Hoping a New Thread may fix the posting issues.
We've too many issues to deal with without losing them as well.
We should keep an eye out on an opportunity for GK though imo
A what point does the immediate become the longer run for motivation?
If anything the team reversed that with 5 wins and going 5 points clear to losing the first game in the 97th minute and then crumbling for the rest of the season.
I'm sorry to hear for your parents. We're probably around the same age.
My mom has dementia and doesn't recognise me anymore. My dad died at the end of last year. I don't live in Ireland so I didn't get home to see him in time before he was sedated and died 2 days later.
A week after his funeral I lost my contract and was out of work for 6 weeks leading up to Christmas.
I didn't have time to grieve my dad. I had to focus on getting work again and providing for my family, paying bills and giving the kids a good Christmas.
Focusing on looking after my family is what my dad would have wanted me to do instead of using his death as a reason to not care for those that depend on me.
I got a contract at the start of the year and I had to throw myself 100% in to that. I could not say I'll only give 40% of my best because I'm still mourning my dad.
Unfortunately for high level football players the people who depend on them are the fans who for 90 odd minutes want to have an escape of their life's troubles and be distracted by the team they've supported for over 30 years. That's the cost they have to pay to put aside their grief and deliver and that's also the reward they get in terms of their compensation.
Match day 38 it wears thin for me to hear people in here still using Jota's death as an excuse for the players and managers.
Ali expected to stay next season is being reported tonight which is great news.
I would argue that when you see your 28 year old friend die you're less likely to think I'm going to run through walls to win more football competitions and more likely to think there's more to life than football. It's a process and one they've had to go through while being under incredible media and supporter scrutiny. It's been a shite season but I think we need to just draw a line in the sand and hope a break will do everyone good along with some new signings.
I kinda wonder if they might also have an eye on Jaros… was doing decent enough at Ajax before he did his ACL. He played 19 of their 34 league games — lost only 1 game. They lost 5 of the 15 without him.
And of course he won the Austrian league with Sturm Graz on loan a few years ago too. Seems to have real talent. He'll be missing the first few months of next season, but at 24 he's still maybe an option down the line if Mamardashvili doesn't step up.
Thanks, same to yourself, sounds a tough situation!
For when the immediate becomes the longer term… I'd kinda just say once they can get some distance (both literal and figurative) from it. They've had one continuous season since it happened, in his dressing room, in the canteen with his chair, seeing his portrait up on the wall, passing his car park spot every day etc etc, with nary any sort of break away from all the things and places that would make them think of him daily.
I don't necessarily think they didn't care either… but I think those few percents of focus at this level count for a lot.
I would hope that finally getting away and getting a bit of a reset from the place, and from each other, for the summer will probably help. A bit of a line in the sand. Fingers crossed anyway.
Goodbye hero...
Jaros did good in the 2 games he played for us last season and as you say has had a good history.
It was Sturm Graz in Austria that he won the league and Cup double in the 23/24 season.
He also won the FAI Cup with St. Pats and was voted their player of the season.
He done his ACL with Ajax in Feb so will be back with us for pre season.
I would be okay selling Mamardashvili if Alisson stays 1 more season and we have Jaros and Woodman as back ups.
I cannot get into the mindset that we did well because the others were ****. We did very well last season. There were some issues perhaps and it’s annoying we didn’t win the cup but imo we would not have won the league without Slot in charge.
I'm actually not that big a fan of Slot, I personally would prefer a manager who displayed and infused more passion and character as I think Slot's (perhaps natural Dutch) calm and clinical mentality isn't the best fit when it comes to motivating a team but I do think the attributes which FSG saw in his coaching career prior to joining Liverpool haven't suddenly disappeared and the PL he delivered last season will, together with how FSG have seen him handle a very tricky set of circumstances this season, see him retained and given a new contract before the start of next season.
Whilst I think Slot staying is the most likely scenario based on the evidence of Alonso going to Chelsea (FSG would have done a deal with him to take over now if they'd wanted him) and Etienne Reijnen being hired it's also possible that the end of season review may produce an unexpected result in which case a new manager, possibly Iraloa, could be appointed.
