02 Mar 2026 11:36:51
I think Slot's comments post West Ham were a good indicator of how he personally feels towards the new 'Premier League' approach. I can't say I disagree with him. The main quote is that Premier League games are "no longer a joy to watch", specifically he pointed to set pieces becoming the dominant part of the league.
I do find myself, more than ever this season, struggling to really want to watch games. For example the Arsenal vs Chelsea game yesterday was a dire showing. 3 goals, all set pieces and only one team actually looking like scoring from open play (not the team that won). I think the Premier League as a product is as poor as it's ever been really, and yet Europe proves that the approach to set pieces works, even in that format.
I'm really hoping the league pivots away from this new approach to games, against better opposition you sit deep and aim to specifically target set plays. This season we've all lamented Liverpool's poor play and awful set piece record, this has now turned and we are directly benefitting from this new approach to the league. If it gets us UCL football then I will be the last to complain, I'm sure Arsenal won't complain when they win a title from it! Afterall this is the problem. it works.
Wonder if anyone else shares the same thoughts. I think personally it's pants.
02 Mar 2026 12:11:11
I only watch Liverpool games, but I have found it extremely boring and unentertaining to watch!
02 Mar 2026 12:22:39
This is the first season in about 20 years that I have not really watched. I never used to miss a Liverpool game, but I just find it so hard and boring to watch. I would hope that changes are made to help fluency of games, since football is a spectator sport at the end of the day, so it is in the interests of those making money from football (TV companies etc.) that the sport remains attractive to watch.
However, if the numbers and money they make are still going up, I doubt they care enough.
Tennis actually did have this issue a long time ago, where the matches became faster and there were fewer rallies due to bigger servers, and they actually slowed the courts down to allow for more rallies and longer, entertaining points. They also introduced a shot clock to stop big delays between serves, so it shows it is possible in sport, but football is corrupt to its core, so I have less hope.
02 Mar 2026 12:54:48
He's being a bit hypocritical, really.
Yes, the football across the league is boring. That is 100% true.
However, he hasn't exactly gone out of his way to make us exciting either. We've had to witness some dreadful halves of football this season.
02 Mar 2026 12:59:05
There's been a few posts on this further down and the consensus is it's the officials who are not officiating the games properly, and I agree.
How can Arsenal players continuously get away with the grabbing and holding at set pieces, yet Palace get a player sent off for a hand on the shoulder?
Spurs had a goal disallowed last week against Arsenal for a small push on Gabriel, yet Rice physically grabs a Chelsea player yesterday and, without looking at the ball once, just charges him off the pitch with both hands grabbing his shirt.
If these teams are allowed to get away with it, they will do it, and the officials seem unable to show any consistency with any decisions they make.
The pundits don't help, with Neville especially just saying that keepers and defenders need to be stronger at set pieces.
You can be as strong as you like, but if you have someone not attempting to go for the ball, just grabbing or barging into you, it's impossible to defend.
All this has made for a league where decent football is not the best way to win anymore. You keep it tight and target set pieces, and because the officials will pretty much allow you to get away with anything, it works.
If Arsenal win the league, I'm not even sure Arteta can take any of the credit, as you could argue the set piece coach is far more important than the manager at Arsenal.
It's up to the officials to put a stop to it and make teams actually have to play football to win matches, but will that ever happen? If not, then the beautiful game is on a downward spiral.
02 Mar 2026 13:55:54
The officials can fix this easily. A few yellows/reds from all the cheating we are seeing will soon put an end to it.
02 Mar 2026 14:05:37
I think the Arsenal games would be much more entertaining if instead of playing the full ninety minutes, both sides get five corners each and see what the score is after that. It'd save a lot of time, plus we wouldn't have to listen to that POS Gary Neville.
02 Mar 2026 14:11:02
He talks so much rubbish - delusional/no self awareness, as usual.
We are slow, lethargic, and unathletic, which results in an incredibly boring "style". Style isn't even the word for our football. We're woeful for the majority of games, then try to scramble goals. Slot needs to look in the mirror - at least other teams are physical, and fans can get behind that.
02 Mar 2026 14:45:09
Liverpool have been mind-numbingly boring to watch this season, and it's nothing to do with set pieces.
The fact is that, until recently, we were terrible at defending and attacking set pieces, and it's true that it has been harmful to our points on the board.
02 Mar 2026 16:06:07
And yet, certainly no more boring than any other team in the league.
02 Mar 2026 16:27:38
Maybe not Florian, but Slot is the one coming out and saying it's no longer a joy to watch.
02 Mar 2026 17:31:38
The constant free kicks for feigning injury have become the norm. The going down in the box on corners when a 6ft4 beast has been tapped, and holding the throat and rolling on the floor when they get tapped in the chest. Winning is everything by any means, when a win, lose, or draw used to be a normal thing.
The amount of money in the game, with toxic social media, has a lot to answer for. There is so much pressure for managers, players, referees, and fans. Football is an uncontrollable beast on the march.
I enjoy a walk down the park with the dog to watch the Sunday League. In some ways, it's a lot more enjoyable.
02 Mar 2026 17:32:37
I think Slot genuinely does want to play a dominant, pro-active style of football, though, he has said that repeatedly in interviews, in the roundtable with Hughes etc. True, he is a bit passive in the first halves of games, and sometimes I do question what the approach has been in games where we look like we don't really have a plan, but with the players bought this summer, I can't imagine that there wasn't a certain style- front foot, forcing the team into their own half- that we were aspiring to play. We got our forecast wrong with how we expected the league to play this year, I think that is very clear.
Whatever the case may be, though, can we give the coaching team some credit for trying to adapt multiple times throughout the season to evolving problems? Everybody on here has mocked Slot for yammering over and over about set pieces, but Liverpool have fixed their approach to set pieces to do exactly what the opposition have been doing to them, crowding the keeper, hitting swerving inswingers and doing everything to put the ball on a tall center half's head. The success of that is plain for all to see, and is further proof that it's simply not true that the manager only has one style, has been found out, that the weaknesses of the team will never be rectified, etcetera.
With the problems we've had in build up and the fact that our midfield is sometimes outnumbered on and off the ball, he's also tried multiple things from Wirtz and Ekitike dropping deep to make up the numbers in midfield etc. From a team that was repeatedly cut open on counters and long balls over the top in transition, I can't remember the last time that we actually conceded from an opportunity of that sort in recent memory. Our fullbacks are stretching the pitch and getting in behind the defence to cut the ball into the box or cross it, Konate, Kerkez and Gomez are throwing their bodies into shots and balls in the box defending with their lives and keeping us in games and moments in games where we might not be at our best and are up against it.
If there's anything 'interesting' or intriguing about our season this year, it's how this team has evolved game by game to deal with problems we've faced, with all the injuries, fitness issues with players racking up the minutes, referee decisions etc that we've had to contend with. For myself, I feel somewhat positive at this point in time with how we've been doing in that respect lately.
I think the football that we are playing is not necessarily ideal, and yes it has been mindnumbing at times this season. I do believe, though, that it was never the intent of the manager at the outset to play boring football, at one point in the season he had to try and stop the rot and try to take the sting out of games by trying to nullify the opposition, control possession and try to win games through moments of quality. Ultimately it did stop us from going into absolute freefall and gave us a basis to build upon.
I know I'm going to be painted as a Slot apologist, but that's pretty much how I see things at the moment. We can only hope that we've learned from the terrible mistakes of the last window and can better prepare for the rigours of the season to come, while at the same time figuring out how to outflank the trend towards soul-sapping football in this league. We have to be the team that can lead the league out of negative football, and show that you can marry grit and beautiful football again.