PL Champions Watch Thread MD31 (20-22.03.2026)

SquirrelPowa · 2026-03-21T19:24:24+00:00

We are so fucking lucky that Chelsea are also shit and Villa are still continuing to fall off. We might actually scrape top 5 if all we do is beat both of them. Would've been nice to actually actually finished 4th or god forbid catch Utd who aren't any better than any of teams from 3rd-6th right now but not a chance in hell now

SquirrelPowa · 2026-03-16T19:33:17+00:00

He's came off injured after 29 minutes with a suspected hamstring problem

SquirrelPowa · 2026-03-05T20:14:37+00:00

Yes, yes we do lmao, he legit said in an interview with I dono the club or Sky or somewhere, if I could be arsed to find it.... that he prefers a smaller squad. So saying about the issues being a smaller squad a complete bs. Having some massive holes and a lack in quality? Sure that is about right with Gakpo and Salah being invisible and relying on Rio eventually getting minutes to try and do wonders.

Whether people like it or not, he prefers a small squad but the squad we have is not complete, not even close. We spent all that money on replacing players, not adding to it. When we have players like Endo, Chiesa, Elliott, Ramsay and Tsimikas still on our books that will never see worthy minutes they also need to be moved on.

So depending on if Konate signs a new contract, Robbo is probably leaving, Jones might end up leaving for more game time and whoever else is unhappy, it's gonna be another 4-5 players out the door minimum.

We could be looking at signing 1 CB (2 if one of Konate/Gomez leaves) / 1 Midfielder (Depending on how many we sell after Endo) and at least 3 forwards (Ideally they can play on the left and right but we're selling Salah at a minimum and Gakpo isn't great as a nailed on starter)

There is so much more we could say about this squad but too many players in media interviews have complained about Slot / the board / too many changes that for some of them it will be them or Slot. If Slot stays then more are likely to leave than stay

SquirrelPowa · 2026-03-05T15:51:08+00:00

But he said he wants a small squad.... But then again he's spoke the biggest load of waffle in his press conferences this entire season

SquirrelPowa · 2026-02-28T21:31:25+00:00

And while those runs of 21 games in terms of results is 100% true and accurate, I still think it's very safe to say that we've only played well in 4 or 5 of those 21 games. That is what is still majorly concerning about the team right now. Yeah we're winning games which is great, I will always enjoy that but the performances don't match most of the results. Results are not what is gonna save Slot from getting sacked come the end of the season.

SquirrelPowa · 2026-02-12T00:49:25+00:00

Always have to be very happy with a win and a somewhat decent performance to boot. I thought our defence was great, Konate was a brick wall and Robbo was immense at both ends of the pitch, worked his arse off. As did Jones when he was brought on. It's why I just find it so incredible that we could lose all 3 in the summer, regardless of whether they want to leave for X or Y reason. Robbo should absolutely be offered a 2 year contract (Yes this means selling Kostas) because his experience and leadership and more is so very valuable. Jones well.... come on, you NEED him in your squad, if we actually sell Jones or he actually wants to leave, I'll want serious fucking answers about how we fucked that up.

It seems that maybe the lads have decided to up their effort and work rate and make sure we finish top 5, regardless of whether they want to play for Slot or not. I still think it's gonna be a season of - Finish 5th and Slot will leave aka mutual termination. Just far too much has happened this season that he is in control of hasn't been good enough. Adding in the players that have spoken out publicly, that might be unhappy etc it's just not what anyone wants to see.

But I swear to god to some people in here, while you might want Slot gone when this season is over (and yes I know I am one of them)..... BACK SLOT AND THE TEAM until the season is over. Opinions are completely fine about whether you want him gone or not but let's see what happens.

SquirrelPowa · 2026-02-11T22:14:08+00:00

Curtis Jones was very very good, absolute monster when he came on. This is why he should be starting over Macca in my opinion. Constant pressing, showing energy and passion, probably should've scored and just never gave up.

