01 Nov 2025 00:01:00
Hi Ed’s
Reading some of the comments, I’m by far not in the know or a coach.
But were the players bought for Slot and then you blend them in or were they his choices.
I did worry with the number of buys it was like Rogers when he had money, but obviously a higher calibre of player.
{Ed001's Note - Slot had a say in the transfers, but not the final say. So it is mainly a case of them bought for him and it is up to him to blend them in, which so far he has made a bit of a mess of. Strange, as it worked so well last season when he had a whole squad of players he had no say in buying.}
01 Nov 2025 06:39:11
Would u try 3 at the back for a few games ed1? On a bare basic level get an extra defender in . Playing 4 attackers hasn't worked for us so far and I don't think it will with the midfielders we have.
{Ed001's Note - no, I don't like 3 at the back. I would prefer to sit the two central midfielders.}
01 Nov 2025 07:57:08
Ed001, I think 2 central midfield will unlock Wirtz, playing just in front of the 2.
But given the kind of full back we have, Mo will be an issue on the right. He has been, whcih was why TAA was picked on so often, but he compensated through his long range passes,
Kerkez on the flank, has no idea when to time his run, and leave us so prone to attack. Gakpo doesn't provide the same protectionw which Diaz did.
I think Klopp's midfield 3 of Henderson, Gini and Milner will do the job we need.
Then the full back can provide the width while the midfield 3 provide the protection.
Wirtz can play centre, ahead of the 3, right behind 2 of Salah/ ISak/ Ekitike.
Grav, Szobo and Macca can do the job here.
01 Nov 2025 08:34:47
Is that why his working title isn’t that of “Manager”
Those off the field know more about tactics, how to build a dressing room and win trophies so will decide who we buy?
If that’s the case- then they’ve contributed to a right mess by purchasing players who don’t seem to fit how Slot wishes to play
Not getting away from the fact that our style of play is turgid - but surely a club can’t be in a position where players are purchased and the person in charge of the first team just has to get on with it
That’s like when Real Madrid went through managers like nobody’s business because those off the pitch had a lottery win to spend in the sweet shop.
01 Nov 2025 08:49:57
Everyone plays straight though the middle of us when the ball is on the floor so we have to change this area and bring Grav back to shore it up again.
01 Nov 2025 09:03:00
I was going to sit the 2 midfielders as well!
01 Nov 2025 10:27:18
I’m with Ed01 here.
2 midfielders that sit for the most part helping to build out from the back and support the 4 attacking players. By sitting they can allow the 2 fullbacks to push high and wide where necessary again to support the attack or provide options when building out from the back.
The 2 midfielders sitting more also helps with being hit on the counter.
This doesn’t mean one can’t push forward at times but if one goes the other definitely has to sit and the fullbacks need to recognise when this happens and adjust accordingly.
01 Nov 2025 11:16:12
The more I think about those we’ve bought: 4-4-2 “box” midfield I think would suit
Szob and Wirtz in front of the 2 holding midfielders, allowing fullbacks to get forward and provide the width.
01 Nov 2025 11:53:52
Agree with ed001 here. 2 deep lying midfielders who are there purely to break play up and win the ball back and let the forwards do the rest. We have the attack to hurt anybody.
01 Nov 2025 12:34:06
The concern I have is that Kerkez was bought due to Hughes' personal relationship with the player and family and that Frimpong was bought because (i) he's close to Wirtz and (ii) there was a release clause rather than them being Slot's fullback choices.
You could argue that Slot probably would have wanted to keep or at least replace Lucho, but a promise has been made to Rio in order to get him to sign his pro deal.
I also understand these suggestions might seem far fetched. But, equally I find it utterly baffling that one of the highest rated coaches around decided that this was the plan. It's schoolboy stuff.
Of course it is up to Slot, as head coach, to make the most of the resources he has at his disposal, which is still good enough to challenge for the big honours.
