12 Dec 2025 07:16:16
Big IFs - but if we end up signing a competent, fit and upgraded CB option in Jan (Guehi? )
…and Salah gets a move during AFCON to be replaced by a physical, pacy, Prem ready RW option (Semenyo? )
…and our midfield options increase with the return of McConnell, Harvey
…and (biggest IF), the Club recognises the need for and signs a new combative midfielder (Baleba? )
…wouldn’t it make most sense to stick with Slot as Head Coach for the remainder of the season?
Lots of variables, but in the scenario above surely you wouldn’t increase the risk by also changing the Head Coach?
Unless of course, Slot has completely lost the dressing room, which doesn’t seem to be the case.
Hold your nerve, this is the time for cool heads and decisions based solely on the long term benefit to our glorious Club.
Personally, I’d rather play for a Head Coach with more obvious passion but realistically I don’t think there’s a better option available than Slot at this moment.
So, our best chance of success would be to get behind both Slot and the players - show some support and work through this together.
{Ed001's Note - Slot is the reason we don't want a combative midfielder.}
12 Dec 2025 08:26:32
McConnell is pretty combative IMO.
12 Dec 2025 08:32:10
So the answer to this embarrassing start to the season is to spend nearly another £200m? That's after the huge spending in the summer adding to a title winning team, Slot must be a hell of a coach.
12 Dec 2025 08:57:55
I think that’s just I Pompey. Slot will stay purely because there isn’t an obvious better option available right now.
It will be interesting if Alonso does become available but for the time being I think we all just need to accept that Slot is here for the foreseeable and get behind him and the team.
12 Dec 2025 09:27:03
Accept your comment Ed01, but it seems clear we need that skill set as an option. Grav, Macca, Jones, Szobo, Wirtz all play nice tidy football but where’s the crunch? We’re too nice in there…
Ron - I also liked what I saw previously from McConnell. Cometh the time, cometh the man?
Don’t forget we also need to integrate Frimpong, freeing up Gomez as another CB option till the end of the season.
Plus, do you think Kerkez needs to hold his width more in possession? I feel he’s often too narrow to be an effective outlet. I assume that is down to instructions? Bit bewildered/ frustrated by that to be honest….
{Ed001's Note - I would love one as well, I was saying that all last season too mate. It is clear we lack bite, but Slot believes different.}
12 Dec 2025 09:31:05
Slot came in with a reputation for being flexible. If this is proven right in the second half the season by him learning from his mistakes, adapting to this league, and getting the players to play the way he wants to successfully, then I will get right back behind him. It seems like he has time, and we do look more solid since dropping Mo.
That was decision and whatever way you look at it we haven't lost a game since. This is his time to prove he's the manager we all thought he was. Fingers crossed. If he finishes top 4 I think he will be given more time, but Alonso becoming available would be mighty tempting. I'm glad I don't run a football club!
12 Dec 2025 09:36:41
AAR, yeah, it’s disappointing - but if you think Guehi should have been done anyway and Salah is a straight swap - then the only out of cycle investment would be midfield.
I’d be interested in seeing Semenyo on the left btw - to link up with Kerkez.
12 Dec 2025 09:50:51
I tend to agree with Ed01 that we need someone solid and hard tackling in DM role, we are bypassed easily in midfield at the moment.
Also need to stop passing across the back line, allowing teams to get 11 behind the ball, it’s an easy tactic to defend against as it’s so slow and easy for teams to counter attack.
Also I think Salah and Gakpo play too far out on the wing, preventing the overlap and forcing wingbacks to go inside - should be wingback outside and attackers move inside - provides more space for strikers - which is part of the reason Islam is struggling - this is all my opinion and welcome comments if others think I’m wrong - as just a discussion point.
Can Slot turn it around, a few wins and we could be in top 4 as not a large gap, but the question is will it turn around? No idea and the next few weeks will be interesting to answer this.
