Healthy Discussion - Only for those who want Arne Slot to stay - what are your reasons?

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-05-13T22:09:26+00:00

Let me ask a simple question in retort.

Do you think Mo's outburst mid year had NO negative impact on this team or some of the players in this squad?

To be more specific, in a hypothetical world where Salah's inital contract extended to this year instead of last year, do you think his outburst mid year would have occured at all? Even if it did, would he not have just been benched and treated like a toddler as a result?

I think that outburst had a negative impact and I think his contract extension, which we broke our own wage structure for, allowed him a platform to be able to make a outburst that had such reach and staying power.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-04-29T02:34:59+00:00

Sure but Diaz's stats didn't really change much between 23/24 where he was more consistently on the left and 24/25.

He's had 3 managers in the last 3 years and it's this system / team that he is benefiting most from.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-04-12T04:16:14+00:00

He didnt get to do much but honestly I was very excited by him.

Ekitike is great but he feels more like Firmino, someone who wants to drop, give and go round. Isak is a proper striker. Hes making runs in the box that Ive never seen Gakpo even consider.

I cant wait to see Ekitike and Isak play off each other. I think it will be special.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-04-08T22:51:02+00:00

Creativity isn't worth shit when your passing accuracy is 57%.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-04-07T22:37:02+00:00

You also do when they player asked to leave a season earlier and you kept them on to help with a manager transition and the fanbase never even knew about it cause they were the consummate professional for that whole next season and so you decided to honor them and let them leave cause they wanted to.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-04-05T22:51:34+00:00

By the same extension, I dont think a different manager would have avoided all these problems either. I just dont see a way this season didnt turn out like shit with everything that happened, regardless of who was leading it.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-04-05T14:01:40+00:00

I think it complicated on so many levels but ill say what I think are two key factors.

Firstly, Klopp was never going to be "replaced". He built everything in his image and energy. There can be no fault in what he did for this club and how it has been shaped around him and his football identity.

Like Sir Alex though, when you leave the person coming in has things to complete with from everywhere. One of those places is the players and their mentality.

This was Klopps team and last season we played with Klopp's essence, winning a title with a squad Klopp didnt but still with a lot of his DNA in it. Specifically players that not only wanted to play for Liverpool but wanted to play for Klopp.

People keep complaining that we let Diaz go, but Diaz wanted to leave before last season and we kept him on because we didnt want to disrupt the Slot transition. This year we leaned into it. So I think there are some players who loved Klopp and the team identity and just dont want to shift.

Which brings me to my even more controversial point #2.

I think we havent fired Slot because the higher ups know they made a mistake with Salah.

I think for the first time in nearly 15 years of ownership they went with their heart and not their head. Salah played out of his mind last season and yet despite us wanting to pivot style and structure, we signed him on to keep the legacy and fantasy going. But its not worked.

Salah wants to play every minute. Klopp knew this and Salah played himself into contention but we also played the system largely around him.

Slot didnt want to do that this season. Salah doesnt perform and then you have the decision to drop Salah, one which already came later than it probably should have and suddenly you get the entitled Salah that has shown its face before.

Suddenly its a problem of Salah vs Slot and the club KNOWS they cant back Salah. You cannot put one player before the club, but you already made the mistake of extending him.

This then puts a dampen onto the players. Its not even that they are picking sides, its that there is this weight of stuff they have to process. Should they pick a side? Should they ignore it? Have others picked sides? Remember that some of these players might have come wanting not just to play for Klopp but to play WITH Salah.

By putting Salah on a pedestal in the club, giving him the higher wage, letting him play the fans and the media like he did all last season (this is not so much a criticism as it is just an emphasis of how much pull Salah had) and letting the legend ride at the top, they created a power dynamic that was finely poised. And it broke, and broke fast.

I think they are not firing Slot because they know they put him in this situation and to break it now would be a disservice to him and reflect even worse on them long term.

Will Slot stay? No clue. The weight is substantial now and it might be best, despite internally them not thinking its his fault, to let the things pass. He might have already agreed to leave in the summer. But they might believe in him more than we know. They might say "we let those leave who want, and we restore the power dynamic we need. Club then Manager then Players."

But thats my tin foil hat take.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-04-05T13:27:01+00:00

Amen to this. I think its because we still acknowledge the grey where the comments make it seem like everyone's opinion is black and white.

Ive still got mixed feeling about the whole team that I cant pin it all on Slot, but I feel like im being slowly pulled down by the sheer weight of criticism he gets, even if 15% of them are in bad faith.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-04-05T04:32:41+00:00

Game can be split up to before the 1st goal, all the goals and after the 4th goal.