Both are possible outcomes, the fact I've identifed these outcomes does not mean I believe both of them will come true as it's obvious to most people that they are mutually exclusive.
on the grief thing, it’s not even something we have to speculate, the players have said it. That they didn’t care about football. And in all honesty i don’t blame them.
It’s a collective grief, not an individual one. So it’s different to the mourning that all of us at some point had to deal with.
Anyway, I’ve said before that people don’t want to have to deal with this stuff when it comes to their escapism.
Iraola heading for AC Milan if the rumours this evening are to be believed.
I hope you're right but I seriously doubt Slot can get us back on track. It wasn't just one bad season though, things went down hill from the Carabo cup final last season. I know we won 5 at the start of this season but to say we rode our luck in that period is an understatement.
A Klopp song was sang twice yesterday in the Kop.
Fans and players aren't fully behind Slot. It's only a matter of time before he's sacked.
Wtf I'm shocked at this based on your previous posts. Are you just playing the contrarian role in these discussions? I thought you'd been flying the flag for keeping Slot for a while on here.
Given what you've said above do you think Slot should be sacked in the summer? Or is he ok as Alonso is no longer an option?
Bottom line for me is retaining Slot for next season is a huge risk and I'm surprised FSG would take such a risk but it does look like the direction of travel.
Completely disagree with that last line. What makes you think that? It was Klopp's squad and he made little tactical change to the team. I believe we would have won the league last season with Klopp in charge. A more relevant statement would be that we wouldn't have won the league last season if not for Salah hitting ridiculous numbers in goals and assists.
He made pretty significant tactical changes to the team with how he setup the midfield to do the running for the team and how he used Gravenberch, which nobody was expecting. Slot was lauded, rightly imo, for taking a team over without being able to get any new players in, and winning a league title. Salah and the rest of the team were happy to speak about how impressed they were with him then.
Plenty to criticise him for this season, but he won the league with that team, and Klopp didn’t. Saying Klopp would’ve won it anyway is very dismissive and disrespectful to Slot imo.
I get the feeling the Slot is already integral to the summer business we want to do. We all heard the reports from players like Wirtz about how impressed they were by him before joining. As fans we can absolutely criticise the performances and results and put it all on the manager, and these players will see it too. But we've definitely got signings lined up that have sat down and spoken to Slot about their role with us and there's probably a sense of certainty these players want before making a massive commitment to move their life to the north of England
I'm not saying this is right or wrong, and I'm not saying this is the only or defining factor. But knowing FSG there is absolutely business reasons for them to stick with him. I don't believe they are satisfied with top 4. I do believe they want to build a winning team and I do believe that the 3 year deals for Edwards, Hughes and Slot were deliberately that length to cover the full transition from Klopp's team to a new guard of younger players.
They don't make decisions based on fan pressure, emotions or sentimentality. If they are sticking with Slot, even if just on the face of it until seeing how the new season starts, it's not because of loyalty for winning the league and it's not because they are happy with the minimum achievement of CL qualification this year. They have clearly made their bed with the decision to move to a head coach rather than manager model which I reckon means we never truly considered Xabi.
I reckon the biggest goal here is to succession plan from Trent, Díaz, Núñez, Kelleher last season to Robbo, Salah, Konaté this season to van Dijk and Alisson next summer and if the recruitment team have identified the likes of Diomande, Wharton etc to be the next missing pieces to get in, and these players have already sat down and been convinced of the plan for them by Slot and Hughes, then that's at least part of the reason why they don't want to fire him right now
No it isn't. You don't know if Klopp wouldn't have won it last season. Slot does deserve credit for winning the league but my post was in response to a poster who stated we wouldn't have won it with any other coach which I think is an absurd take. There were other factors involved in us winning it last season that had nothing to do with Slot.
As for this season, I felt he certainly deserved the end of the season to show improvement but we haven't. It could be argued we have gotten worse. The major midfield changes you credit him as making to push us to the title last season don't seem to have any impact this season. We have largely had our first choice midfield options available all season.
My personal opinion on Slot is that he is a hard manager to warm to. I have not liked what I have heard from him in press conferences when it hasn't been going well. For example while we are in a fight for CL football he is talking about how next season is going to be so much better. What's he focussed on? Not to mention the ifs, buts and maybes excuses he has been continously trotting out after each turgid performance. He has put alot of pressure on himself for next season.
