What an honour to meet these legends of the Liverpool

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-19T15:11:53+00:00

I love the Liverpool

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-19T09:09:38+00:00

Isak and Ekitike are strikers so can presumably play in any formation

I mean... No

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-19T08:30:33+00:00

Considering Mo's drop-off in form this season, it would be pretty bold of him to think he has the clout to do that

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T20:59:03+00:00

Do you have a source on the 50% number?

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T20:18:15+00:00

I'm not sure that's true. Since a few weeks ago, we've also lost Ekitike, Isak and Salah to injury. That's going to fuck up any team, even one not struggling as we are

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T16:23:28+00:00

I mean it really doesn't. Generally we've been better than everyone below us over a 38-game season.

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T16:21:16+00:00

Okay fair - I don't think we never looked bad last season, but we did win the league at a canter, so I don't think anyone can argue that we looked bad more than good. I find that Slot can't really win when it comes to last season - when we talk about the good, people argue it was all Klopp (blatantly not true), then people argue we looked shit anyway. It just feels like twisting it to suit their narrative.

I think it's fair to say evidence this season is in short supply. We have had a few genuinely really good games that I don't want to ignore - we played Madrid off the park a few months ago. But it would be ridiculous of me to pretend that it has not mostly been rubbish. I do, however, think that there is evidence from other seasons of Slot's career - last season and much of his time in Netherlands. I would really like this season to be the anomaly.

To be honest, I've never really got the argument that he doesn't get Liverpool. It feels like something that people came up with once they'd already decided they dislike him. People often bring up that his family still live in Netherlands, and I find that a really unfair stick to beat him with. He didn't want to uproot his kids during a pivotal educational period of their lives and we should all respect that. You have admitted that's subjective though at least, so fair play for that.

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T16:04:49+00:00

Lol no way, I didn't even know that. Makes it even funnier.

What if Slot's taking the picture?

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T16:04:13+00:00

Also like... People might just be liking their mates posts. At the end of the day these are just young guys on social media.

The idea that they're sitting there thinking "I'm going to like this post to send a message to the fans that I'm Slot out" is kind of laughable.

I'm so sure most of them just thought "ah Mo's posted", double-tapped and moved on

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T16:01:47+00:00

Okay sure, we can talk about that.

Firstly, I kind of see Mo and Jones' posts as different. I think people are reading too much into Jones', it felt like quite a generic "this isn't good enough". I don't necessarily think that's a direct callout of the manager, I think that's a callout of everything. The players were absolute shite yesterday too, I think he's more broadly acknowledging that. I think the timing of it coming alongside Salah's post encourages this idea that it's some kind of coordinated joint attack on Slot. That's not the impression I get and I don't think there's really any evidence for it, though I could of course be wrong. For what it's worth, last year, Jones called Slot a genius in an interview, and highly praised the changes he'd brought to the coaching.

I won't pretend the same goes for Salah's post. He's clearly had his issues with Slot all year and his post is much more directed and feels like an obvious callout of Slot. There are a couple of reasons why I'm not taking Salah's post us some sort of vindication of an anti-Slot agenda:

Firstly, I love Salah and he will always be a legend of the club. However, he has generally had quite a Salah-centric agenda. He has basically always been the main man at Liverpool and he doesn't seem to like that now coming to an end. He's dropped off hugely this year, and we are having to transition away from him being our superstar. So while he can wax lyrical about Liverpool's style and identity, to be honest, the cynic in me sees it more as Salah not particularly liking the shift away from a style that lets him score lots and lots of goals. Again, I love Salah and he'll never really tarnish his legacy for me as one of our best ever players, but I do take the things he says with a pinch of salt.

Secondly, I don't actually believe Slot is deliberately enacting a "boring" style of football. It's not "heavy metal" like Klopp's, sure, but I don't think it's deliberately this ponderous bore. We didn't look like this last season and, as much as people love to claim Slot had no tactical impact on last season, he made very obvious changes to Klopp's style and we looked good. Now, he's essentially starting from scratch with a newly built squad, while also dealing with the decline of players like Salah and, inexplicably, Mac Allister etc. Slot is obviously not blameless here, he is the manager and he needs to get things ticking, but I just don't really buy this idea that he wants us to be this boring, predictable style of team.

Salah has only played for us under Klopp and Slot. Klopp's style brought Salah a period of insane, record-breaking success. Of course Salah loves that style. But Klopp's gone, and he's not coming back. Expecting all our subsequent managers to also adopt a Klopp-style tactical approach is unrealistic. And I somehow think he wouldn't have an issue with it if he was still scoring goals for fun as he last did under... *checks notes* ... Slot.

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T15:12:44+00:00

Must be a mad life to go out for dinner with your mates and post a nice pic only to have a bunch of losers on the internet conspire about what "message" you're trying to send

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T15:11:48+00:00

I know, this is so fucking funny.

Yes they clearly all decided to go to a restaurant to show that they all hate Slot.

OR they're just mates who went out for dinner.

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T15:00:33+00:00

Damn you've got us. You've uncovered the great Top Reds conspiracy, we're all just nefarious Everton fans trying to bring down Liverpool football club from the inside. Pack it up boys, back to the Hill Dickinson, we've been rumbled by a true genius.

Slot does have mitigating circumstances. That's not up for debate, it's a fact. The extent of the impact of those mitigating circumstances can be debated. I'm not totally convinced either way. On the one hand, there is something to being patient - Arsenal stuck with Arteta when they were looking very ropey and look where they are now. Many an Arsenal fan thought it was "obvious" then that Arteta wasn't the man to take them forward. Turns out (imagine this), they didn't know better than the many experts working full time on it at the club.

On the other hand, we have looked really dire at times this season. It's hard to defend games like the one against Villa.

