Flasher

Same. What's Ekitike done wrong?

I think we all thought that probably, and rightly so. Ekitike has thrown a "good spanner" in the works, whilst others have yet to impress. Only shining light so far is Dom.

I think he now recognises that he's good enough to be important to us, and that it's ok for him to lead, to grab the game and help dictate things. First season or so he was surrounded by star players and was a little passive as a result. Understandable when making such a move for a relatively young overseas player. See Grav for the same, and maybe Wirtz so far this season.

Anne Widdicoombe

Don't forget the younger players he's also allowed to be moved on because he didn't trust them, compared to Klopp (Elliot, Quansah etc). This is another reason the subs bench looks thin.

Yeah, I keep going back to this. It's poor management. You need everybody on your side and ready to perform to the best of theor ability. Slot would never have won that final against Chelsea the way Klopp did.

Yeah, not a fan of his at all. Still very young though.

Thing is, you make it sound like Ali is comfortable and good at the short stuff, when he really isn't. It's iterally the only fault in his game and he's made some absolute howlers in his time here. Watch the short kicking errors in this, they're horrific and there are a lot of them. https://youtu.be/TFDU3IGszes?si=nxBOBqcXdNCHaQLJ

His kicking is way better than it's being claimed. I stand by it, he's better at the kicking than Ali. Drilled some lovely long balls tonight, and his short passes are generally quicker, takes fewer touches.

Man City are counter attack now. Let them have the ball and counter them instead.

This is it. We won midfield.

Balance and desire.

Burnt out though didn't they. Luckily Arsenal and City were s***e. Either way, he's got to find a way of making Kerkez, Frimpong, Wirtz and Isak work in this squad / team.

Gonna need those other players in other big games though.. can't throw them in completely cold and knowing the manager doesn't trust them. Klopp was a master at it.

Played well vs Arsenal. First half v Everton and A Madrid were electric. We've had spells rather than whole games though.

Deffo, Ali is one of the greatest keepers, ever.

He's pulling off some incredible saves lately that are being overlooked dye to everything else thats happening. Against Villa and Brentford in particular he's reached some impressive top corner efforts. Needs to work on the one-on-one positioning, but he's an excellent shot stopper.

Not so sure myself. Conceded a lot of shots on goal it felt like, albeit many from distance. Villa still got through us. Not sure only making one sub is comforting either. Slot is still not trusting of many players. We definitely had more energy and desire though, closed down better and won more duels.

This lad is daft as a brush.

I think the senior players watching the kids take one for them better fire them up.

I'd rest loads so Slot can focus more on tactics with them for the real games.

Watching MOTD2 and even Danny Murphy nailed it in terms of how were are playing. Forget the long balls, we don't press and can't tackle. Brentford's right back run past 6 of our players through midfield in one move. Nobody tackled him.

Yep, exactly that. This is obvious to me as well. And he needs to stop talking about low block. Teams have done that against us since the 70s ffs.

Last year we were calm and considered, patient. We didn't really press that much. This year, we try to press but are terrible at it, and all the midfield is bombing forward constantly, along with full backs, and we're completely exposed ahead of the ball. And nobody seems able to win the ball without fouling. We surround average players and they still come away with the ball. We need to play a holding double 6 for a while.

I'm gonna lay a log, drink the cat and give the dog a stiff one