Hoping a New Thread may fix the posting issues.
I can think of probably more than a dozen times this year where Salah got the ball at the corner of the box and tried to run in and score, which was pretty much his signature move for the last few seasons, and every time he has lost it to the first man, or made a stupid pass.
Like, he's playing rubbish full stop - but it's only in those narrower positions that he might still offer something if he can find his confidence. But for the dozen times he's been in the right place and done the wrong thing, he's spent countless more times in the wrong place out wide in no-mans-land, doing the wrong things.
For me, he should be narrower, or not on the pitch.
Need to hope Villa continue like this. They're the most likely now to compete for 5th
Villa losing brings them back into touching distance and they look to be in free fall a bit. Can we catch them is a different story though.
Villa sorely missing Maginn
With McGinn (Before Jan 18)
21
42
62%
2.00
Without McGinn (After Jan 18)
7
9
Chelsea winning is probably the better result for us, as they have a higher likelihood of doing well to the end of the season. Even if we continue with this mediocre performances we only really have to get slightly better results than Villa to secure 5th.
Through Balls Salah Received 1.15 this season 0.42 ↓ 63% - Gravenberch getting shut down and teams happy let Konate have the ball.
Gravenberch is playing roughly two-thirds fewer through balls to Salah than he did last year. This matches the trend of Salah having fewer "runs into space." Because Gravenberch sits deeper, opposition teams have more time to drop their defensive line by the time the ball is played.
Add in Trents departure and you might start to get the picture.
Well dropping him was the first solution to try and that really blew up. As I said, I don't believe it's his age that is the problem, it's his mentality and bringing him inside sounds nice, but when there are only scraps to be had do we really want him to be the one gobbling them up.
Exactly. The style of play is completely different.
Yeah, I've lost patience with Slot but I'm not blaming him fo Salah.
Mo has lost pace, strength, finishing and passing all in one season.
I hear what Rebel is saying but there's been ample chances for him to score and his accuracy is still way off.
Does that include balls that Salah doesn't reach because he doesn't run fast enough or is in the wrong position, because I have seen numerous cases of that. It also doesn't explain why he rarely beats his man anymore when he does have the ball. There clearly is a combination effect but imo Salah can take a significant share of the blame, if not the majority. Many of the other players are phoning it in also.
Salah shot Volume: He is averaging just 2.0 shots per 90 minutes, down from 3.4 last season. This is the lowest average of his entire Liverpool career.
xG per 90 has plummeted from 0.63 to 0.32. Effectively, the system is providing him with half the quality of chances he had a year ago. Last season, Trent played 147 line-breaking passes to Salah (the most of any duo in the league). no other duo in the division managed more than 108.
It calls into question Slot and his coaching team and the data guys
If you want to see the types of goals Salah used to score, just go and turn on Newcastle, Osula with an absolute banger sprint and smash coming in from the corner.
Brilliant result, United losing to ten men, conceding two goals after Newcastle went down, Fernandes getting stroppy and Carrick like a deer in the headlights. Should put a bit of a halt to their gallop. 3 pts between 3rd and 6th sets things up nicely again.
3 points away from 3rd place.
Lovely.
Might be down to 6th, but only 3 points off 3rd. We’re better than United, Villa, Chelsea. We certainly won’t win our last 9 league games, but we’ll finish 3rd
The best example of the sort of goal here.
Away to Arsenal last year. Trent wins the ball back in our own third. He doesn't pass backwards or stand on the ball for 10 seconds looking sideways. Instead he plays a quick forwards pass deep into Arsenal half where there is space, towards Salah's areas. Salah is running towards the ball, but instead Nunez breaks his neck bursting through to the ball with space and takes a couple of defenders with him, which in turn frees up all the space inside the middle for Salah to then run into. Nunez tees up Salah and Salah scores.
None of these happen now; a quick pass forwards, a forward putting in the shift up front to win the ball, or pass to a teammate in space, or Salah making that run infield. He is staying out wide.
Chelsea are poor, United are crap, villa are muck and we are mediocre. The run in will be like trench warfare.
Fair play, I can't find that confidence based on what I've seen from this team. We've a hard run in too. It'll be very tight.
Or... not screwing up yesterday and we'd be joint 3rd. We can't keep depending on everyone else to be as bad as us to secure top 5.
Don't want to depend on it, but it actually is the reality all the same. Even if we keep this current mediocre form we'll probably finish top 5, and tbh probably 3rd unless the wheels fall off again.
Eh were going to have to because we are crap
Im not sure about rhe confidence either.
Villa have been better than us most of the season (albeit freefall now) and Utd have easily been better than us recently
100%
Someone said it here a few weeks ago, but you're about to witness 4 teams, falling over themselves to claim 3 spots.
Our best is the better of the 4, but our worst also trumps the rest. Very hard to call.
As patchy as our form is, Villa's is falling off a cliff.
I'd still absolutely fancy them to beat us at Villa Park.
The thing that really gets me with Slot is that he's constantly giving out about factors that he should have complete control over as the manager. Such as the minutes players were playing, as if he isn't the one picking them and refusing to use the squad. The long ball tactics of other teams, buying a new back up keeper for X million and not using him. The list goes on and on.
Maybe this is all just the public stuff he says but with the team he's different but this season and particularly the last few weeks really feels like everyone knows he's gone in the summer. Theres almost an acceptance that we're **** right now and not much can be done about it.
Salah is a huge problem and needs to go in the summer as harsh as that sounds but he's not the only one. Allison is not the keeper he even was last season (it really looks a mistake letting Kelleher go and I know he wanted first team football blah blah but I think he's be getting plenty of it this season). I'm not saying we bin him but it's a fact.
Grav and Mac are not having a good seasons and the midfield just doesn't work as a unit. I've said this before but I think Grav surprised the whole league for the first half last season but now teams know how to play again him and the unit just don't work that well together for some reason. Macs form a huge part of this too.
I think Slot goes in the summer, I can't see him getting sacked mid-season unless things really nose dive but he just is not instilling any confidence to the team or public as far as I can see. The team are playing a lot less than the sum of their parts and that's never a good place for a manager to be in.
Had we won last night, which I expected us to do easily by a few goals, we'd be 3rd , 9pts off City. It really was an absolute fckup
To be fair, new manger bounce aside Uniteds worst this season has been lower than ours, remember Grimsby for gods sake, and Chelsea have had some pretty low points too. Villas worst is maybe still to come.
It’s more like 4 teams falling over each other to claim one spot at this rate, 6th!
