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
1) Filling me with dread here, talking about Hughes and Slot earmarking Curtis as a right back. Let's get real here. One good game does not make a right back. It might do if you're Fenway Skinflint Group looking to cut their cloth to another net zero transfer outlay, and if you're Richard just obeying orders Hughes, but it shouldn't do for Arne Slot or Liverpool fans. The big problem with Curtis is consistency, or the lack of it. He'll be good one game and then bad the next, and shows no sign of getting on top of this, now in his mid-20s. The caveat to that is that he's never been given a run in the team. Chickens. Eggs. First?
We need to sign a right back to add to Conor Bradley. If Curtis can fill in occasionally if the first choice 2 or 3 right backs are out at the same time, that's great, but that's all it is.
2) What James Tarkowski did on Wednesday night was assault. It was not a 'reckless tackle'. The intent was etched into his face and etched into Macca's upper calf. Pickford stood there laughing, in the knowledge you can assault someone on a football field and get away with it because it is supposedly just part and parcel of the game. Shite.
The only way to get rid of this shite is to come off the pitch – if you're still able to walk that is – get your phone out, dial your lawyer, tell him/her that you want to file for assault.
I remember Paul Davis of Arsenal smacking someone and getting a ban of about 8 matches. I'd far rather take a punch than have someone airborne, trying to break my leg.
3) Jota. Great summary. Well said. Best finisher at the club. It's like having 'God' back from the 90s. But yes, tactically limiting in that it means his teammates have to use their brains instead of just banging the ball over the top for a fast number nine to chase after, the sort of thing that excites the 'Núñez Núñez' neanderthals, bless their simple souls.
I'd like to see Slot experiment with Jota in the Dom area a bit more if we're struggling against a low block. Would sort of give us three and a half strikers, a runner from deep.
4) Good probing question about Robinson, although you can often focus on the opposition strengths or Liverpool weaknesses (I'll never quite forgive you for embarrassing Jota before PSG) so I hope Arne doesn't get the hump at some point and have a word with Tony Barrett to see if he can't question your credentials a bit harder.
But it was a good question. Robinson is going to run off Salah all day long and Salah is just going to let him go, like he always does. The obvious solution is to get Dom to go man-to-man with Robinson to snuff him out, and this becomes even more the obvious solution if Fulham play 3 centre backs, which will play into our hands. The more controversial solution would be to drop Mo, tell him he's been playing shite recently, and switch Lucho to the right to do the up-and-back running, with Cody reinstated on the left. Salah should not be undroppable if he's not performing, and his all-round game is so ragged that if he doesn't contribute goals or assists he actually just becomes a negative. But we all know Arne hasn't got the bottle to do that so we'll either set Dom to do a job on AR or it's going to be a long 90 minutes. I didn't like Slot's answer one bit. Hoping that Robinson's sorties will fail and then we can punt it up to Mo in transition is a shite plan.
1) Filling me with dread here, talking about Hughes and Slot earmarking Curtis as a right back. Let's get real here. One good game does not make a right back. It might do if you're Fenway Skinflint Group looking to cut their cloth to another net zero transfer outlay, and if you're Richard just obeying orders Hughes, but it shouldn't do for Arne Slot or Liverpool fans. The big problem with Curtis is consistency, or the lack of it. He'll be good one game and then bad the next, and shows no sign of getting on top of this, now in his mid-20s. The caveat to that is that he's never been given a run in the team. Chickens. Eggs. First?
We need to sign a right back to add to Conor Bradley. If Curtis can fill in occasionally if the first choice 2 or 3 right backs are out at the same time, that's great, but that's all it is.
2) What James Tarkowski did on Wednesday night was assault. It was not a 'reckless tackle'. The intent was etched into his face and etched into Macca's upper calf. Pickford stood there laughing, in the knowledge you can assault someone on a football field and get away with it because it is supposedly just part and parcel of the game. Shite.
The only way to get rid of this shite is to come off the pitch – if you're still able to walk that is – get your phone out, dial your lawyer, tell him/her that you want to file for assault.
I remember Paul Davis of Arsenal smacking someone and getting a ban of about 8 matches. I'd far rather take a punch than have someone airborne, trying to break my leg.
3) Jota. Great summary. Well said. Best finisher at the club. It's like having 'God' back from the 90s. But yes, tactically limiting in that it means his teammates have to use their brains instead of just banging the ball over the top for a fast number nine to chase after, the sort of thing that excites the 'Núñez Núñez' neanderthals, bless their simple souls.
I'd like to see Slot experiment with Jota in the Dom area a bit more if we're struggling against a low block. Would sort of give us three and a half strikers, a runner from deep.
4) Good probing question about Robinson, although you can often focus on the opposition strengths or Liverpool weaknesses (I'll never quite forgive you for embarrassing Jota before PSG) so I hope Arne doesn't get the hump at some point and have a word with Tony Barrett to see if he can't question your credentials a bit harder.
But it was a good question. Robinson is going to run off Salah all day long and Salah is just going to let him go, like he always does. The obvious solution is to get Dom to go man-to-man with Robinson to snuff him out, and this becomes even more the obvious solution if Fulham play 3 centre backs, which will play into our hands. The more controversial solution would be to drop Mo, tell him he's been playing shite recently, and switch Lucho to the right to do the up-and-back running, with Cody reinstated on the left. Salah should not be undroppable if he's not performing, and his all-round game is so ragged that if he doesn't contribute goals or assists he actually just becomes a negative. But we all know Arne hasn't got the bottle to do that so we'll either set Dom to do a job on AR or it's going to be a long 90 minutes. I didn't like Slot's answer one bit. Hoping that Robinson's sorties will fail and then we can punt it up to Mo in transition is a shite plan.