03 Apr 2025 14:52:06
Im not sure wjat to make of the way we are playing right now. I think at best it can be considered controlled. It is far from the explosive attacking football of the last 5 years or so but ots working. My only concern is when we go behind will we have enough to get it back. We had one good chance yesterday and it was scored . Aside from that Everton had the better chances. Mo looks well below par, like he's basically done all he can and is need of a break. I don't know, I think im just worried that this may slip away if we don't start scoring more .
03 Apr 2025 14:59:38
We’ve played like this pretty much all season and we have also came from behind on numerous occasions. So much so that we are 12 points clear. It’s not easy winning the League tho, I will say that but I think we have enough experienced “winners” to get the job done.
03 Apr 2025 15:00:27
I was listening to the Everton fans on Talksport saying we are playing so badly we will be the worst PL champions of all time, they're just coming off as slightly 'bitter'.
And the obligatory 'it was a fair tackle, yellow card at the very most, in the olden days it would be applauded', the hosts had to keep. reminding them it's not 'the olden days' ??.
03 Apr 2025 15:12:02
We were playing very well but for a number of weeks we have been awful to watch. I think missing Trent is massive. He creates so much for Mo and his passing is second to none. He is going to be a huge miss and anyone who thinks he isn't is fooling themselves.
03 Apr 2025 15:26:34
4 wins and 1 draw is all that's needed and that's based on Arsenal winning all their games including against us. With Gabriel put, I would be amazed if they are perfect until seasons endm
The year we won it I remember some dire performances but we'd score late. You are never going to have exciting football in every game across a season.
Everton defended well and had a gameplan, but we got it done. I think we may weirdly find away games easier, Anfield is a bag of nerves at the minute.
03 Apr 2025 15:48:52
entitled and spoiled come to mind. there's no easy games in the PL, just watch saints and ipswich getting points yesterday.
03 Apr 2025 15:55:36
It may not be the most attractive style of football to watch, but it's certainly been the most efficient. The table standing and goal difference don't lie over 30 games.
03 Apr 2025 16:03:17
We are playing very controlled but we have shown on multiple occasions that when we do go behind we can step up a gear and turn it round.
03 Apr 2025 16:33:23
and we had more chances than them, why are you counting an offside as a chance? They literally had one chance and one half chance off a dead ball. Jota's chance was actually onside and had one other blocked in the 1st half, Diaz had the whole goal to aim at but chose to shoot where pickford and the defender was around 80 minutes, Salah had a clear header at the back post. Not to mention all the times a sloppy pass or a stupid decision to shoot or dribble instead of an easy pass could have lead to at least 2 or 3 clear cut chances.
03 Apr 2025 16:42:50
Couldn't care less how we play now as long as we win the league. don't get me wrong there is loads of improvement to be made n I'd love us to be hammering everybody 4 nil. but four 1 nils will do me fine.
03 Apr 2025 17:05:24
The thing is that there isn't a single team out there playing well at this stage of the season, Brighton maybe, Bournemouth are great to watch with their pressing and pressure but they still lose to the likes of city, the important thing now is just to get points on the board. Also there's the fact that we've had to play conservatively sometimes for that very reason, because this team is now expected to win and get the title over the line, with that pressure and that expectation it's bound to affect tactics and performances.
03 Apr 2025 17:08:57
I get what you’re saying op I feel similar. I half think klopps style has near enough been fazed out now with slot ball. I’m not really a fan of this possession ball it just feels slow “tippy crappy “.
03 Apr 2025 17:26:15
This style of football wins the league.
That’s why a couple of weeks ago I said on here Slot will pick up a few league titles, but we won’t reach a European Cup final, because we simply do not use anfield, we don’t get emotional.
Robotic but it works, City have bored us to death for years and picked up many titles this way.
03 Apr 2025 18:12:29
Best attack by a mile. Second best defence. Unbeaten away from home. Virtually invincible with one loss and 26 game unbeaten run and walking the league. first world problems, me thinks.
Also, us not playing consistently well in games has been the norm all season hence, no new ground has been broken here and Im here for literally ALL of it.
03 Apr 2025 18:20:31
Did Everton have a shot on target ?.
