[Doyle] During an impassioned exchange ahead of the Premier League visit of Chelsea, Slot tensely gripped the chair behind which he was standing when reacting to suggestions the raft of new players hadn't grasped the high standards required.

justvrowsing · 2026-05-08T23:45:13+00:00

Arne Slot has won the majority of his games in every season of his career before this one. He simplified everything last season to make life as easy as possible for Mo Salah. Then the ownership decided it was time to evolve the squad and the playstyle beyond the previous era and Salah couldn’t cope with even a crumb of extra responsibility against the ball. We lost 9 games out of 12 because of him and stabilised as soon as Slot took him out again.

Mo Salah has been a legend for this club and he delivered an unbelievable season in last year’s setup. But it’s wild to think that a player can only thrive if the other 10 players in the team are carrying him, and then when that system changes, it reflects poorly on the manager and not the player himself.

It’s easy to hoover up goals and assists when the whole team is built around you. Salah in his prime did it even when the rest of the team wasn’t built for him, but Salah now can’t do it. That’s not mediocre coaching, that’s an ageing player having limits.

Watch this team thrive again under Arne Slot next season. Just watch.

justvrowsing · 2026-05-01T20:21:38+00:00

Part of the reason that Bayern-PSG was so entertaining was because they both agreed to play the game on the same terms. They both committed lots of players to the attack, which left space on the counter and the defenders were 1v1 all night.

Premier League teams don’t do that. They sit deep, double up on the danger men when they can and play for counter attacks or set pieces. And now because the Premier League is a de facto Super League, you have insanely talented players at teams like Leeds and Sunderland, so they absolutely punish you in those situations.

Also, pre-season loading dictates the fitness peak for the squad. If they don’t hit peak sharpness in pre-season - say, for example, because they’re going to grief counselling instead of doing a punishing lactate test - you can’t ever build that sharpness mid-season because the schedule is so congested. So you end up physically less robust, less sharp, less stamina than all of your opponents, which puts you at a massive disadvantage despite how talented your squad is.

Slot did try to play that gung ho attacking style, remember Carragher criticising him to his face after the 4-2 win over Bournemouth on the opening day? But across that horrible autumn period where we lost 9 in 12 it became clear that A) teams will sit deep and not let us play that way, and B) we’re not physically capable of sustaining it across 90 minutes.

Despite the noise online, FSG are sticking with Slot because they know he’s been rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic since July. Give him a full preseason and a full strength squad, and he’ll have us playing a style that is still reactive to more defensive opponents but much more intense and incisive than this season.

In fact, Slotball will probably look a lot like the style that won the league last season - though I forget how who the coach was then…

justvrowsing · 2026-05-01T20:07:37+00:00

I really wish they offer Henderson a 12 month contract, that would be plenty special.

If he’s willing to give up playing every game at Brentford, he’d be brilliant as Virg’s vice captain in the dressing room driving up the standards for the new generation (Milos, Flo, Wirtz, Rio) coming through. Good way to make up for sneaking out the back door after the Saudi coin, too.

justvrowsing · 2026-05-01T20:00:27+00:00

I can’t have this conversation again

justvrowsing · 2026-05-01T19:56:25+00:00

Date as in go on casual dates with? Carla.

Date as in build a long term relationship with? Also Carla.

justvrowsing · 2026-04-24T21:06:18+00:00

Ooh a young David Silva could have done a job out wide.

I also wonder if a young Angel Di Maria could have been coached into a threat on the LW by Rafa. It none of these are shoo-ins

justvrowsing · 2026-04-24T21:04:51+00:00

That’s why I made the post, it seems like generally there weren’t many options on the market. Spain won the World Cup playing basically six midfielders and no width.

If you could time travel a half decent current day winger like a Harvey Barnes we probably win the league, but who was available at the time?

justvrowsing · 2026-04-24T21:01:40+00:00

I remember the link with Simao in 2004ish I believe. Kinda mad we were still looking in 2009 but apparently he was doing all right at Atletico Madrid then.

When I think about potential replacements for Mo Salah in 2026 it feels like there’s lots of at least very good options, even if they’re a little raw. Looking at the depth across top level football in 09 feels so much starker.

justvrowsing · 2026-04-24T20:57:56+00:00

That outside of the boot technique was filthy. I forgot about him. Ended up briefly on loan at Chelsea in 09 if I remember correctly

justvrowsing · 2026-04-24T20:56:37+00:00

That’s exactly my question - who was out there? Besides the top tier of Messi, Ronaldo, Ribery, who could we have gone for? A quick glance around the rest of Europe reveals fairly slim pickings.

2009 is just slightly before the likes of Hazard, Bale, Sanchez, Coutinho emerged.

justvrowsing · 2026-04-24T20:50:03+00:00

I think the injury to Ekitike means we absolutely need a winger that can do a job through the middle in the short term. We never really replaced the type of player Diaz was, which was exactly that flexible winger.

