FC Showster

My view has been (across multiple threads) that the line is personal abuse, esp. considering the nature of the season. When you questioned me on where the line was I assumed you disagreed, you told me I had assumed wrongly, but now you're saying you are disagreeing with me so I am a bit confused Perhaps it's just crossed wires and I'll leave it there

Stopped to ask you? I'd already clearly laid out where I felt the line was. You knew this. If you felt the line was broadly in the same place why were you questioning me on it again? Based on that it's a reasonable conclusion to come to but hey, you got your one liner in which I think was your entire intent, so congrats

I've said already where I think the line should be drawn. Clearly you disagree and think everything/anything goes. Good luck to you and those who interact with you but it's not what I believe

From an earlier post which you replied to but clearly didn't read "That isn't a blanket excuse for the season we've seen. But at the very least it should be a shield, to a title winning manager, from the kinds of personal abusive off-field criticisms that we see daily on here."

I did say it's not a blanket excuse and that he still should go. Chiesa just standing there - oh my god

My Hillsborough reference was about the impact of the disaster to the players, the staff, the club, the manager, the fans as people. f*** the fact we didn't win the title that year. It's about understanding what actual people are going through in real life. Who was it said that football is the most important of the unimportant things? Fans not getting home from the match is not an unimportant thing. Nor is the death of a team-mate. Nor is the impact of those things on those around them. People here talk about needing a manager who gets the wider aspect of the club/city and then this season focus narrowly on results - I don't get the disconnect

Thank you, I didn't mean that Maybe then you should have first asked rather than jumping to a horrible conclusion

This reminds me far too much of Alan Partridge's three point plan. Think. Act. That's it.

I think it's incredibly distasteful to not mention it and to pretend that there were not extreme circumstances at the club this year. The match going fans, to their credit, mention it every single game but let's pretend this is just like any other year? This club above all should have an awareness of these kinds of impacts. That isn't a blanket excuse for the season we've seen. But at the very least it should be a shield, to a title winning manager, from the kinds of personal abusive off-field criticisms that we see daily on here. I wonder if things would be different next season with him in charge and more signings to balance out the squad (perhaps some better luck with injuries) but I think that ship has sailed and he has to go after the final game.

You honestly think they took 3 days off and then went back at it 100% full throttle? Laughable stuff. Salah in tears at FT against Bournemouth - he was clearly well over Jota's death. For me, that will remain the abiding memory of the season - CL or no CL/Slot staying or going. It had a big impact across pre-season and you basically don't get that back - lots of industry types have said this. Never mind the psychological effects. But yeah, 3 days off and they were all ok again

I think Diogo's death had a massive impact on pre-season and fitness levels across the season which then feeds into robustness and conditioning. Has any club/organisation across different sports gone through this type of trauma and had a successful season in the immediate aftermath?

I'm saying that the players have played badly the blame has gone elsewhere, they've kept playing badly and the blame has continued to go elsewhere. The manager is surely gone at the latest the end of the season - it'd hardly be the first time players stopped putting in the same shift in this scenario. Isn't the "lost the dressing room" basically a tacit admission they're not putting in the same effort? It's pretty much a synonym for it I'm not saying Slot is blameless, he deserves to go, but there's a few there out on that pitch that should be getting more scrutiny for their performances and not just having their s***e waved away

Isn't this just another example of what I'm saying?

Not the only reason but I think it's easier to give up when the blame is going to land elsewhere

Why would the players bother to run when the fans will bail them out by blaming it all on Slot?

Last season we had a consistent midfield 3 generally playing well and undisturbed by injuries in other positions. But I think more importantly Salah playing well up front with senior options to rotate in the other two spots compares much more favourably than to Gakpo-Ekitike-Salah. Often last season we praised Slot for changing things at HT and going on to win the match. He hasn't had the bench this season to do that Wirtz struggling to settle and perhaps not really being right for that 3rd midfield role in the PL hasn't helped either

The others are far from blameless but I'm not doing a player by player review

He wasn't a bad player when he came into the team but he also hasn't improved in the way that he should - and that is on 1 person. Curtis Jones. People talk about how teams are setup as though this is the NFL with every play predetermined and called by the coach or captain. It's a much broader structure which relies just as much on the players making the right decisions as anything. Players making the wrong ones (Jones backpass, Salah overly delayed pass), being unlucky (Gakpo clearing the ball), or just refereeing calls. XG today was 0.5 - 2.25 in our favour. Sounds like overall the structure wasn't too back in that we've created enough chances but haven't converted and then an unlucky deflection hurts us. You don't always get what you deserve in football and it's amazing how often the football gods put the boot in when you're having a bad season. As someone else said, Slot's style is control and punishing mistakes which worked well last season when we limited mistakes and punished other teams. This year we have too many individual errors, poor chance conversion rates, and too many injuries to properly rotate in key areas

Szoboszlai getting hacked down for the break that ultimately led to their winner really pissed me off. Right in front of the ref, couldn't ask for an easier decision to make, and he doesn't give it. Jones then wins the ball back and shows why he isn't starting. He has barely improved at all over the last few years. Just dumps responsibility onto other players na d passes to the keeper who is under more pressure than he was

No wonder so many on here seem to keep referencing that Slot is bald. They're thinking about jumping backwards onto his head

It was a poor performance but it improved second half, didn't feel like they were going to nick it late on and we were more likely (as it proved) to score. The mentality was fine imo You compared it to Klopp's tenure which was why I made the comparison. RAM issues or have you drank too much and that's why your short term memory is shot? Ridiculous tendency on here to think people are perfectly happy with performances and how the season is going if they arent going along with the criticism of every single thing (too much of it overly personal towards the manager)

So a 1-0 away win was worse than a 7-2 away defeat? Can we get this AI slop removed from the board or can someone switch it off and on again?

They'd also be saying to the players "work it out for yourselves", "we paid all this money for you and you're asking me how to play football?" etc

It's become a more physical league this season and I think that's partly on how the refs are approaching games but it feels more chaotic than normal - City drawing tonight at Sunderland as well. Currently at halfway stage and everyone but Arsenal have lost at least 4 games but in the CL English teams are 1st, 4th, 9th, 11th, 12th, 13th which is pretty good

That summer we had 4 senior CBs. 2 were injury prone, 1 was VVD, and 1 was sold and not replaced. The context for Klopp's injury crisis was that VVD got injured and then the other two, having to play a lot of games, also unsurprisingly got injured. Weirdly for a guy who was a CB as a player, it seems to have been the spot where he consistently refused to have enough cover (for my liking) For this season, there is context but clearly none that you'd accept so I'm not going to bother going through it. But keep bringing up Hodgson as a comparison because it's always good to have a reminder just how fickle and quick to turn nasty some fans are