goodrobotusses

And of those CBs we ideally need one that can also play LB and one that can play RB. Having a small squad only really works if most of the players are multifunctional. With the exception of Frimpong and Gomez, all of our defenders can realistically only play in one position. Chiesa is our only forward who can genuinely play all three slots in attack (or at least wouldn't complain if asked to), and he isn't trusted by Slot. Neither is Endo, who is theoretically multifunctional, albeit not really good enough to play in defence, even if he's willing.

Hot off the non-German-speaking Bavarian presses: Xabi Alonso has had the time while struggling as Real Madrid coach to coach Liverpool players via Zoom behind Arne Slot's back. My suspicion is that Slot will solder on until the end of the season.

I was talking mostly about his Spain team, who seemed to dominate every game they played but couldn't win when it counted. His Roma team underperformed too, although that was at the start of his coaching career. Don't get me wrong, I think he's brilliant. Just that he hasn't seen wall to wall success as a coach, so it's not a sure thing he'd succeed here or elsewhere in the PL, although you'd assume the chances are he would.

On Enrique, I would definitely take him if he were available and wanted to come to us, but I don’t think he’s the slam-dunk that is assumed. He has also overseen a few teams that have flattered to deceive, dominated the ball and the game but never had the cutting edge to put teams to the sword. PSG once they hit their straps last season were incredible, but they only seemed invincible for a few months. Earlier last season they were nowhere near as impressive, and they’ve had a few dud games this season too.

I think they were running on fumes a bit, yeah. There were a lot of last minute winners and equalisers in the last weeks of the season as they tried to maintain their unbeaten run. Maybe if they’d have sacrificed a few of those results they might have had more in the tank for the final. That said, that Gasperini Atalanta team was bloody awkward to play against, as we ourselves found out.

And we shouldn’t be about to fall out of the CL spots after bossing the league last year.

He does because he’s still relatively green but I think his achievement at Leverkusen has become a bit underrated by some. Winning the league with them is something akin to winning with Spurs, only if Spurs had no history, a small stadium and were based in Slough. Leverkusen had that one great team in 2002 but still didn’t win squat. XA took over with the side in the relegation spots and got them up to 6th, qualifying for Europe, and to the Europa League semi-finals after the team crashed out of the CL group stage. The next season they won league unbeaten, winning 90 points in a 34-game season, scoring 89 and conceding 24. That’s the equivalent of a 100-point season, 99 goals and conceding just under 27 in a 38-game PL season. They also won the cup and lost their only game all season in the Europa League final. It was an insane achievement, even if they couldn’t sustain those levels the next year (2nd in the league on 69 points, equivalent to 77 points in a PL season).

Brilliantly said. Nothing to add to this.

Think Slot is quite well liked by the media broadly. Carragher was saying he really likes talking to him because he actually talks about football and tactics rather than spouting cliches.

Depends where you go in Montenegro. I'll have you know Crna Gora is an expression of affection in Uruguay.

Think before tactics, squad depth and so on, our major issue this season is that we've gone from being one of the fittest teams in the league, one that can fight until the last second of injury time, to one that plays at walking pace and barely runs all game and still runs out of steam around minute 75. Bournemouth looked more likely to score in the last quarter of the game, running through our midfield again and again, because the players looked like statues out there. And the worry is that that can't really be fixed mid-season because you build that base through hard work in pre-season.

Can imagine his pep talk to Endo before he eventually came on: "Lad, you're s*** and I hate you, but I have no choice but to send you on, so don't f*** this up."

This is what stood out towards the end of the game. Bournemouth were running right through us time and again because all our lads looked like they were running through treacle. I know the pre-season got messed up in the most horrible way imaginable, but we're so unfit compared with previous years.

Poor lad is gonna be in for a shock joining Thomas Frank’s coaching staff.

Think this is correct. Even if they had an informal agreement in place for a successor, or are at least having exploratory talks with one, they're not gonna go and sign lads he might want but Slot won't, and they're not gonna sign someone Slot wants but any successor might not, so we're sitting on our hands despite the squad being threadbare.

Top clickbait from that website. Bonus points for the unreadable layout, failure to get to the point to keep us scrolling down, and millions of pop-ups.

That was only when Hincapie played at LWB. He was mostly a LCB, with Grimaldo at LWB. Grimaldo was also very different at LWB to Frimpong on the right, sort of analog to TAA, in that he was often more of a playmaker from a wide area, albeit still getting up the pitch like a traditional wing-back. It was more that Grimaldo had fantastic crossing and passing ability, whereas Alonso used Frimpong's pace to give him the freedom to storm the box from the right wing. If you want some sense of Leverkusen's attacking play under XA, here is a video of all their goals in their league-winning season:

Respect your view on both, but now curious to see whom you would have, because they're basically the two best plausible options out there, if you don't see Klopp as a possibility. The coaching market isn't great at the level we aspire to be/stay at, so curious to know which coaches you'd see as better options if Slot leaves. Yeah, the use of "mid-campaign" leapt out at me too.

That was my perception too. Seems like people just trying to find nicer ways of formulating their desire for a change.

Even funnier because, according to Ian Graham, Ben Johno's TAW match ratings used to get emailed around the club after every game. Apparently the people behind the scenes loved reading them. Wonder if anyone will see this clip.

s*** league. Arsenal are going to walk it and they're not even that good, just the most competent team at the moment.

Aye. This is where Hughes and Edwards need to earn their keep. They don't want to add to the squad now despite the obvious need, then whatever… Don't agree with it, but that's pretty standard Edwards/FSG behaviour. They just better have a bloody big rabbit up their hat for summer.

In fairness, pretty much every player in Spain does at some point.

Poor Ramsay. He's this season's Nottingham Forest. Thrown into the Dutch straight-talking meat grinder.