05 Mar 2026 09:37:44
In response to the "Slot tried to mimic PSG's CL winning team". My concern is that we are starting to imitate Arsenal, before they have won the League.
Arsenal are like Wimbledon's crazy gang but minus the crazy and replacing it with time-wasting and players who drop to the floor like they are made out of tissue paper. Not a good blueprint for a Liverpool side.
Someone have a word with McAllister, it's embarrassing!
05 Mar 2026 12:07:19
It is sad to see the Premier League in a state where the league leaders are time wasting against Brighton when defending a 1-0 win. I can't remember the least league winner who would go 1 up and try to defend it out rather than sticking it to the opposing team.
05 Mar 2026 12:10:42
My take on it is that Arsenal have set the blueprint on how to have success in the new Premier League, and that everybody has to try to incorporate a bit of what they get away with on a regular basis, on the grounds that it gets results and the referees allow it.
While our set piece approach of late is certainly bearing fruit, I don't really like some of the means employed to make it work either.
05 Mar 2026 12:40:53
Football on a world level is poor at the moment; there is a lack of top tier managers, and the tactical aspect of the game has died a death.
05 Mar 2026 12:41:28
Interesting article on Sky that provides evidence that Arsenal did not waste as much time compared to other games/teams in the Premiership.
It also evidenced that Brighton are the second fastest team (as in they do not waste time), so kudos to them.
Probably because they got rid of McAllister lol.
05 Mar 2026 12:42:00
PatrickBurgher,
I couldn't disagree more. Arsenal have outstunk their way to the title this season. And by that, I mean Man City have been rank average while everyone else has been abysmal, least of all, Liverpool, who are currently rivalling Spurs as the worst underperformers in the league.
Arsenal still struggle to score from open play, and as soon as teams figure a way to stop the set-piece nonsense (it won't happen for us under Slot), Liverpool and, probably, Man City will overtake Arsenal again.
{Ed025's Note - i totally agree Lowe mate..
05 Mar 2026 12:47:36
I've been bored of football this season in the PL, more specifically.
But the truth is I don't pay substantial money to watch other teams play, I don't change work patterns, or have to put overtime in to allow me to watch other teams play, and I don't prioritise other teams over certain aspects of my social calendar, etc. However, I do do all that for Liverpool.
I don't care what other teams are doing, and as much as I want Slot to succeed, he's currently not, and it doesn't look like it's improving or going to.
He's not the only one in the firing line, mind, because the majority of the players should hang their heads in shame. But we all know that it's the manager that goes out on his shield.
Football as a whole is struggling, but as I said, I don't care about the rest. I care about Liverpool Football Club struggling.
{Ed025's Note - i cant be bothered watching half the time JK the standard of football especially from the top teams has been awful mate, and i cant be doing with all this wrestling at corners and set plays plus all the diving and rolling around that goes with it..RIP football..
05 Mar 2026 13:04:20
Exactly, Lowe1FC. What blueprint is that, exactly? Cheating, diving/flopping to the ground at every turn, play-acting and time-wasting, sometimes during the middle of the first half of games, with their manager acting like a petulant child because he did not get a decision? Miss me with that rubbish.
If LFC played that way and did all those reprehensible things, many of us would not accept it, even if that meant we won the title. That is just a fact, so let's not get sloppy here and start praising a team for doing crap we would never accept if our team did them.
Also, there is no way anyone can convince me that, had this manager simply implemented the system we played all last season, we would not be a lot closer to Arsenal, esp.
if you agree that the league is more boring than it was last season.
Let's face it: the Arsenal of this season is literally Big Sam's Bolton with a near one billion pound price tag. They are extremely dire to watch, and already can't create nor score goals from open play, and are called Corner FC for a reason.
Shoot, we score more goals and create more clear chances from open play than they do, and we are as feckless a team as they come this year. Again, miss me with that rubbish. Just my take.
P/S: And Macca can join them with his pathetic play-acting & diving anytime.
05 Mar 2026 14:36:33
Oli, no one in this thread is praising Arsenal. If you mean that I praised Arsenal, I implore you to read my post again. It's very short.
Did I insinuate at any point that I think Arsenal should be lauded for what they do? I simply said that because they get away with so much, even our team has to give what they're doing a try when we need to get results.
They are setting a standard for pushing the line and testing the threshold for what refs can and cannot tolerate. That is all that I said. No need to be sanctimonious about 'our team' and how you, as the staunch defender of poetic football, stand for the opposite of Arsenal by differentiating yourself from bogeyman Liverpool fans who admire Arsenal's 'street smarts'.
05 Mar 2026 14:57:32
PB, you say that you are not lauding Arsenal, yet you literally said "so kudos to them" and said "Liverpool fans who admire their street smarts." Mate, you prolly want to read your own comments properly first before responding to other people's comments, okay?