12 Dec 2025 10:02:56
The team is in dire need of a top level CB and a top level aggressive, combative MF presence. We'll win the sum total of FA in their absence. This is my issue with Slot. He cannot see the forest for the trees. Title winning teams or contenders need one. Henderson, Rodri, Kante, Essien, Keane, Viera etc. were employed to do a job and they did it. They add a mental as well as a physical presence. I'd find it hard to believe that an opposing 11 would be overly concerned about our current middle and the way they are structured. You require presence on the pitch, dressing room, training ground and tunnel, that also includes managerial presence.
We lack it. We'll not be successful without it. And please, McConnell is not the answer either, he may have some contributory attributes but not high enough ones to run and dictate our and the oppositions midfield. He'd be playing for us by now if those were visible. Have a good Friday EDs and all! Oh, if anyone slags Salah today, the poster or player, I'm firmly on their side and will return fire with fire! ????????????????? Be prepared!
12 Dec 2025 10:10:48
Westwood666, Slot already showed he could adapt to the league last season with the tweaks he made to the team and frankly, dominated. The nos. are staggering if you look at them, as I have. He already did all of that and all in on the record.
We also had the 2nd best defence in the PL last season with Mo in the team so I don't buy into the "we've looked more solid since Mo was dropped" stuff. Mo was not the reason we have conceded 9 goals from set pieces, for ex. or our inability to defend a long throw. Pls, Let's not start doing the very thing Mo accused the club of doing.
Slot is the one who abandoned all these tweaks that made us great and went a diff. way which has been killing us all season. NOBODY made him do it. He did that all on his own and refused to change so NO sympathy from me. Im over it and over Slot. He will go eventually. All that is required right now is patience.
12 Dec 2025 11:47:43
Cheers for the review Oli. Yeah I get that and do agree everything was great last year, but if Slot carries on tweaking and gets it right without Salah in the team, does that then mean he was right to drop him and should have done it earlier? What he does take a up a DM option or put Grab back to what he was doing and we go on to finish, say, 3rd or 2nd?
I'm also not saying it's Salah's fault. What I'm saying is that if everything we hear on here is true and Slot is planning for a style that doesn't revolve around Salah, then surely he actually gave Salah a more than fair chance to fit into that system before deciding it wasn't working and dropping him?
I'm also not a Slot defender, I am firmly in the out camp as it stands, doubly so if Alonso becomes available, but as that's unlikely right now to happen, I'm just very interested to see what the play style, form and results will be like now we are going to be without Salah anyway.
Results have been better, not great, bit still better. That's not a reflection on Salah as a player at all, agree it's all on Slot and apparently he didn't want to keep Salah. So let's see what it looks like when he has absolutely no excuses left i. e. 6 months with new players which even Klopp needed, Players he reportedly doesn't want not being an option etc.
All I'm saying is that it looks like Slot still has time to sort this mess out, and if he sticks to his guns and pulls it off, does, does that then mean he will be even higher rated than he was last year?
12 Dec 2025 11:50:46
I would also point out that if it wasn't for Salah's outburst, I doubt I would even be considering the possibility of Slot succeeding from his current position, but even the hint of an issue with a player or group of players, regardless of league position or form, kind of automatically give me pause to think maybe the manager is battling more here than meets the eye? If Salah wanted Slot gone, best thing he could of done was not say anything really, he's taken the spotlight off Slot a bit IMO.
12 Dec 2025 11:55:18
I get what people mean when they say the wingers are too far out, hence the fullbacks can only underlap.
but do u not feel that it is a specific instruction for it to work this way? imo this is part of slot's tactics. im not saying its good or bad or i agree or disagree with it. im just saying i think people should also realise this is what slot wants, this structure. salah is wasted if he's spending too much time there, there needs to be a balance, he needs to be nearer to the goal where he is most lethal.
12 Dec 2025 15:11:31
The thing is Westwood, I don't entirely believe that dropping Salah was a footballing decision at all. There are just too many unanswered questions surrounding it for me.
