15 Apr 2026 13:03:59
We have a lot of very ordinary players I mean, mediocre as a result of crazy affinity for "release clauses" and "market opportunities" and I call them mediocre because Slot is not able to get more out of them than their base level like his predecessor.
15 Apr 2026 13:59:12
This squad is littered with players who have won the biggest trophies both domestically and for their nations.
The manager and training staff are at fault here!
15 Apr 2026 15:14:32
People massively over exaggerate how bad our team is. Most of them are title winners with Liverpool, Leverkusen or PSG. There are 4 players in our senior squad who haven't won a top 5 European league; Mama, Woodman, Leoni, Kerkez and Isak. That's our 2nd keeper, our 3rd keeper, our 4th CB, the PFA team of the year 2025 LB, and the PFA team of the year 2025 CF.
This squad should've been competing on all 4 fronts this season. A lack of fitness and conditioning, coupled with shockingly passive tactics, has effectively cost us what should have been a routine title defence. Arsenal and City are not good teams and we should genuinely be embarrassed we've relinquished our title to whichever one of them eventually wins the league.
15 Apr 2026 15:19:59
6 of the starting 11 last night have yet to win the Premier League. A couple of them, 6, have won a Bundesliga. Pretty sure only Macca has won something big on the international stage. We could not pass a ball 5 yards last night in dat 1st half.
I miss a time when a player was actually called out for playing poorly. Now it's all on a guy on the sideline who doesn't kick one ball. It can be argued there were mistakes in the lineup/formation, but c'mon we were p!$s poor for much of last night.
15 Apr 2026 15:45:16
I think if we get the second half of this recruitment revamp right then we could be elite again for years. If we get it wrong or don't do much business it could get ugly.
The rebuild could be legendary if finished correctly. There was no better option to replace Mo's threat/return than Isak, no better up and coming striker to back him up than Hugo, no better creative unicorn to replace TAA than Flo. I've been really happy with how Kerkez has settled, still so young. Jaquet and Leoni look as good of CBs young prospects as you'll find.
We need speed and trickery on the flanks, an energetic ball playing midfielder, and a consistent right back.
Kayode would be my right back pick.
Diomande can play either flank.
MF. Wharton is special on the ball but Anderson has to be the all action best option. I see City linked but he would thrive at Anfield under the lights chasing every man and ball.
Match that with an actual intense pre season, hopefully no tragic events, new signings accustomed to the demands of Premier League (even marathon machine Dom faded in his first season), Isak available, Rio further developed, no headlines about Mo being subbed (as much as I'll miss him) and I think things look a lot different.
I actually think this group will peak the year after next. Which for fans (and worse so bloody pundits) will seem like forever away.
15 Apr 2026 15:58:46
Florian, your man on the sideline is the reason why, bar Rio and Kerkez, the players have been on their backsides all season.
I know that is hard for you to believe.
15 Apr 2026 16:09:20
Talk about 2 different sides of an argument MK ?. Look, without question we should have performed better in the 2 main comps. But for me I can't get on board that with this squad we should have been competing on all 4 fronts. We went in with a No.1 who has played 32, 35 and 34 games over the last 3 seasons. That's just under 40% of games missed over a 3 year spell. Crazy amount for a goalie, if it wasn't Alli he'd have been shipped out by now. His backup is someone most don't rate. At RB we went with a hugely injury prone academy graduate with a wingback with no Prem experience to compete. An 18 year old Italian (who I do actually rate) and Joe Gomez as your CBs if an injury occurred. LB fine. Jones, Nyoni and Endo as your backups in MF. The backups of a squad wanting to go deep on 4 fronts? On the left a 17 year old who has got better and stronger over the season.
But let's be real here Arsenal sent a guy well further along in his development off to France for the season because he was 6th choice winger. They also have a kid maybe even more talented as Rio who has made a fraction of Rio's appearances because they don't see him as ready. RW, Chiesa look the blokes a tryer but he is not good enough. All this is without the struggles of Robbo, Virg, Macca, Grav and Mo and basically missing Isak for the season. But forget them last few because they are just things that happen at every club that you just have to get on with. There are players at Liverpool that none of our competitors would want in their senior squads. There are obvious weaknesses. In no way is it realistic to expect it to compete on all four fronts.
15 Apr 2026 16:19:21
Fpf, are Rio and Kerkez superhuman or something? The man on the sideline will be gone soon. I really really really hope he's the reason, as you think, that most of them couldn't make a 5 yard pass last night.
15 Apr 2026 16:55:25
Florian, I suppose you think Artemis II is a hoax too.
