Arne Slot | Liverpool manager (Posture Watch)

[Powderfinger]

I agree that the best way to judge is wait for the full season. As a compliment to him I'd say that it does look very unlikely that the wheels will come off. Seems very stable.

He’s off to an impressive start without a doubt. But the fixture list has been kind and he has had almost no significant injuries to deal with until now with Alisson. He has basically leaned heavily on the same 11 players so far. One of Klopp’s big strengths was his ability to chop and change the lineup yet keep performance levels high and that’s a total unknown at this point with Slot.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

He’s off to an impressive start without a doubt. But the fixture list has been kind and he has had almost no significant injuries to deal with until now with Alisson. He has basically leaned heavily on the same 11 players so far. One of Klopp’s big strengths was his ability to chop and change the lineup yet keep performance levels high and that’s a total unknown at this point with Slot.

There will be a lot of things we will learn about him of course. They have a hell of a challenging run between now and early December.

 

[PickledRed]

He has an extra 12 months but I wonder if he’s made it known that he’d like to leave as well.

He’s surprisingly injury prone for a keeper. That or he looked at our fixtures between now and early December and decided “nope”.

He made it known in the summer that he’s keen to stay. Was quite prominent news.

 

[Klopper76]

He made it known in the summer that he’s keen to stay. Was quite prominent news.

Do you really think that’ll be the way it’s going to go if Salah, TAA and Van Dijk all go in the summer?

Losing all three significantly weakens us.

 

[PickledRed]

Do you really think that’ll be the way it’s going to go if Salah, TAA and Van Dijk all go in the summer?

I’ve no idea. It’s bordering on idle speculation with lots of variables and moving parts still in play. Nothing has been concluded. Catastrophising* seems to be football fans favourite pastime. The reality is often not as bad.

*see many Liverpool fans’ hysteria during transfer windows.

 

[locomojito]

Bump

 

[goatmeister]

He’s off to an impressive start without a doubt. But the fixture list has been kind and he has had almost no significant injuries to deal with until now with Alisson. He has basically leaned heavily on the same 11 players so far. One of Klopp’s big strengths was his ability to chop and change the lineup yet keep performance levels high and that’s a total unknown at this point with Slot.

I think the point about injury shouldn't used as a stick to beat him.
One of the his strong point is that his coaching team is excellent at maintaining fitness of overall squad throughout the season.
This is already known before his appointment to Liverpool hotseat.
As the old saying goes, you make your own luck.

 

[Rooney in Paris]

I think the point about injury shouldn't used as a stick to beat him.
One of the his strong point is that his coaching team is excellent at maintaining fitness of overall squad throughout the season.
This is already known before his appointment to Liverpool hotseat.
As the old saying goes, you make your own luck.

Which is a bit of a stupid saying, but whatever.

Didn't catch the game yesterday, how was it? The Liverpool games I have seen so far this season have been less impressive than the results suggest, but they are building momentum and getting results, which is impressive in itself. There's something about them that makes me think they won't hold the distance and there will be a mini collapse at some point, taking them out of the title race, but so far they're doing very well.

 

[RobinLFC]

Which is a bit of a stupid saying, but whatever.

Didn't catch the game yesterday, how was it? The Liverpool games I have seen so far this season have been less impressive than the results suggest, but they are building momentum and getting results, which is impressive in itself. There's something about them that makes me think they won't hold the distance and there will be a mini collapse at some point, taking them out of the title race, but so far they're doing very well.

Chelsea will feel disappointed not to get something from that game, could've gone either way imo. They had a penalty shout, we had a red card shout, few other debatable decisions by the referee. It wasn't a convincing beatdown win by any means but Chelsea are not a pushover under Maresca. We've drawn to Chelsea a lot in recent years (or at least that's my feeling) when they were a lot worse than they currently are so definitely a big win in that respect. Not that it fills me with great confidence to go to the Emirates next weekend but getting beaten by Bournemouth 2-0 isn't exactly a display of great form by Arsenal themselves.

I get wat you're saying in your last sentence - our squad is a bit thin and it's not like we're playing teams completely off the park. I also have this feeling that "City is still City" and they're gonna go on a run that won't be sustainable for Liverpool to keep up with, just based on recent experiences. On the other hand, not like City are stringing the easy wins together either, could've just as well lost points at Wolves last Saturday. So in that respect, if the roles were reversed and we'd beaten a lowly team like Wolves in the last minutes of the game while City had won against Chelsea, the feeling would've remained the same so not sure it has anything to do with recent results but more so previous seasons and just how strong City are once the title race really gets going. If that make sense.

