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
Great listen Mo, good work again. Just had one thing that I’d like to hear what your opinion is on it. With the ink dry on the contract now, do you think Slot will have more balls to take Mo off if he’s not having a great game and throw someone else on. Another way of saying this is do you think he has kept him on of late when he stank because he was afraid he might not resign for Pool
It's good to kick the can down the road on Salah for another year at least. I'm not sure about the wisdom of a two-year contract as his legs are going, as your referenced data proves, but a two-year contract does give us the opportunity to get a fee next summer if we wanted to.
I don't see us signing Frimpong unless it was to play right back. You don't replace Mo Salah with a right-footed wing back who CAN play further forward. That's not a gap, it's a chasm.
I wonder if we could see something 'radical' (like Ryan at 6): Mo moved to play centrally? He's as much use as a traffic cone defensively and another player on the right up front with younger legs to both track left backs and run past left backs could be beneficial; surely not Chiesa who really needs to be shifted back to Italy this summer. It was always a daft signing.
The reference to wingers always makes me nervous. Wingers to me are, I dunno, Pat Nevin. They're not good for 20 goals a season. I hope we're not going to go down the route of a winger who has loads of poise but not enough goals in them. Like a Noni Madueke. Sure he's graceful as a gazelle but get 20 goals a season, nope. Hudson-Odoi. Semenyo. I'm nervous.
As for low blocks, if Slotball's build-up wasn't so bloody laborious, we wouldn't face them.
As good as it is that Mo got his dough (well, our dough), I'll feel a lot chirpier about his new contract if he starts scoring and assisting again before it's too late. I said he should have been benched for Fulham. Was I wrong? Nobody should be undroppable. West Ham's young left back Scarles looked good in the only game I've seen him, an England youth international. It'll be interesting to see how he faces up to Mo. I don't see him being fazed; hopefully he will be.
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Ibou. You like to ask the manager challenging questions, for sure. Not sure of the wisdom of doing it every week but it's your career. Not that you don't ask good questions, you do, but they're more fan questions than journo questions maybe, as they put Arne Slot...on the spot!
But it's a good question, if a bit of a skewer. The problem is, there is no good answer. Ibou isn't suddenly going to turn into Xabi Alonso, or indeed ever, even if he practised his passing twenty-four hours a day, and it is wrong to expect him to. I hate him getting pulled. Slot's idea that sticking more 'goalscorers' on the pitch increases our chances of retrieving the game are nonsense I'm afraid. These kind of moves destroy the structure of the team and we end up a disorganised rabble with – as you rightly noted – players getting in each other's way. It's shite.
I don't really agree with this idea that the third-highest-paid player has to be the third most important player in the side. How do you judge importance across positions? There's no way Ali is the third most important player in the side. He hardly does anything. Neither is Trent.
Ibou has captained France. 200k a week is absolutely reasonable. I've heard Reds state he is THE most important player in the side as he allows us to play a high line to the halfway line, which from a tactical point of view can't really be argued. The way Des Walker was for Forest.
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I don't like focusing on transfers and contracts when there's a title still to be won. The lead looks unassailable but we've been playing poorly and this set of players have got form as recent as last season for performing disgracefully on the run-in, just mentally giving up.
The way we're playing we can definitely lose to both Chelsea and Arsenal. That means that we really needed to wrap up the title against Spurs to avoid a nervy last two games against Brighton and Palace. In that respect, losing to Fulham could prove absolutely disastrous.
I can see this going to the last day and a potential shit-the-bedder against Palace at home.
If that happens, just fold the club. Get the liquidators in. Sell everything and then donate the money to the LFC Foundation. If we can't win it from this position, there's no point continuing.
Great listen Mo, good work again. Just had one thing that I’d like to hear what your opinion is on it. With the ink dry on the contract now, do you think Slot will have more balls to take Mo off if he’s not having a great game and throw someone else on. Another way of saying this is do you think he has kept him on of late when he stank because he was afraid he might not resign for Pool
It's good to kick the can down the road on Salah for another year at least. I'm not sure about the wisdom of a two-year contract as his legs are going, as your referenced data proves, but a two-year contract does give us the opportunity to get a fee next summer if we wanted to.
I don't see us signing Frimpong unless it was to play right back. You don't replace Mo Salah with a right-footed wing back who CAN play further forward. That's not a gap, it's a chasm.
I wonder if we could see something 'radical' (like Ryan at 6): Mo moved to play centrally? He's as much use as a traffic cone defensively and another player on the right up front with younger legs to both track left backs and run past left backs could be beneficial; surely not Chiesa who really needs to be shifted back to Italy this summer. It was always a daft signing.
The reference to wingers always makes me nervous. Wingers to me are, I dunno, Pat Nevin. They're not good for 20 goals a season. I hope we're not going to go down the route of a winger who has loads of poise but not enough goals in them. Like a Noni Madueke. Sure he's graceful as a gazelle but get 20 goals a season, nope. Hudson-Odoi. Semenyo. I'm nervous.
As for low blocks, if Slotball's build-up wasn't so bloody laborious, we wouldn't face them.
As good as it is that Mo got his dough (well, our dough), I'll feel a lot chirpier about his new contract if he starts scoring and assisting again before it's too late. I said he should have been benched for Fulham. Was I wrong? Nobody should be undroppable. West Ham's young left back Scarles looked good in the only game I've seen him, an England youth international. It'll be interesting to see how he faces up to Mo. I don't see him being fazed; hopefully he will be.
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Ibou. You like to ask the manager challenging questions, for sure. Not sure of the wisdom of doing it every week but it's your career. Not that you don't ask good questions, you do, but they're more fan questions than journo questions maybe, as they put Arne Slot...on the spot!
But it's a good question, if a bit of a skewer. The problem is, there is no good answer. Ibou isn't suddenly going to turn into Xabi Alonso, or indeed ever, even if he practised his passing twenty-four hours a day, and it is wrong to expect him to. I hate him getting pulled. Slot's idea that sticking more 'goalscorers' on the pitch increases our chances of retrieving the game are nonsense I'm afraid. These kind of moves destroy the structure of the team and we end up a disorganised rabble with – as you rightly noted – players getting in each other's way. It's shite.
I don't really agree with this idea that the third-highest-paid player has to be the third most important player in the side. How do you judge importance across positions? There's no way Ali is the third most important player in the side. He hardly does anything. Neither is Trent.
Ibou has captained France. 200k a week is absolutely reasonable. I've heard Reds state he is THE most important player in the side as he allows us to play a high line to the halfway line, which from a tactical point of view can't really be argued. The way Des Walker was for Forest.
–––
I don't like focusing on transfers and contracts when there's a title still to be won. The lead looks unassailable but we've been playing poorly and this set of players have got form as recent as last season for performing disgracefully on the run-in, just mentally giving up.
The way we're playing we can definitely lose to both Chelsea and Arsenal. That means that we really needed to wrap up the title against Spurs to avoid a nervy last two games against Brighton and Palace. In that respect, losing to Fulham could prove absolutely disastrous.
I can see this going to the last day and a potential shit-the-bedder against Palace at home.
If that happens, just fold the club. Get the liquidators in. Sell everything and then donate the money to the LFC Foundation. If we can't win it from this position, there's no point continuing.