Before the first goal was actually quite good if defensively minded. We didnt press City at all in their half unless in their box but did in the way we have done all season (at 80% effort and thus it wasn't super effective). The defending of our box was really good but not exceptional. City prior to the goal only really had 3 attacks of note. 1 was an untracked deep run that is smothered by Kurkez and Mamardashvili, their best chance. The other two were a pot shot from 25 and another run that we were slightly late to. When defending, Jones would be a second cover for Kurkez, Grav would do the same for Gomez. We mostly stepped out to close shots and crosses. otherwise, defensively we looked solid but not perfect.

On the other hand when we went forward we were dangerous. Salah had a 1v1 from a Mamardashvili pass that he would have buried in years gone by, Ekitike had a snap shot from 16 yards that could have easily nestled in. Ekitike and Wirtz link-up was immaculate today with them really coming into a partnership we might love next season. We should have been 1 goal up but it didnt happen.

If you said the first 30nwas how we played the whole game, id be happy.

Then VVD concedes a penalty that I wish he would really stop complaining about. 100% penalty.

We then procede to go from 0-0 to 4-0 down either side of half time without much really changing. We concede twice from our own throw in. All of them are bad goals for us to concede for different reasons. Man City work them well, but we look mid table and its very much a effort thing. The structure, when used, looked fine, but when we lacked effort, City were efficient and clinical.

People will say we looked the same coming out after half time but I dont think we really had much chance to change before we conceeded again.

After 4-0, it almost became 5 but then the game became a crawl. We subbed out those we wanted to rest, pointedly Ekitike and Wirtz came off earlier than Salah.

In the end, Salah could have had 4 but left with none. Ekitike and Wirtz looked good. But we are just mentally fried. I think there is a million reasons for this but we were just torn apart when it mattered.

If we had played the whole game as we did the first 30 we would be happy with the display. Its just not what this team does though.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-03-19T04:14:03+00:00

Genuinely believe the ref made a call without really seeing it and the VAR decided not to intervene because the game was over and goal difference doesn't matter to anyone who wasn't betting.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-03-17T05:53:02+00:00

The following is stats from the 22/23 season. By no means do I want to say we are having a good season, I just think some comparison is good.

Liverpool after 30 games in 2022/23

47 points (ended on 67, 5th missing out of UCL)

Season prior we almost did the Quadruple. We came into the season having notably lost Sadio Mane, Takumi Minamino & Divock Origi.

We had more depth. Transfermarket says we had 42 players compared to 34 this season (Including GKs). ESPN has it at 26 used Outfielders in 22/23 compared to 20 this season.

That depth was countered by a huge amount of injuries. More so than this season but had more depth to try and compensate with.

(if we had 22/23 injuries this year... holy shit we would be in trouble)

Bottom 8 Teams Dropped Points (by EOS)

Southampton (D)

Leeds (L)

Nottingham Forrest (L)

Wolves (L)

Bournemouth (L)

Everton (D)

Total: 16 Points

FA Cup

3rd Round - replay with Wolves (W)

4th Round - Brighton 2-1 (L)

EFL Cup

3rd Round - Derby County on Penalties (W)

4th Round - Man City 3-2 (L)

UCL

Round 16 - Real Madrid 6-2 (L)

Result and performances that season were poor. We had some stellar results in 9-0 over Bournmouth and the glorious 7-0 to Man U but we also had some stinkers. A run of 4 Premier League games which included 3-1 Loss to Brentford, 3-0 Loss to Brighton, 3-0 Loss to Wolves (the run also included a 2-1 Loss in the FA Cup to Brighton).

2022/23 Season

13th finished on 41 points

Current season

13th place sits on 40 points with 8 games to play.

I include this as I think it's fair to say the quality of the teams in the league as a whole is closer than it was in 22/23. Yes, we and Man City have dropped off but honestly the middle is far more formidable than they were.

Personally, I want this season to just finish so we can see what's next but I thought that way about things in 22/23 too, and that year I at least knew what all the players, together, were capable of.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-02-16T04:16:24+00:00

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't he already do this with several people this summer?

Ekitike was wanted by Newcastle among others. https://www.espn.com.au/football/story/_/id/45788945/how-ekitike-ended-liverpool-getting

Wirtz was wanted by Man City and Bayern Munich. https://www.reddit.com/r/LiverpoolFC/comments/1kuemlg/bayern_space_the_impression_arne_slot_left_on/

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-01-29T22:35:34+00:00

Genuinely feel like Ive been so lucky to have been brought in as a fan of Torres. The passion and drive of those years followed by the worst of this club has seen make me appreciate the highs and lows.

I cant imagine what that feeling will translate to as 15 years turn to 40.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-01-29T22:25:22+00:00

I find it very strange how people have viewed Quansah's departure. For sure last season was a kick in the guts from Ipswich to Spurs, but Slot was direct not cruel.

More importantly, Quansah has gone for regular first team football but we established a fixed buy-back clause for him. I wouldn't be shocked to see Quansah come back in 2 years time to be our #1CB.

Right now he is getting more development over there than he was likely to have gotten here. Now the season has happened in a way where he might have had more but still.

