All Aboard the Slot Express

[Nineteenx]

It's possible that after the next set of fixtures we could be eighth in the table. The club needs to hand Slot his P45 before we end up in the bottom half of the table.

I agree

[shminkyred]

The signs were there in the last 5-6 games last season. You could say the players took their foot off the gas but a decent manager would have quickly dealt with that and maintain a strong winning mentality. Not Slot, that sloppy play has run through all this season. The rot started well before ‘the first defeat’.

I still think they are knackered....

[Insidious]

I still think they are knackered....

I'd love to see more use of our fringe players. Not suggesting that lads like Endo, Chiesa or Ngumoha should be starting every other game or anything, but I don't see why (for example) we couldn't see Rio do the last 20-25 minutes in place of someone like Gakpo more often - or Endo doing the odd match at DM or centre-back, or coming on in the 70th or so for Mac Allister, put Endo deeper and push Grav up alongside Dom - have Chiesa do the last 25 minutes instead of the last 5 for one of the attacking forwards - and so on.

[teesred]

I'd love to see more use of our fringe players. Not suggesting that lads like Endo, Chiesa or Ngumoha should be starting every other game or anything, but I don't see why (for example) we couldn't see Rio do the last 20-25 minutes in place of someone like Gakpo more often - or Endo doing the odd match at DM or centre-back, or coming on in the 70th or so for Mac Allister, put Endo deeper and push Grav up alongside Dom - have Chiesa do the last 25 minutes instead of the last 5 for one of the attacking forwards - and so on.

Neyoni coming on for ten or fifteen minutes every now and then in league games would be interesting if we were in a position to if forced to through injury.
Lets be honest he can't do any worse than Macallister has been this season.

[Insidious]

Neyoni coming on for ten or fifteen minutes every now and then in league games would be interesting if we were in a position to if forced to through injury.
Lets be honest he can't do any worse than Macallister has been this season.

I'd happily see that.

There are a number of lads who don't merit doing 90 minutes for every single game.

The League form table is a bit of a concern now.

Last 5 matches for Man United - 9 points.
Last 5 matches for Chelsea - 8 points.
Last 5 matches for us - 4 points.

Our opening 5 matches we acquired 15 points. We then had a really difficult time and it another 12 games to accrued the next lot of 15 points.

If we were to gain 4-7 points from our next available 15 I think we could be 4-7 points adrift of Top Four, with only 10 games at that point to fix it. That is definitely.....troublesome.

Hopefully Home fixtures with Newcastle and Man City can invigorate the start of something. There are 8 days between the two matches which you'd hope might present a chance for a few lads to feel a little fresher at least.

[teesred]

I'd happily see that.

There are a number of lads who don't merit doing 90 minutes for every single game.

The League form table is a bit of a concern now.

Last 5 matches for Man United - 9 points.
Last 5 matches for Chelsea - 8 points.
Last 5 matches for us - 4 points.

Our opening 5 matches we acquired 15 points. We then had a really difficult time and it another 12 games to accrued the next lot of 15 points.

If we were to gain 4-7 points from our next available 15 I think we could be 4-7 points adrift of Top Four, with only 10 games at that point to fix it. That is definitely.....troublesome.

Hopefully Home fixtures with Newcastle and Man City can invigorate the start of something. There are 8 days between the two matches which you'd hope might present a chance for a few lads to feel a little fresher at least.

Totally agree. I said on Saturday we can really start to worry if Chelsea and United win. I had a feeling Utd were gonna get something from that game.
We seriously need to get our shit together and start winning games because if this spluttering continues well find ourselves in a real dogfight for fourth and the way we are right now I wouldn't fancy us to win it.
United may possibly do their usual and revert to type but there's also the real possibility they are turning a corner and will get some form together.
Our league stats are terrible, even Everton have only lost one more game than we have. It's tight amongst that batch of teams and as we've found out this weekend it only takes a weekend or two of poor results and the picture looks very different and not a good one to look at.

