goodrobotusses

I think Slot’s thinking is if things aren’t going well, a fit Ekitike would be a better bet to change things off the bench than a rusty Isak. Our first half performances are often a bit of a non-event either way; we have tended under Slot only to start playing after the half-time analysis and tactical tweaks anyway. Would be nice if we could be cruising games on the hour mark and have the luxury of then giving Isak his minutes, but that seems like a distant fantasy right now.

I want to know when top Bayern insider Bayern Space is going to learn German. I did it and I'm not even German like he must be. Maybe he only speaks Bayrisch.

Good player but doesn’t improve our lack of pace in attack. Also, the rise in output from Olise and Diaz, and the fall in output from Wirtz, does make me wonder if the Bundesliga has a particular effect on attackers that isn’t reflected automatically in the PL. Germany is Bayern plus one or two okay teams and a load of guff playing open matches that look like basketball games.

Frank needed to s*** or get off the pot at some point. The issue is he seems to have shat on himself.

Nah, we went a bit back to it towards the end. Our more controlled style of football came in in the mid part of Klopp's tenure and peaked in the season with Thiago and Fabinho dominating the midfield. We were wild again in his last season. That graph above shows as much.

Then Slot will be fired and we'll need to find a good replacement. What if Slot turns things around?

I honestly think it's down to how quickly it's come about. No one was expecting this in the summer when we were celebrating a league title and some exciting new signings, and we've generally been a fan base that has stayed patient with managers (except Hodgson, not unreasonably). Before the season, you would have struggled to have pictured a circumstance in which people would be calling for Slot's head in the autumn, but here we are. Can't blame people for being disquieted by it, it just doesn't feel very "us" IMO. I personally don't know how I feel, and my biggest concern if Slot does go is what comes next. I just don't think there are that many elite managers out there that would suit us or are available, so by being "proactive", so to speak, we could end up making the club's situation much worse long term than one disappointing season. But I'm not gonna tell anyone what to think. Each to their own. We all care about the club, even if we don't agree on a way forward.

They should. We have won a lot of games in recent years without our first-choice XI being available, including under Slot last season.

Plenty seemed to still believe in their crap coaches and players of recent times long after fans of other teams had realised the likes of Solskjaer were out of their depths. Plenty seem to think Ratcliffe knows what he's doing. You'll hear their fans saying the fans in the ground still back Amorim/Ten Hag/Solskjaer and so on. Of course, if your source of opinion on any football club is what people on Twitter are saying, you're gonna be looking into a hall of mirrors while pissed. More rage there than 28 Days Later or even late-Wenger-era AFTV.

Not sure about that. Personally am ambivalent on our current managerial situation, can see both sides of the argument, but the general consensus among Manchester United fans has been dragging them into the abyss for years.

I don’t think it’s causing it outright but it has to be a factor for some. Grief is weird and horrible. I still sometimes randomly cry about the loss of my mum and that happened six years ago. And when you’re in your 20s and 30s you feel invincible, like you have all the time in the world for everything. Losing a mate at that age must wreck your head.

Haha proper "What have the Romans done for us?" stuff, this.

He also doesn't speak much English apparently.

Pretty much. Always the club's fault, never his, recruitment a mess, give me Billy Gilmour etc. After that "this is the history of the Tottenham" speech, I wouldn't want him anywhere near this club. We all laughed at Spurs' fans' expense, but imagine the coach of your club basically saying, "This club is s*** and you're lucky to have me," while the team serves up turgid dogs*** week after week. He's a t***, and, as noted elsewhere, crap in Europe.

He's also not particularly good.

But it’s the people he works with who end up thinking he’s a d****ead. He’s usually burned all bridges at a given club within 18-24 months.

I would be. Whatever he had at Spurs (other than trophies), he doesn’t seem to have it any more.

And would be breaking the no d****eads rule. The club would be in flames two years after his arrival.

Klopp and maybe Iraola aside, Jesus f***ing Christ. Fabregas apparently doing interesting things at Como, but at Como — and so was Thiago Motta at Bologna until he s*** the bed at Juve.

They would be mad not to have been, even if it were just a call to sound Klopp out.

Think that only happens if you can convince him to go to Saudi. And the assumption he would want that move always seemed lazy IMO.

Think it’s tactical. Bradley also often pops up in that spot from the right. Not saying it’s good or bad, just that Kerkez was probably under orders to.

On Klopp, I think the thing that potentially tempts him back is the opportunity to coach Wirtz and Isak. He would have killed for those players when he was here, so I can see him at least wondering how he’d approach getting a song out of this squad. On the other hand, I also suspect he and Mo Salah together again might not go so well. Kind of think at least Salah was sick of Klopp by the end.

If there were a ready-made replacement good to go, I’d have little problem pulling the trigger by this stage. There is the thing gnawing in the back of my mind that grief is awful and any manager might have to live with players’ heads not being right for a prolonged period of time, but that’s probably not something we’re ever going to fully know. Maybe Slot has just had awful luck in those terms, but the performances are bad and we’re seeing little sign of the team pulling out of the nosedive, at least against teams that have the temerity to defend and play direct football. It comes down to the replacement though. You don’t just sack a manager, you replace him. The idea that we bin Slot, install Wilson the volleyball and things automatically improve because we have boss players is a fantasy. Right now the team is spiralling. We make a change and f*** up the next appointment, the whole club could start spiralling if we start to look like a basket case. Just look at Manchester United.

That is not a fair question to ask apparently.