03 Apr 2025 18:50:03
I don't think there is much of a similarity at all between us and city though, we are much more direct, more robust and we also score many goals in transition, I think we have the most counter attacking goals in the league this season, so it's not like we've thrown klopp's style out the window, we don't need to dominate the ball like city to be effective. Klopp's football relied a lot on pace, athleticism and power, being fitter than the opponent and blitzing them with a shock and awe approach to football, slot's football is about imposing control, which you might say is akin to city in that sense, but we can impose that control with or without the ball, and slot emphasizes neutralising the opponent rather than dominating them like klopp did.
I don't find it robotic, though, because it's not like everything is micro managed like de zerbi, pep or arteta's systems, where everybody knows what they're supposed to do at any time and the range of possibilities at any time is entirely scripted because they are scared to death of losing the ball and being counter attacked on. We can go direct and hit a risky long ball into the opposing half because we trust our players to win second balls high up the field, and we rely on the invention and quality of our attacking players to improvise at times. The difference is that slot, while playing the odds in possession sometimes, has created a better structure off the ball in transition so we aren't left wide open when we lose the ball.
Can we press better and more intensely? I'm sure we all wish we did a lot of the time but I think we'll have to accept that slot won't opt to do this more often than not (though he has also shown that he will set the team up to do that on occasion, such as against psg at home in the first half) . I would say however that it is pressing that we need to improve on moving forwards because the games we have played poorly in we have had a very uncoordinated or uncommitted press (also in the same game against psg, when we relented after the first 20 mins and started letting mendes and vitinha back in the game with a half hearted press, leading to their goal) .
Have we been great to watch all the time? No, but slot is in his first season and he's won the title learning the ropes in a new league with a squad that might not be entirely able to execute his idea of football. Surely it's more than a bit unfair to ask him to do that while steamrolling teams.
03 Apr 2025 19:39:40
Mate you’re realising this now lol.
03 Apr 2025 19:52:15
It'll be interesting to see if there's any differences next season as Slot begins to accumulate the players he thinks will be a better fit for how he wants to play.
I wouldn't be expecting any major differences though, maybe some incremental ones season by season.
Why change a proven title winning formula? (Taking it for granted we will eventually land no 20 this season I know) .
03 Apr 2025 20:08:56
Good analysis that Patrick, nice read. I’m sure you’re right that we’re tighter with a better structure off the ball but it’s still nervy watching us at times defensively particularly in last three months or so.
Be interesting which way we go with things next season, whether Slot has us playing this way because he thinks it’s the best winning formula with who we have (if so he’s proven right in the league), or whether he’ll evolve again when he gets his own players in.
03 Apr 2025 20:15:13
Exctly, Faith. This has been the norm all season. Honestly, now many games have we played this season (and won) when we played poorly in the first half and then stepped it up in the second half and took over the game? Over half of our games at the least. And some of us are just figuring this out now?
03 Apr 2025 21:18:20
You have to admit though, we find ourselves in an excellent position to win the league with 8 games to go - not many of us were expecting, or even optimistically predicting - that we would win the league this season, especially with the loss of Jurgen, not many new signings (before we start there were 2) and a new coach who not that many of us had heard of, even if he did receive a glowing endorsement from Ed02.
It also shows the potential we have for improvement that we are 12 points clear and we aren’t fully satisfied with the way we are playing. You’d have to at least consider that the prospects for next season, assuming Slot makes a solid start to his squad updates, are pretty good and should be, at least, interesting and, at best, exciting - dare I say, bring on 21 and a party outside Sir Alex’s house ?.
03 Apr 2025 22:34:09
WDW, are you doing like a "anti-Harry" thing where you keep changing your name but still making sure we know you're the same person? ? ?.
03 Apr 2025 23:07:53
The word you are all looking for is efficient. We don’t take as many risks as we did under Klopp but we are very good at controlling a game when we are in front or stepping it up if we are behind.
It’s very clear that when we get in front we noticeably step off the gas and maintain possession and don’t go hell for leather looking for the second goal. Then if we do lose the ball we have enough players around it to win it back quickly. The problems come when we are a bit impatient and sloppy and lose the ball too often, leaving us out of position.
Yesterday was a prime example of that. We were a bit impatient in the first half and lost the ball a few times allowing them to break on us. After they scored the offside goal and hit the post we looked a bit nervy in possession and looked scared to lose the ball. In the second half we just kept the ball in their half, were patient and didn’t take as many risks knowing that a chance would come. Then once we got in front we killed the game.
It’s not as exciting as the all action Klopp style but you can’t argue with the results.
04 Apr 2025 06:53:34
is talking about Harry and usernames not hijacking this original post?
Practice what you preach and all that.