Also, I mentioned none of what you seem to be accusing me of doing. First off, nowhere did I mention anyone is praising Arsenal. I just gave an opinion on you saying Arsenal had some kind of blueprint, one I would NEVER accept, period. Btw, you mentioned that word, not me.
Also, if Arsenal are "street smart," then you need to go learn the meaning of the pun. What they get away with so much is mainly due to the absolute fecklessness of the refs, who seem to no longer be arsed about actually enforcing the laws on the books regarding all the absolute rubbish and under-handed tactics they deploy, NOT because they did anything special that no one else can do.
This is why the other teams do it, because NO ONE is being held accountable for it by the refs, so they let everything go, and who can blame them.
Lastly, I am not some poetic football fan, as that is your projection messing up your ability to think rationally. Win the title in the league you are in, however you can win it. That's fine with me, BUT I wouldn't want my team spending near a billion pound and playing footie Tony Pulis' Stoke City, West Brom or Fat Sam's Bolton would be proud of, giving them "kudos" and lauding them as "street smart".
05 Mar 2026 16:09:23
The person who said 'kudos to them' clearly was not me. Maybe you should scroll up and read carefully. I have never been a fan of what Arsenal are doing. I'm not sure why you insist that I am.
Putting 'street smarts' in inverted commas surely is an indication of what I think of them. Your tendency to write paragraphs attacking strawmen feels a bit like wasted time and emotional expenditure to me.
05 Mar 2026 16:10:57
The point about the fecklessness of the refs was one I clearly made in the original post. I said that Arsenal are setting the standard for testing what the referees tolerate. That is the reality of this crap league. Is that so hard for you to understand?
05 Mar 2026 16:24:15
You can trace back when Arsenal started behaving like this to when they lost to Newcastle, who had spent the entire game translating Kieran Trippier's Atletico experience into their game. Since that day, Arsenal have decided to go that way, but on steroids.
05 Mar 2026 17:28:21
St E, I think Slot was caught with his proverbial pants down, coming into this season. He never saw this set-piece league developing like it did, which is a bit of a shocker because so many other teams seem to have prepped for it.
For years, we've seen attackers falling to the ground. I'd say 2-3 seasons ago, defenders cottoned on that they can do it too. Hence, the mess we have now. It might need to get worse before it can get better.
But, like a bad golf swing, the "powers that be" will bring in another fault to fix the current faults that they have created.
Remember too that rules are meant to be bent and broken. Give the players the "benefit" of VAR, which is meant to make the game fairer and less controversial, and, hey presto, it's made a corner in football look like an episode of the Keystone Cops.
05 Mar 2026 17:55:36
Arsenal are a snooze to watch, only topped by ourselves. Arsenal may have found a cheat code this season with their corners and long throws, but it won't last, and the refs will clamp down on it next season. Some of the antics that are being permitted at corners are just bad for business and anti-football. I can 100% understand why a team in a relegation dog fight might adapt such tactics, because ultimately they don't have access to the same level of players, but who wants our title winners to be playing like that, regardless of team colours and tribalism.
Obviously Arsenal don't give a hoot once they get their title, and I do question how we would feel as a fan base if the roles were reversed, because there are a lot of people here and online defending Slot in recent months where results are all that matter.
05 Mar 2026 18:05:55
Unfortunately, Downey, history will only show who won the title and not how it was won. As much as I don't like City and what they have done to football, I'd rather them than Arsenal. At least they try to play some semblance of the beautiful game.
05 Mar 2026 18:44:03
I hope Arsenal don't win the League, even if it means City winning. Then, at least, it can be shown they have had no more success with this type of football compared to when they actually tried to play a bit.
05 Mar 2026 18:48:58
Agree with all the criticism of Arsenal, but what I just don't understand is why anyone would copy them. Aside from it being terrible to watch, has a team that has won so little ever been praised or copied as much as Arsenal? It just makes no sense why other teams would start to copy them when they've had such little success.
I agree, the terrible refs make it appealing, but why also play the terrible football in addition to the ridiculous focus on set pieces? It just makes no sense, but here we are. It's a sad state of affairs.
05 Mar 2026 23:25:20
App Arsenal wasted almost 31 minutes getting the ball back into play against Brighton. Ball was in-play for 53% of the 101 minutes played.
06 Mar 2026 16:35:14
I don't buy this nonsense that you have to play anti-football to win the League. If we played with intensity, stopped shirking tackles, and went at opponents, we would be right up there challenging for the title.
It comes down to quality, and our play is severely lacking. You can't tell me that a prime Guardiola or Klopp team wouldn't wipe the floor with the League this season?