I don't completely disagree - he doesn't use his bench anywhere near as much as he should imo to rest some of the guys. shows little (no?) faith in the backup players. The other aspect is, though - with so many players out of form (Mo, Mac, Ibou) it's understandable that he'd keep them on the pitch hoping for them to click into normal gear. Hasn't really happened - though Mac has shown more of his usual self recently. There's no doubt the club will always be looking at and assessing options - succession planning can't just start when your back is against the wall. But if you're Xabi (or any other top level guy) do you want to walk into a team so depleted of form/confidence - and sheer numbers in fact - with no reinforcements coming in soon? Or would you wait till the summer .... when we could be out of next years' CL?
Not an ideal situation for a coach to take over but on the other hand we are still in around cl spots so....
My guess is that the club are running the Montecarlo simulations and gaming out the likelihood that we can retain European football next year. The minute it looks likely, given current performance level trends, that we are headed out of contention for CL or Euro cup competitions then they’ll pull the trigger and Slot and Co. will be shown the door. But it won’t be for Alonso - at least right away. I think it’ll be for a care-taker, such as a Gerrard or Dalglish (probably too old), or someone similar. At that point the hope will be that they can shake things up with the players and a new coaching staff can salvage European football. In the meantime there is a lot of noise around Slot leaving at the end of the season anyway. My guess, and that is all it is, is there is a lot of acrimony behind the scenes between Slot and the performance analysts and recruitment team. I’d be willing to bet it stems from both the poor player rotation that we’ve seen both this year and last, as well as the inability to integrate our summer signings into the team seamlessly. The knock on problem from these issues is the inability to develop young players as every potential point is a necessity. I personally think that both Slot and the recruitment team had envisioned a fairly big change in formation/tactics with the new team that they’d formed over the summer. Unfortunately, those plans fell through in rather dramatic form nearly as soon as we started playing competitive games. Some blame needs to be apportioned to the recruitment and to the players themselves, but the patent inability to sort this out really rests at the feet of Slot and his coaching staff. They panicked and have emasculated this team to the point where I don’t think the players are confident to play to their strengths anymore. They often look straightjacketed in passing, and there is very little movement in offensive play. Another glaring issue is how our midfield reacts when there is free runner with the ball attacking us on the counter. Literally every time there is no one moving to challenge the ball. Instead everyone is rushing to get back into defensive shape, leaving the ball carrier free to do whatever they want. It’s such an obvious issue, and it’s been happening repeatedly since nearly the beginning of the season…. There is no way a halfway decent coaching staff shouldn’t be be able to fix this! The fact that they still haven’t means they are either incompetent, or the players arent listening to them anymore. My bet is the second option. Presumably if the recruitment team are sounding out Xabi and things look promising, there will probably be some efforts to identify and line up players that he’ll need to plug some of the current holes in the team. But that is likely only going to happen in the summer. All this said, if we don’t improve significantly next season, the probably both Edward’s and Hughes’ time at LFC will be over fairly soon as well. At the moment though I’ve seen more promise from Ekitike and Wirtz, if they are used correctly. Also, Kerkez has been so much better when he’s paired up with either Ekitike or Wirtz (or even Ngumoha) on the left. Why Slot persists with Gakpo on the left is a mystery to me. Why Jones hasn’t been better utilized is also hard to understand. Both he and Szloboszlai have a tendency to hold the ball too long, but that is something that can be coached out of them. So many easy things that could be corrected, but haven’t been, is why I think this turd of a season ultimately lies at the feet of the coaches.
Yup keeping CL football next year is going to go down to the wire, it will be a really close escape if we can somehow sneak in. This is currently a very ordinary PL side.