No, not being a contrarian for the sake of it at all, can't be ar$ed wasting time doing that.
What I am doing is dispassionately reading the situation through the eyes of FSG and trying to work out their thinking which in essence boils down to:-
When FSG stand back and objectively look at the last 2 years, in my opinion they will arrive at the conclusion that Slot still has the attributes which prompted them to hire him in the first place, the PL win last season shows he knows how to win and gives him a lot of credit in the bank with them and the mitigating circumstances for this season are sufficient to not fire him, tear up the squad transition half way through and start again with someone else.
I think that on balance FSG are going to allow Slot to complete the squad transition and providing there is clear evidence of progress in 2026/27 theyt will stick with him in 2027/28.
I completely disagree with some of the more pessimistic posters here who refer to the squad being thread bare etc. Yes there will be a lot of departures this summer but apart from Salah and Robbo the others are all squad players bar Alisson if he also goes but he's become quite injury prone.
I'm excited to see how Slot can put together a team with more youth and energy in it next year with Kerkez and Rio on the left, Bradley and Frimpong on the right (+ a new RW), Jacquet / Leoni deputising for Konate and VVD, Isak up top with Wirtz behind supplemented with more bite and energy in midfield from one or two new MF signings.
I actually think with Pep gone, Alonso an unknown quantity in the mad club that Chelsea is, Spurs starting a major rebuild and Arsenal facing into the difficult 2nd album season we actually have a great chance to nick a PL next year providing the summer acquisitions are the right ones and quickly settle in and Isak gets a decent World Cup and pre-seaon under his belt.
It's a real shame that Ekitike is out until Feb but if we're in the hunt come Feb what better way to inject some energy into the home straight than getting Ekitike back on the pitch!!
he’d be like a new signing!
That old chestnut. We might need it after we sign no one
The one thing in Slot's favour is there are no outstanding managers available to replace him and with all the various mitigations this season has thrown up, I can understand FSG sticking with him.
The odds of him pulling this around are low and a lot will depend on the summer transfer business. But I really hope he can do it. He did fantastically well in his first season, you can't just disregard that.
I agree with a lot here but the squad is thread bare. I know this season made matters worse due to injuries (which come and go) but Salah and Robbo are gone now and Ekiteke is gone until Feb/March isn't it? And we have serious injury concerns at RB and GK. We look very short on depth in the squad IMO. Off the bat we need a RW starter and someone capable enough of being rotated in. Slot clearly doesn't trust Chiesa to do the job so that's two signings needed in attack… a 3rd if we want to have another striker. Now maybe Danns and/or Gordon can step up as cover but that's a big gamble and could leave us in a similar position to this season. We've no cover at LB. Based on this season we need some decent cover at RB too. Can't have another season playing Szobo, Jones or Gomez at RB. At CB it's yet to be seen how the two young lads settle in. You'd think the balance is there with experience alongside them there. I think we're alright for cover in the midfield trio… the problem there is more about getting best out of the talent we have there and I'm just talking about "cover" for positions. Wharton has been rumoured too though so if that does happen and it is around £80m, either we're going on another spending spree or we're not getting the cover for positions we need.
One of the English pods talked about the risks of getting rid of him. Basically, stepping up from Brighton or Bournemouth is too big a jump, look at Frank, Potter, Nuno etc.
That previously you had lots of big clubs around Europe you could pick from. Rafa came from Valencia, Klopp from Dortmund, big clubs with big pressures. Whether with the power of the PL that pool is a lot smaller. Basically 6-8 clubs.
So the risk of sticking with Slot is less than the risk of twisting
Squad wise for me
GK - Ali, Mama. Ok for next season.
LB - Kerkez, Tsimksas. Ok for next season but I'd prefer Tsimksas to be sold and an upgrade bought.
CB - VVD, Konate (assuming he signs on), Gomez, Jaquet, Leoni. Ok for next season but I'd prefer someone to replace Gomez who is available most games.
RB - Frimpong, Bradley. If they can stay fit I'd say we'd be ok for next season. Unfortunately they won't stay fit so will need to sign someone.
DM - Grav. Need to sign a new DM.