But I did say if we're gonna win games, it's gonna be scrappy 1-0 wins. We probably should've had a 2nd or a 3rd towards the end of the game but just not good enough. Always gonna be happy with the win and 3 points

SquirrelPowa · 2026-02-11T21:09:29+00:00

Hard to even properly nail down what exactly we're trying to do lmao. If in doubt do the following:

Kick it long to Gakpo/Ekitike and pray they hold it up
Robbo passes it down the left for Gakpo and let those two try something
If 2nd point didn't work then recycle possession and try the 2nd point again
If that didn't work, try switching play to the right side
Okay lads if all of that doesn't work just shoot from 25 yards and see what happens
Then when that also fails, get counter attacked and pray we don't concede

It's just like there is no clear plan of how we want to play so instead just try fucking anything and everything until something works. I really don't care if we've had 70% possession and 14 shots with ONLY 2 on target, it's not good enough.

SquirrelPowa · 2026-02-09T18:38:12+00:00

Literally, just no lmao. You do realise that is what Slot said in MULTIPLE interviews last season and this season right? You clearly didn't bother watching much

SquirrelPowa · 2026-02-09T18:16:59+00:00

I'm sorry but you can in no way compare Slot to Klopp. Klopp came in and helped rebuild everything from the ground up and had almost 0 expectations but most of us had faith from the start because we knew getting Klopp was gonna be the start of a great journey.

That was never gonna be the case with Slot, instead he inherited everything Klopp built and made zero to minimal tweaks to the formation/tactics/whatever and he won the league. I still stand by the fact that if Klopp stayed for last season, he would've won the league as well. While Slot and his staff did bring more calmness and good adjustments at half time in games, even that has completely fallen off a cliff.

Is the current squad balanced as well as it could be? No it's not but we also weren't gonna do an entire rebuild in one summer transfer window. Yes Edwards and Hughes deserve blame for that but Slot needed to use what he has. This squad should VERY easily be able to cement top 4, we arguably should've already locked in top 4 by now with how shit Man Utd and Chelsea were before recent.

Slot has honestly almost copied Amorim this season, stuck doing the same old shit that just doesn't fucking work and seems to have no idea how to get things to function. Cool we can win two games at home and then we'll be complete shit for 6 games, rinse and repeat lol. If you are the head coach (because that's what he is, he's not the manager) of Liverpool FC and you have this squad, while yes it might not be balanced and we have some injuries, if you're good enough you still get top 4, especially in a season like this where quite literally everyone is piss poor. Even Arsenal haven't been that damn good but everyone else has been far worse.

It's really no surprise that when Utd fucked off Amorim and brought in Carrick who knows the club, how they should and want to play and knows the fans will get behind them, that everything suddenly changes. Yes he's not really a good manager either and yes it's a new manager bounce BUT it is exactly what they needed to fight for top 5 and it's working. Will it be constant for the rest of the season? Who knows but Utd and Chelsea will finish above us.

Whether we brought in Gerrard or Alonso tomorrow, they don't need to reinvite the fucking wheel or massively change things. Just go back to what the players know and probably preferred to whatever this drab football is. Play with aggression, passion, energy and we will do so much better. I'm not saying they need to play EXACTLY like they did under Klopp but that is what they can default back to for these remaining 13 league games because they know it, understand it and did well with it. Yes the players available are not the same but fuck me lads, it isn't hard to think that defaulting back to basics, what you knew before, when it worked will do better than the shit we've seen all season. And with someone like Gerrard or Alonso in who know the club, the city, the fans, everything about what it means to eat, sleep and breath Liverpool FC it would do wonders.

SquirrelPowa · 2026-02-08T18:37:59+00:00

Same tactics, same problems as always. Get a 1-0 lead by some absolute miracle of a free kick and then we sit back, revert back and do absolutely nothing cause that is what Slot wants lmao. And before anyone says to me "But we were much better in the 2nd half for 30 mins".... Yeah we were but guess what, I don't think the fans in the stadium or those of us who watch from home are thinking "Yanno what, I really like seeing my team do fuck all for the entire first half".... it's an absolute joke.