Wouldn't like the idea of a caretaker manager. If we have to make a switch it should be to the next full time manager even if it means he stays until the end of the season. I personally don't have a ton of faith in him at the moment but if we're going to drop a manager one season after he won us a title and two after he was hired it's needs to beyond debate, and the club needs to give us confidence that they know what they are doing. Now if Hughes and Edwards have someone in mind (cough Alonso) then I hope they are reaching out. It's likely that any inquiries will end up in the press but oh well. This is one of the biggest clubs in the world if Slot can't handle rumors on SKY about contacts with Alonso then he doesn't have the personality to handle this job.
overall, I thought it was spot on. I think part of the reason for the gambling on new players is because they want to see who would work for the next manager. If they bring in Alonso, he may want to play a back 3 and want a certain player for a CB etc. I don't think they'll bring in a care-taker manager or they certainly don't want too. I'm a Slot fan but have to admit that he's probably the issue. If all our players from last year are playing like shat, it's more likely the manager is not putting them in the best position to succeed. Yes, lots of new players take time to adapt, but we should've been seeing steady improvement if that was the main issue. As for the recruitment, I think everybody has been doing well, especially lately. Isak has been the only bust IMO. Even in the unbeaten run we haven't been playing well. Our form is on par of 6th or 7th place in the league. Not good enough. I don't know why they would wait to bring in Alonso. If that's the direction they're going this summer, why not bring him in now and let him test drive the players. The only reason to wait is if they want Enrique and think they can get him this summer.
Maybe Xabi doesn't want to come - maybe ever, or just right now? Can't assume the club is dragging its feet.
Any manager would have to think long and hard about taking on this challenge now. A financially tight ownership splashes huge money only to come up with a significant downgrade in results. How willing will they be to invest more after taking a huge bath? The club is in clear danger of losing its CL place and associated earnings. The squad is at best highly unbalanced and in need of additions right away. Not sure Xabi is an automatic under these circumstances.
Even if I were fully on-board with this I would say it's gotta wait until the end of the season break, and also - it should not matter to us signing a CB in th enext 3 days
I just listened to a 38 minute round table with Slot, Hughes, and Hogan on my way to work…and I don’t think I learned much of anything. But I think this was the club’s way of showing that they are standing behind the manager.
Guessing this is quiet because everyone is already in their camp. If you were already Slot out, then you're still Slot out. If you are Slot in then losing to Man City isn't going to be the thing pushing you over the edge. But losing to Sunderland? Getting closer.
I've reluctantly turned to "Slot out" over the last month or so. Yes, there are mitigating factors, but we don't really seem to be making any progress. Not really my style. The only other manager I wanted gone was Hodgson. That was for both results and style reasons. Which seems to be where we are now. If Alonso would parachute in tomorrow, I'd be OK with that. If not, I guess we wait until summer.
One more thought. This hasn't just been about this season. Results fell off a cliff after we had won the title, so the rot set in some time ago. Now, it may be argued it was OK to take the pedal off the gas once we had won. But I hated it at the time. Winning is a habit. Coasting should never be encouraged by any manager at any time.
I'm still Slot in (unless we get Alonso) but I do like your point. The argument, weirdly from other clubs supporters, is you can't fire a manager six months after they won the title. But the reality is we haven't played well since March of last year. And like you said in the earlier post no sign of progress. It would be one thing if performances were improving, even just for parts of the game, but the results weren't. But while we've looked a little better than November we're still brittle as hell at the back, and reliant on moments of magic to score. But I am still behind Slot because I just don't like the idea of a caretaker or other desperate hire. If even in the short run it hurts us I'd rather stick with him a little to long then panic. We have to be a club that is seen to back the manager only way this works in the long term.
I agree - We've got to give Slot to the end of the season...and it is a bit of a whacky season...the table is very tight through the middle, and then there is Wolves who just never showed up... But if things don't improve, and we don't make CL for next season, I can certainly see a reason to look elsewhere for a head Coach - especially if Xabi is still available/interested...
I haven't seen a single "Slot out" poster anywhere talk about a replacement other than Xabi. What if he goes elsewhere - who is the second choice? Does anyone even have a second choice?
I’d say Nagelsmann would be my second choice at this point. The article confirms CL is key to the business model and I don’t see that happening at this rate so Slot’s on his bike at the end of the season. I presume several people have already been sounded out by now.
Interestingly…the article ends with: ‘“However, given no manager in Liverpool's history has a better win percentage (61%) than Slot, it is understandable why, for now at least, he retains the club's backing.”
I’m not sure that’s a valid reason to stick with him, Sam. After all, when Klopp left none of us had even heard of let alone considered Slot as his replacement.