CM - Jones, Szobozlai, Macca, Grav. Ok depth wise for two spots but serious consideration needs to be made on selling Macca and getting an upgrade unless he has a Lazarus type revival.
AM - Wirtz, Elliot. Elliot will probably be sold so I would think we might need a back up to Wirtz but it's probably down the list of priorities.
RW - Chiesa. We need to buy a right winger and possibly a backup as well as I'd imagine Chiesa will move on. If Bowen was available cheap I'd take him as Chiesa replacement.
CF - Isak, Ekitike. We could do with someone after Ekitike injury but I don't see it happening. Gakpo as a backup at a push. Hopefully Danns or Wright can fill in for short periods at the end of games and in cup games and do well.
LW - Gakpo, Ngumoha. Probably down the list of priorities for this summer but if a good offer came in for Gakpo he might be sold and an upgrade bought.
I think that's a reasonable assessment, it's just really important to recognize 3 positions are being padded out there by players likely not to be at the club. Would love to see Elliot stay though… but if he's not in Slot's plans it's pointless as he'll just be warming the bench all season. Bowen would be a great signing. Aside from his skill, I think he just has the right attitude, leadership and experience that we're lacking. We used to be a team of leaders… I struggled to see any beyond VVD this season.
Well you can easily argue that the step up for Iraola from Bournmouth who are in the PL to Liverpool would be less of a step up than Slot from Feyonord in the Eredivisie was as at least with Iraola you'd be getting PL experience but I think the point is now moot as it does look like Slot is staying.
Agree with your last paragaph.
I think fans wouldn't just jump on Slot after a couple of losses. It's the fact that we went on a horrific run and won two league games from 27th September until 13th December, losing 6 out of 10. We had also only scraped the early wins which helped us to look better in the table than we were. We then had a sustained run of draws which were uninspired, followed by our most positive period in the league from late January to late February where we won 4 out of 5 games.
The over-riding factor through the whole season is that we've never really looked convincing even when winning well in the CL. The football has been drab and uninspiring. We seem to collapse easily when the opposition score a goal. Given the quality of players we have, we should be doing much better and fans know that. It's not a case of bashing Slot for the sake of it. It's been one of the worst seasons peformance-wise since Hodgson and Souness. Under most other managers like Rafa, Evans, Houllier, even when things weren't great we had good games and showed a plan and a style of play a lot of the time. This season has just been a nothing season. No interest in watching most games.
Even being really objective, anyone would have to say Slot is under serious scrutiny and should be on a borrowed time. I would think by Christmas, if things haven't seriously improved, he should be long gone. That's giving him a year and a half of poor performances which is more than enough benefit of doubt.
My transfer priorities would be:
Defensive Midfielder - finally find a replacement for Fabinho. Can rotate with Gravenberch who can also play as an 8. We're too easy to find through.
Right winger - Replacement for Salah. May be required to play up front to rotate with Isak with Ekitike unavailable
Left winger - Replacement for Diaz, upgrade on Gakpo who is a backup option. Don't accept this blocking a pathway for Rio nonsense, if you sign someone on a 3-year deal Rio will still be only 20 at the end of it. Also can be used as a rotation option upfront
Defence - Replacement of Gomez as utility defender. Great servant but unfortunately cannot be trusted to be available for a period of games. The biggest ability is availability! Need someone that can play/cover right-back, centre-back at least.
Defence - Replacement for Konate if he leaves. Would be good if he stays but could see positives if we got in a better passing defender on the right hand side, missing since Trent left.
This is assuming nobody else leaves. If Jones, MacAllister, Chiesa or whoever leaves, they need to be replaced directly, no more blocking pathway nonsense.
I think some of the above priorities should have been dealt with last summer - obviously missing out on Guehi shows they knew centre half was an issue, not replacing Diaz was negligent.
There's a big summer of work ahead, just hope Edwards, Hughes and Slot are up to it.
A great point. At one time, we had the Dutch captain, Scottish captain, sometimes-England captain in Hendo, Egypt captain and Senegal captain. Then you had natural leaders like Ali and Matip. Endo is Japan captain and Bradley is N.I. captain too.
The newer players are not natural leaders. Szoboszlai is the obvious one to join VVD and Ali in the leadership group, but after that…???