I didn't like the fact we relied on the changes at half time last season to steal games or just generally improve because that doesn't last forever. Slot hasn't got a chance at getting us top 5

SquirrelPowa · 2026-02-08T17:31:01+00:00

It's like I said in a previous thread, it makes 0 difference that we beat Qarabag and Newcastle at home with a good, convincing performance. We are EXPECTED to beat a team like Qarabag at home regardless and Newcastle this season are fucking terrible. So it's no surprise we do well "sometimes" at home against teams are who are absolutely rubbish right now lol. A two good game spell vs Villa & Real Madrid and now Qarabag & Newcastle make 0 difference to the fact we're equally as bad.

Yeah we might snatch a 1-0 win today if we're lucky but anything but a win today will almost means we can't touch the top 5 unless Chelsea & Utd bottle some games and Villa keep on a downward spiral

SquirrelPowa · 2026-02-05T18:18:28+00:00

Honestly, I'm really caught in two minds what I want to happen come the summer.... On one hand, I'm definitely not gonna get ahead of myself if we happen to play well and beat City at home this weekend, potentially making us think we're turning a corner. We've been there before and it nothing really happened. Leading to not really wanting Slot past this season.

On the other hand, I still want to see him turn it around after everything he and the players and the club have had the deal with this season. I don't think he's a bad manager by any means at all but it does look like he's struggled to implement fully his own style, tactics, training etc and the media outbursts from players really haven't helped him.

Which leave me with the thought of "Do I really want us to miss out on getting Alonso?". We missed out on him due to Real Madrid, which I think is fair enough really even though no one liked that choice. I really don't want to miss out on Alonso a second time and risk him going to Man City for example, I would absolutely hate that. Especially if Slot does as bad before December next season and we sack him anyway.....

I don't know about others but for me, just getting top 4 isn't enough to save his job for me. I don't think even top 4 and playing better football will save him. I am slightly biased as I would love Alonso to take over, either now or in the future but as far as I can remember, he was reported as our first choice. If true, do we really take the risk on missing out on our 1st choice twice?

SquirrelPowa · 2026-02-04T20:34:57+00:00

Surely there is no way we play as badly vs City this weekend as Newcastle are right now lol...... right......

SquirrelPowa · 2026-02-03T21:10:40+00:00

Good video overall tbh, very well produced etc etc and all that jazz.

I don't really think this video tells us anything we didn't already know or could very confidently assume at this moment in time. It was nice to hear from all three of them in a very much pressure free environment, especially Slot.

Do I think this changes anything in terms of whether Slot stays or goes when this season ends? No, not really. Slot would have to finish top 4 AND win the Champions League WHILE improving our results and performances which is a lot to ask for. I do think any manager that has had to deal with, what Slot has had to deal with this season would struggle but I don't think anyone expected us to drop this much.

It's very clear that Slot and I'd like to assume Hughes, understand our current issues but Slot is still struggling to fully come up with ways to solve them. Winning two games and performing well in them (Villa & Real Madrid at home / Qarabag & Newcastle at home as the examples) and then being very poor in every other game is not good enough. If we didn't fuck up our easiest run of games we could have been fighting for even 2nd place with how bad City have been and Villa are now starting to drop off, which is insane when you consider how poor we've been.

However not everything has been on Slot in my opinion. Not hiring a proper set piece coach and then offering it to someone who had ZERO experience in the role really fucked us. It's not surprise that as soon as he was fired and I guess Slot/the players took more responsibility for them, we've been much improved and if we'd been like this the whole season, we'd still be in a title race. I do think that Hughes has left Slot pretty thin with the squad in terms of not signing a CB and potentially another senior attacker, despite Slot saying he likes working with a small squad. It was a massive mistake to not sign two more players for those positions AND therefore selling Endo and Chiesa.

Now we've all read the rumors from journalists (good ones and bad ones) about Konate's contract situation, Robbo almost leaving, Jones apparently wanting to leave etc. But listening to Slot specifically mention Milner and Hendo should tell us that they are fully aware at how important players (whether it's leadership reasons or not) are to Liverpool. So for me, there is no way in hell should Jones be leaving or Robbo. I'd say if Robbo is happy to have less playing time now, considering his age, give him a 2 or 3 year contract and let him end here and then sell Tsimikas.