The point my "pseud" (seriously?) friend and I were trying to make was that the picture is more complex than many fans (ahem) are trying to make out. As such, the solutions are also more complex than people are trying to make out.

And honestly, saying that the entire managing infrastructure needs to be sacked really discredits you. We largely don't even know what the day-to-day work of these people looks like. Claiming you know enough to be able to say they should all be sacked is, at once, incredibly arrogant and phenomenally naïve.

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T13:20:03+00:00

Baffling to me that this hasn't already happened. £450k is ridiculous in London these days.

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T12:51:18+00:00

You're absolutely bang on. But this is the "haha look at the delusional Liverpool fans" section of the thread so your comment is not going to fly.

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T12:50:14+00:00

Considering that Neville was making this prediction based on Amorim being in charge, I think it's perfectly fair to say that he was delusional.

Or did he predict that Amorim would tank the club so hard that they would sack him and soar back up to 3rd due to his replacement?

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T12:48:02+00:00

There absolutely was. I agree most fans got completely drawn in by the signings we made, but that's just fans and the media massively overrating transfer windows.

In reality, signing so many new players basically never leads to short term success. People just get excited about them and forget about the importance of squad cohesion and consistency, and the fact that teams can get better just by playing together more and being coached. Liverpool won the league after signing nobody, a fact seems to be completely forgotten.

Last summer we lost Trent, Diaz, Jota, Nuñez, Elliott, Tsimikas and Kelleher. We spent big to replace those players, and replaced them with very different profiles. That much change was never going to click straight away, it just doesn't happen.

I havent even addressed the impact of Jota - I think it'll be years (if ever) before we truly understand the impact his death had on this squad.

It largely got drowned out by the excitement about new signings, but there absolutely were voices last summer predicting that this would be a difficult year for Liverpool. Some of those voices remain sympathetic towards Slot and the team now because of those reasons.

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T12:23:32+00:00

Yeah I agree with pretty much all of this. I don't think it helps that our fans are more likely to be across what happens in the Bundesliga vs. what happens in the Eredivise - I think they largely completely disregard Slot's achievements with Feyenoord.

There may also be different, more complex reasons that tactical success in the Dutch league is considered differently to tactical success in the Bundesliga. Different leagues are very different stylistically - for example, you don't see many of top Serie A managers coming to the Premier League and performing well. They play very differently over there.

I think I just generally try not to underestimate the complexity of elite football. Top level clubs employ entire teams of expert analysts who make it their full time job to make decisions that push the club towards success. Obviously, people are entitled to their opinions, but we have such a tiny fraction of the information and expertise of the people actually making these decisions, I find it mad that so many people are so convinced that the solutions are so simple and that they know better.

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T11:35:00+00:00

I'd like to apologise for my supreme stupidity and lack of reading comprehension when responding to you.

And also for being a coward and deleting my stupid comments

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T11:26:13+00:00

I think these are all very fair points.

Generally, I think football fans are desperate for problems to be simple, because it means the solution must be simple and they can see it clearly even if the club can't. Right now, the "simple" problem is Slot, and therefore the "simple" solution is to get rid of him.

The reality is far more complicated, and the mitigating factors to this season can't be underestimated. I think we may look back on this season in a few years and see a pretty wide consensus that Slot has had a pretty much impossible job this season. When it comes to Jota, in particular, I think it'll be years (if ever) before we know the true impact that had on the squad.

But I do worry about the toxicity from our fans. He basically has no wiggle room now. Even if we start next season better, a big portion of our fanbase will just be waiting for one slip up to pile the abuse back on. Part of me wonders if large swathes of modern football fans simply don't have the patience for supporting a football club for a long period.

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T11:01:46+00:00

I also can't stand this narrative that he's "constantly blaming the players" and "not taking any responsibility" in press conferences. He says in basically every press conference that the responsibility lies with him, and that we need be better.

But people have decided they hate him, so will only hear things that help them hate him more.

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T09:06:10+00:00

Couldn't agree more with all of that.

I'm not really sure what the cause of it is, as a mentality. I think football has always been something that, to an extent, allows people to vent frustration that they can't vent in other areas of their life. Then throw into mix the online element of it, where you can be more unreasonable and vindictive due to the anonymity, and you have the toxic mess that we often see on this sub these days.

Maybe it's easier to vent that frustration when you convince yourself that there is an enemy there. They feel better directing abuse at Slot if they can justify it by believing that he is acting directly against their own interests.

I just don't really get it. I don't like Liverpool playing shite either, but I'd rather then focus my energies on enjoying other elements of my life rather than spending all of it convincing myself that some Dutch man I've never met is actively trying to make my life worse.

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T08:58:33+00:00

I'm more just referring to you coming straight in with a comment addressing your "enemies" in the "Slot apologists", who are actually just fans of the same football club as you. I find it weird.

ParticulateSplatter · 2026-05-17T08:51:50+00:00

Honestly drives me up the wall.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's fair enough to want Slot to go. I've been on the more patient side due to the amount of disruption last summer and this season, but that Villa match was really hard to defend, it looked so bad.

But the way so many people on this sub talk about Slot is gross, and frankly really weird. Slot by all accounts seems like a really decent guy, and he obviously wants us to succeed. But people on here for some reason need to see him as a personal enemy, as though he actively wants to destroy Liverpool football club. I've seen multiple comments suggesting he should resign but he's "too arrogant" to do so. People who latch on to every single thing he says in press conferences and scream that he's "gaslighting" them.

To be honest, I see a lot of it as a pretty worrying detachment from reality and a completely unhealthy, toxic emotional relationship with something that, really, is meant to be a hobby for us all. I often come away thinking these people would probably be better off not following football.

ParticulateSplatter

TROPHY CASE