04 Oct 2025 21:14:47
Please ed 01 can you post some of your wisdom?
{Ed001's Note - I am not sure what I can say after that. It was a horrible performance against a team that were very beatable. Clearly there are a lot of issues with players that are not putting in enough effort and the training needs to be looked at. Half the team lack any basic fitness right now and we are suffering so many injuries because of it. We have no intensity to the play and that comes from the way we train - as they say in martial arts and boxing, you fight how you train and that is the same with the way you play. If you train with no intensity, then you will play with none. And then the minute you have to put in any intensity to your play, you then have a massively increased injury risk.
Oh and stop playing Konate ffs, he is abysmal and clearly hasn't got his head in the game at all. And Macca is slow at the best of times, right now he is miles off the pace, if he is not fit, don't keep starting him. Go back to basics in midfield and have two that sit to give Wirtz freedom to play, instead of him ending up spending most of his time as our deepest midfielder providing defensive cover. Why buy attacking full-backs and not let them attack as well? It is not their fault they are playing poorly, they have a skillset and they are not being allowed to use it at all.
Also, stop ignoring Chiesa, he has to be given more time on the pitch as he has deserved it, unlike anyone else other than Ekitike so far this season. Play the player in form.}
05 Oct 2025 08:52:05
Ed001,
Excellent points.
As they say in the regiment. "Train hard, fight easy. "
Unlike many I had a bad reaction to when Slot was appointed. OK, I am a Klopp fan, but I had visions of Slot walking up and down the touchline wondering what was going on.
However, I was pleasantly surprised when we did so well last season. I thought I had been proven completely wrong.
Then I looked at the way we are playing this season, what
With that squad of players?
I go back to my first impressions when Slot was appointed. Not good.
{Ed001's Note - I don't understand why you would make such massive changes to playing style, when you already have massive changes to personnel. It was always going to make it a difficult season.}
05 Oct 2025 09:17:11
Do you think the departure of Heitinga and arrival of van Bronckhorst would be a factor?
05 Oct 2025 09:17:44
Absolutely agree with you there ed, what worries me the most is how passive we are pressing the ball, it's tragic when Chelsea are outmatching you pressing from the front and all over the field, in the first 45 minutes we just looked shellshocked.
It was stunning watching Dom lead the press from the front sprinting all over the place while Cody was doing a sort of half press worried about the space he would leave in behind, and Mo and Isak sluggishly trying to block passing lanes without accomplishing much of anything at all. I get why both of them are not given much responsibilities in that regard, but surely we can't have our best pressing midfielder running like a madman trying to close off everybody in the opposing third and two of our forwards not doing much of anything, allowing an opposing player to carry the ball from their half all the way into ours, while we continue to hold this high line.
Against Galatasaray it was exactly the same, players are just allowed to waltz from their own half through our midfield. I was shocked to see the likes of Curtis Jones, one of our best pressing midfielders (and our star player against Chelsea last year), ball watching at times against Galatasaray, and this has to be by instruction for whatever incomprehensible reason.
And then there is the build up, last year and at times earlier in the season we would bait the press and then find the spaces, now we are struggling to get the ball through the lines and everybody looks half a second behind the play, midfielders are receiving the ball in crowded areas too late and can't turn and the ball just goes all the way back, it's enough to make you groan and tear your hair out.
In transition players are having to pause for a second to figure out where their team mates are and where they're headed, and that tiny bit of indecision makes all the difference at the highest level. Everything just looks so awkward that we can have a perfectly decent passage of play and it all breaks down because of a complete lack of chemistry between the players. That cannot be helped by the fact that Slot keeps changing the team all the time, not because of rotation but because he looks like he's desperately trying to figure out something that works.
I'm not searching for excuses but besides the devastating blow that Jota's passing must have had on the players, it also had an effect upon our preseason preparations. I don't know how we're going to iron out these issues, but surely there is no other way than to do it on the training pitch. Not sure how we're going to have any time to do that, but until it gets fixed we're simply praying for moments of brilliance from an extremely talented squad, rather than calculated and cohesive team play. The equaliser last night is a case in point- a moment of sublime inspiration from a half-fit Isak (though a shout out also has to go to Wirtz for creating the tiny bit of space in the box for Isak to feed Cody) .
{Ed001's Note - Isak shouldn't be starting while half fit, not while Ekitike is there. And we can no longer carry Salah defensively if we want Wirtz in the team. If that means Salah can only play for 60 minutes, that's fine, but he has to get involved in the press and then we can swap him out when he tires.}
05 Oct 2025 09:29:04
Ed 01, do you know how the transfers work at the moment with the club. As you say about the FBs, we seem to have signed players for those positions that absolutely don’t fit the tasks they’re being asked to do.
Also, to have two full backs attacking, we need more mobile midfielders, not Mac Allister. It just feels a little bit like we’ve signed good players, not necessarily the players needed for the system.
Finally, do you think there is an over reliance on 33 year old Salah and a 34 Virgil? I’m scratching my head a bit that we haven’t signed any cover for these two players.
