I don't know who he can play a one two with most of the time, in the last many games is my point.
Obviously on form he wouldn't be out there if gakpo had remained fit. He was performing well up to his injury and scoring regularly.
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I don't know who he can play a one two with most of the time, in the last many games is my point.
Obviously on form he wouldn't be out there if gakpo had remained fit. He was performing well up to his injury and scoring regularly.
He comes inside most of the time when on the ball, so there are a fuck ton of opportunities to do so.
The problem recently isn't what we do when he's on the ball and we're up in the opponents half and the fullback has got up the pitch, and there's midfielders around him. That's a problem too.
The problem is he gets the ball on the wing and there's no one ahead of him running to the box, because the striker is too deep. Our midfield three are, on average cheating right. Robbo doesn't have all the bombing runs in him.
Usually, if Diaz keeps it, it's either on him to dribble, mostly just to relieve pressure. It's not really for him to work something because there's nothing central for him.
So the remit to the opposition is can you shepherd an out of form winger who lacks elite speed so that it's not a good outball. The right backs get all sorts of practice all season with this. An out of form Diaz isn't much of an issue isolated like that. The same is true of Salah. You need more speed.
The difference is, that Salah usually has szobo willing to make a run, Trent to work with, etc. It's all down the right. Diaz is back to disappointing us, but there really isn't much going on. He's never been that great at integrating into play on the ball anyway, but even more playground style players like space, and you need movement to get it. Whatever dying embers of movement we do see, it's not around Diaz.
Agree with all but the last sentence - City's implosion has been coming for 3 seasons (as I have been optimistically forecasting each season), it was obvious with the transfers they were making and the loss or aging of world class key players. So saying 'but for' is like saying my Uncle would be my Aunt if ...
Even so if we finish with OPTA's forecast 89 points that is still one helluva season (14th best ever).
I thought I'd just research that since it's an interesting point but sounds just like a rumour based on this season. And in fact that is exactly what it is.
In 2023/4 at Feyenoord, Slot mostly used 13 players who all ended up with between 30 and 47 games in all competitions. There were another 5 with between 22 and 27 games. So a preferred core of 18 players but with plenty of rotation. And another 5 more players in double figures.
In 2022/3 he had 16 players between and 31 and 48 with another on 28 and one more on 21. With 3 more players in double figures. So a core of 17 players + 1.
Now some of that is to do with Feyenoord not having as large a squad of top players as Liverpool and some to do with them playing a lot less games against high quality opposition, so players are not as fatigued.
For comparison it looks like Mo. will play the most games this season for us. Likely games : Mo. (53) but with 7 players between 50 and 53 plus 5 more with 45 - 49 and likely 7 more with 25 - 35 game involvements and 3 more in double figures. You can add Internationals to those games.
It would be interesting to see how this much vaunted 'medical and fitness team' is assessing the players and how much input they have with in-game management.
Very long read, in case any one is interested.
View: https://x.com/DavidSegar_/status/1901700041762324766
In his first competitive game in charge of Liverpool, Arne Slot made it clear how important he thinks duels are.
The Dutch coach was unhappy with his team in their goalless first half at Ipswich Town in August 2024, where they had won just 41.5% of their duels against the newly-promoted side.
“I have to give credit to Ipswich, because they were aggressive, they were not afraid, they were playing one-v-one all over the pitch to defend us,” Slot said after the game. “Then it is about winning your duels and winning your second balls. I think they won more than us and that’s why it was absolutely an equal game in the first half.”
The Liverpool boss took off Jarell Quansah for Ibrahima Konaté at half-time at Portman Road and his team were more controlling, winning 54.5% of duels after the break and going on to win 2-0.
Slot will be hoping he can figure out how to get his team competing better in duels again soon, though, because their numbers have dipped notably in recent games.
Given they lead the Premier League by 12 points with nine games remaining, it would be a little unfair to suggest that Liverpool’s season is unravelling. However, their first back-to-back defeats under Slot have cut their opportunities of success in 2024-25 by two thirds in the last week.
They were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain on penalties after a 1-0 defeat at Anfield on Tuesday, before being beaten 2-1 by Newcastle United in the EFL Cup final on Sunday in a performance that some have described as the worst in a final from Liverpool this century.
