CL semi final PSG v Bayern

[miller0863]

Are you watching Arne?

That’s the football we want, that’s the football you pretend to be trying to produce but not one Liverpool fan believes is possible with you as coach, you absolute FRAUD!!!

[Insidious]

In an alternate reality where we could cross time-zones, I'd love to watch a peak-Benitez side against either of those two last night.

The organisation required to deal with that level of attacking talent and to subsequently find opportunities in your own possession phases or on the counter would be intriguing to watch, given how differently some defenders are coached now in the post-Pep's Barcelona environment.

[Red October]

Are you watching Arne?

That’s the football we want, that’s the football you pretend to be trying to produce but not one Liverpool fan believes is possible with you as coach, you absolute FRAUD!!!

Hard to disagree. If Slot wants us to play like that, he's going to have to have a massively transformative next season which seems unlikely given what we've seen so far. What many people seem to forget or ignore is that we weren't playing great stuff last season either but we were winning so it was lost in the haze. To me that points to the issue which is that maybe he just doesn't have it at this level.

[Steveo]

Hard to disagree. If Slot wants us to play like that, he's going to have to have a massively transformative next season which seems unlikely given what we've seen so far. What many people seem to forget or ignore is that we weren't playing great stuff last season either but we were winning so it was lost in the haze. To me that points to the issue which is that maybe he just doesn't have it at this level.

Good to see that some were paying attention and don't have selective memories.

You’ve hit the nail on the head regarding the "haze" that blinded people to the reality of the situation. What we witnessed last season wasn't any dawning of a new tactical era - just the final roar of Klopp's engine.

It was a total "perfect storm" that we will likely never see again in the modern game. The handover was beyond unique - Klopp didn’t leave because he failed... he left because he was spent trying to fight against the penny pinching. He did the grueling work of the 2.0 rebuild ... then handed over a small but high-performance machine only a year into its cycle.

Also ...when has a departing manager ever literally sung the name of his successor to the Kop? All the integration work is done in an instant - through the passover from a legend to the new. AND it wasn't just a song... it was a command to the fans and players to keep that fire burning. Slot didn't have to build a culture - he simply ran with it.

We were written off by most before a ball was kicked...so the players operated with zero pressure while rivals like Arsenal were buckling under the weight of crippling injuries while City looked every inch the club facing 115 charges. The fact that not one new player was needed to "fix" anything proves the point... the squad was already there and capable of taking 80 plus points.. we saw it even in the 2.0 first season DESPITE the devastating injuries AND Klopp's announcement.

As you rightly pointed out - the 'great stuff' people think they saw was often just individual brilliance (See Salah especially) and the lingering 'Mentality Monster"' spirit... no masterstroke from the dugout. But as the emotional momentum from Klopp's goodbye finally evaporated - the reality of Slot’s (and H'edwrds) level got exposed. Sadly - number 20 was a one-off legacy title - fuelled by the man who left - not the man who arrived.