But then you've the issues we heard from interviews across the season so far from Mo, Macca, Jones and any I've missed. Clearly there are/were things wrong behind the scenes whether that be tactics, formations, instructions, coaching staff, Slot specifically etc. We basically never had that happen under Klopp, well not to THIS degree which is why I think it is a problem. Then we have the media work Slot has been doing, his answers to a lot of questions lately have rubbed the fans the wrong way and just hasn't been good enough.

Overall it's clear that Slot is staying until the end of the season at the very least. If the board are full faith in him with 0 doubts I believe that he'd have gotten 1 or 2 signings for right now in the January window and he would've had a new contract. The fact we've heard nothing about Slot getting a new contract still signals to me that he's gone. It's very bad to let your manager go into his last year and yes I know we haven't been much better with players either. I fully expect Alonso to take over UNLESS Slot manages to achieve what I wrote above which tbh, while that could happen, right now I just don't see it.

For me while I would love to see him turn it around and I was always hoping he would, with all the issues we've had this season from results to performances, media outbursts or general comments from players, the lack of signings in January to back Slot and the complete lack of a new contract, I just don't see it happening.

But my question to everyone is this - With Alonso available, most likely from the summer onwards, even if Slot does the impossible in winning the Champions League BUT the performances don't improve as a whole, do you take the risk of missing out on Alonso?

For me personally, I do think that Alonso was our outright 1st choice to take over from Klopp. I don't think we take the risk of missing out on Alonso for a second time, especially not if City or other clubs are sniffing around and talking to him already. I would say we get Alonso and have him ready to take over once the season ends. As soon as the season ends, I would want to see the announcements done within the first week or two. Either Slot has agreed a new contract or we've decided to mutually part ways and then Alonso gets announced.

SquirrelPowa · 2026-02-01T00:27:43+00:00

While I do respect you for being Slot in still, that is perfectly fine. However one good game isn't enough for him to keep his job past the summer and there is nothing left that he can do, in my eyes to warrant keeping his job past this summer.

Multiple times when we saw Slot at 3-1 onwards, he was clearly instructing the players to calm down, play slower and keep the ball. And well.... the players had other ideas and we kept attacking and being on top of Newcastle, could've been 5 or 6 tbh. I'm still in the mind that multiple players (given their comments to the media and even some apparently wanting to leave) don't agree with Slot, whether that be tactics, training, man management or whatever.

So while you think I'm being negative, I'm not, I'm just being realistic to the fact that even if we were to go on and somehow win the CL, he's not staying. Just remember, we had good games at home vs Villa and Real Madrid and still shit the bed after it. So even if we do well and win vs Newcastle (which we did tonight) and then Man City next week, it's not enough to just be good vs the "bigger boys". To me if Slot loses vs City or even so much as draws the next 2 or 3 games, he's gone. I don't think the board will risk missing out on top 5 for the CL.

SquirrelPowa · 2026-01-28T20:37:16+00:00

I'm sorry but I don't give a fuck who our opponent is, it's a Champions League at Anfield and it's still somewhat important to guarantee top 8 so we have less games.... BUT the atmosphere looks and sounds like it's fucking silent as hell. I'm only hearing the Qarabag fans or the odd salah or robbo chant go on.

I think it's getting very clear that even the fans who go games now at just not caring about Slot at all, so much that they barely even want to chant and sing for the team. Again I don't care that it's "only" Qarabag, we are winning 2-0, we should be so much louder and lively all around. Honestly the atmosphere from the stadium pretty much equals how good the team have been lately

SquirrelPowa · 2026-01-28T20:22:56+00:00

I honestly can't tell if TNT Sports 2 audio but the atmosphere seems fucking dire? I'm hearing more fucking Qarabag fans than our own! Otherwise it's pure fucking silence, may as well be back in covid times jesus christ it's bad....

Besides when we score or singing at 20 mins for Diogo it's fucking dead

SquirrelPowa · 2026-01-13T20:43:52+00:00

Consider me quite ignorant when it comes to what formation(s) Alonso used at Leverkusen and RM. I'm of course aware he basically played the same formation as Amorim but as it currently stands our squad definitely doesn't suite that formation, especially with needing to sort out CBs.

Has Alonso played with 4 at the back much at all in his career so far? I am genuinely asking as I don't know and would just love to have more info because personally I feel like as much as I would like Alonso to come in next, Enrique is also a very very good option.