There are numerous things you could point to as to why things went wrong for the Reds. Mohamed Salah was playing in the 10th final of his career and once again failed to score an open-play goal. He now has just one penalty goal to his name in those 10 final appearances for Liverpool and Egypt and failed to make any mark on the game on Sunday. Salah did not attempt a shot or create a chance in a game in which he played 90-plus minutes for the first time in his Liverpool career.
It would be wildly unfair to blame the man who has 32 goals and 22 assists this season, though. It is perhaps a little concerning that Salah hasn’t scored a non-penalty goal in his last five games, but others really need to step up.
After Dan Burn and Alexander Isak had given Newcastle a deserved 2-0 lead, none of Liverpool’s main attacking options looked like they would score, and it took forgotten man Federico Chiesa to finally do anything of note with his stoppage-time strike, but it was too little too late for the Reds.
Tiredness has been cited as a factor after Liverpool looked ragged on the giant Wembley pitch. That may well have been the case after they had to play extra-time on Tuesday against PSG, but while Slot clearly has his favourites, he has rotated more than most this season, so it may not be as simple as saying Liverpool’s players are reaching the point of burnout.
The EFL Cup final was Liverpool’s 47th game in all competitions this season, with eight players featuring in at least 40 of those. In the Premier League, only Nottingham Forest (23) have used fewer players than Liverpool in 2024-25 (24, level with Arsenal and Newcastle).
However, in all competitions this season, only Chelsea (7.2), Ipswich (4.4), Manchester City (4.3) and Tottenham Hotspur (4.3) have averaged more than Liverpool’s 3.9 changes to the starting XI per game of Premier League teams. It should be noted that Chelsea’s high average is primarily due to their Conference League campaign, where they’ve played a number of fringe players.
That rotation has slowed in recent weeks, though, and nine of Liverpool’s 10 outfield players who started the EFL Cup final also started both legs against PSG. That continuity would perhaps have made sense if they’d played better against Luis Enrique’s side, or even just sneaked through, but when the team was announced on Sunday it wasn’t overly surprising that Liverpool looked lacking in energy and belief for much of the contest.
In truth, Liverpool were bullied by Newcastle and – as Slot acknowledged after the game – one area where the difference between the two teams was especially noticeable came in contesting duels. A duel is defined as a 50-50 contest between two players of opposing sides in the match. For every duel won there is a corresponding duel lost depending on the outcome of the contest.
Disagreeing with the notion that tiredness in his players was to blame, Slot said: “This game had nothing to do with running, it had only to do with playing duels… This game went exactly the way [Newcastle] wanted it to, a fight with a lot of duels and a lot of duels in the air. And if we play 10 times a game of football through the air against them, they win it probably nine times because they are a stronger team through the air than us.”
Newcastle won 57.3% of duels (51/89), and 68.0% of aerial duels (17/25) in the final. Curiously, Liverpool actually bettered Newcastle in duel success in their Premier League meeting at Anfield only last month, winning 55.2% of total duels (53/96) and 64.3% of aerial duels (9/14), though the visitors were without key midfielder Joelinton that night, who as we’ll get to, rose to the occasion at Wembley.
Duels can be a tricky metric to analyse. For example, Bournemouth have the worst duel success percentage in the Premier League this season (47.6%), but could very well end up qualifying for the Champions League. Crystal Palace have the lowest aerial duel success (45.0%) but in recent weeks have been one of the strongest performing teams in England’s top flight.
However, in Liverpool’s case, their record in duels has often mirrored their overall success in recent seasons. The last season they averaged more than a 50% duel success rate in the Premier League was in 2019-20 when they won the title (50.6%).
They had the worst duel success rate in the Premier League in 2022-23 (47.5%) when they finished fifth. That was part of the reason they almost entirely refreshed their midfield the following summer.
It worked to an extent in 2023-24 as their percentage rose to 48.9%, though there were still only four teams with a worse average in the Premier League as they ultimately fell out of the title race to finish third in Jürgen Klopp’s final season at Anfield.
With Slot at the helm, Liverpool seemed to be doing better in duels, and at the turn of the year, had the sixth best success rate in the league (51.2%). However, since the new year they have the fourth worst (48.0%). With their current rate of just under 50%, they very easily could finish over that marker for the first time in five years, but they will need to arrest their recent slide.
We analysed prior to the final that the midfield battle would be a key factor in the game, and so it proved. Joelinton and Bruno Guimarães won nine duels each from 13 and 14 attempts respectively, while no Liverpool midfielder won more than three.
