Case

I think that it’s about a few things. This is one strand. To be fair, with Klopp, I half remember a snideish ‘What’s he doing now, the crazy genius’ vibe from certain journos, but it was good humoured on the whole. This is much the same. But without the humour.

I meant no one in the press.

John Terry’s, actually. That way I can find out before you what Carra thinks. Everything else is accurate. I’m not lecturing anyone. That was a whopper, granted. Not my finest. But then, there’s never been a single poster on here that’s got everything right. Except Kahnee.

My point is that when we hired a throw in coach under Jurgen, it was positive vibes in the press around marginal gains this and marginal games that. Kloppo is a genius yano. This Summer, no one said a damn thing about throw ins in Thailand. Good name for a band, btw. Now, the press vibe and narrative is to show Slot / LFC as laughable dopes for trying to experiment with throw-ins.

I did. Then I looked at the realistic alternatives, and he made some changes (such as dropping Salah) I’d been hoping for. We’ve improved since, with caveats such as the quality of opponents, so, yeah, I don’t think replacing him now improves our chances of finishing where we’d finish this season under a new coach or interim coach. I think he’ll get us top 5 and I don’t think any coach would win us the League or CL with this imperfect squad. It makes little difference whether we finish 3rd, 4th or 5th, so yeah - keep him on and see if he can improve on his recent pragmatic steps.

Did you want Klopp sacked in early March 2021 when we lost 6 League games in 7, 5 of them at home, the only victory coming against bottom team Sheffield Utd, leaving us 8th in the table behind the likes of Everton and West Ham? We were the reigning League Champions then too. Full disclosure - I (emotionally) wanted Slot and all of the coaches gone a couple of months ago - but he's been working on solutions, and we're making small improvements. Getting rid of this fella might help, it might not. Time will tell. It won't help on anything other then set-pieces though - and lots of fans seem to want Slot gone for loads of reasons, not just set pieces.

Klopp did the same once, no?

Elliott had loads of starts under Klopp, including the 21-22 season when he picked him from the get-go before his bad injury at Leeds. He also played loads in 22-23 and 23-24 though his starts diminished in that season.

He kicked up a whatnow?

BUT ... unlike City, we are, thanks to Hughes, 'well aware' of the player. So there is that.

@Conrad to the thread. I repeat ... @Conrad. To the thread.

I am old.

That is true. Some mitigating circumstances, one of which no other manager has ever had to deal with, also the massive decline in key players performances (VVD, Konate, Macca, Salah - There was Robbo last season). How much this is to do with Slot's own tactics/management or individual decline is hard to assess. BUT - He was great after half time in the first 2/3rds of last season, dire this. Good subs last year (especially the use of Diaz/Gakpo), absolutely dire this. Innovative tactics in how he used Gravenberch and Salah last season, little this season. Until recently, when he has made tactical changes that have worked to a point. He had a stable, Jurgen-wired squad last season, some of his own this, and has failed to integrate any of them consistently well. Yet. He's been tactically bested by almost every oppo manager since March this year, and the team is physically not up to it where they were last season. He has shown some small signs of tactical recovery recently, but he's taken too long to get to this point - half not having the balls to drop Salah sooner imo, half (failing to) integrate new players quickly enough. My worry is that these new tactics, such as they are, will get found out.

When i said ..."We don’t have the quality of players or depth in at least 3 positions to play the attractive football you want AND to get sustained results...." I was replying to kop205. You then replied to this and .... .... here we are.

He didn't, but then I wasn't replying to him. I was replying to the OP by kop205, I think.

It should, yes. But that doesn't necessarily lead to more attractive football, simply more control. That could and should be solved with this bunch of players - it's largely mentality, and Slot has failed to address this. But if you want attractive football as we have played for years under Klopp and last season with an aggressive 4-3-3? This squad of players no longer suits that. We don't have any of the wingers (Salah in spurts aside, but he can't play 3 games a week at a high level ) or much of the pace, OR levels of protection of the defence if we play that formation.

We don’t have the quality of players or depth in at least 3 positions to play the attractive football you want AND to get sustained results. We almost certainly no longer have the right manager either, but changing him alone changes nothing.

I’d take 11

How do you think this dope won the League ahead of 19 other managers last season?

Is it only the top country at the end of the season that gets the extra place?

Is it not also performance based in European competitions? Versus other countries, number of entrants per country, weighting, etc… If so, I think all 6 PL teams will make the last 16, and that means 3 or 4 could make the quarters, then ….? English teams will go far in the other competitions too. Might be a factor And I’m not disagreeing with you.

This depends on what our realistic ambitions are. Title? No, so let’s try to accept that and have the transition season this unfortunately now is. Be grown ups about it ( not a personal jibe, @Swipe ) Ok. So top 5 - And mid-long term, bar money, which we have enough of, it makes no realistic difference whether we’re second or fifth this season. Are we now in that mix that we weren’t a few weeks ago? Yes, we are. It’s by no means certain either, but let’s get Wirtz, Kerkez perhaps, Frimpong all better, get Isak back before May so he can have a full pre-season. Recalibrate.

You could be right. In other news, we’re in better recent form than Arsenal, Utd, Chelsea, Newcastle Utd and every other team apart from City and Villa. We’re not good, but the manager is currently being pragmatic in an injury crisis. At the very least, I think that should be acknowledged.

Well, there was over an hour left in the game. Soz about that.

Aye. They’ve done nothing so far.