Liverpool FC Premier League Champions 25/26 - Talk /Gossip/Rumours

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Saturday afternoon

I just hope in these KO games coming up, that Salah is allowed to be Salah, in and around the oppositions box, up to Gravenberch to fill RW space, it's his job, just like it was Fabinho's , Milners, Hendersons .

The latest Joyce article makes for a depressing read. Some 'highlights':

While the final leg of the season feels important, FSG do not believe lightning simply struck last term. The prevailing view is that Slot was crucial to the league title and that the head coach with a track record of success has not just disappeared. This has been a season of, at times, unprecedented challenges, beginning with the death of Diogo Jota in a car crash. If underlying issues are resolved, gaps in the squad ironed out, then FSG would expect the Dutchman to reassert himself.

They would, of course, have studied Xabi Alonso during his time at Bayer Leverkusen, and he knows the club having spent five years on Merseyside as a player. The external expectation is that the Spaniard, who is out of work after his sacking by Real Madrid in January, would be next in line for the managerial role, but there is little to suggest that aligns with internal thinking.

Alonso favours a back three, for example, which is one of the reasons why Liverpool did not pursue Ruben Amorim when pressing ahead with Klopp’s successor.

FSG are guided by the sporting director Richard Hughes and Michael Edwards, chief executive of football for FSG, whose own futures have become blurred as each has just over a year remaining on their contracts.

Al-Hilal have targeted Hughes, but there would be surprise from some at the club if he was to leave this summer. That is not to say, however, he is at Liverpool for the long term.

Similarly Edwards, who has been frustrated as far back as last summer by the lack of progress with regard to the purchase of a second football club for the FSG empire, does not appear likely to sign a new deal as it stands. Sources close to the ownership declined to comment.

Slot is not known to doubt himself and he has told friends that he will turn it round. He continues to be hands-on on the training pitch, along with his assistant Sipke Hulshoff, and will have spent time poring obsessively over every perceived mistake, but he cannot help but be aware of the mood changes, the jeers and will have been hurt by the branding of his team as “boring”.

https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/arne-slot-liverpool-future-paul-joyce-ml0lf2bvc?t=1775117533086

Agree. The Hughes and Edwards stuff is concerning too, if they both have one foot out the door then where is the accountability?

I think the plan is for Slot to stay, why let Salah go now when a new manager might want to keep him.

If the plan is for Slot to stay, where does a "new manager" come in? Or do you mean "stay" short term but longer term get a new manager. I don't think Salah, at his age can wait on "maybe next year".

Also, it's entirely possible Salah just wants to move on, and not about who's manager. He can't be blind to the season he's had and might feel a fresh start elsewhere, in a league more forgiving to his age is needed. Throw in that was one of the most visibily affected by Jota's death early in the season, he might just want to get away for personal reasons too.

They knew they could get Klopp once he was ready, so what other option was there? You can't start a season with an interim.

We didn't just lose 5-1….

I'm not necessarily saying they could have done anything differently if their focus was Klopp. There were other names floated at the time, Ancelotti if I remember correctly, but the point I'm making is that they didn't see anyone better than Rodgers available at that time, and so they stuck with him. I'm sure looking back 100% of fans would prefer they stuck with Rodgers to get Klopp. Similarly they may be looking at Slot the same way, no matter how miserable the fans become.

I don't think the extenuating circumstances can account for Slot's woeful playing philosophy, structure, tactics, use - or lack - of the panel this season.

That's on him and it hasn't worked.

I think there were better managers than Rodgers that they could have gone for at the time (as you say, Ancelotti may have been a possibility) but making the change in the summer would have meant giving up on their top choice, so it was worth holding on.

I'm not sure who their Klopp would be in this current situation. Alonso in the summer (but they are really briefing against it)? Enrique feels unlikely.

Frimpong trained today