08 Mar 2026 06:44:06
Hi all and eds hope you are well. I'm struggling to understand why we are so sluggish starting games, we don't seem to turn up till the second half? Now it's seems like the the players are being asked to play it slow, conserve energy and then go for it in the second half.
It's strange. I'm not saying they are being told that, it just seems it with the way we are playing.
08 Mar 2026 10:04:26
Heard an interesting take on it the other day. It questioned why Slot is setting the team up to play so slowly. If he isn’t, then it means the players are going against his wishes, and are choosing to play this way despite him, which would make it even worse.
08 Mar 2026 10:09:45
The style of play we've adopted over the last year has just flattened everything.
The players can't be enjoying this kind of football. Most Liverpool fans give up in November. The club didn't sign any players in January, or change the manager, so that's (sort of) an indication of their ambitions this season.
It's basically a lost season. It seems like the season has been written off, in my opinion, and next season we'll see the excitement come back, and, hopefully, like you say, start the games better too.
08 Mar 2026 10:36:13
It's the system Slot tried to develop to prevent injuries because he felt, for some reason, he didn't have enough depth and energy in the squad to last a whole season. So he decided to train slow/less, start games slow, score a couple of goals, and kill the game at a pedestrian speed.
It kind of worked in the first 6 games of the season when teams were slow and getting back into the groove, to give Slot a false sense of security and belief, and then fell flat on its head because this is not the Eredivisie. Unfortunately, despite his players' disagreement, Slot never moved on from it, and it kept getting worse and worse to the point where now players are getting more injured than in the past.
Slot realised it, but decided to blame everything from ball boys to the cow that gives the milk at AXA. It was then too late to make changes. Now he accepts his mistake, but his team can't start hard as they don't have the legs, as they never trained.
It has a flipside though. It helps us in the CL if teams are cautious against us and slow, but we've not been good against smaller teams (Gala and PSV) that are not into mind games and just come to play okay football.
Ironically, we drew Gala in the round of 16.
08 Mar 2026 11:01:28
It's an intentional tactic: we start the games slow and then build up pace in the second half. Same as we started the season, slow and build up the pace in the second half. This way we get very few injuries.
Except for Allisson. And Gomez. And Bradley. And Leoni, Isak, Endo, Konate, Wirtz, Chiesa and Jaros.
Apart from them.
08 Mar 2026 11:34:44
Another day, another whinge about Slot.
08 Mar 2026 12:00:46
Maybe Wdw... just maybe.
People aren't happy with this season, how it's gone, the football, the atmosphere, the players... Everything positive that they have been used to for the best part of a decade is being swept away in front of their eyes over the course of a calendar year.
And, this platform gives them a chance to air their opinions, maybe share a conversation with like-minded supporters...
Maybe they are driven by the fear that our much loved club is blindly heading back to the 90s/00s era, where we could look forward to a title chance every 5 years and it would be gone by December.
After all, we all want the same thing, don't we?
08 Mar 2026 12:07:50
Hi WdW, this wasn't me having a moan about Slot, mate. Just trying to work out what is going on with us this season.
08 Mar 2026 12:28:23
Slot was asked this last week and he said he doesn't ask them to play that slowly. Read into that however you like.
If you spent 80% of first halves using a press-baiting tactic, you end up with standing/walking football if the opposition doesn't take the bait.
The players are so worried about losing the ball and getting countered on that they default to slow and safe telegraphed passes. The concept of counterpress is now alien to this team and squad of players.
08 Mar 2026 12:55:28
The team won the other night. That keeps me happy until the next matchday. Enough time for negativity when we actually lose a match.
08 Mar 2026 13:26:59
Florian arriving at the back post to tell everyone how to feel about the s***show of a season.
08 Mar 2026 13:44:14
@Pelican, that was hilarious, I must say. For me, I'm over this whole thing with the tactics, Slot, etc., for the most part. No point questioning the tactics cos Slot will say whatever suits him in the moment, depending on the framing of the question.
Just watching the season play out, and hope the team can get some good stuff out of an essentially lost season, as someone already said.
08 Mar 2026 13:55:06
I simply said what keeps me happy, Fly. Couldn't give a toss how you lot want to feel. I get the impression that very little in life makes some of you happy anyway.
08 Mar 2026 22:47:05
Most Liverpool fans gave up in November, did they? Well, they must be the absolute best fans out there then. Ffs, what kind of people are you?
08 Mar 2026 23:17:08
I can't be doing with the doomsday merchants. People don't half exaggerate.
Yes, it's a poor season but there are reasons behind it. Reasons which you obviously don't understand or choose to ignore. This isn't Liverpool drifting into obscurity or ruining everything Klopp built, blah, blah, blah.
Bad seasons happen for a variety of reasons, we'll be just fine.
09 Mar 2026 00:01:01
Sure, we will be fine. Football on a Thursday night is still a midweek match.