For starters, Salah was starting to look slightly better when he was dropped, especially in the AV and RM game that we won. So why was he dropped then? Also, there are players who looked even worse or just as bad as Salah, like Konate, Macca, Gakpo, Vvd, Kerkez and Isak but they re all weren't dropped. So why was only Salah dropped when the whole team was looking out of sorts? I've always mentioned that if the entire team looks poor playing a particular system then it's the systems fault and not the players. So why was Salah singled out?
Something doesn't add up for me regarding the dropping of Salah, hence why I think the reasoning behind him getting dropped was due to the club trying to get rid of him behind his back. That for me makes more sense and links the dots better. Granted, I have absolutely no proof of this happening other than what Ed001 told us. But it still makes more sense to me than Salah being benched because he didn't fit the system and was out of form.
{Ed025's Note - come on Drac, he was dropped because he hasn,t been able to trap a bag of cement for 8 months mate, he deserved to be dropped imo and then he threw his toys out the pram...what a total Mars Bar..
12 Dec 2025 18:24:44
Sorry, Pompey but no. Even if all those thing happened Slot would just keep his job til summer. For me, a new coach is required after this debacle.
This season Slot has proven he's too stubborn, can't adapt quickly enough, not a good man manager, makes poor selections, clueless to respond in matches (i. e. the kitchen sink formation when we go behind), and didn't prepare the team for the season.
Granted he was dealt a difficult hand with Jotas death, but for the people who would claim that as an excuse for him, I see it as a failure of leadership. It doesn't take an empathic genius to see the players would struggle: why no support or psychologist on staff or grieving councilors to help the players?
But the performances are the main reason he just can't stay for me. This slow boring attack and unorganized defense is unforgivable. It's not just that it's not the Liverpool way, but it also diminishes the strengths of all our players currently. It's not that it just obviously hasn't worked, I simply don't want to watch this. So even if he changed the system back and got us playing better and winning, footballs evolve and managers have to adapt and he has shown he is incapable of doing that successfully. So why should we expect that he will try a system that doesn't work and persist with it for too long the next time he has to adapt?
Sometimes you just have to admit something isn't working and cut your losses, and for me, we've gotten to that point with Slot.
13 Dec 2025 11:32:47
@Westwood, I take all your points, man. Regarding Salah, if they Slot wanted to go a diff. direction mid season then, why did they give him a new deal only to bail out midseason?
That's on the club for giving him the new deal. Seriously, what are people expecting him to do? Just take it on the chin? If true then, that is a cock up by the club. Salah got nothing to do with that and IF they didn't communicate this to him clearly again, what is he supposed to do? Just sit there?
IMO, There are too many unanswered questions (from the club, specifically) to just say, "Oh, Salah was benched for playing badly" whereas we can see others sticking up the joing and just gloss over that just cos Salah spoke out about it.
{Ed025's Note - how is that a cock up Oli?, if they think they can get good money for him and hes not part of the managers plans then thats just good business mate, forget the sentiment...Mo wont be lining up in food banks anytime soon..
13 Dec 2025 11:39:39
Oh please, Ed25. And has Konate, VVD, Gakpo been able to trap a bag of cement all season, then? Sorry, you can't just gloss over these things and esp. the unanswered questions @Drac is putting out. If you can't answer the questions then, fine. But don't just gloss over them as if they aren't pertinent, relevant nor important. That ain't going to fly with me and I'll keep asking them till someone answers them.
Again, there are too many unanswered questions (from the club, specifically) to just say, "Oh, Salah was benched for playing badly" whereas we can see others stinking up the joint and just gloss over that just cos Salah spoke out about it.
Also, Salah is not the reason we have conceded 9 goals from setpieces/ throw-ins and commited the most individual errors leading to goals or the crap tactics. that has gotten us humiliated this season. All that is down to the "other" guy.
{Ed025's Note - of course others have been poor Oli, but what do you want Slot to do mate play Salah in the back 4?, i think Gakpo has been poor but probably not as bad as the Mars Bar i would suggest but thats the managers decision..