Arne Slot ‘utterly broken’ by Liverpool transfer decisions

Arne Slot has been left ‘utterly broken’ by the transfer decisions Liverpool made in the summer, but he must ‘suck it up’ instead of rolling out the excuses.

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Liverpool woes
I’m not suggesting for a second that things are ok at Liverpool at the moment but as a general viewpoint on his position or any other managers position – surely when clubs employ managers they do so on the basis that that particular guy will be the right guy to sort out situations when they go a bit wrong – not just there for when things are going right. Otherwise you have surely got the wrong guy in.

Years ago (and I mean many years ago) a manager was often trusted to go into a new season – clean slate – do whatever he felt he needed to do – however good, bad or indifferent things had been. As he was usually the most qualified to see what needed to be done to improve. Nowadays you go through a bad patch and if you are not careful you are ousted before you can attempt a recovery.

Football/life is about the bad times aswell as the good. Klopp had a few nightmare periods – not least the one where he had no defenders (the VVD injury season) – everyone kept reasonably calm and thought well whatever needs to be done Jurgen will know best. Thats the role of a manager in any organisation is it not? If Slot cant be trusted to find a solution then (putting the not insignificant fact he won the league straight away) he wasn’t the right man to start with – and Liverpool made an error in employing him – much like so so many clubs do.

More than likely he is the right man – but these days with player power the way it is – you never know. Its why a manager has to be more important than any player – see Fergie, Klopp, Pep, Wenger etc.

Shunt LFC

That makes it 6 defeats in the last 7 games for Liverpool. Were it not for the 7 wins from 7 to start the season, we would have been much worse off . The contrast in results before and after that palace defeat is stark even if the performances haven’t differed a lot.

It’s made me wonder what has changed in these past few weeks. Overall I’ve realized the following:

• Lack of form from key players- Salah & VVD are crucial to the way we play. Both have experienced a dip in form compared to last season alongside Konate.

• Match fitness/sharpness- Isak saga ensured he wasn’t able to train properly pre-season but more importantly Macca’s disrupted preseason has hurt us. He is important in the way he retains and regains possession for us.

• Defensive frailty- VVD & Konate are not having the best of seasons, but Kerkez especially seems to be struggling. We are rotating RB slot between Bradley, Frimpong & Dom but kerkez seems to be the undisputed LB even if he’s been struggling. He looks short of confidence overall and struggles with positioning while defending. I do blame slot here partially since one of the better attacking LBs in the league last season has been shackled tactically and he and the team seems worse for it.

• Pressing- Maybe slot is unable to setup team-wide press and last season was muscle memory from klopp era but imo this is a major contributor to our woes. Combined with our tendency to concede early, we struggle to get the ball back when opposition teams just try to retain possession. The loss of Nunez and especially diaz here is a major reason why.

• Bedding in new players: Wirtz was a generational talent we felt we couldn’t miss out on, same with Isak transfer (unnecessary probably, with Ekitike being in the form he was in.) Slot seems to not know how our best lineup anymore or the best setup to utilise all the talent we have on our hands.

• Tactics- Throwing on all your attacking players when chasing a goal doesn’t necessarily lead to a win. Having that  many attackers has been responsible for the lack of balance our team has during the end of games and has lead to last minute losses v palace and Chelsea in particular. Hope his subs improve going forward.

There are a lot of things LFC supporters are criticising Slot over, not least of which has been unexplained disregard for Chiesa. Having said that, I do hope we win atleast 1 if not 2 out of the 3 remaining matches before the break. Fail to do so and the pressure on owners to sack would become massive and while he has not been performing like one would hope, I’d rather we take the time to identify and interview potential candidates for rest of the season than simply sack him and worry about replacement late.

While he doesn’t seem to generate much confidence with his demeanor, he still deserves to see out the rest of the season to try and fix the mess we are currently in because I refuse to believe we can’t do better with the quality we have.

YWNA

Abhinav, Mumbai (poor kids thrown to the wolves)

Arne Ten Hag
So when we first announced slot would take over from klopp I went and watched a bunch of games from his eredevisie years to see what I could expect. I watched about 20 or so.

He had the curious habit of having his entire midfield overload the box when attacking. In the Dutch league this (strangely) never gets punished. But I knew that if he used this tactic in the prem there would be a lot of counter attacking balls over the top. We had actually already seen this tactic from a bald Dutch manager and it didn’t work out very well at all.

Slots Dutch teams also favoured short passing, carrying the ball and traditional wingers who would cut the ball back to a CF.