In fact, of all 16 players who featured for Liverpool at Wembley, only Konaté (3/4), Salah (2/3) and Chiesa (4/4) won more than 50% of their duels.
Given the relatively small number of duels that can take place in a game, losing a handful can make a big difference to percentages, but what should be concerning for Liverpool is that losing out in most of their duels is becoming a growing trend.
Of their six least successful games for duels this season, three have come since the start of March, while last month’s unconvincing Premier League home win over Wolves also features in the top 10. That includes an astonishingly low 32.5% (27/83) success rate in their Champions League last-16 first-leg win at PSG.
In total this season, Liverpool have only won more than 50% of their duels in 15 of their 47 games, and have only done so three times in their last 17 games in all competitions.
Duel numbers also include aerial duels, where Liverpool have actually been quite good this campaign, largely thanks to the dominance of Virgil van Dijk and Konaté. In fact, they have the highest percentage of successful aerial duels in the Premier League (54.9%). As mentioned, it was an area where they struggled on Sunday, though, winning just 32% against Newcastle (8/25).
That was in part due to the Magpies’ clever corner routines that saw the very tall Burn move away from the middle of the penalty area where Van Dijk and Konaté were, instead only having to beat the diminutive figure of Alexis Mac Allister in the air, which he did with ease, especially for the opening goal of the game.
Not every team will be made up of as many giants as Newcastle, though, and so as far as improvements in duels go, it is ground duels where Liverpool could do with bettering their numbers.
Across their first 37 games in all competitions this season, Liverpool won 48.4% of their ground duels; that’s not an amazing figure but it’s close enough to 50% to not have them necessarily be a deciding factor in games.
However, in their last 10 games, they have won just 44.4% of ground duels.
This could simply be a result of becoming more of a target. At the start of the season before anyone knew how good Liverpool would be under their new boss, perhaps opponents weren’t as ready for them. Since their domination of the Premier League and impressive performance in the league phase of the Champions League, teams know Liverpool are a force to be reckoned with, and that extra efforts must be made against them.
Ryan Gravenberch has been a surprise success story in a deep midfield role this season, and earlier in the campaign one of his biggest strengths was his success in duels. As of 3 December, the Dutchman had the second-best duel success of Premier League central midfielders with 64.7% (min. five appearances). However, he has won just 51.2% since then, only just inside the top 50 central midfielders in the division in that time.
His overall percentage in all competitions of 56.8% is still well above regular midfield partners Curtis Jones (47.9%), Mac Allister (46.3%) and Dominik Szoboszlai (45.3%), so perhaps on occasion Gravenberch could do with more help in that area, with regular late sub Wataru Endo on 55.9%.
It should also be noted that with nine games remaining, Gravenberch has already played 3,515 minutes for his club this season, almost twice as many as he did in the whole of last season (1,847), and almost four times as many as the season before at Bayern Munich (938). Only in the 2020-21 campaign at Ajax has he played more minutes in a single season (3,949).
Ending the season with ‘only’ the Premier League title to show for it will still make this one of Liverpool’s best in modern times, but they can’t afford to sleepwalk to the end of the campaign.
There were elements of bad luck about the PSG defeat, but essentially it has been two hugely important games in a week where Liverpool’s opponents have looked more energetic and determined.
The international break may have come at an ideal time for Liverpool, and they must right the ship when they return to club football in early April. After all, there is still work to do to seal the title.
View: https://x.com/DavidSegar_/status/1901700041762324766
In his first competitive game in charge of Liverpool, Arne Slot made it clear how important he thinks duels are.
The Dutch coach was unhappy with his team in their goalless first half at Ipswich Town in August 2024, where they had won just 41.5% of their duels against the newly-promoted side.
“I have to give credit to Ipswich, because they were aggressive, they were not afraid, they were playing one-v-one all over the pitch to defend us,” Slot said after the game. “Then it is about winning your duels and winning your second balls. I think they won more than us and that’s why it was absolutely an equal game in the first half.”
The Liverpool boss took off Jarell Quansah for Ibrahima Konaté at half-time at Portman Road and his team were more controlling, winning 54.5% of duels after the break and going on to win 2-0.
Slot will be hoping he can figure out how to get his team competing better in duels again soon, though, because their numbers have dipped notably in recent games.
Given they lead the Premier League by 12 points with nine games remaining, it would be a little unfair to suggest that Liverpool’s season is unravelling. However, their first back-to-back defeats under Slot have cut their opportunities of success in 2024-25 by two thirds in the last week.