 

[Rooney in Paris]

I get wat you're saying in your last sentence - our squad is a bit thin and it's not like we're playing teams completely off the park. I also have this feeling that "City is still City" and they're gonna go on a run that won't be sustainable for Liverpool to keep up with, just based on recent experiences. On the other hand, not like City are stringing the easy wins together either, could've just as well lost points at Wolves last Saturday. So in that respect, if the roles were reversed and we'd beaten a lowly team like Wolves in the last minutes of the game while City had won against Chelsea, the feeling would've remained the same so not sure it has anything to do with recent results but more so previous seasons and just how strong City are once the title race really gets going. If that make sense.

They're not, but their recent history has shown that they're usually a little bit slow to start, even though they still get the wins that keep them in touching distance, and then just go on the crazy consistent run in the second half of the season when it really matters. They're an annoyingly competent team. I think they'll run away with it again this season, barring external factors (the decision to come their way in 2025).

 

[IrishRedDevil]

He's doing well, much better than I expected.
All we can hope for is he shits the bed when having to replace Salah, VVD and TAA.

 

[fergiewherearethou]

Never expected this guy to do that well. Hoping for the worst still, hope is all I have left.

 

[SilentWitness]

I've not watched them too regularly but from what I have seen he appears to be quite tactically flexible and capable of switching it up game to game and during a game, which has got them over the line consistently this season.

 

[Big Andy]

Getting soft penalties helps. I'm uber surprised that the one on Jones got overturned at Anfield tbh.

 

[giorno]

They're not, but their recent history has shown that they're usually a little bit slow to start, even though they still get the wins that keep them in touching distance, and then just go on the crazy consistent run in the second half of the season when it really matters. They're an annoyingly competent team. I think they'll run away with it again this season, barring external factors (the decision to come their way in 2025).

City lost their least replaceable player for the season though. It's entirely possible their ceiling has lowered enough they simply won't have the usual kind of run in them, and mid 80s points might be enough to beat them

Honestly, Arsenal are the greater obstacle imo

 

[Hughie77]

Great start, when you get Pens as soft as that with a realy poor ref it helps to bed in at a club so far the FA have given him the best start a new guy could get.

 

[romufc]

Great start, when you get Pens as soft as that with a realy poor ref it helps to bed in at a club so far the FA have given him the best start a new guy could get.

Yep, when the same situation, pen wasn't given against them...

 

[FrankDrebin]

I hate to be impressed by them but I am. They look well balanced and Salah looks to be on it again this year.

 

[Statue of Limitations]

Slot seems a lot more likeable than Klopp, his interviews he comes across well.
Still, the worst of luck to him.

Top 4 and QF of CL and pool fans would prob take that, I know I would for us.

 

[Shark]

When are the wheels going to come off ffs. I'm still expecting them to but it's taking much longer than expected. I think the core of VVD, Salah, TAA etc. is still too strong.

 

[Yakuza_devils]

It's just our luck that Liverpool got the right Dutch manager. We had LVG and now ETH, both play atrocious football. Meanwhile, the Liverpool Dutch manager play modern high intensity attacking football.

 

[WeePat]

Great start, when you get Pens as soft as that with a realy poor ref it helps to bed in at a club so far the FA have given him the best start a new guy could get.

A soft pen is still a pen, and this one wasn't even soft. It was a clear pen unfortunately.

 

[horsechoker]

It's just our luck that Liverpool got the right Dutch manager. We had LVG and now ETH, both play atrocious football. Meanwhile, the Liverpool Dutch manager play modern high intensity attacking football.

Literally nothing makes sense about this appointment.

 

[Remember the geese]

Things are going their way so far. A very easy set of fixtures to begin the season with. Chelsea were the first fairly decent side they've played so far (including us sadly) and it was a game that probably merited in ending as a draw.

Arsenal haven't really got going fully thus far, but I maintain that with everyone fit, they are a better side than Liverpool. However, they need at least Saka back against them next week.

 

[WeePat]

I've not watched them too regularly but from what I have seen he appears to be quite tactically flexible and capable of switching it up game to game and during a game, which has got them over the line consistently this season.

I was surprised at how Slot approached this game. I thought we were going to turn up and it would be us sitting back and playing on the counter, and I actually fancied our chances with Madueke, Palmer and Jackson running at them. We thrive in transition. Allowing us to have the ball so much forced us into playing a game we always struggle to execute.

 

[B20]

I was surprised at how Slot approached this game. I thought we were going to turn up and it would be us sitting back and playing on the counter, and I actually fancied our chances with Madueke, Palmer and Jackson running at them. We thrive in transition. Allowing us to have the ball so much forced us into playing a game we always struggle to execute.

