Liverpool 0 Nottingham Forest 1 (Sep 14 2024)

A depressing read. I hate The Scabs.

I don't know if Szoboszlai is lazy or whatever. He's got all the tools, but his moments are too few and far between when he first came here I thought he would tear the place up, but it's just not happening, he's too passive.

Szoboslai doesn’t strike me as being overly keen to get stuck in to the opposition, and he’s not the only one, neither do Cody, or Mo come to that, and our whole tackling ethos seems to be nicking the ball away without fouling, which is fine when it works, but unfortunately, when it doesn’t, you either give a foul away or lose possession, often in a dangerous area, so putting yourself under pressure defensively. So had Cody stopped the Forest player, Elanga, breaking then maybe he would have took a yellow, but we’d have possibly not conceded and could have come out of the game with a point, however undeserved that might have been.

Its a moot point though, we were terrible yesterday, passes either underhit and/or behind our players led to little chance to turn over play quickly and catch Forest out, and the persistently slow sideways and backwards passing played right into Forests tactics. 
We get these games occasionally, and as long as it stays occasionally then we’ll have to suck it up, but the apparent lack of ability to make a change on the pitch with experienced players, who must’ve known we were shite, is a worry.

Unfortunately everything you write here is correct. An absolute shitshow, stupid decisions, cowardly actions (Szlobo in particular, I do not like him) and sloppy, almost amateur when making a pass. 
Mo was utterly dreadful.

A team should be able to lose the ball on the edge of the opposition box and not expect to concede a goal because of it. Dreadful positioning from us.
On the ref, did he take an age to wave Macca and Robbo back on to the pitch after they’d been fouled? Not looking to it as a reason for our shite, more an observation I made.

I like Slot but I’m now a bit wary. What the fuck was he thinking?

I don’t get to Anfield anymore so maybe I shouldn’t comment on the crowd, but it feels or sounds a bit day tripper. 

We kept panicking in the first half and trying to force the final ball when nothing was on, think if we make better decisions we wrap the game up by half time but we somehow got worse in the second half. I don't remember us getting battered or anything but the second half was just us running into trouble and getting countered, most came to nothing but they only need one to come off.

You’re not going overboard with team selection, you’re right and I said after Brentford it was a concern he did not really care about the lads on the bench. Elliot played something like 10 mn in 3 games. 
 

Ad you wrote, the change of play was ridiculous. I have another explanation than panic, I believe it’s lore about ego and arrogance, I’m a tactic master and we are going to win this on my own. I haven’t seen something as stupid since Houllier took Hamman off in Leverkusen ( was it ?).

How is it possible to change so many players, position and tactics but leave Szobo on the field ? He was abject.

Hope Slot is clever and humble enough to do a reset of himself. 
 

As you said, the choice to not rotate is crazy and stupid. How things have changed when we cursed Rafa for the opposite.

On the team selection thing, was a major selling point of Slot and his back room not that they generally had a very good record in squads avoiding excessive injuries?

Does anyone know if that was through rotation or managing training load?

Going to be interesting next few games. We are all asking Slot to reflect on his errors from the weekend, team selection,  tactics, subs....

Name me any Dutch player or manager who ever thinks they are wrong?. Or shows himility. Hope he is different,  but sadly I think not.

For most of the first 3 games we looked composed and in control for long periods, so let's Hope it's just tired legs and minds and we get back to it.

Maybe rotation is one of the lessons he needs to learn, but if Arsenal had Rice and Odegaard today both would have played and it would have been their regular side. 
If he’s not rotated by April then it’s a problem, not 3 games into the season.

Tactics, game plan and subs yes

I got moaned at for constantly criticising this teams/clubs attitude to matches.

Ive only watched two live matches this year, Brentford and Saturday’s game. They still turn up to games thinking they don’t need to perform to win.

As a club we’ve weirdly become Arsenal of a few years back and they’ve become us. They are hard to beat, have bought well and are on the up. We are scrimping and making do and so throw in the occasional performances where stinkers and sloppiness reign, something we laughed at them for.

We are a club maintained for champions league footy only for our partner deals and it’s demonstrated clearly year on year.

I wish Slot all the luck in the world but he’s no Klopp. He was the glue that could get 120% out of mediocre talent. Slots very distant and professional and dare I say hands off. It’s telling that unlike Jurgen he just doesn’t fancy the squad beyond the first 11-12. That’s a massive issue.

Of course none of this matters anyway unless the book is thrown at the cheats.

The sports scientists understand fitness much better than me but we looked tired all over the pitch. Worrying. 

Excellant report Dave, much to think and worry about. Of course we all want Slot be successful but is appointing a manager with no experience in a big league and only a few seasons in a shit one a good plan? Slot and his entire coaching staff have no experience and little idea of the environment they have lucked into. I hope he’s not the archetypical Dutch arrogant egomaniac like the prick at OT, I hope he isn’t but I’m concerned and see similarities with Rogers.

That’s a good summary Dave and difficult to take issue with any of it.  Terrible performances from individual players but that’s nothing we haven’t seen before and what I’m still brooding about is how we were completely flummoxed by a tactical approach which we’ll probably see 20 times this season.
Slot needs to learn fast that  you can’t afford to be out-run and out-fought in the Prem because almost every side will be up for the battle and have players who can hurt you on the break or from a set piece. We need to be tiring the opposition out and then picking them off in the last half-hour not the other way round - so try not to pick players who have travelled the world and playing their third game in a week when you have fresh players sat on the bench who are better than anything the opposition have to offer. 
The least said about the use of subs the better.  

Definitely smelling ourselves, from Manager to players to fans. Haven't seen any after match quotes from Slot? Curious as to what his reaction/explanation would be, especially after taking the plaudits after his on pitch tactical breakdown of how we dismantled United at Old Trafford      

Worst thing about this result is I couldn't enjoy the everton result. It was like watching someone you don't like fall down the stairs then getting kicked in the balls.

The worrying thing for me about the game and just how shit it was is that it reeked of Niavety. His methods won't mean shit if he doesn't learn from them when they go tits up.

1 hour ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

The worrying thing for me about the game and just how shit it was is that it reeked of Niavety. His methods won't mean shit if he doesn't learn from them when they go tits up.

Defo can't have it reeking of "Niavety".

Endo wudv taken a yellow on the lead up to their goal.

I read that in a whingey voice.

Macca did genuinely get caught on one occasion, but i thought he was a bit of an embarrassment on Saturday. Spent most of the time on the floor being a fanny. Get stuck in lad! As you say, too many of our players are too soft. It just smacked of him not fancying it i thought. Maybe i'm being too harsh but it's not the first time he's thrown in a stinker after an international break.

3 hours ago, Pudns said:

Endo wudv taken a yellow on the lead up to their goal.

Endo would of taken a yellow on the lead up to the stadium.

The Klopp mantra was "belief" from his first press conference. As soon as Forest scored, our belief disappeared. Fans,  players and maybe coaches too.

This was a clusterfuck of a game, huge opportunity missed and frustrating as fuck. But there's been enough positivity in the start to the season to hope we can learn and move on 

A chastening reality check.

On 16/09/2024 at 11:16, Section_31 said:

Worst thing about this result is I couldn't enjoy the everton result. It was like watching someone you don't like fall down the stairs then getting kicked in the balls.

I still enjoyed it, I'm that petty and vindictive...