good fit for us for one reason or another. So here we are. Slot looks lost and a dead man walking, but the potential replacements seem ungettable, a punt with no record of winning and/or underwhelming/unsuited.

Ha, would honestly rather Thiago. At least he could be good for all we know. We already know Gerrard isn't good enough.

Love Thiago but giving him a job at our level off the bat would be mad. Like the ultimate Hail Mary from a group of data nerds who've decided to throw their laptops out the window. Guardiola did Barca B before he got the first team, Alonso had Real Sociedad B before Leverkusen. Even Xavi's stint in bloody Qatar gave him more grounding for a top job than Thiago's five minutes as assistent to Flick.

Yep. Think both are unproven breaking down deep defences with no space for the counter, and no proof either one can win a league title (unless we’re counting the Austrian second division). Factor in Iraola’s football being a high injury/exhaustion risk with three games a week and Glasner’s inflexibility when it comes to playing a back three/five, and both would represent a massive risk. Instinct says Iraola perhaps has a level to go up. Glasner is Europa League standard.

His achievement at Leverkusen was fantastic, especially given where they were when he took over, but he's been out-thought twice by Slot, and once with that Real Madrid squad while we were in the middle of this horrific run of form. Still, on paper he's one of the best young coaches out there and he was loved here as a player, so you'd assume he'd be a top, if not the top candidate were he suddenly available. That said, the odd duff performance in big games aside, Madrid aren't having a bad season at all. Just Vinicius is a bit of a prima donna and that him vs Mbappe (vs Rodrygo) situation was going to pop off at some point. Ancelotti got performances by babying them, Alonso is making them work.

The slow playing side to side around the opponent's formation drives me mad. Even more so with the added aimless punt forward after it's gone back to the CB or GK for the third time.

Really sad watching that tonight. Think Slot is a good guy, did a great job last season even if circumstances were often in our favour and his football could seem a bit bloodless post-Klopp, but this situation is untenable. Assuming he does go in the next days, weeks or even months, I'm a bit terrified of what comes next. The coach market is s***e and the hope that Klopp rides to the rescue is a very thin one, I suspect. Easy to say "it can't get much worse", but long term with a botched succession we could quite easily slip back into the pack for an extended period.