They were eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain on penalties after a 1-0 defeat at Anfield on Tuesday, before being beaten 2-1 by Newcastle United in the EFL Cup final on Sunday in a performance that some have described as the worst in a final from Liverpool this century.
There are numerous things you could point to as to why things went wrong for the Reds. Mohamed Salah was playing in the 10th final of his career and once again failed to score an open-play goal. He now has just one penalty goal to his name in those 10 final appearances for Liverpool and Egypt and failed to make any mark on the game on Sunday. Salah did not attempt a shot or create a chance in a game in which he played 90-plus minutes for the first time in his Liverpool career.
It would be wildly unfair to blame the man who has 32 goals and 22 assists this season, though. It is perhaps a little concerning that Salah hasn’t scored a non-penalty goal in his last five games, but others really need to step up.
After Dan Burn and Alexander Isak had given Newcastle a deserved 2-0 lead, none of Liverpool’s main attacking options looked like they would score, and it took forgotten man Federico Chiesa to finally do anything of note with his stoppage-time strike, but it was too little too late for the Reds.
Tiredness has been cited as a factor after Liverpool looked ragged on the giant Wembley pitch. That may well have been the case after they had to play extra-time on Tuesday against PSG, but while Slot clearly has his favourites, he has rotated more than most this season, so it may not be as simple as saying Liverpool’s players are reaching the point of burnout.
The EFL Cup final was Liverpool’s 47th game in all competitions this season, with eight players featuring in at least 40 of those. In the Premier League, only Nottingham Forest (23) have used fewer players than Liverpool in 2024-25 (24, level with Arsenal and Newcastle).
However, in all competitions this season, only Chelsea (7.2), Ipswich (4.4), Manchester City (4.3) and Tottenham Hotspur (4.3) have averaged more than Liverpool’s 3.9 changes to the starting XI per game of Premier League teams. It should be noted that Chelsea’s high average is primarily due to their Conference League campaign, where they’ve played a number of fringe players.
That rotation has slowed in recent weeks, though, and nine of Liverpool’s 10 outfield players who started the EFL Cup final also started both legs against PSG. That continuity would perhaps have made sense if they’d played better against Luis Enrique’s side, or even just sneaked through, but when the team was announced on Sunday it wasn’t overly surprising that Liverpool looked lacking in energy and belief for much of the contest.
In truth, Liverpool were bullied by Newcastle and – as Slot acknowledged after the game – one area where the difference between the two teams was especially noticeable came in contesting duels. A duel is defined as a 50-50 contest between two players of opposing sides in the match. For every duel won there is a corresponding duel lost depending on the outcome of the contest.
Disagreeing with the notion that tiredness in his players was to blame, Slot said: “This game had nothing to do with running, it had only to do with playing duels… This game went exactly the way [Newcastle] wanted it to, a fight with a lot of duels and a lot of duels in the air. And if we play 10 times a game of football through the air against them, they win it probably nine times because they are a stronger team through the air than us.”
Newcastle won 57.3% of duels (51/89), and 68.0% of aerial duels (17/25) in the final. Curiously, Liverpool actually bettered Newcastle in duel success in their Premier League meeting at Anfield only last month, winning 55.2% of total duels (53/96) and 64.3% of aerial duels (9/14), though the visitors were without key midfielder Joelinton that night, who as we’ll get to, rose to the occasion at Wembley.
Duels can be a tricky metric to analyse. For example, Bournemouth have the worst duel success percentage in the Premier League this season (47.6%), but could very well end up qualifying for the Champions League. Crystal Palace have the lowest aerial duel success (45.0%) but in recent weeks have been one of the strongest performing teams in England’s top flight.
However, in Liverpool’s case, their record in duels has often mirrored their overall success in recent seasons. The last season they averaged more than a 50% duel success rate in the Premier League was in 2019-20 when they won the title (50.6%).
They had the worst duel success rate in the Premier League in 2022-23 (47.5%) when they finished fifth. That was part of the reason they almost entirely refreshed their midfield the following summer.
It worked to an extent in 2023-24 as their percentage rose to 48.9%, though there were still only four teams with a worse average in the Premier League as they ultimately fell out of the title race to finish third in Jürgen Klopp’s final season at Anfield.