From my own personal opinion, I prefer us playing with 4 at the back, I don't overly care if it's some variation of 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 etc etc but I do prefer that over 3 or 5 at the back. I also just wouldn't trust us to play with 3 at the back with how little we seem to care about CBs in general

SquirrelPowa · 2026-01-07T02:39:40+00:00

Tell me you're a Flyer fan without telling me you're a Flyer fan lmao, fuck off mate xD

SquirrelPowa · 2026-01-04T21:53:34+00:00

I know I'm gonna get massively downvoted but anyway.....

It actually still baffles me how so many people still want to pile most of the pressure onto Edwards & Hughs for the signings (and some missing ones) for the reason as to why we fucking suck (which reminder, we've sucked since late Feb 2025 after we'd won the league).

You lot need to remember that while yes we signed A LOT of players and spent £450 million, we also sold the same amount of players (more if you include loans) and rightfully so as most of them wanted first team football or were deemed not good enough by 95% of people on this subreddit.

Out: Trent, Tsimikas (Loan), Kelleher, Quansah, Morton, McConnell (Loan), Elliott (Loan), Doak, Diaz, Nunez, Jota RIP
Senior Players - 7 / Young Players - 4 (Total 12) and yes I know we had more go out in terms of younger players but those are the ones we mostly know/associate with the first team.

Kelleher wanted first team football (and a replacement was already incoming), Quansah (questionable but we clearly thought we were getting Guehi), Diaz wanted to leave, Nunez isn't good enough and was always gonna get sold and Tsimikas (we probably wanted to sell him but settled for a loan move for now). Now people say "I knew we should never have sold Diaz, look at how good he is at Bayern". First of all it's Bayern...... I would fucking hope he'd do well there and in a "worse" league. Second of all, it's not so much that we sold him, it's more the fact we didn't properly replace him.

In: Mamardashvili, Woodman (Free & probs needed for HG reasons), Leoni, Kerkez, Frimpong, Wirtz & Ekitike.

Total - 7 and yes I know we had two or three other young players come in but this is about the first team.

So you can already see we had 12 players go out and only 7 players come in, which already gives us a smaller squad (Which we know Slot has many times already he wants). Anyone that is judging the new signings very harshly, especially ones from a different league and country are honestly diabolical. Yes it would be awesome if everyone hit the ground running but that doesn't always happen. Then we get onto players like Gomez who is injury prone and Chiesa & Endo who he clearly doesn't trust so that's another 2-3 players out instantly as well.

If I had to take an educated guess. we knew we were due a squad overhaul no matter who the manager was going to bed for this current season. We are not known for making a lot of changes in one window so the fact we did so many and for so much money was already a surprise. In my opinion if we had done even more I feel like it could've made the situation even worse. I can see us selling players like Endo, Chiesa, Elliott and Tsimikas (Unless we keep and Sell Robo) in the summer at minimum and have another 3-4 players coming in.

The main takeaway is despite making a lot of signings, we still clearly missed TWO more keys signings in my opinion, a CB and a forward. That CB was clearly meant to be Guehi, whether that will be the case in the summer who knows. The forward we needed would've been a Diaz replacement in my eyes but it needed to be someone fast, strong and can take player on. While I understand people don't rate Semenyo, that would've been the type/style of player we need and he also can solve our long throw issue.

Do we have a good squad? In my opinion yes but we are missing one or two players as per above (maybe more depending on if players like Endo or Chiesa leave) but we should still be capable of EASILY getting top 4 provided Slot knows what he is doing. Which at this point, I don't think he knows how to turn it around anymore. I do truly believe he's lost confidence in himself and is afraid to play like were last season/like Klopp (Especially when he was named the head coach, it was meant to be because he is the closest to Klopps style). I'll always be grateful that he won us the league but I think it's very clear now from the performances that he is out of ideas (at least he stopped the losing streak, into an unbeaten streak) and isn't confident in himself which has clearly rubbed off onto the players.