01 Nov 2025 13:00:05
FlyPelicanFly - On paper, Frimpong looked like a decent squad player, on the cheap, and Kerkez was very good last season, in a system that suited him. The question is, if Slot is not having the final say and eventually struggles to use what he has at his disposal, perhaps he is not suited to the Coach/ DOF model. Jurgen wasn't, after all.
Iraola has a system, players come and go but the system remains and the players know what to do. Our players look all at sea, as does Slot, at the moment.
01 Nov 2025 13:26:03
Be careful what you wish for Johnny.
Iraola is a fun coach with a high-pressing physical way of playing - a Bielsa disciple.
Liverpool face mid and low blocks in most games. Bournemouth will never face a low-block.
There's no guarantee Iraola will adapt to that at Liverpool.
01 Nov 2025 13:52:37
And this is what separates the almost's from the top level managers.
Recruiting managers as Bournmouth and Brighton do is more likely to be a miss than a hit because only a few go on to be top level.
Xavi, Enrique, Zidane, Inzaghi are the other pool to draw from, but they have no Prem experience .
Appointing managers at this level is no cakewalk.
01 Nov 2025 14:43:40
Kerkez and Frimpong were bought because they were the best available fullbacks, not because of some specious reasoning punted about on twitter. It’s not their fault they’ve not been used properly.
01 Nov 2025 16:03:19
If any of our summer signings were Slott choices then I'm the flying Dutchman! Only one person at Anfield has an ego that size .
What was wrong with making our own
superstars?
01 Nov 2025 18:11:19
@Mytton, every club would prefer to develop superstars from their own academies, but Gerards and Owens don’t come along too often. Perhaps your post was tongue in cheek, apologies if it was.
Let’s be honest, we were all giddy during the summer when the new signings were announced. Kerkez and Frimpong had very good seasons, Wirtz was probably the hottest young player in world football on the move during the summer and Isak was recognised as one of the best strikers in the world last season.
These were not luxury buys, it was just unfortunate that so many were needed at the same time. TAA (Frimpong), Luis (Ekiteke) and Kelleher (Marmar) all indicated their desire to leave, Kostas and Darwin (Isak) were not going to be good enough for starting picks, it was clear that Robbo (Kerkez) was in decline, and Diogo (Wirtz) was consistently picking up injuries, before he sadly passed. So 6 newbies were absolutely needed and buying quality (I’ll exclude the FBs from that for the moment) was not a bad ploy. What manager would refuse those players, knowing new players were needed for those positions?
Posters are going crazy about Slot at the moment, but there is no guarantee any manger could gel so many new players immediately, add in injuries to Mac/ Grav and problems multiply.
There is always a clamour for the new boy manager on the scene, but stepping up from a smaller club with lower expectations/ ambitions is not easy, ask MU/ Chelsea/ Spurs if they thought they made the right decisions appointing Moyes/ Potter/ Nuno/ Maresca after they did well with their previous clubs. Ireola is just the latest to get his team to punch above their weight, drop him into the LFC hotseat, and it could well be another case of deer in the headlights.
A win tonight, and a good display will go a long way to calming nerves. Pep lost 9 in 9 weeks this time last year, does anyone now think he should have been sacked?
A win tonight and we are just 7 points behind Arsenal, and we have to play them. I’m not sure how other teams will be affected by Afcon, but at the moment the loss of Salah will not be felt as heavily as it was in the past. I’m certain Arsenal will drop points, because they are Arsenal and that’s what they do. So get behind the team, it’ll come right, hopefully starting tonight at home.
01 Nov 2025 18:33:08
Ed when we got the two new full backs thought we'd go back to Klopp era of overlapping and sitting two mids. It seems such an easy and obvious change but i'm not a football manager for many reasons.
{Ed001's Note - that was the obvious solution. If we had done that I am sure we would be in a better place right now.}
01 Nov 2025 18:59:07
Opponents worked the overlapping fullback tactic out a couple of seasons ago, that’s why you didn’t see Robbo/ TAA doing it as effectively as they used to. TAA’s assists tended to be from long pinpoint passes, or when others passed it back to him and he whipped it across.