With Slot at the helm, Liverpool seemed to be doing better in duels, and at the turn of the year, had the sixth best success rate in the league (51.2%). However, since the new year they have the fourth worst (48.0%). With their current rate of just under 50%, they very easily could finish over that marker for the first time in five years, but they will need to arrest their recent slide.
We analysed prior to the final that the midfield battle would be a key factor in the game, and so it proved. Joelinton and Bruno Guimarães won nine duels each from 13 and 14 attempts respectively, while no Liverpool midfielder won more than three.
In fact, of all 16 players who featured for Liverpool at Wembley, only Konaté (3/4), Salah (2/3) and Chiesa (4/4) won more than 50% of their duels.
Given the relatively small number of duels that can take place in a game, losing a handful can make a big difference to percentages, but what should be concerning for Liverpool is that losing out in most of their duels is becoming a growing trend.
Of their six least successful games for duels this season, three have come since the start of March, while last month’s unconvincing Premier League home win over Wolves also features in the top 10. That includes an astonishingly low 32.5% (27/83) success rate in their Champions League last-16 first-leg win at PSG.
In total this season, Liverpool have only won more than 50% of their duels in 15 of their 47 games, and have only done so three times in their last 17 games in all competitions.
Duel numbers also include aerial duels, where Liverpool have actually been quite good this campaign, largely thanks to the dominance of Virgil van Dijk and Konaté. In fact, they have the highest percentage of successful aerial duels in the Premier League (54.9%). As mentioned, it was an area where they struggled on Sunday, though, winning just 32% against Newcastle (8/25).
That was in part due to the Magpies’ clever corner routines that saw the very tall Burn move away from the middle of the penalty area where Van Dijk and Konaté were, instead only having to beat the diminutive figure of Alexis Mac Allister in the air, which he did with ease, especially for the opening goal of the game.
Not every team will be made up of as many giants as Newcastle, though, and so as far as improvements in duels go, it is ground duels where Liverpool could do with bettering their numbers.
Across their first 37 games in all competitions this season, Liverpool won 48.4% of their ground duels; that’s not an amazing figure but it’s close enough to 50% to not have them necessarily be a deciding factor in games.
However, in their last 10 games, they have won just 44.4% of ground duels.
This could simply be a result of becoming more of a target. At the start of the season before anyone knew how good Liverpool would be under their new boss, perhaps opponents weren’t as ready for them. Since their domination of the Premier League and impressive performance in the league phase of the Champions League, teams know Liverpool are a force to be reckoned with, and that extra efforts must be made against them.
Ryan Gravenberch has been a surprise success story in a deep midfield role this season, and earlier in the campaign one of his biggest strengths was his success in duels. As of 3 December, the Dutchman had the second-best duel success of Premier League central midfielders with 64.7% (min. five appearances). However, he has won just 51.2% since then, only just inside the top 50 central midfielders in the division in that time.
His overall percentage in all competitions of 56.8% is still well above regular midfield partners Curtis Jones (47.9%), Mac Allister (46.3%) and Dominik Szoboszlai (45.3%), so perhaps on occasion Gravenberch could do with more help in that area, with regular late sub Wataru Endo on 55.9%.
It should also be noted that with nine games remaining, Gravenberch has already played 3,515 minutes for his club this season, almost twice as many as he did in the whole of last season (1,847), and almost four times as many as the season before at Bayern Munich (938). Only in the 2020-21 campaign at Ajax has he played more minutes in a single season (3,949).
Ending the season with ‘only’ the Premier League title to show for it will still make this one of Liverpool’s best in modern times, but they can’t afford to sleepwalk to the end of the campaign.
There were elements of bad luck about the PSG defeat, but essentially it has been two hugely important games in a week where Liverpool’s opponents have looked more energetic and determined.
The international break may have come at an ideal time for Liverpool, and they must right the ship when they return to club football in early April. After all, there is still work to do to seal the title.
This raises the possibility of playing Mo. at CF and utilising his best assets (assists and goals) in an area where he could be more valuable and which doesn't require blistering pace. We saw it with Mane.
We can then have fast(er) wingers and will have a creative & deadly CF.
Just want to comment on @Farkmaster ’s post from another thread accusing Slot of “small time mentality” (not in those exact words, but that’s what’s implied). Before we get to Slot, let’s look at the big picture. This season has seen the return of the pragmatic, flexible manager type after a few years of football being dominated by ideologues - yesterday’s visionaries of possession football, your Bielsas and De Zerbis, not to mention the big Don Guardiola himself suddenly looked out of date, while some particularly devoted zealots like Ange and Lijnders turned into laughingstock. Even Klopp started to look a tiny bit out of date toward the end of his tenure with his maximalist approach more often than not ending in burnout and disappointment.
