Florian Wirtz

[justincredible]

I'd rather Slot, Hughes and Edwards took their visions elsewhere. The more of those three that remain, the more issues we're liable to have.

Yeah, it's only the 1000th time you've mentioned it...

[Insidious]

I'd rather Slot, Hughes and Edwards took their visions elsewhere. The more of those three that remain, the more issues we're liable to have.

Be that as it may, I suspect at least two of them will still be here and all three is still entirely possible, for a few different reasons.

- It could be that Edwards+Hughes don't want to be advising that Slot is shown the door, as it'd be an admission that they got things wrong, which could in turn get them the sack, aka they're just covering their own arses. This would be troubling.

- It could be that there is an understanding of the circumstances that blighted the season in terms of the pain felt about that issue with the car at the parade, the tragic death of Jota, the blight of injuries, the inability to complete key transfer work, Salah's drop-off and so on. For me personally, tough as it may have been, the manager (or coach in our case) still has to find a way and still has to show enough that we're capable of adaptation. Much of the season we have played "nothing football" and our overall malaise having begun last March has lasted for 13 months now.

- It could be that there is underlying statistical data (the sort of stats that go deeper than the xG type stuff that the public gets access to) that suggests genuine bad luck this season. Klopp's last season with Dortmund they were in relegation form for about half of the season, yet statistical analysis showed that Dortmund had actually performed to the level of a team that should have finished closer to the Champion's League spots - they'd just been genuinely unlucky in terms of very fine margins with some things, much like us with that season where Suarez couldn't stop hitting the woodwork. Perhaps they feel that Slot is "owed" a chance at a season where things are a bit more even.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall for it all. I think the overwhelming majority of people have had enough and feel the desire for a new Manager given the sense of disconnect, the style of play, some of the press conference quotes having Brentisms, the regularity of the losses, the number of losses where we lose by three goals, the lack of our own goals, etc.

Which is understandable, to say the least. I always attempt to do a bit of Devil's Advocate, a bit of "what if?" and I like to try and understand other people's viewpoints even if I don't necessarily agree so I am trying to see what they're seeing (Edwards, Hughes etc) from a "benefit of the doubt" perspective and if we're being generous, they might look at it and say that as of right now, we -

Reached an FA Cup quarter-final, reached the Champion's League quarter-final and are 3 points off 3rd spot as it stands "despite difficult circumstances" which, on paper, doesn't look awful - whereas obviously we as fans know that it has not been anything like as simple as that and that some of the other units of measurement (points tally, goals scored, goals conceded, number of defeats, number of heavy defeats) aren't remotely good enough for a club with our ambitions, especially when coupled with our (lack of!) style of play at present.

I don't actually necessarily mind if there is to be a pursuit of a 3-5-2 or a 4-2-2 Diamond are our blueprint going forward, but it needs to be well coached and the football needs to be more entertaining. We also don't want to be left holding our c*cks in our hands if we are still rubbish in October (thinking a repeat of Brendan's last part-season before we get Jürgen in) only to find that the Manager we could have gone for (Alonso or whoever) is now no longer available.

Speaking of Alonso, it's hilarious that he was perceived by some in Madrid to have done a "bad" job - Arbeloa has already lost the same amount of games as Xabi had in a shorter period of time. They've got some problems over there (nice problems to have some might say) including Mbappe's desire to go into the spaces Vinicius occupies as they both prefer the left, rather than Kylian holding territory in the "nine" to receive the ball at key times. With egos at that level, that's a tricky situation to manage.