The Footie Thread

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Lord Tyrion said:
What was his game based on? Getting that half yard on the defender, getting a shot away. When he can't get that half yard, does he have enough left? Some players can still manage when losing that edge, currently, he can't. He will go to a lower, slower league next season and may do okay. No one in the PL is rushing to sign him though.
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Has he lost pace though? Maybe he was just not buying into Slot’s change of tactics?

Last season he was lauded for his great season with goals and assists, some questioned LPool’s performances near the end of last season and where told that was down to having the league wrapped up and players switching off.

This season they started by winning 5 in a row and all was good, now Salah is getting stick for ending last season poorly and being the issue this season.

A player of that quality doesn’t suddenly become a poor player.😵‍💫
 
Arthur Wedge said:
Salahs form was starting to dip last season as well , think it was 1 goal in the last 10 games maybe , he had one last great season and prob should have left in the summer , you could see his legs going , poor touch etc - he hit a wall

The club prob tried to move on from him because you can’t build a team around someone mid 30’s
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If the club probably tried to move him on why were there protracted negotiations resulting in a new contract and a pay hike? A quick read of the headlines from around March, April last year say the stats show he was at peak performance and worthy of that new contract.

I think Kloop could make an average player into a star player, but Slot turned so many excellent players into shadows of what they’d been the season before, Salah being scapegoated for the team’s overall performances.
 
Tashyboy said:
Re Slot there’s something I cannot get my head round. He inherited a fantastic squad, spent a fortune and went backwards. Yet Pep is accused of inheriting good squads and buying trophies 🤔
Slot is not the first or last to inherit good squads and fail. It don’t guarantee success.

That said, be interested to hear from the Liverpool fans where they think it went wrong.
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"Accused" seems to be the wrong word. Benefitted may be a better one.

I don't believe anyone uses this as a reason to argue Pep is a poor or average manager. Everyone, I think, agrees he is a brilliant manager. He will go down as one of the all time greats.

So, the simple answer has to be Slot is nowhere near the level of Pep. Very few are. Slot had the benefit, like Pep, of inheriting a very good, stable squad. In fairness to him, he kept their momentum going to win the title. How much that was down to Slot, and how much was down the players simply being familiar with each other, I don't know. But he looked to lose complete control in the second season. Many changes were made. He had to manage how to accommodate scoring machine Salah with new goal threats Isak and Ekitike. He had to get high value asset Wirtz linking up with these goal machines. It felt like too many cooks spoil the broth. Players looked confused and frustrated, and Slot was unable to change things. Salah was abysmal for so long, and yet Slot sstarted him far too often. Then when he did drop him (just before AFCON I think), Salah threw his toys out of the pram, and it felt like many of the other players backed Salah (their mate) rather than the manager.

We've had similar moments at Utd. Van Gaal versus Di Maria, Mourinho versus Pogba, Ten Hag with Ronaldo/Sancho/Rashford and Amorim with Rashford/Garnacho/Mainoo. It is so easy for other players to back their fellow player, as they are mates who train together most days. At the very top clubs, where most players are at the top of their pay grade and cannot climb much further, I'd imagine the most important quality is man management. Being able to work with the board, and remove bad eggs asap (tricky with huge contracts these days). Not even sure coaching is a top priority, the players should already be technically brilliant. Bring in a good number 2 and coaching staff who can bring those qualities to training, if that isn't your major strength. Pep is a good coach, but I'd imagine his major strength is his man management and charisma. Those above him have 100% confidence in him, and he inspires those above and below him.
 
Slime said:
I think it was more to do with social media.
Salah stuck the knife in with his end of season comment about 'heavy metal football', which I thought was a bit of a cheap shot as he was just about to leave the club, but many other Liverpool players then 'liked' his comments, showing that they also weren't happy with what Slot was doing.
I think that was the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, not their lacklustre performances.
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A few of the players come out afterwards in support of Slot and the liking of the post

Salah is a huge character and looks like his influence was a bit toxic , he tired with Klopp and was slapped down very quickly

Shame as for some it’s spoilt his legacy a little

But time to move on , looks like new manager will be sorted this week

Salah has gone , interesting to see who they bring now
 
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Arthur Wedge said:
A few of the players come out afterwards in support of Slot and the liking of the post

Salah is a huge character and looks like his influence was a bit toxic , he tired with Klopp and was slapped down very quickly

Shame as for some it’s spoilt his legacy a little
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You can't always trust players who come out and support a manager in public. They may hate the manager, but to protect their own interests telling the world how they love the manager is the sensible thing to do.
 
PaulMdj said:
Has he lost pace though? Maybe he was just not buying into Slot’s change of tactics?

Last season he was lauded for his great season with goals and assists, some questioned LPool’s performances near the end of last season and where told that was down to having the league wrapped up and players switching off.

This season they started by winning 5 in a row and all was good, now Salah is getting stick for ending last season poorly and being the issue this season.