Honestly I didn’t think he would be successful at all. I thought at best he’d try these things, we’d lose a bunch of games and he’d either realise this tactic doesn’t work here and change or he’d get fired.

Imagine my surprise when he basically just tweaked klopps tactics to be less gung-ho and won the league. I figured I was wrong about him and he’d clearly realised his eredevisie tactics wouldn’t work and adapted.

The season we are having now, is the one I expected to have last year. The difficult part about it is that slot seems unwilling or unable to see the way he’s got us set up isn’t right for a highly counter attacking premier League. What’s worse is he had a blueprint for success last year and for absolutely no reason at all, changed it. And we’re losing, but he still going on TV and talking about how he doesn’t know how to fix it.

This is worrying.

Defeat to villa , Madrid and city (all very likely) will see him sacked I think. With either iraola or inzaghi coming in.

How did someone who won a league, look at his tactics and say – you know what? Let’s rip it up and start again with the same tactics ten hag used

Lee 

Knocking Real Madrid off their perch
I remember some emails from LFC fans in pre-season talking about becoming the biggest club in the world.

The way they are going they might not even end up as the biggest club in Merseyside…..

It’s delicious I tell you. Just delicious.

Nishul Saperia (especially as Man Utd don’t look like absolute rubbish right now…but on that I will still await the next match for that to come back)

If you dish it out…
….you gotta take it.

So what is it Arne? Valid reasons – as I believe injuries which deplete ( ie. make thinner) your squad  are. Or excuses, in which case you’ve just conceded your title defence.  Either way, as you and your team and fans directed your Arsenal counterparts to do last season……suck it up, my friend. Suck it up.

Revenge is a dish best served with a custard pie from the website of your target’s fans.

Ally, London

Neutrals who love Liverpool?
In the mailbox, Will  (Schadenfreude, tasty tasty schadenfreude) makes a rather snarky comment ‘sorry ‘pool fans, but the number of neutrals you think love your team is very thin on the ground’

I for one have never been under the impression that neutrals (is there such a thing?) love Liverpool, and this is based on growing up in Liverpool and now living abroad.

In fact I have only felt a grudging admiration, mainly when winning the Premier League in 2019-20, but even then I think this was more likely because we prevented Man City from winning it again.

I also don’t know any other Liverpool fan, either back home or those I have met in Canada, who thinks any ‘neutral’ also love Liverpool.

Will is making shit up in order to take a childish cheap shot.

A, LFC, Montreal

Yin and yang
Liverpool and Man utd truly are mirror reflections of each other arent they?

As many have pointed out in the mail box and elsewhere, when 1 is good, the other is.. well.. NOT..

Truly the Yin to the others Yang

I have no idea what Slot was thinking.

Made utterly no sense to me – It looked like he had given up this game before it started, That does not go down well generally with owners or fans

Too many players in and too many players out has utterly broken him it seems.

The only way back (for me Clive) is to play a settled side, stick with it, let them get some cohesion and chemistry together, yes injuries, yes tired blah blah

You cant learn together if you dont play together

And stop telling people you cant defend a throw in or corner ffs.. It very quickly becomes a self fulfilling prophecy and the stats are found to fit the narrative.

I am actually worried that Slot has broken and last year was a (very nice) fever dream

The pressure on the Villa game on Saturday is now MASSIVE and as other have said also, Madrid and City to come could see us calling Jurgen to do a Martin O’Neil..

Al – LFC – Old and seen it all before but blimey…

Loving strangers
Loved your letter. Had me literally laughing out loud as a fellow Manchester United fan.

But heres the thing… Even when the team is doing anazingly well, I think its important to still remain objective about things

For example, what Giggs did with his brother’s wife was unforgivable and while I can still love watching replays of him tearing through Arsenals midfield and backline before launching a missile into the Gooners net from that famous FA Cup Semi Final, I cant defend him from anyone who calls him a scumbag!

Also when Ruud Van Nistelrooy was having his best season, I never dared to suggest to anyone he was better than Thierry Henry because  – well – I am a United fan but not an idiot!

Which now brings me to the here and now

Reuben Amorim is the man to get behind. He is clearly intelligent, articulate, charismatic and has a track record of success.

So far in 12 months, he has removed Sancho, Antony,  Onana, Rashford and Garnacho albeit some (maybe most)on loan.

But what does this tell us? Its further evidence of the breath of fresh air we should all allow ourselves to get intoxicated over! He is a man who knows what he wants and will win or die on his hill.

He is the kind of manager I will like even when he eventually leaves  (hopefully in 26 years!)

So get on board the ship my friend. Good times are coming!

