11 Nov 2025 19:32:52
Probably going to get shot down for this but I don't care haha.
I get that the tactics used, new players bedding in and of course Jota's passing but I don't think any of them have been our biggest problem this season. That has been Salah. Yes last season he had an unbelievable season and will rightly go down as a legend but with him in the team its woefully unbalanced at the minute, other players are having to do 2 jobs because of him. It's been like that for a few seasons now tho, so it doesn't look like changing any time soon either. Another thing, I think Slot doesn't know how to handle him properly, otherwise he would of been dropped more than he has this season.
Solution. Dom should play out there, like he kinda does for Hungary and the bring either Jones into mid or Gakpo on the left and switch Wirtz to the middle. If we are to continue with the current tactics. We could always switch to 2 up top with a diamond midfield. Both would makes us a lot more balanced than we currently are.
{Ed001's Note - why not just get him to track back?}
11 Nov 2025 19:49:18
I don’t get that at all to be honest Thefields. Honestly why can’t the tactics be work hard. We know they can do it they have done it for years. All this you don’t need to track back overload the left BS is doing my swede in.
11 Nov 2025 20:12:47
The regular out ball from VVD to Salah just isn't sticking, tactically we have been found out and the team generally look leggy.
Arne has the players at his disposal to make things right, we're eleven games in now with a break to reset and a decent run of fixtures.
No more excuses. I'll second what others have said that losses inevitably happen it's the way we have been getting beat that's the problem. Allison and Isak coming back from injury hopefully helps us kick on.
11 Nov 2025 20:13:11
You can’t say Salah is the problem and he’s been like that for a few seasons? having won it last season would suggest he’s not the problem? Also Who takes doms place in mf?
11 Nov 2025 20:15:08
Thefields, Slot said near the end of last season that teams ahd figured out the way to play us and that coming into this season, we needed to change and I fully agree with that.
Now one of the things we were doing last season was asking Salah not to track back that much and for majority of the season, it worked. Till it stopped working. So if we are going to change the way we play as teams have figured that out then asking Salah to track back would be one of the changes deployed, don't you think?
Especially since teams are targetting that side and then with us allocating resources to cover the RB, teams are attackin g the spaces they leave behind.
11 Nov 2025 20:34:49
Having just watched sky sports match officials Micd up a can only say howard webb is a total joke he talks as much rubbish as kier starmer and gary nevillie combined he was in fergies pocket when he was a ref and when he did world cup final why de Jong wasn't sent off for karate kick on alonso only god knows.
Every one who referees in premier league are in high profile jobs is there any working men doing it let me tell you no and it's the old boys club a complete joke michael Oliver has to be taken to task he should wear a mask the amount of times he has robbed liverpool.
11 Nov 2025 20:36:41
Think the big thing with Salah is, after discussions with Arne before last season he basically said leave me forward and not to worry about tracking back, risk against reward kind of thing I guess, and he guaranteed Arne goals and assists. To fair he delivered on that 100% the numbers were amazing. Differences I see this year as it’s still the same tactical approach is.
1. No Trent behind him, who could get the ball forward to him from any position and quickly a rapid transition if you like, leaving Mo with 1v1s and defences not set. Our build up this season is slower moving the ball forward, no quarter back like transitions from deep other than maybe Virgil’s cross field switches.
2. Centre Forward. Last season always one of Jota (RIP), Diaz or Nunez. Certainly Jota and Diaz would press, work their arses off cutting off passing lanes, making more direct balls forward more rushed and of not such a high quality. Nunez would also occupy two centre half’s with his speed and unpredictability. Also Mo and Darwin seemed to have really good chemistry.
None of them were your 20+ goals a season striker, which we went and spent big on this summer. Isak and Etikite are completely different, and not as aggressive in the press.
3. Dom’s different positioning, as a 10 as he was all of last season, in the press he is the Duracell bunny, and he made so many runs off the ball around Mo taking players away from him again giving him more time and space to hurt our opponents.
4. New contract, last season always a point to prove, a new contract to earn did he have an extra edge about him?
5. Grief, it’s got to have an impact on all our players, losing someone who’s such a part of your life on a daily basis is going to be so hard, I’m sure psychologists would tell us how grief like this affects you. Mo did seem particularly moved in preseason and early season when was still so raw.
In conclusion, I think Mo would still put up similar numbers, given we had the same structure as before, but we haven’t and I think, it’s got to be a big debate is he now a passenger certainly defensively. Personally I’d like to see us recall Harvey from his loan and play him in off the right with the over lapping full backs. His work rate is great, he’d certainly create for Isak ahead of him and he’ll start to score more regularly sooner or later. How we do during the AFCON could be very telling for the future.
11 Nov 2025 20:46:08
Ed, in a perfect world he would be asked to just do that but it seems like he has not.
Hardwork shouldn't be a tactic Coloured, it should be a given.
Spot on EM.
Scouse John. The answer was in the post, you replace Salah with either Jones or Gakpo. Straight swap with Jones or Wirtz replaces Dom and Gakpo on the left.
Correct Oli, he did. That particular tactic (Salah as the out and main threat) has been used for a couple of seasons now, the better managers figured it out. Then it grew. Which kinda makes my point and why Slot has tweaked tactics, meaning both the team and Salah are suffering because of it. Indeed tracking back would help and that's one of the reasons for dropping him and playing Don there.
11 Nov 2025 20:55:08
My spurs friend said Salah is done can see it in his reactions that the pace of the game has gone with him. We will see how we cope when he's at Afcon. If we are doing better he should be benched.
12 Nov 2025 06:20:16
Keegan - I don’t recall any season where we’ve struggled when Mo has been at AFCON.
12 Nov 2025 08:11:57
Salah is not the only reason that the team is unbalanced.
When I look at the players we brought in in the summer I thought that they were top heavy. Almost all of them want to go one way and they were added to a team that preferred that side of the game anyway.
I don't know what Slot's long term plan or system is and he might be thinking of another addition or two for it to work.
I certainly hope so.