Against this backdrop, everything Slot did, even his most mundane decisions looked positively refreshing. For a manager initially presented as a Guardiola diciple, he revealed a very different nature - someone more akin to Ancelotti, a manager for whom the principles of Bielsa-Guardiola ball (which he very much absorbed) were just a useful tool in a toolbox rather than a life mission. His decisions to slighly dial back the intensity, willingness to hold players accountable rather than trying to be positive all the time, his squad management in terms of injuries - all of these seemed like long overdue steps in the right direction and our league position is the irrefutable proof.
But high-level football is a complex beast and in the waning months of the season it seems like the winds have again shifted and the tiki-taka ideologues are making a partial comeback. Flick’s Barcelona just managed to beat (by the skin of their teeth) the torchbearer of pragmatic football in Atletico and Slot got outfoxed by another Barcelona diciple in Enrique - although it was probably the difference in pace and quality in attack that was a bigger factor than tactics. And because Slot didn’t opt for a Klopp-style maximalist approach against the objectively superior (on the day, with current form and availability in mind) attacking unit of PSG, he is now somehow being compared to Hodgson, which you have to say is pretty fucking unfair.
So what’s my take on Slot? End of the season will be a better time to assess and judge, but from my perspective, there is no shame is being pragmatic - you can absolutely be a winner and send out a team to defend and grind out the result, as someone like Mourinho and every Italian manager in existance proved many times. My assessment of the PSG tie is that Slot was caught in between wanting to dominate and prove our superiority and his instinct that told him PSG were actually better on current form and our best chance was in controlling and nullifiyng them rather than going tit for tat. I think the lesson he will draw from this is to be even more unapologetically pragmatic and trust his instinct over external expectations. As for the squad management, I think @keniget ‘s OP addressed most points - Slot has almost certainly made mistakes, but the overall narrative of him not trusting the squad is overblown. Next few weeks will be fascinating - it will be yet another test of Slot’s and the players’ mettle to be able to dust themselves off and finish the job in the league.
Against this backdrop, everything Slot did, even his most mundane decisions looked positively refreshing. For a manager initially presented as a Guardiola diciple, he revealed a very different nature - someone more akin to Ancelotti, a manager for whom the principles of Bielsa-Guardiola ball (which he very much absorbed) were just a useful tool in a toolbox rather than a life mission. His decisions to slighly dial back the intensity, willingness to hold players accountable rather than trying to be positive all the time, his squad management in terms of injuries - all of these seemed like long overdue steps in the right direction and our league position is the irrefutable proof.
But high-level football is a complex beast and in the waning months of the season it seems like the winds have again shifted and the tiki-taka ideologues are making a partial comeback. Flick’s Barcelona just managed to beat (by the skin of their teeth) the torchbearer of pragmatic football in Atletico and Slot got outfoxed by another Barcelona diciple in Enrique - although it was probably the difference in pace and quality in attack that was a bigger factor than tactics. And because Slot didn’t opt for a Klopp-style maximalist approach against the objectively superior (on the day, with current form and availability in mind) attacking unit of PSG, he is now somehow being compared to Hodgson, which you have to say is pretty fucking unfair.
So what’s my take on Slot? End of the season will be a better time to assess and judge, but from my perspective, there is no shame is being pragmatic - you can absolutely be a winner and send out a team to defend and grind out the result, as someone like Mourinho and every Italian manager in existance proved many times. My assessment of the PSG tie is that Slot was caught in between wanting to dominate and prove our superiority and his instinct that told him PSG were actually better on current form and our best chance was in controlling and nullifiyng them rather than going tit for tat. I think the lesson he will draw from this is to be even more unapologetically pragmatic and trust his instinct over external expectations. As for the squad management, I think @keniget ‘s OP addressed most points - Slot has almost certainly made mistakes, but the overall narrative of him not trusting the squad is overblown. Next few weeks will be fascinating - it will be yet another test of Slot’s and the players’ mettle to be able to dust themselves off and finish the job in the league.
Hypothetical based on injuries and whatever, but I'd be looking to go with these variations in the next few games, depending on who we play etc..