And even if they don’t, isn’t the whole purpose of being a football fan to embrace the stranger obsession with every other insane human worldwide doing the same thing!

Or would you rather move over to the dark side of life and treat football Fandom as a part time hobby eeeeuurghh!

Mustafa Rashid  (I used to just love Man United winning but learnt from my cousin how Liverpool losing could be just as arousing!)

So there I was, casually perusing through the mailbox earlier only to come across this little beauty, “I don’t care about United any more, or the players bar a few I’ve still got that attachment too (De Ligt, Mainoo and Yoro are pretty much the only exceptions). I don’t care if we somehow win the title, or get relegated”.

Hold up, what? This is the same Badwolf who was consistently writing in complaining about the club and manager up to a couple of weeks ago when results were not going our way. Now, seemingly after a few positive results, is so change-fatigued they simply cannot find the strength to write in about a club who they support (whilst also writing in about a club they support).

Well you were happy enough to seek change calling for Amorim’s head. Happy enough to not extend Maguire’s contract. Happy enough to demand change in the shape of Glasner and Munoz. Not happy that Bruno wanted to stay because he was “committed to the project”. So seeking change constantly, and when change doesn’t come you then bemoan change-fatigue. Wtf.

More likely, you have been staunch Amorim out (which is fine, you are allowed an opinion) and now that it looks like there is a glimmer of hope you are scrambling for a way not to die on that hill. Better to just accept you might have been wrong and enjoy the decent football being served up. Trust me, I have been wrong to varying degrees by over-backing every single previous manager since Sir Alex (and could still be wrong about Ruby). But that’s part of the fun because it’s going to happen eventually. And at the end of the day, it’s a game we love with every fibre but it’s still only a game.

As nobody said ever, if you can’t support us when we’re winning then don’t “support” us when we are losing or drawing.

Garey Vance, MUFC

Newcastle’s England team would beat Arsenal’s
After an Arsenal fan bigging up that they managed to play 8 English players in the Carabao (including a bunch of kids), I’m challenging the mailbox to give me their club’s current-player best all-English XI.

Rules – I would like to see your formation, your 1-11 and any respectable subs. Bonus points for long-forgotten ex-internationals or academy stars who you have any good reason to think will become great. Half point deductions for Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish players, amd Englishmen out of position.

And yes, I don’t think Arsenal (or anyone) will beat Newcastle’s, in a 4-3-3:

Pope

Livramento-Lascelles-Burn-Hall

Willock-Miley-Ramsey

J Murphy-Gordon-Barnes

Subs:

Ramsdale-Trippier-Shahar-Ashby-Harrison-White-Neave

And there you have it. 8 current or former full England internationals and another half dozen or so age group players. No Harry Kane but I think this XI would probably have got out of England’s actual World Cup qualifiers.

Can anyone beat Newcastle’s England C team?

Roger, (Eddie Howes Brexit-ball Mags?)

This is to follow up the letter from James (Kent) on English Arsenal players.

In the days when such odd matches took place and you were able to turn up to a game fairly certain you could get in, I saw Arsenal vs France(!). The internet informs me this was Valentine’s day ❤ 1989.In the second half, David O’Leary was replaced by Steve Bould and the crowd started chanting “Arsenal for England”. Yes, the whole 11 on the pitch were English.

Nothing similar since, though there were times when I felt Wenger was trying to provide balance by working towards an entirely French team

Reg, Reigate

Nuance is lost in the social media age
I think we can all agree that nuance was one of the first casualties of the social media revolution. Any nuance has been lost to binary opinions, and playground style debates filled with choice selected stats that make your point, but only if you ignore any others that may contradict your position.

This is a roundabout way to say I was really interested in Turiyo’s comment about Arsenal’s sponsorship deal with Rwanda. Now my knowledge of the conflict that took place there is based solely on my reading of the book A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali, so limited at best. But reading their post, I felt it touched on nuance. It is easy for people in other nations to take morally or ideological positions that they feel are morally correct, and they believe superior, not realising the harm it does to a vast swathe of people. So thank you Turiyo for sharing your POV, I learned something new and re-assessed my own position on Arsenal’s sponsorship deals. No one ever really questions the Emirate’s sponsorship, even though the nation that owns the airline is currently at war in Sudan.

Now I know lots of people who say ‘keep politics out of football’ but the problem is that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is political, and nothing exists in isolation. You wouldn’t have nations buy clubs to sportswash their reputations if it didn’t work. You wouldn’t have nefarious actors trying to infiltrate club fans and causing trouble abroad if it didn’t have an impact.

John Matrix AFC