[LFC-DPG]

Hopefully Home fixtures with Newcastle and Man City can invigorate the start of something. There are 8 days between the two matches which you'd hope might present a chance for a few lads to feel a little fresher at least.

Last 3 homes games:

scraped a win against Wolves, scraped a draw against Leeds, scraped a draw against Burnley

I’ve not got confidence things will change against decent teams. I’ve not got confidence that Slot knows how to change things.

[Red October]

Last 3 homes games:

scraped a win against Wolves, scraped a draw against Leeds, scraped a draw against Burnley

I’ve not got confidence things will change against decent teams. I’ve not got confidence that Slot knows how to change things.

Yeah. Do we really want to watch this again next season? Of course I'd love to see us get into the CL places but if it means we keep Slot then I'm not sure....I'm hoping FSG will give him till the summer and get Alonso like they did when Klopp became available....

[Insidious]

Last 3 homes games:

scraped a win against Wolves, scraped a draw against Leeds, scraped a draw against Burnley

I’ve not got confidence things will change against decent teams. I’ve not got confidence that Slot knows how to change things.

I get what you're saying absolutely - I just (rightly or wrongly) have more Faith in us to beat "big" sides or sides we have some sort of history with.

Newcastle historically has been a pop-whizz-bang of a fixture and we obviously have a lot of (modern) history with Man City - could see us getting 4 points from those 2 "tricky" fixtures but then getting 2 points from Sunderland and Forest - that sort of thing.

I'm also intrigued to see what action occurs if we did lose to Newcastle. If the club do decide to sack Slot (they sacked Hodgson, Kenny, Rodgers...) you'd look at the 8-day period before the Man City fixture and think it's a pretty opportune time to try and kickstart someone coming in and getting more out of this squad. If the "writing is on the wall" which it seems to be, then sooner rather than later arguably makes sense. I'd have sympathy for Slot as there are things that aren't right at the moment that aren't his fault, but I refuse to believe that there's nobody out there who can't improve our points-per-game at the moment.

[JockStrap]

How many managers out there can win us the Premier League? Because that's what Slot did last season.

[Insidious]

How many managers out there can win us the Premier League? Because that's what Slot did last season.

He did indeed - but our current priority is ensuring that we are in the Champion's League next season as we need to consolidate our position, ideally at the expense of the likes of Man United.

Can Slot get this side to win 8-or-9 of our upcoming 15 League matches to ensure we finish in the Champion's League spots, off-the-back of 5 League wins since September and 64 points from our last 39 games?

I'd love to see Arne turn it around - love it - but do you have a lot of confidence in his ability to do that right now? Mine has certainly waivered.

[JockStrap]

He did indeed - but our current priority is ensuring that we are in the Champion's League next season as we need to consolidate our position, ideally at the expense of the likes of Man United.

Can Slot get this side to win 8-or-9 of our upcoming 15 League matches to ensure we finish in the Champion's League spots, off-the-back of 5 League wins since September and 64 points from our last 39 games?

I'd love to see Arne turn it around - love it - but do you have a lot of confidence in his ability to do that right now? Mine has certainly waivered.

We didn't finish in the CL spots in 2 seasons under Klopp. It's not the end of the world if it happens.

With the current form of players like VvD, Salah, Konate, Macca, Gakpo and injuries to Bradley and Isak, I'd say it will be tough for us to make top 4. If those players pick up their form a bit then we could do it. Utd and Chelsea aren't particularly good. But we do need to start winning league games.

[Insidious]

We didn't finish in the CL spots in 2 seasons under Klopp. It's not the end of the world if it happens.

With the current form of players like VvD, Salah, Konate, Macca, Gakpo and injuries to Bradley and Isak, I'd say it will be tough for us to make top 4. If those players pick up their form a bit then we could do it. Utd and Chelsea aren't particularly good. But we do need to start winning league games.

We do know the score with missing out on Champion's League football though - being in it is a boost in terms of maintaining our appeal to the top talent and in facilitating spending given the way PSR is etc.