---------------Alisson-----------------
Trent---Konate---Virgil---Robertson
---------------Gravy/Endo-----------
-------Szobo/CJ-------Macca----------
--Chiesa/MS-----------------Gapko---
--------------Salah/FC------------------
---------------Alisson-----------------
Trent---Konate---Virgil---Robertson
---------------Endo/RG--------------
-------Szobo----------Macca/CJ-----
---------------Elliott-----------------
---Salah------------------Gapko/FC
Nunez, Diaz and Jota can warm the bench. After 40 odd games between them of mediocrity, give or take the odd good game or goal, they don't deserve a spot ahead of Elliott or Chiesa. None of this "now is not the time to experiment" bullshit, we've seen what becoming stagnant has done to us in recent weeks.
---------------Alisson-----------------
Trent---Konate---Virgil---Robertson
---------------Gravy/Endo-----------
-------Szobo/CJ-------Macca----------
--Chiesa/MS-----------------Gapko---
--------------Salah/FC------------------
---------------Alisson-----------------
Trent---Konate---Virgil---Robertson
---------------Endo/RG--------------
-------Szobo----------Macca/CJ-----
---------------Elliott-----------------
---Salah------------------Gapko/FC
Nunez, Diaz and Jota can warm the bench. After 40 odd games between them of mediocrity, give or take the odd good game or goal, they don't deserve a spot ahead of Elliott or Chiesa. None of this "now is not the time to experiment" bullshit, we've seen what becoming stagnant has done to us in recent weeks.
Personally I think now is an opportune moment to give Endo a run in the side. Whilst the international break will give some respite, and players will be coming back to a reduced fixture schedule, considering the statistical drop off in terms of winning duals it makes sense to get our best dual-winner on the pitch. Play him alongside either Gravy or Macca, with Elliott, Szobo and Chiesa competing for two slots centrally, either as two false nines or with Chiesa up front.
And yet the 95 odr
Came into the post the same, and one variant of a 4-4-2. Given we press as a 4-2-4 it's an easy formation to move quickly into on the ball, and given the CM's all look fucked so reducing them down to 2 starting might alleviate things for a few weeks. There's certainly no harm in getting Salah and Chiesa closer to goal because look the only players who can put something away at the moment until Gakpo gets up to speed. Sadly there's probably not 90 minutes in Chiesa's legs!
---------------Ali
Trent---Konate--VVD---Robbo
--------Endo---Mac/Jones-----------
--Elliot------------------Gakpo/Jones--
--------Salah-----FC/Gakpo
Came into the post the same, and one variant of a 4-4-2. Given we press as a 4-2-4 it's an easy formation to move quickly into on the ball, and given the CM's all look fucked so reducing them down to 2 starting might alleviate things for a few weeks. There's certainly no harm in getting Salah and Chiesa closer to goal because look the only players who can put something away at the moment until Gakpo gets up to speed. Sadly there's probably not 90 minutes in Chiesa's legs!
---------------Ali
Trent---Konate--VVD---Robbo
--------Endo---Mac/Jones-----------
--Elliot------------------Gakpo/Jones--
--------Salah-----FC/Gakpo
Tbh I'm not even asking for them to step up and be the main man. I just want them to remember their fucking lines. Salahs Oscar level and the other cunts are going for the Razzies.
PSG went from Messi, Neymar and Mbappe to Kvara, Dembele and Barcola. Plus Verrati to Vitinha.
If you had said to anyone, they'd improve as a team, you'd have been laughed at in the beginning.
But alas, they have. They've got more energy in the team and even if the individual quality (player for player) has dropped off, the team has improved overall.
I think we can improve on Salah, as long as the other 2 positions are looked at too, which would then require a pretty big overhaul in attack.
If you had said to anyone, they'd improve as a team, you'd have been laughed at in the beginning.
But alas, they have. They've got more energy in the team and even if the individual quality (player for player) has dropped off, the team has improved overall.
I think we can improve on Salah, as long as the other 2 positions are looked at too, which would then require a pretty big overhaul in attack.
It's been fairly obvious that the attack needs major surgery for a couple years now.
Jota can't be relied on, Gakpo and Diaz are supporting cast members, Nunez is poo and Salah is to an extent a very good luxury player.
We don't need to replace everyone, just those players that aren't contributing consistently: Nunez and Jota.
Ideally we bring in two players but even if we swapped those two for just one top class player that a) is available and b) delivers, the result would be transformative.