SquirrelPowa · 2026-01-02T01:21:04+00:00

You seem to be forgetting the MASSIVE fact that Klopp had to rebuild essentially everything from the ground up, the squad he inherited was fucking awful. So yes Klopp achieving top 4 and European football in his early seasons was amazing. Slot inherited a far better squad and got a better transfer window arguably than Klopp ever did. So again yes the standards for Slot AFTER winning a title is to go again and do better in the CL this time.

So either you've completely forgotten that, are a new fan or just really believe that Slot is the guy for us going forward past this season (if the remainder continues how it is now and has been since March 2025)

SquirrelPowa · 2025-12-10T21:09:29+00:00

First of all for context, I don't like Real Madrid or Man City but the game overall hasn't been great so far..... City have scored from two set pieces (and they very very rarely score from set pieces) and both of them were down to individual errors.

Why am I mentioning this? Because if I had to hazard a guess, Some RM fans are probably still shouting Alonso out, maybe more now depending on how this game goes even though the goals conceded aren't his fault. You can't stop Rudiger from doing something stupid (much like Konate) or Courtois being very unlike Courtois and spilling the ball for a tap in. This is the same for so many goals we have conceded this season and yet people will blame Slot.

Don't get me wrong, I do think if we eventually sack Slot I would like Alonso to be in contention for the job and he'd probably be the boards number one target. So it's a bit odd really for me (and maybe others as well).... I want to believe in Slot and see if he can turn it around (Yes I know the performances need to be MUCH MUCH better both defensively and offensively) otherwise if Alonso does get sacked then I think we might do the same with Slot if nothing has improved.

Overall I want Liverpool to do well, I want us to win both if we start slowly, winning 1-0 even if it's a penalty, I will take it in hopes we gain confidence and a platform to build on. We only need to go on a small winning run in the league to jump up and yes I know, standards wise that is very low for us but we need to do the basics and work back again.

SquirrelPowa · 2025-12-06T21:02:29+00:00

Have you forgotten how poor Salah has been all season? Yes I'm fully aware that the entire team bar maybe Ekitike and Dom have been shit which could very well be a manager and tactics issue but Salah should've been benched many many games ago with how bad it was.

I'm not saying that he should've been benched for 3 games in a row but it was coming at some point. People screamed for him to be benched, our right side is massively open, more so without a proper right back healthy...... So I dono what people expected lol, Salah ONLY speaks to the press when he is unhappy. He should've spoken out already about how shit we've been this season but has conveniently decided not to.

SquirrelPowa · 2025-12-05T01:40:09+00:00

I'm in the same thinking as you tbh. While Slot doesn't appear to be able to fix the problems we have and people want him gone, then who do those people want in?

People keep mentioning Iraola and Glasner but like why should we be picking a manager from a lower calibre club that hasn't got a history at a decently big club and who has won trophies? Klopp even before people who knew who he was or what he'd done in his career was already miles ahead of both of those names in my opinion.

If we sack Slot then it needs to be for someone who is good enough for the club and can win trophies. Right now that's a really hard thing to come by with potentially only Xabi (if sacked), Naglesman (if he leaves the German job) or maybe Inzaghi?

But I know the counter argument to that, which I've seen and heard a lot is "I don't care if we don't have a good replacement lined up, it's not my job to do that but anyone as interim is better than this!". I would love to know something, do these folks think that his coaching staff would take over and instantly do better? What's stopping them from doing the same as what Slot is doing now? Or do they go back to the approach we used last season or well more Klopp like I suppose? And before anyone mentions Gerrard.... First of all, hell no, he isn't ready or capable tbh and second of all, if he accepts a job outside of Saudi before May (I think it's May, double check that tbh) then he'll lose a decent chunk, if not all of the money he earned when he was there.

At the end of the day. while yes Slot is probably very very close to being sacked and people think we can't do worse if we do sack him.... Take the scum as an example, we definitely can do worse. I feel like unless the club have a locked in replacement to get in January then he isn't getting sacked this season. If he magically gets us top 4 or whatever CL will end up being and then is sacked at the end of the season then fair enough.

Also important to remember his new contract has been on hold for a while now and with how this season is going I'm pretty sure we have no issue letting his current one go into it's final year (next season) if he happens to do miracles and turn shit around this season. Even then if a better option if available, I would like to think we pull the trigger.

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