A player of that quality doesn’t suddenly become a poor player.😵‍💫
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He is not poor, but he was not good enough any more for that league, as a premium player. We have seen it plenty of times with others. He needed to become more of an impact player coming on at the end of games but clearly his ego could not take that. Time comes to all players, it is inevitable.
 
Arthur Wedge said:
A few of the players come out afterwards in support of Slot and the liking of the post

Salah is a huge character and looks like his influence was a bit toxic , he tired with Klopp and was slapped down very quickly

Shame as for some it’s spoilt his legacy a little
Click to expand...

One thing we mustn’t forget is Slot has been sacked. That sacking won’t have been done on a whim. There’ll have been a deep dive into all aspects of why Liverpool struggled. We don’t know the conclusions of any end of season reviews, if they were done. The sacking won’t have been done due to a fall out with Salah but it might have been an indicator of more widespread issues between the manager & the team. Whatever, we don’t know.

Gut feel, Liverpool have always been stable around sacking managers. Sacking Slot was the right thing to do.
 
Lord Tyrion said:
He is not poor, but he was not good enough any more for that league, as a premium player. We have seen it plenty of times with others. He needed to become more of an impact player coming on at the end of games but clearly his ego could not take that. Time comes to all players, it is inevitable.
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He could maybe have try and reinvented himself, sort of like Giggs and Ronaldo did. Although, he'd need to both be capable of playing very differently AND the manager believing he can still fit within his system as a different type of player I guess.

With young, pacy wingers they probably need to look ahead into their career to see how they can prolong it. They won't be getting any faster once they get into their thirties, accumulation of injuries will probably slow them down, and every year the opposition will have more younger, fast players to compete against. Or, just burn yourself out as long as you can get away with, and then play for a few years in Saudi Arabia or USA.
 
Hobbit said:
One thing we mustn’t forget is Slot has been sacked. That sacking won’t have been done on a whim. There’ll have been a deep dive into all aspects of why Liverpool struggled. We don’t know the conclusions of any end of season reviews, if they were done. The sacking won’t have been done due to a fall out with Salah but it might have been an indicator of more widespread issues between the manager & the team. Whatever, we don’t know.

Gut feel, Liverpool have always been stable around sacking managers. Sacking Slot was the right thing to do.
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For me the quick turn around is a touch worrying , whilst we did struggle last season all the talk was about him staying etc

Him going for many is the right choice but that’s not what concerns me , it’s the sudden change in direction , seems like the ones above don’t have a plan

And I’m concerned that a manager is being picked based on being known by the DoF

Think Iraola comes across well and would have been a 3rd choice for me behind the likes of Enrique and Nagelsmann

When you look at the results though it’s not great to look at
 
Arthur Wedge said:
Not sure failure is the right word when in the last two seasons he has won a title 🤷‍♂️


Slot going shows a lot about the modern sack culture and not giving a manager too much time

What went wrong this season

Squad harmony was hurt
Wrong playars maybe arriving and the wrong ones leaving
New players not settling
Tactics wrong
Energy levels low

Everything that could go wrong did


If you swap his two seasons around - transition then winning the title , it’s all good
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I like the positive thinking that Slot would have got a 2nd season if you swapped the last two years.
 
Hobbit said:
If the club probably tried to move him on why were there protracted negotiations resulting in a new contract and a pay hike? A quick read of the headlines from around March, April last year say the stats show he was at peak performance and worthy of that new contract.

I think Kloop could make an average player into a star player, but Slot turned so many excellent players into shadows of what they’d been the season before, Salah being scapegoated for the team’s overall performances.
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I meant in terms of looking to build for the future around the likes of Wirtz and Isak with Salah supplementing them for a couple of seasons

Salah isn’t the only player that was poor last season , Konate , Gravenburch , Gakpo and McAllister all had huge drop offs in form last season - lots of issues and will always believe that we will never understand the impact on the players of what happened with Jota even though that’s not an excuse for a poor season

Ultimately the manager has paid the price as they always do
 
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Lord Tyrion said:
He is not poor, but he was not good enough any more for that league, as a premium player. We have seen it plenty of times with others. He needed to become more of an impact player coming on at the end of games but clearly his ego could not take that. Time comes to all players, it is inevitable.
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I agree it comes to all, I just don’t believe it’s come as quick as some are making out, this is one of the best players the PL has ever seen and there’s no way he’s had such a rapid decline in a few months.

Look at the contract they gave him last year and now he walks on a free, more to it for me.
 
Slime said:
I'm absolutely sure that it was the players that got him sacked.
No real secret.
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I agree.
He made so many strange decisions.
Keeping out of form players in the team
Not playing young players that had done well as subs.
Just no playing style
Playing your best performing player at RB.
His press conference answers after another defeat were baffling sometimes.

The list is endless.
But we don’t know what went on behind closed doors that’s where the problems were imo.
 
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