24 Nov 2025 15:21:42
Morning Eds, in addition to hopefully Guehi, can you see the Club signing a much needed defensive midfielder like Ederson or Stiller in January? One of those alongside Grav and Dom would give us the solidity we’ve missed all season.
{Ed001's Note - Slot doesn't want or use one. We had this discussion last January and in the summer, it would be pointless even though we clearly need one.}
24 Nov 2025 16:06:32
Well neither Stiller nor Ederson are defensive midfielders, Ederson is more of a combative all action 8 and Stiller is a deep lying playmaker, both would be welcome in our midfield at the moment though. Joao Gomes would be a superior option to Ederson, though, he's already shown that he can do it in this league and has somewhat similar qualities.
24 Nov 2025 17:08:49
Thanks Ed - well that's a big problem then as we are just too open and I still think Grav is instinctively more a number 8. Maybe tell him to get back to last season and just patrol in front of the defence and a midfield 3 of him, Curtis, and Dom would give us the physicality needed. And stop playing any of them in defence.
{Ed025's Note - i cant see why you would want Curtis anywhere near the starting 11 Joe..unless its Accringtons, far too slow and negative and hes one of the major problems for me mate, terrible terrible player..
24 Nov 2025 18:10:01
thanks Ed and good luck tonight :)
{Ed025's Note - cheers Joe..
24 Nov 2025 20:14:09
Curtis Jones? Combative? Physicality? The lad has all the physicality of a man plastic carrier bag blowing about in a hurricane and shirks tackles like his name is Trent.
24 Nov 2025 22:13:27
Cmon vic he’s not that bad.
24 Nov 2025 22:16:36
Still think our best midfield is Dom next to Grav.
Macca should be playing higher up the pitch, same as Wirtz.
24 Nov 2025 23:14:11
Honestly Scouse John, he’s a nothing midfielder, creates nothing, defensively weak, ponderous on the ball, switches off at vital moments, nah, not good enough. Has PSR profit written all over him. Can easily be improved on.
25 Nov 2025 05:32:02
Curtis is a very good squad player who can occasionally turn in a bonafide brilliant performance starting against the right opposition. The problem with him is that he needs momentum, when he gets injured or comes in and out of the side he takes a while to get up to speed until the next time his momentum is halted.
Granted he was quite awful against forest but to say he's a nothing player is grotesquely unfair.
25 Nov 2025 06:13:26
Gapko Etiteke Salah
Dom Wirtz Grav
Kerkez VVD Gomez Bradley
Allison
Baring injuries this should be our starting 11
. Let them settle.
Grav as shield
Dom Box to Box
Witrz free to roam
Kerkez / Bradley allowed to bomb fwd.
25 Nov 2025 06:48:38
The whole team was awful against Forest. Or at least they became awful after conceding the first goal. Before that, I thought we looked quite good and I was hopeful we could get a result. Jones linked up well with Szob and Salah in the initial stages of that game imo.
Jones didn't do any worse than any other player on the pitch against forest. In fact, I don't think he was our worse midfielder on that day. I though he was just as anonymous as Grav and played better than Macca.
25 Nov 2025 07:39:31
I don't think Jones was any worse than our other midfielders, but he wasn't any better, all three of them had their weaknesses brutally exposed. Grav isn't a passer and he can't thread a ball through the lines or hit a runner in behind when he isn't pressed, his primary function is to carry through the press and on the turn in crowded areas. Macca is a progressive passer in midfield but not over long distances, and off the ball he can be a liability. Jones also works well in crowded areas and is a willing presser, but again he does not have the vision or passing range to deliver an early ball out wide or to a streaking forward running in behind.
Game by game I can't help but feel that on the ball the player we miss the most is Trent. Whether that's whipping a pinpoint ball into the box or finding a player in behind, that used to be Trent's job all day, and it doesn't matter whether the actual delivery was on point all the time because the very possibility of him being able to do that was on the opposition's mind from first minute to last, and our players could make those runs knowing that he could find them more often than not.
Honestly speaking if Trent was still here the way we are playing right now, with our ridiculously slow and awkward transition play allowing the opposition to sit into their block and us praying for somebody to get on the end of something in a packed box, wouldn't be quite as much of an issue, he could create and find a corridor of space in the most congested boxes, and he always had his head up to get the ball up the field early. We're playing like Trent was still here, and that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
The number of times Isak and Ekitike were trying to get in behind against Forest and our midfielders not knowing what to do was bewildering, which is another reason why Dom HAS to play in there, he is the only midfielder we have who has the ability to hit those passes with any consistency or success. It's the same when we are building out from defense, when Virgil is blocked out and Konate is forced to carry or pass through the lines on his own, he often has no idea what to do either.