There is continued work to do within this phase of squad transition. We undeniably have a quality squad, but it's also thin and imbalanced, with some of the custodians being in their later years.

In terms of numbers (rather than necessarily roles) we've seen Ekitike, Wirtz and Isak "replace" the late Diogo Jota, plus Diaz and Darwin. Harvey Elliott goes out on loan, so we didn't increase our depth there.

The departure of Trent and Diaz has taken some creativity away, pushing us further into a more ball-dominant possession side with less capacity for "off-the-cuff" football at a time when we don't have enough players of the appropriate I'll for it, with directness increasingly missing.

We're understandably less geared towards building all attacking players to get the best from Salah as we have a post-Mo future to plan for, meaning he is getting less space than before in a side that doesn't press as effectively given the missing Diaz, Jota and Nunez. I find myself missing the 4-5 chances per game that someone like Darwin would create, even if he might fluff a couple of them.

There's a lot to plan for. Alisson, Salah and Van Dijk could all depart within the following 24 months, we still find ourselves short of quality in the DM, we could use serious help at centre-back and the forward line cries out for pace. Funding this and maintaining our situation of being an appealing side to join would certainly be massively bolstered by Champion's League football and the accompanying opportunity for funds, as the core group we associate with the bulk of Klopp's tenure will disappear and we'll be reliant upon building around Mamardashvili, the "new" midfield that won it in 24/25, the new full-backs and the newer attacking players like Wirtz, Ekitike and Isak.

Champion's League football, both for ourselves and denying surrounding sides (Chelsea, Man United) a chance to accelerate their own respective projects is pretty key for us in my view. I don't think we'd Weather a season (or multiple) without it under Slot as well as we would understand Klopp.

[JockStrap]

Champion's League football, both for ourselves and denying surrounding sides (Chelsea, Man United) a chance to accelerate their own respective projects is pretty key for us in my view. I don't think we'd Weather a season (or multiple) without it under Slot as well as we would understand Klopp.

I think that's fundamentally the issue that most fans have. Slot is not Klopp. And right now it feels like an emotional reaction not a logical one.

Why should we do any better under Klopp the season after missing out on the CL than Slot? Arne has been here 1 season and won the league. Why wouldn't he have enough credit in the bank to be given the chance to turn it around next season?

For me, that's the crux of it. Give Arne till the summer, let's continue rebuilding and see how it goes for the first 10 or 12 games. Then make a decision on how to progress. The only way that changes is if the league results don't improve at all over the rest of the season. I think he needs to finish strong otherwise he is in danger of getting the sack in May.

[Insidious]

I think that's fundamentally the issue that most fans have. Slot is not Klopp. And right now it feels like an emotional reaction not a logical one.

Why should we do any better under Klopp the season after missing out on the CL than Slot? Arne has been here 1 season and won the league. Why wouldn't he have enough credit in the bank to be given the chance to turn it around next season?

For me, that's the crux of it. Give Arne till the summer, let's continue rebuilding and see how it goes for the first 10 or 12 games. Then make a decision on how to progress. The only way that changes is if the league results don't improve at all over the rest of the season. I think he needs to finish strong otherwise he is in danger of getting the sack in May.

I genuinely don't think it's simply the personality thing - 5 League wins since September and 64 points from our last 39 games isn't a good read and that is over half of the League games that Slot has been at the helm (62 thus far) whereas the win rate for Klopp was over a much more sustained period of time. Another factor is the style of play - the current iteration of Slot-ball is genuinely so insipid that I don't look forward to games, whereas under Klopp we were generally entertained even when we lost.

I've sympathy for Slot - I do - he was faced with a multitude of issues this season rather than a single one (indeed, I made a thread about it) but to have this 4-points-from-15 within the same season as the 9-losses-in-12 is disconcerting. With Klopp's "poor" season in 22/23, we had the one rotten run and then turned it around. Whereas Slot is now in his second run of poor form within the same season. I'm (regrettably) not sure that Slot will turn it around, though I of course hope he does.