Fresh from attending the latest LFC press conference, Mo Stewart is here to break down what Arne Slot has to say and deliver his top takeaways. Tune in to hear Mo ask Liverpool's head coach a question
The worst thing about that press conference was hearing Slot appear to deny that we need to sign another right back in the summer. It is the ONE position that we absolutely must sign another player in. Everything else is not a NEED, it is a WANT. But we only have one player for the position and any squad in a club the magnitude of Liverpool FC needs two players per position. And I mean specialists.
It's tiring year after year having journalists say this is the gonna be the biggest LFC transfer splurge since the Big Bang, only for us to end up scratching around trying to loan in Italian players with two broken legs.
Yes it's healthy not to have the manager at loggerheads with the owners, particularly in public, but it's incredibly wearing listening to a 'corporate' manager making excuses for tight-arsed American owners for years and years and years. First Klopp, now Slot.
Last year's arse-covering was summed up in one word: opportunistic
I'm guessing this year's arse-covering word is going to be: flexibility
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We're not signing Jeremie Frimpong. He seems to play on the right of a front three for Leverkusen, so he isn't a "right back" who "scores loads of goals". He's a lateral forward, as you correctly pointed out.
But we do need to sign somebody, and maybe he'll have some similiarities with Frimpong but have a proven defensive track record. And 'track record' may accidentally hint at the type, because I'm expecting a flyer.
I doubt Slot gives a flying shite about Judas 66 leaving. He may well even welcome it. No manager wants a defender who can't or rather WON'T be arsed defending. I imagine Slot will be secretly welcoming the chance to reshape the side in a way that makes more sense.
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The only downside to having Bradley as our RB is the attitude of his teammates toward him. He doesn't gel at all well with Salah, who tends to completely ignore him, just using him as a dummy runner, or Dom, who doesn't have the creative brain to play as a 10 and makes a lot of terrible decisions in promising positions. Bradley put in some excellent performances in that period in Klopp's last season when Salah was missing in Africa. We were left with a weird trio of Jota, Lucho and Darwin, yet played some of our best football of the season. Jota and Lucho were actually prepared to involve Bradley in the game. It was only when Judas and Salah came back into the side that our involvement in any title race went to shite.
So there is loads for Slot to do here, as a 'head coach', this summer, these last three games, getting Salah to utilise Bradley's off-the-ball runs instead of wasting them by ignoring them.
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There is no chance of Jarell going out on loan. He's proven his value to this side, under Klopp. If he's looked out of sorts under Slot, that doesn't reflect well on the 'head coach'.
It was good to see such a staunch defence of Jarell in the press conference but he has to start doing it by giving him games as well. Give him some games as a 6. He can play there.
Now that Slot has won a title, he really needs to trust the fringe players more next season and try to rebuild the 'one club' feelgood factor that had a patched up side featuring James McConnell play Chelsea off the park in a cup final at Wembley. That seems to have evaporated. Harvey Elliott has been sidelined, Curtis to a degree, Chiesa almost totally. Almost no attempt has been made to give youngsters game time. I don't think this approach is sustainable. It's going to cause a lot of problems if Slot doesn't dilute minutes for players.
It was actually disappointing that Jarell even got raised in the press conference at all, presumably off the back of a fatuous and disrespectful load of shite by Josh Williams.
If Josh Williams claims the existence of a 'bozo gene' maybe he should get a DNA test...
There were far more concerning issues thrown up by the Chelsea game than Jarell.
For starters, why did Slot hand Chelsea three points by picking such a starting XI? He should have gone full strength, if only to do the honourable thing by Villa and Newcastle, chasing places in the Champions League. Palace did the honourable thing by going strong at Arsenal. Us? No we just chuck the towel in before the start and hand Chelsea a possibly crucial three points. Maybe Slot's a secret Chelsea fan? He's got a Chelsea fan gene?
There is also the possibility that Slot has the shit-the-bed gene. Yanking off Jarell at Ipswich after 45 minutes was a bad sign, even more so because Jarell only made 1 or 2 mistakes and they were the direct result of Judas 66 being missing from the right back area as usual and one of his teammates having to cover his lazy arse. There are also quite a few examples this season of Slot just losing the plot and chucking on loads of midfielders, reducing the number of defenders to just two, with the inevitable result that he makes things even worse.
And one thing Jarell doesn't have is the Judas gene. But we all know someone who does...
It's been quite disgusting this season to see all the shite that should be going towards the number 66 instead being dumped particularly on Andy Robertson, who regardless of the accident of birthplace is far more of a 'scouser' than Trent Alexander-Arnold will ever be.
