04 Jun 2026 00:37:34
Pretty key comments by Konate tonight. There is no way any coach could have recovered that dressing room. Slot had to be moved on, but I think it is fair to say that our season would have been different without the Jota tragedy.
It's not an excuse, just the painful reality of what happened, and how it blew apart the team.
04 Jun 2026 05:47:38
Maybe. But put aside the football for a moment, an effective leader rallies a group around a shared vision and a pathway. They set the standards and find ways to include everyone - no matter their role - even more so in times of crisis.
The death of the Jotas and the recruitment gambles definitely put Slot in a hole last summer, but, judged purely by his leadership qualities, he failed pretty miserably. He is not a bad guy, but his footballing vision was flawed. He clearly had trouble plotting a pathway tactically for the players, and reducing intensity - for whatever supposed sports science reason - inevitably lowered day to day standards.
Perhaps more so, his doubling down on a small group and completely alienating fringe players likely robbed him of the camaraderie, support and accountability that would have helped motivate and carry the squad through tough moments.
I agree the tragedy rocked the team, but disagree that nobody else could have recovered it. He was dealt a terrible hand and handled it very professionally at the time, but he also showed he was unable to adapt when things didn't work and ultimately couldn't be the kind of leader we need.
04 Jun 2026 06:23:15
It hurt to read Konate's comments. On a human side, especially for him, I can understand why he's had such a poor season. Maybe somewhere different is what he needs, as Liverpool has too many reminders. YNWA.
04 Jun 2026 07:35:54
I can understand the issues with grieving over Jota's death, but that's not a single season problem.
Grief isn't a straight line, it's cyclical. So, the players are very likely to have the same issue again this year and next year. So, if grief is the cause of our bad performances, we better be prepared to be poor for a couple of years.
In my professional opinion (I'm a targeted sports psychologist), it definitely contributed to things, but we shouldn't use it as a crutch to mask failings. The problems don't get resolved when you do that.
04 Jun 2026 08:12:48
Everyone with their expert comments in how players should experience grief. Great!
04 Jun 2026 08:12:53
It would have been different under Jurgen!
Maybe better, maybe worse,
but definitely different.
04 Jun 2026 09:05:18
Grief hits people differently. These guys spend so much time together, it's going to not be a short term thing. My wife lost her dad 5 years ago, he was only 49. She can go months with being fine, and then on certain days it'll hit her like a train.
Little moments or things that happen flick a switch in her head as she thinks about him and it just floods back.
People are different, and nobody should be commenting on how people should deal with it.
04 Jun 2026 09:12:37
Each player and member of staff will deal with grief differently. In Konate's case, he's admitted he struggled and then, immediately after Jota's passing, he got the news that his dad was seriously ill. It's a lot for any man, never mind a man in his mid 20s in a foreign country.
I feel for him, and thank him for the good times.
04 Jun 2026 09:03:07
Where's VV with his belief that Konate was a narcissistic psychopath and should have shaped up or shipped out?
04 Jun 2026 09:36:50
One of the only pure moments of catharsis and beauty in our terrible season was Ibou scoring the last goal in his first game back from compassionate leave. That celebration with the players huddling around him and all of us rooting for him crystallized what it means to support this club, I think. I lost my own father last year and that amplified the power of that moment several times over for me. I hope his comments last night give pause to folks who have treated his dip in performances like some sort of moral failing over the last year.
It's fine to say that he hasn't been as good as he was, and it didn't help that we had no cover at center half so Slot couldn't take him out the firing line, but some of the stuff directed towards him on here has been quite cruel, and read even worse in hindsight given the circumstances he had to reckon with.
He didn't have the best of seasons this year, but the suggestion that he was a net negative and liability in the team was carried by Virgil for years and got an inflated opinion for himself touting his services to Madrid is one I cannot agree with at all. I think he was on the overall balance of things a very good player who did his fair share getting us another title, made me laugh with his interactions with team mates and interviews off the pitch, and whom I have fond memories of now that he's gone.
04 Jun 2026 10:01:46
I think Jota's death has been used as an excuse this season by players n some fans. We have all lost ppl a lot closer than a team mate, no matter how much he was liked. Does that mean the team can't run, fight, pass for a whole season? To me, we missed Jota in the team, he always scored goals.
In fact, out of everyone in the team, if we had a one on one we'd want Jota to be that man. It was incredibly sad what happened to one of our more likeable players, but we can't put this dire season at the root problem for this season woes. That just my opinion.
04 Jun 2026 10:53:04
Strom, I agree with your post and have said it before. The tragedy that befell Jota is not an excuse for the absolute horrendous behaviour of the team, led by the manager and all his flaws that were laid out for all to see.
If anything, as a leader, Slot handled the aftermath very well, but he should have made sure that the standards of performances and accountability of himself, his players to themselves and Jota's memory should have been paramount. He could have motivated them to play and give everything the same way Jota would have were he still with them.
Sadly, Slot is not a leader, has no motivational skills, people nor man-management skills at all and showed now and again the propensity to lie, deflect, distort, and gaslight us with arrogance, hubris and stubbornness.
Did Jota cause him to be all of these things? Again, let's stop with Jota's passing as an excuse for such a dire season. It is really angering me, right now.
04 Jun 2026 11:16:36
How did this become a huge debate about Jota's death as an excuse and Slot's weakness as a leader again? The original post was about Konate's comments last night about dealing with grief, depression and anxiety about his dad's health. Not sure what you have to be angry about when it comes to that, Oli, nobody is making excuses (monstersouness explicitly said 'it is not an excuse' in his original post), you're just getting yourself worked up with your fixation about what a bad job Slot was doing, even after he has gone.
If every mention, even by the players (Robbo last week and Konate yesterday), of Jota's death and how much it affected them leads us all to some paranoia spiral about people using it as an excuse again, I don't really know what to say.
04 Jun 2026 11:18:58
I agree with Strom, people lose work colleagues who they see 5 or more days a week and may have worked with them for years.
So, I agree, the players, in my opinion, have lent on this.
04 Jun 2026 11:26:03
Great post that, Welshxavi.
04 Jun 2026 11:32:42
PB, The original comment was it blew the team apart n no coach could recover the dressing room. That's excuses to me n there is no paranoia spiral just because ppl don't agree with you.
04 Jun 2026 17:37:13
Stroms, Patrick articulated it better than I did. I was clumsily pointing out that the tragedy wrecked the dressing room, we lost momentum and belief as a result, and Slot didn't have the tools to recover the situation.
As I said, it's not an excuse - just context for the ghastly season the club endured.