This is why the Nunez transfer has been so so damaging (and Keita before him). The opportunity cost has been huge. How different would things have looked with a player like Isak for example? We can only speculate.
Anyways, whether or not Salah goes, this is not something we can leave unaddressed for another season. It greatly affects the team as a whole.
Jota can't be relied on, Gakpo and Diaz are supporting cast members, Nunez is poo and Salah is to an extent a very good luxury player.
We don't need to replace everyone, just those players that aren't contributing consistently: Nunez and Jota.
Ideally we bring in two players but even if we swapped those two for just one top class player that a) is available and b) delivers, the result would be transformative.
This is why the Nunez transfer has been so so damaging (and Keita before him). The opportunity cost has been huge. How different would things have looked with a player like Isak for example? We can only speculate.
Anyways, whether or not Salah goes, this is not something we can leave unaddressed for another season. It greatly affects the team as a whole.
This is why, even going back to the statistical analysis that seemed to desert us with the Keita and Nunez transfers, it would be like us to go out and bring in someone who is solid if unspectacular in terms of rep, someone who has a good fitness record and puts in the numbers, without necessarily being a megastar in the making. I mean I don't want to play down Mane's ability, he was top quality, but he ticked the boxes in terms of fitness and output.
Not that I would ever for one minute advocate signing someone like Chris Wood, but you can see the benefit they have had from someone who fits their system, is fit most of the time and does the simple things well. Jota is always injured and then is only productive in small spells, Diaz is the same without the injuries and Nunez is well... He doesn't have the brains, reliability or simplicity to weigh in as we need him to, but not just that, he's erratic in terms of effort and temperament too, which goes against everything this blueprint is about.
One thing to also highlight around Diaz that I think Slot is ignoring (that Klopp largely did too) is that he should be a credible option on the right. When Mo was injured or at AFCON (can't remember which) for a spell last season, I remember Diaz looking good on that side.
Our play is very predictable that both Mo & Diaz more often than not cut inside. We should be switching more throughout games to get Mo on the left and Diaz on the right. Make it difficult for the opposition to work out how to defend against us. Sticking so rigidly to people in positions is just not a great way to play IMO
Our play is very predictable that both Mo & Diaz more often than not cut inside. We should be switching more throughout games to get Mo on the left and Diaz on the right. Make it difficult for the opposition to work out how to defend against us. Sticking so rigidly to people in positions is just not a great way to play IMO
It's basic stuff, but it's always been a good way to combat playing against a player we are getting no change out of. For example, if Mo is cutting in and the left back is strong at nullifying this, then change it up and swap both wingers, take them on the outside instead (simplistic but you get the drift). If the opposite winger is already getting some joy on their side, then make a fucking change. It's not rocket science. I love Mo, but the whole untouchable thing is toxic to a team, it must be frustrating to the players who repeatedly are the first ones taken off, even when performing better than Salah.
No no no. Jamie Carragher says we should feel sad for Salah when he's not performing, and shit on the players that allow him the freedom to perform, and ignore any alternatives.
And on mo as a 10, no. He doesn't have the skillset. That's why Mane died there and Diaz did for half this season. I feel really bad for Salah though when he's shit.
Mane and Diaz were more false 9 than a 10. I'm talking mo playing behind a new mobile striker, flanked by 2 wingers.
It probably won't work, but I think it might help with his slowing pace
Oh, yeah... then I'll change my answer to hell no.
First that I don't think a 4-4-2 works nowadays like that as we'd just get bumped in midfield, but also his skills.
It's also just not going to happen, is it? He will play exactly where he wants to or he won't play here. He might be able to do a job at that position, but that's a very expensive mediocre job.
In my mind it's more 451/433, but I agree.
You know when you're mentally prepping for the drop off, so you try and plan how to eek out every last drop? It's that
I'm much more worried about a post vvd world than a post Salah world. We've been without Salah and won huge games. We've been without vvd and completely fell apart.
Is anyone talking about how it's crazy vvd hasn't got a ballon d'or? No, because it's a fucking stupid trophy for a team sport.
Is anyone talking about how it's crazy vvd hasn't got a ballon d'or? No, because it's a fucking stupid trophy for a team sport.
Yeah I basically associate us being great with VVD. We had Salah a few months before Van Dijk and weren't that good. As soon as he came in we were basically fantastic for 2.5 seasons until he got injured. Simplistic I know, but I think there's something to it.
I really don't want him to leave.
I really don't want him to leave.