The worst thing about that press conference was hearing Slot appear to deny that we need to sign another right back in the summer. It is the ONE position that we absolutely must sign another player in. Everything else is not a NEED, it is a WANT. But we only have one player for the position and any squad in a club the magnitude of Liverpool FC needs two players per position. And I mean specialists.
It's tiring year after year having journalists say this is the gonna be the biggest LFC transfer splurge since the Big Bang, only for us to end up scratching around trying to loan in Italian players with two broken legs.
Yes it's healthy not to have the manager at loggerheads with the owners, particularly in public, but it's incredibly wearing listening to a 'corporate' manager making excuses for tight-arsed American owners for years and years and years. First Klopp, now Slot.
Last year's arse-covering was summed up in one word: opportunistic
I'm guessing this year's arse-covering word is going to be: flexibility
–––
We're not signing Jeremie Frimpong. He seems to play on the right of a front three for Leverkusen, so he isn't a "right back" who "scores loads of goals". He's a lateral forward, as you correctly pointed out.
But we do need to sign somebody, and maybe he'll have some similiarities with Frimpong but have a proven defensive track record. And 'track record' may accidentally hint at the type, because I'm expecting a flyer.
I doubt Slot gives a flying shite about Judas 66 leaving. He may well even welcome it. No manager wants a defender who can't or rather WON'T be arsed defending. I imagine Slot will be secretly welcoming the chance to reshape the side in a way that makes more sense.
–––
The only downside to having Bradley as our RB is the attitude of his teammates toward him. He doesn't gel at all well with Salah, who tends to completely ignore him, just using him as a dummy runner, or Dom, who doesn't have the creative brain to play as a 10 and makes a lot of terrible decisions in promising positions. Bradley put in some excellent performances in that period in Klopp's last season when Salah was missing in Africa. We were left with a weird trio of Jota, Lucho and Darwin, yet played some of our best football of the season. Jota and Lucho were actually prepared to involve Bradley in the game. It was only when Judas and Salah came back into the side that our involvement in any title race went to shite.
So there is loads for Slot to do here, as a 'head coach', this summer, these last three games, getting Salah to utilise Bradley's off-the-ball runs instead of wasting them by ignoring them.
–––
There is no chance of Jarell going out on loan. He's proven his value to this side, under Klopp. If he's looked out of sorts under Slot, that doesn't reflect well on the 'head coach'.
It was good to see such a staunch defence of Jarell in the press conference but he has to start doing it by giving him games as well. Give him some games as a 6. He can play there.
Now that Slot has won a title, he really needs to trust the fringe players more next season and try to rebuild the 'one club' feelgood factor that had a patched up side featuring James McConnell play Chelsea off the park in a cup final at Wembley. That seems to have evaporated. Harvey Elliott has been sidelined, Curtis to a degree, Chiesa almost totally. Almost no attempt has been made to give youngsters game time. I don't think this approach is sustainable. It's going to cause a lot of problems if Slot doesn't dilute minutes for players.
It was actually disappointing that Jarell even got raised in the press conference at all, presumably off the back of a fatuous and disrespectful load of shite by Josh Williams.
If Josh Williams claims the existence of a 'bozo gene' maybe he should get a DNA test...
There were far more concerning issues thrown up by the Chelsea game than Jarell.
For starters, why did Slot hand Chelsea three points by picking such a starting XI? He should have gone full strength, if only to do the honourable thing by Villa and Newcastle, chasing places in the Champions League. Palace did the honourable thing by going strong at Arsenal. Us? No we just chuck the towel in before the start and hand Chelsea a possibly crucial three points. Maybe Slot's a secret Chelsea fan? He's got a Chelsea fan gene?
There is also the possibility that Slot has the shit-the-bed gene. Yanking off Jarell at Ipswich after 45 minutes was a bad sign, even more so because Jarell only made 1 or 2 mistakes and they were the direct result of Judas 66 being missing from the right back area as usual and one of his teammates having to cover his lazy arse. There are also quite a few examples this season of Slot just losing the plot and chucking on loads of midfielders, reducing the number of defenders to just two, with the inevitable result that he makes things even worse.
And one thing Jarell doesn't have is the Judas gene. But we all know someone who does...
It's been quite disgusting this season to see all the shite that should be going towards the number 66 instead being dumped particularly on Andy Robertson, who regardless of the accident of birthplace is far more of a 'scouser' than Trent Alexander-Arnold will ever be.