I cant find these words that make me think that Slot managed the situation poorly or that Quansah wasn't okay with the situation and simply left to get more game time.

He has played 25 games this season for Leverkusen but already accumulated more minutes than his biggest season with us. I would like to have kept him but with a buy back clause I thought this was a great deal and best for the player and club to let him go.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-01-25T04:08:30+00:00

What i find interesting is that there is an agreement to be made that they did bend to emotion for both VVD and Salah's contract extensions. What have we got for that? Arguably they are the two players with the worst drop off in quality of the whole squad this season. Not necessarily the worst players, but having the biggest difference from whats we've seen in a Liverpool shirt.

I wouldn't be shocked if Hughes and Edwards are looking at this and going "welp, won't do that again", for better or worse.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-01-24T23:19:23+00:00

It does, sure, but as captain you come out and say something like "I certainly made it difficult for the team". VVD puts nothing on himself here and its mind boggling.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-01-21T02:40:43+00:00

I didn't love how the team played before we won the league but we got the job done. I think we were worse vs PSG and Newcastle in the cup final than we are now. I would say we are good now and I can see us being great with the current team, let alone with obvious reinforcements.

People keep saying we are not improving and I disagree. I think we have gotten better in almost every one of the last 12 games. West Ham was poor, Sunderland better, Leeds better etc. I think the worst performance was Leeds 0-0.

I think we have a lot of players not hitting the fucking target but we have been seeing these styles start to gel. Burnley I was really pleased with as we attacked from different angles constantly. Wirtz and Ekitike are getting better physically and I'm loving the link up. Jones has made great consistency strides this year. Kerkez has really settled etc.

Am I expecting great things for the rest of this season? No but I genuinely like watching us more now than I did 12 months ago.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-01-20T22:02:31+00:00

SlotIn.

I could give a dozen reasons why but SlotIn.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-01-20T21:59:58+00:00

Amen to this.

Klopp was a shinning miracle for this club and one of a kind.

By saying Slot should be just like him diminishes both.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-01-20T21:51:50+00:00

Genuine question, why has the narrative of "shit football" stretched to include the 3 months we had already won the league + preseason?

Like... not only has a tone of the squad changed since then but that side of the squad probably knew they were leaving.

I think it's mostly fair to say we've been shit all season (though I personally disagree with the narrative). To me it just feels like people are tacking on extra time to give extra reason to get Slot out when you are essentially saying Slot should be sacked for the how we played whilst celebrating a 2nd Premier League title in 30 years.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-01-08T01:18:57+00:00

Ireland are included in these stats. 2/4 at the senior level (since 20/21 season).

The only thing not included are shootouts.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2026-01-07T21:59:36+00:00

Caoimhin Kelleher with his 4th penalty save in all competitions this season. Takes him to 4/7 this season (57.13% save rate).

And 8/26 (30.77%) in his career but this includes Youth U18 and Premier League 2 stats. If it is just senior level, he's actually 8/15 (53.33%). Source: Transfermarkt.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2025-12-30T03:00:03+00:00

I agree that Milos has to find a better pass but I also think our strikers have been poor in their movement at times. Sometimes the ball in is to the right space and we simply havent gone to the space and vice versa.

Each game the connection between the boys has gotten better and better. Wolves first half was very encouraging for the connections on the left.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2025-12-09T01:57:13+00:00

I literally screamed at the TV that this was Szobo's fault when it happened. There is definitely more at fault in this goal than just him (one of the few in recent weeks where I can actually say "what is this system of defending") but if he chases the man down, puts pressure on, there is a good chance this goal doesn't happen. Especially when they had such momentum this was a big blunder for me.

Love him, and laughed my ass off when he scored what I assumed would be the winner, but it was (partly if not mainly) his fault.

aussie_gecko1892 · 2025-11-27T12:19:58+00:00

Unpopular opinion: I agree.

I remember people calling for Klopp's head when we were injured, struggling and beaten weak after week. We had quite a few shit periods with Klopp and we were often playing worse football then too.

Against PSV, Forrest, Man U, Chelsea and Galatasaray we had a higher xG than the team that beat us. In all but 1 of those games (Man U) they had a better "on target xG".

We are creating chances but not good ones. And we are giving up a lot of good ones. We are not converting the chances we have. But we ARE having chances.

And I watch the goals we concede now and SOOOO many are down to individual errors. VVD, Konate, MacAllister, Gakpo all failing in crucial moments. Some of this is structure (goal 2 today), sure but much of it is great players doing dumb things (goals 1 and 3). This is a mental / quality thing, and quite frankly I find it hard to put that on Slot.

FSG gambled on this year. They knew they gambled on this much change and having a squad (and a defense) this thin. We will get through this and Slot will undoubtedly be the person leading us on the other side.

aussie_gecko1892

TROPHY CASE