Hart of all people did well to point out that your press allowed us to play it long to Salah, as the gap to the midfield was so big that the ball forwards didn't need to be that high and Salah could run in front of the ball to recieve it without it being intercepted beforehand.

Must admit, I found it weird how much time you gave to Kelleher on the ball. He's a good passer and with no one ever pressuring him, he had all the time in the world to pick out those passes.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Literally nothing makes sense about this appointment.

Just goes to show so many on here that there doesn’t have to be an “obvious improvement” to actually hire a good manager. Both of those teams yesterday look far better coached than us with guys that have been there for only a few months, and neither name was a splashy hire.

 

[njred]

When are the wheels going to come off ffs. I'm still expecting them to but it's taking much longer than expected. I think the core of VVD, Salah, TAA etc. is still too strong.

Apparently VVD is in discussions to sign a new contract. Hopefully that’s one out of the way.

 

[WeePat]

Hart of all people did well to point out that your press allowed us to play it long to Salah, as the gap to the midfield was so big that the ball forwards didn't need to be that high and Salah could run in front of the ball to recieve it without it being intercepted beforehand.

Must admit, I found it weird how much time you gave to Kelleher on the ball. He's a good passer and with no one ever pressuring him, he had all the time in the world to pick out those passes.

Kelleher looks like a better passer than even Allison, so that was surprising to me too. Liverpool baited us into pushing up high quite a few times then just dinked the ball over the midfield to set your forwards up with easy 1v1s against our backline. Slot is an impressive manager.

 

[Liver_bird]

Which is a bit of a stupid saying, but whatever.

Didn't catch the game yesterday, how was it? The Liverpool games I have seen so far this season have been less impressive than the results suggest, but they are building momentum and getting results, which is impressive in itself. There's something about them that makes me think they won't hold the distance and there will be a mini collapse at some point, taking them out of the title race, but so far they're doing very well.

I think structurally we still have quite a few problems. It looks to me like we’re extremely reliant on our high quality players to show a lot of intelligence and I’m not convinced about the effectiveness of our pressing just yet. I think that’s the one thing most opp fans underestimate in our squad, the depth isn’t great but the quality is insanely high. Ali, VVD , Salah are all still world class and players like Trent, Diaz,Konate, Mac Allister etc are all Top/have huge ceilings too.

The best thing he’s done is balanced the approach and when you’ve got those quality of defenders albeit reliant on VVD you’ll generally not concede too many. He also seems tactically very flexible and will vary the approach based on the opposition which I’ve been impressed by.

I’m not sure you’ll see what his team fully looks like until next season though. From what I’ve read he wants far more controlled possession and we don’t have a 6 like that despite how impressive gravenberch is. We’re still giving the ball away far too often and cheaply for all the technical players we have. He’s worked well with what he’s got, which is usually the sign of a top modern manager.

I don’t think we’ll go the distance based on squad depth and I think we’ll be feeling the burn come march/april. A few injuries and we will be really stretched. But before the season I was hoping for top four/a cup with a decent CL run. I didnt think he’d do this well with 0 first xi signings. The full picture will be clearer by Christmas. It’s a tough run coming.

 

[goatmeister]

Which is a bit of a stupid saying, but whatever.

Didn't catch the game yesterday, how was it? The Liverpool games I have seen so far this season have been less impressive than the results suggest, but they are building momentum and getting results, which is impressive in itself. There's something about them that makes me think they won't hold the distance and there will be a mini collapse at some point, taking them out of the title race, but so far they're doing very well.

I have lived long enough to draw reasonable conclusion that I encountered more "lucks" along my way when I'm well prepared for an endeavour.
I have never won any sort of raffle/lottery even during yearly company DND.
So as you said, whatever.

Very surprised with Slot's cautious strategy especially in the first 20-30 mins.
Their forwards hardly initiated any press.
They sort of let Chelsea's left flank to have all the time in the world, combo of Gusto on the left and Sancho was quite rank tbf.
Those running to blind alley and aimless crosses was benefitting Trent and Liverpool greatly.
Once they have got the goal, they started to become more assertive, back to usual MO.
Gakpo was frustrating with his dubious decisions making and Jota was stuck in his ineffective mode, needed to be withdrawn before he usually scores out of nowhere.

Liverpool won the most important battle in the middle of the park by containing Palmer.
Caicedo is was quite superb, nimble and smart in his movement; he's got an assist too for his trouble.
Lavia was also quite good, Enzo's introductions was a mistake I think
MOTM Jones played really really well surprisingly both offensively and defensively.