Teams now sit deep and don’t give the same opportunities for full backs to overlap as they used to. So I’m not sure why you think that is an obvious solution, are you seeing teams leave lots of space for the full backs to overlap?
{Ed001's Note - they never worked it out, teams just stopped doing it because Pep moved to inverted fullbacks and everyone copied him, including us.}
01 Nov 2025 19:06:17
Of course they have, have you seen TAA/ Robbo bombing down the wing, even in Klopps last couple of seasons, the way they used to? Teams are now retreating when Liverpool have the ball and catching us on the break.
No one is leaving the space now for the fullbacks to overlap. Our FBs were the best in the business at it, but teams figured out that by withdrawing, quickly, that space is no longer there for them to run in to.
{Ed001's Note - we stopped playing it, you are completely wrong, just ask Bournemouth. They had a hell of a lot of success last season and this with them. Have you not watched us play? We went to inverted full backs, they never overlapped because they were instructed to move inside. I am not wasting any more time on this, you are wrong.}
01 Nov 2025 19:16:49
No need to throw your toys out of the pram there Ed001, teams don’t sit back against Bournemouth like they do against champions.
{Ed001's Note - toys out of the pram? No just not wasting my time on this when you are just arguing out of pure ignorance. It is pointless.}
01 Nov 2025 19:20:54
D-Day, teams have been catching us on the break for years. Ball over the top behind Trent now Bradley/ Kerkez is nothing new. We just still can't deal with it. Kerkez did a pretty good job of overlapping last season hence why we signed him. Apparently.
01 Nov 2025 19:59:02
Teams know Kerkez is best going forward, if you and I know that, I suspect opposing managers are also wise to it, I haven’t seen many instances where he had the room to gallop down the wing, most of the time he is having to pass infield.
01 Nov 2025 20:05:46
That's because Slot has Gakpo and Salah glued to the wings and isn't looking to get his full backs in behind like we used to. We no longer play with width and depth. For me that's our attacking issues in a nutshell. We try to get Wirtz on the ball and there's just no space.
02 Nov 2025 03:17:00
Our best success came when TAA and Robbo were bombing down the wings and providing crosses into the box. That's where most of their assists came from. Rival fans were even making fun of us by saying that they were just crossing and hoping, which is a bit of a weird thing to make fun of when they were so successful at it. There's a reason why they both have the highest assists in the PL for any FBs ever.
That changed when we inverted Trent though. His assist numbers dropped drastically. Teams never worked out how to deal with the overlap, we just changed our system for the sake of changing it. Having two FBs running down the wings and two CMs covering them behind worked the best for us and coincided with our most successful period ever. Besides, in my opinion, the best way to deal with a low block is to stretch the play and make use of the wings, which is what the overlap does. It's more ineffectual for everything to go narrow and go through the centre, which is what inverting the FBs do. So essentially, we made things worse for ourselves when dealing with the low block by abandoning the overlap and making all our attacks go through the centre.
02 Nov 2025 09:58:03
Bournemouth will never face a low block?
Of course they will!
02 Nov 2025 14:49:40
Don't tactics constantly evolve with tweaks and copy-catting here and there? Is it fashion or necessity or both?
The set-piece nonsense is pretty boring to watch - I loved peak Jurgen's team more than any other side in the history of football. it all feels a bit fannying lately.
02 Nov 2025 18:05:42
Johnny it's been a slow degradation over time with time wasting and injury feigning getting worse. For example, they brought in the concussion protocols about 3-4 seasons ago and players like Richarlison used it as an opportunity to feign a head injury. If you recall the derby at Anfield.
VAR has made players go down and stay down esp in the box knowing it's being reviewed for even a "toenail clipping" or a "fingernail facial". The refs give the players and inch they take a yard.
Now we are a couple of miles down the road from where we used to be. It's a sad state of affairs when set pieces win games and this year maybe titles. Life is circular in many ways but i'm to sure we ever get back to where we were.
Set pieces are the "great equalizers" of football now; it allows so-called lesser teams to stand a chance. The riches of the PL and potential European football dictate that money controls now. Not trying to pontificate here.