{Ed001's Note - yeah, there is very much a discord between what we signed and what Slot needed. We did sign cover for Salah, Chiesa last season and Frimpong this season. Frimpong was rarely played at full-back in his time with Leverkusen. As far as I am aware, they do still sit down together as a group to decide on transfers, it is just that Slot has a lot less say than Klopp. Edwards only came back on the proviso that the head coach would no longer have the veto on signings after the summer we ended up with Arthur Melo. Klopp turned down multiple midfielders that Edwards had lined up for him to sign, until it ended up with Klopp making a panic last-minute move for Melo.}
05 Oct 2025 09:35:29
I agree with most of what Ed said. Drop Macca and put Szobo. Instruct Grav and Szobo not go forward as much so the full backs could bomb more. Put Szobo on the right of the double pivot, since Grav tends to go forward less, this would give more space to Wirtz who likes to go more to the left. Additionally, tell Ekitike to drop more to the right, instead of always dropping to the left side, so the space is more balanced, and he did this when he played with Marmoush at Frankfurt.
I don't knoe about Konate, he has not played well at all, but we don't have anyone there. I love Gomez and think that he is better than Konate even before this year, but he is extremely injury prone so I wouldn't rely on him at all.
05 Oct 2025 09:40:44
Ed1, do you think Slot can fix this before it becomes a bigger problem? The positive thing, I guess, is that we've lost twice in a row but are only trailing Arsenal by one point.
{Ed001's Note - he can yes, but he needs to stop tinkering and let the team settle down first and foremost. Rotate when the team is in form and it won't be a problem, but doing it when all the new players are trying to get to know each other and you end up with, at best, inconsistency.}
05 Oct 2025 09:43:45
REDS just my thoughts. Gravenberch needs to be where he was last season, he's to high at times and maybe exposing Konate. Macca looked better to me last night but still not 100%. Dom looks great wherever he is. But, there is too much moving people about. Wirtz? I think he needs to adjust to us rather than the rest of the team adjusting to him and he needs a bit of time. Gakpo, such a nice guy but, wow, he got a tap in but besides that nothing. Mo looks way off it. Isak is still getting match fit. Hugo has been a stand out. Chiesa Why isn't he on the pitchSubstitutions? no Gomez, Frimpong and no Freddy. Baffling.
05 Oct 2025 09:52:36
Maybe Slot got word from the fitness team that Ekitike wasn't fit to start the game, ed? In which case I'd rather we put somebody who was fit to lead the line and who could press, anything would be better, put Wirtz or Dom in there as a false 9, Chiesa, any of those three would run from first minute to last. I'd rather we had a pressing player than somebody who isn't fit enough to press or effectively close off passing lanes than putting Isak in there purely because his reputation and presence will pin a center half when we have the ball. Having two non-pressing forwards is an absolute disaster for the way we play. Starting Isak in a game like this makes no sense, he is made to look half the player that he is the way we are asking him to play.
05 Oct 2025 10:28:05
He can fix it by playing to the team’s strengths - not trying to re-invent the wheel to make yourself look cleverer than everyone else.
They all do it, even the greats. Jurgen did it, Wenger did it when he binned Viera and failed. Even Fergie did it with the Veron experiment - altho he rectified it quickly and never did it again.
The only one who didn’t was Bob - and look what happened there.
05 Oct 2025 10:39:21
Ed1, do you think Slot constantly tinkering with the squad has anything to do with us not getting further in the Champions League and losing the League Cup? I did read one of Slot's interviews where he basically repeated what you said last season — that not rotating the squad enough cost us the Champions League, an early FA Cup exit, and the League Cup Final loss. He admitted that his stubbornness cost us in other competitions, which is at least a positive step.
{Ed001's Note - yes, I think he is looking to rectify a problem but he is just doing it the wrong way for now.}
05 Oct 2025 10:44:51
Good read Ed,
That was my opinion with Wirtz, why did we not start him yesterday with Dom and Grav? Allow him to pick up the ball in the pockets and the others to provide cover when they can to the backline.
We haven’t massively changed that midfield playing Wirtz instead of Macca, Grav and Dom should have enough energy and steel to cover the backline while wirtz can get on the ball and make things happen.
05 Oct 2025 11:56:34
Ed1 - we had this convo about Chiesa a week or so ago. The idea that “Slot doesn’t like him”. I don’t know if that is true, but at the least it does seem like Chiesa needs to score a hat trick every time he gets 5mins here or there in order to be a chance to get another 5mins next match. I don’t know why that’s about.
The tinkering is way over the top but unfortunately lads, I can’t see that changing at all. I was as surprised as anyone to see Endo getting ready to come on. Thought the obvious person at 1-1 would be Chiesa and we were chasing a goal.
05 Oct 2025 12:06:32
Oustanding thread. This is the type of thread I love reading. Open, straight to the point, nuanced, full of cool heads with perspective rathar than the OTT rage- baiting rubbish.
If Ed is correct then, we are the architects of our own issues. Slot is trying to do too much too soon. Also if he is restricting the ability of the FB's to bomb forward (as that is their skill set) then, that's on him esp. if these are the FB's he wanted.
As for Salah, he is as Karim Benzema said about Vinicius, "Playing against us". There's only so long people will cover for him cos he was horrific again. I mean, just look at the chance he spurned on the counter with Wirtz's outstanding no look flick and rather than cut inside Cucurella who was never going to get there and fire it on his left foot, he just wasted it completely. I wanted Chiesa (who is in form) to play BUT it seems Slot won't play him at all.
05 Oct 2025 13:02:08
Chiesa should start ahead of Salah for the time being. He's shown more than Salah has so far this season so once again Ed1, I do agree, he deserves his chance. I don't know why it seems like Salah can't be dropped, it's like he's the star player and slot is afraid of dropping him. There's no star player, it's a team, drop him for a game or two and make him work for his spot the same as everyone else.