15 Apr 2026 17:06:59
Wouldn't have a breeze whether it was or not, Fpf. No interest.
15 Apr 2026 18:40:43
Just to take some of the heat off Florian, I've been saying all season that most of the players have to take responsibility for us being garbage, too. It's not all on Slot. Our squad is nowhere near as good as City or Arsenal.
As an example, neither Jones, Gomez or Chiesa would get near either of their 22-man squads, and they've been on the bench for us most of the season.
We've got a massive summer ahead, whether we get shot of Slot or not.
15 Apr 2026 19:24:49
Nyoni and Ngumoha wouldn't be on their bench every week either. Endo also for me would not get in their squads.
15 Apr 2026 19:29:06
Agreed, Rome. I'm not convinced Endo gets near their squads, or even Macca, Frimpong, Robertson and Mo tbh. We've also got the likes of Bacjetic still floating around the squad lists and Trey who we hardly ever see.
If we're talking first teamers, I'd say Szob and Isak get in Arsenal's team, that's all, and VVD and Szob get in City's team.
I've discounted Ali because he's never fit.
Our squad planning, contract renewals, and transfer business has been a bit of a shambles. Too often opportunistic like Chiesa, and also very driven (as someone else said) by release clause pricing and ease rather than true negotiation for a player based on the tactical fit.
15 Apr 2026 20:08:26
I don't see a big spend this summer, maybe we replace Mo and Macca if we can get shut of him. But that's it imo. Last summer was out the blue for us and we did get a chunk back in sales to help, but maybe the odd kid for the future. We generally don't spend do we?
15 Apr 2026 20:49:52
I reckon a coupla hundred mill net. That seems to be the new standard for the big sides. It's what we did last year, for the talk of record spends we recouped half of it through sales.
15 Apr 2026 21:13:17
I was a strident all on Slot accuser. Whilst I still believe that the majority of what has gone wrong this season is down to him, I now also believe that those players representing the club are just not pulling their weight and have put in seriously substandard performances throughout the entire season since September. Rome has said this all along, and he and I debated it strongly on this forum. FM has been more pro-Slot than many others, but in fairness he's not totally wrong either with his analysis, even though I don't agree with him on most occasions. He is, after all, entitled to his opinion.
For me, now, after enduring the season so far, I have come to realize that the blame runs throughout the club, with Management, Coaches, Players not excluded from criticism. They all deserve it, and it can be apportioned whichever way you feel yourself. They have let the club and us supporters down to the point of embarrassment, and they should all hang their heads in shame. Their attitude has been horrendous throughout and half of them should never set foot on the Anfield pitch ever again. Let's hope we achieve top 5 and get the choices right in the summer to progress beyond this mess.
15 Apr 2026 21:33:51
I think I've been Pro-blameshare.
16 Apr 2026 14:21:46
Shankley, it's not that the players aren't pulling their weight, they lost faith in the manager a long time ago, they're fed up and frustrated, they're playing for a fool who's constantly making baffling decisions, it's not an easy thing to do. I know people argue things like "you play for the club not the manager" "they need to show more respect for the jersey" etc... but that's a lot easier said than done when the dressing room's been lost.
Florian, whatever point you're trying to make is irrelevant, you don't build a Premier League winning side by just buying a bunch of Premier League winning players. Currently only 1 of Arsenal's entire squad have ever won the PL before. I believe Utd, Chelsea, Leicester and ourselves all had less than 3 PL winning players when they won their first PL title, and in most cases they were only squad players with little game time for their previous club.
Again, you try shift the blame to the players when it's so blatantly obvious the tactics have been dogs*** all season. We couldn't string 2 passes together because we were trying to do it at pace for a change, something we're not used to, and that was made blatantly obvious in the first half.
We've been playing incredibly slow football all year and it showed when we tried to shift up a gear. I would say I commend Slot for realising that we needed to up the ante, but it's taken near 9 months for him to kop it. You can't just take a team that's been playing at a snail's pace for 8 months and expect them to be able to go out and just put it into top gear. It just proves how out of his depth he really is. Like the away leg, Slot thought that just randomly chucking an extra defender on the pitch would somehow make the team better defensively, but it actually made us worse. We were all over the place. There's some top quality players in our team, that's a fact, we proved it last year, but the coaching is an absolute joke, from Slot's endlessly baffling decisions to the unforgivable lack of fitness. Slot's entire coaching team is completely out of their depth and needs to get the first flight back to Holland come May 25th.
17 Apr 2026 08:52:07
Can't disagree that either, Chewy.
{Ed033's Note - WD40 added.