20 Oct 2025 00:41:04
Ed1, what do you think? Is it time to panic yet? That's four losses in a row, and it's not like we were playing good football either. I do think there are players who don't deserve to be in the starting lineup right now, but they keep getting selected.
{Ed001's Note - it is worrying that Slot seems to pick some players no matter how they perform, while others can't get a game when they are key every time they come on. He has to stop trying to get players fit by starting them and get them fit in training. And why drop a player in form for one who is not even close to half fitness? It is time that he addresses the issues or someone needs to have a serious talk with him.
Also, if you are going to pick players, at least play them to their strengths and stop playing like Trent is in the team, he is gone. We no longer have teams dropping 5 yards deeper and allowing us to control the play when we have the ball.
And what is this about with Macca just standing on their defensive line? We are just emptying midfield and wondering why every opponent can get at our backline easily. The midfield is offering no protection at all. Macca is too slow to get back, it is an imbecilic tactic to play him as almost a striker.}
20 Oct 2025 07:57:19
I had a distinct sense of dread when I saw the starting lineup an hour before the game with Macca and Isak starting, Ed, I mean if we all know that it isn't going to turn out well, it's flabbergasting that Slot can persist with doing this even when the likes of Ekitike, Chiesa and Jones all showing good form recently. Ekitike looked very good next to Mbappe for France in the break as well, so it is genuinely perplexing.
Emptying midfield is a massive problem for us in the build up, Grav now has loads of space to operate in with the opposition not looking to press him and the other team dropping into a low block, but Dom and Macca are all the way up the field with everybody else, you have to wonder what it is that we're trying to do with our ball progression.
{Ed001's Note - it is something the Rangers fans used to call 'the horseshoe' when GVB tried it in Scotland as their manager. They were frustrated by it then and said it never worked and just led to slow, boring, sideways football. It is a nonsense idea. Movement is the key to unsettling defences, even if only used to distract them for a second. When we did have movement, we created chances. But sending them all to stand up in a line up the top is just idiotic. Rodgers used to do something similar.}
20 Oct 2025 08:42:44
The biggest flaw with this system is all our ball playing players are pushed way to high and all easily marked by the opposition, if you look at recent games it’s our CBs who are expected to play penetrative passes which is just crazy. We no longer smoother our opponents we make it so easy by emptying our midfield, we can’t press once the opponent turns over possession because once the 1st pass makes it out our whole team are on the turn and chasing back. If you watch our last 10 games all our opponents have to do is play a long ball into the channels and we are carved open. Carragher pointed this out to Slot in interview way back before the season started and he had no answers and it seems he is yet to come up with a solution.
20 Oct 2025 09:38:35
You think the appointment of GvB hasn't work so far? Also, is Konate keep being selected because we don't have someone capable of replacing him right now? I wouldn't mind putting Gomez in and see how he perform.
20 Oct 2025 09:52:21
Play any combination of defenders you like, but if the midfield offers no protection we’ll still be a soft touch. As it is, any opponent will fancy their chances of us gifting them easy chances.
20 Oct 2025 09:59:05
Ed1 - the situation is really baffling and I wonder how in sync Slot is with Hughes.
Like we’ve signed two attacking wingbacks - Frimpong we’re not playing and we’d sooner play Szoboslai ahead of him so he can invert into midfield like Trent.
And the Kerkez were playing deeper and narrow so most of his runs are inside the LW.
It’s strange.
{Ed001's Note - it is very odd. Clearly not fully in sync as the recruitment has not matched the style of play from the beginning. In fact the recruitment is patchwork anyway, a keeper who is woefully unsuited, a full back who is not even a full back etc etc. The signings are great individual players but not a cohesive group of players who match up as a unit. It seems a bit uncoordinated.}
20 Oct 2025 11:12:55
Ed, I don't know if you saw it re: the Horseshoe. In the first half, Kerkez had the ball and Grav came over to show for a pass. Right behind him, there was the centre circle with a huge doughnut hole (or horseshoe) the size of you guessed it, the centre circle. I almost had to go wash my face to make sure I was seeing the same thing.
So it seems like the other midfielders just go stand on the oppo. 's defensive line when we are building and leave that doughnut hole in midfield. And yet we are surprised that we are awful when out of possession and in transition and get attacked and scored on with no pressure on the ball.
{Ed001's Note - my parents are staying and ended up going out on the balcony to watch the diwali fireworks rather than listen to my rants about that. ??