People are saying that Slot has ripped up the playbook and gone for something entirely new rather than what works, but for me it just looks like we're actually stuck in a halfway house between an old way of playing and a new way of playing that we need to play, but which hasn't emerged.
We're still getting the ball to Mo whenever we can, but then removing the pieces around him, especially when we lump attackers on willy nilly chasing the game, that allowed him to succeed. We finally bought a 9, but instead of having him do false 9 things like Nunez occupying defenders or letting him get on the ball anywhere near as much as he did with Newcastle, we just stick him in a packed box where he has to feed on scraps (if you can even call them scraps) . That just means that Isak is a complete non-factor because it's like playing with 10 men, he doesn't need to press to save his legs, everybody knows that the other players are looking for Mo and not him when he comes short, and while he is okay in the air there is no hope of him getting on anything when he is crowded out on an aerial ball in the box. If we're not going to play to his strengths and involve him in the game, then what on earth is the point of playing him?
It's the same with Wirtz, whose job in our team is to continually drop into midfield to get us up the field, but that's not where his principal strengths lie, or Kerkez, who whenever he receives the ball in his favored position has to defer to Gakpo every time, who just ignores him whenever Kerkez gets into space near the touchline or for a give and go.
If we have a future that features these players, then we need to see that future take shape now, to me it feels like Slot isn't actually doing what so many have accused him of doing and is holding on to remnants of an old way of playing without building the structure around the new pivots and anchors that we have. That just leads to this mish-mash of weak and confusing football where the strengths of our players are being nullified, and all our offensive play is built around Cody and Mo isolating their fullbacks while everybody else stands around.
25 Nov 2025 07:16:11
Ed, hasn't anyone talk or told him that a proper defensive midfielder who can do dirty work can help this team by a lot? That our midfield has clearly has been bullied in a lot of matches dating back to last season.
I would assume Hughes or Edwards who has more experience in EPL would see this problem and talk to him. Or is it Slot himself who is stubborn and doesn't really want to change the way he setup the team?
{Ed001's Note - people have certainly told him so, but he doesn't want to use one, in fact quite the opposite. He has instead given the closest thing we have to one, more license to get forward.}
25 Nov 2025 10:42:01
I was thinking about Gravs new licence to get forward more ed001, as much as he is capable of doing it, it’s quite disastrous defensively for the team.
I was seeing that there’s big interest in Macca as well.
Do you think selling Macca and bringing in a proper 6 and allowing Grav to operate as more of an 8 would work well?
I was thinking his versatility would work well with a proper 6 next to him, allows him to go forward when possible and sit back when up against it.
Not that Slots going to buy a 6, but he may also not be manager for much longer.
{Ed001's Note - I would much prefer to do that, I am not a fan of Macca though.}
25 Nov 2025 13:25:56
I would back not having a DM if we had CBs and FBs that could progress the ball. We didn't do that either - which means we have the worst of both worlds.
25 Nov 2025 12:49:46
The problem is that Grav going forward is only effective because he is nominally a 6, nobody expects a 6 to be very involved in attacking situations, which means that they receive less defensive attention in the final third, it's the explanation for why the likes of Caicedo and Palhinha been involved in goal scoring situations.
Also Grav has shown, in his spells in Ajax and for the last two years, that his best position is not as an 8, even though he has the skill set of an 8, but as a deep lying midfielder carrying the ball through the lines. If he is to be given more license to go forwards, then surely somebody has to cover for him in those situations, preferably the other pivot who plays alongside him. The problem is that clearly we don't do that, and that Mac Allister is hardly the kind of player you want doing that either. So I would suggest the solution is not to play Grav as an 8, but to have somebody who can cover for him and plug his space if he is to make forays forward on occasion.
25 Nov 2025 16:39:09
Curtis is an easy target but he’s a very important player in the squad.
26 Nov 2025 10:45:07
@ed 25, agreed on Jones.
He has the greatest tendency to be robbed off the ball, doens;t offer much going forward nor much defending.
Good squad player to have around but not a first 11 material.
{Ed025's Note - i will have that Wayne..