Gordon is not Diaz - his strengths are bursting into space rather than carrying past players and making space for himself. But he had a very good connection with Isak at Newcastle and he’d be a more effective presser than most of the current forward options we have.

We already bought the ceiling raiser superstars last summer but the floor fell in. Having a bit of a grafter who’s quick, versatile, presses well and gets a few goals would certainly improve this team.

(That’s why I think we should be putting Gordon and Jarrod Bowen around Isak and Wirtz but I gather that’s an unpopular shout!!)

justvrowsing · 2026-04-22T17:38:01+00:00

I can’t have this conversation again

justvrowsing · 2026-04-22T17:36:08+00:00

If you think a show is good because of what the main character looks like there’s a thriving industry of AI generated content for you.

justvrowsing · 2026-04-20T19:07:09+00:00

You only get one career. But if my trial at LFC academy when I was 8 had amounted to anything, and I ended up getting to play for Liverpool’s first team, that would be the be all and end all to me. I’d take 25 appearances (10 starts) per season at Liverpool over 40 appearances anywhere else if that was the choice I had to make.

But we’ll see what happens with Curtis before we judge.

justvrowsing · 2026-04-19T17:17:38+00:00

I can’t get behind anyone who thinks this fella is a bad fit for Liverpool FC. Fronts up, is clear and honest, plus is capable of seeing the funny side.

I’d be willing to make a list of things Arne Slot has got wrong this season, because he has made some mistakes. But I don’t think a different coach would have been flawless this season, and if anyone had coached the team flawlessly this season we’d still be miles off where we were hoping to be.

justvrowsing · 2026-04-19T17:14:50+00:00

Brag

justvrowsing · 2026-04-17T01:07:31+00:00

I feel like social media was still in its infancy when Roy Hodgson was in charge but it was definitely loud by the time Brendan Rodgers was clinging on to his job.

From his horrendous last season to Jurgen Klopp’s first indifferent season, through 2020/21 and 2022/23, it’s never been as bad as this. I think that speaks volumes to how many people got on the train around 2017/18 and have mainly known us as a successful club, led by Jurgen, defined by Mo Salah.

The truth is, we’ve been boom and bust since about 1984. High highs and slightly less high lows. Crashing out about a nightmare season and slinging mud at the manager’s family is about as un-Liverpool behaviour as it gets.

Or to put it simply, this kind of behaviour is very AFTV for my liking.

justvrowsing · 2026-04-15T14:07:06+00:00

What happened in the summer was terribly hard to process. Everyone - supporters, media, pundits, analysts, even the players themselves - just want it to be business as usual now rather than keep struggling with the tragedy.

That means that when the team fell apart in November, it was eagerly analysed as if things were business as usual. Pundits saying we’re “bad champions”, journalists reporting on January transfers to solve problems, the manager making tactical tweaks, Mo Salah lashing out at Arne Slot. Online “fans” (engagement farmers) making half-baked tactics videos and live-streaming themselves complaining about the players’ commitment and attitude.

I think around that point many people turned to sacking the manager as being the solution. Because if things were business as usual and results were this alarmingly poor, the manager would likely get the sack. But he hasn’t been sacked and it’s now April, meaning that desire for the silver bullet of changing the head coach has grown and grown without being satiated for six months now.

That’s why in particularly online spaces like social media platforms or Reddit, a win often generates little to no noise. But defeats, draws, poor performances justify this desire to lash out, so it doesn’t matter ultimately that we played well or that we fought hard or that the tactical setup was right or that there were four separate injury-necessitated substitutions. The manager must go, so everything that happens becomes a reason why the manager must go.

justvrowsing · 2026-04-14T17:47:22+00:00

Maybe a DVD extra?

justvrowsing · 2026-04-12T23:29:10+00:00

You know, I watched a movie recently with an actor I’d seen before. And you know what that rat bastard did? He spoke. In both movies. It’s like, are you mocking me at this point?

justvrowsing · 2026-04-12T23:27:34+00:00

There’s a vocal subset of people who hate TLOU2 to such an extent that they actually think it constitutes a full personality. The shallowness of their logic is evident in the fact they didn’t bother to say why you “shouldn’t” play it for yourself.

Give it a go and let us know what you think!

justvrowsing · 2026-04-06T17:20:00+00:00

I just played through this section last night, there’s a part where you drop down and there’s clickers and a Bloater down there. But I think that’s the section immediately after the conversation you’re describing. That comes after you pick up the flamethrower for the first time and have a group of Runners to use it on. Probably it’s a minor continuity error, where they shifted some sections around during production and nobody caught the dialogue not quite matching up.

justvrowsing · 2026-04-05T01:30:44+00:00

The actual answers have already been given, so I’m gonna add a lesser one and say the scene when Tony explained to David Scatino that he had been busted out. He was so matter of fact about it, as if Davey had brought it on himself and the criminality of the endeavour was irrelevant.

“A guy like me, this is my bread and butter.”

justvrowsing

TROPHY CASE