All in all, it was tactical battle won by Slot against Maresca.
The Italian did pretty well but the metric didnt lie; Chelsea's shot on target, XG and goal scored are all aligned showing them offer little genuine threat.
It might look "could go either way" (such as most things), but underlying number shows that Liverpool was in control.
It's not very exciting for neutrals as we thirst for actions but it's not reasonable to expect him going gung-ho in his first 2-3 months in a new league.
He's no fool, he's pacing his team really really well and managing their fitness excellently.
They do have injury but it's not catastrophic like in the past decade or so.

 

[Klopper76]

Which is a bit of a stupid saying, but whatever.

Didn't catch the game yesterday, how was it? The Liverpool games I have seen so far this season have been less impressive than the results suggest, but they are building momentum and getting results, which is impressive in itself. There's something about them that makes me think they won't hold the distance and there will be a mini collapse at some point, taking them out of the title race, but so far they're doing very well.

If the game had ended up a draw, I wouldn't have felt hard done by. I think we limited Chelsea to few clear cut chances for the most part, which has been something we've done well under Slot. Even though Chelsea had more shots in the game, I'd argue we created the better chances to score.

It's a very different style to those type of games compared to Klopp, who preferred to try and play on the front foot regardless of who we faced. The pro for that was that we could beat anyone on our day, but the con was that we didn't have a way to adapt to teams who figured us out and had the players to implement tactics to deal with us. See Arteta's Arsenal in the last two league games at the Emirates against Klopp's Liverpool.

How we get on at Arsenal next week will be interesting to see.

 

[GoonerBear]

I think the mistake many were making when he took over was underestimating the quality of Liverpools squad in comparison to it's peers.

At one point in early February they could have beaten Arsenal and gone 8 points clear of them. The squad is a very good squad, with some top class players in Allison, Van Dijk, Trent, and Salah. Then they have the likes of Konate, Mac Alister, Jota, Diaz that are very good players, and guys like Jones, Gravenberch, Gakpo and Nunez were hardly a low floor.

This wasn't a Fergie scenario where Fergie had wrung the last out of an aging team, or a Wenger scenario where the team quality had regressed a lot. This is a good coach, taking over a good squad, and winning the games (mostly) that they are expected to win. Bigger tests will come but he's building momentum in terms of results if not quite performances and that's certainly not to be sniffed at.

 

[PickledRed]

The underlying numbers - xG for / against - indicate the fact Liverpool are doing well. Slot’s style isn’t particularly spectacular and broadly less aggressive than Klopp’s team but that’s seemingly being interpreted as being unimpressive. It’s just less interesting so far but it’s been very effective and controlled.

Opponents are working very hard while creating very few chances.

 

[SilentWitness]

The underlying numbers - xG for / against - indicate the fact Liverpool are doing well. Slot’s style isn’t particularly spectacular and broadly less aggressive than Klopp’s team but that’s seemingly being interpreted as being unimpressive. It’s just less interesting so far but it’s been very effective and controlled.

Opponents are working very hard while creating very few chances.

Yep, best in the league according to understat for both stats.

 

[Josh 76]

I thought I'd never say this, but I kind of miss Klopp. It's because I can't get myself to hate this new guy as much as I'm trying. Hopefully that will change in time.

The hatred towards Liverpool has declined (0.001%) a little and I don't like it!

 

[GoonerBear]

The underlying numbers - xG for / against - indicate the fact Liverpool are doing well. Slot’s style isn’t particularly spectacular and broadly less aggressive than Klopp’s team but that’s seemingly being interpreted as being unimpressive. It’s just less interesting so far but it’s been very effective and controlled.

Opponents are working very hard while creating very few chances.

Again, difficulty of opponents will have a big influence on that as well. I think before the Chelsea game everyone Liverpool have played were 10th or below on last week's table.

This run coming up will be the true test you'd imagine, swipe for next 10 games.

The worrying thing for everyone is City's next 10!

 

[horsechoker]

I thought I'd never say this, but I kind of miss Klopp. It's because I can't get myself to hate this new guy as much as I'm trying. Hopefully that will change in time.

The hatred towards Liverpool has declined (0.001%) a little and I don't like it!

Yeah he's not trying to the centre of attention which isn't easy when you've got a massive shiny dome.

 

[CannibalSpectre]

He has an extra 12 months but I wonder if he’s made it known that he’d like to leave as well.

He’s surprisingly injury prone for a keeper. That or he looked at our fixtures between now and early December and decided “nope”.

His compatriot Ederson at City is injury prone as well. They are in a league of their own in this respect in the premier league

 

[Salt Bailly]

Reminds me of the Hitchcock silhouette every time I see him. Wanker.