Arne Slot sack demanded after Liverpool’s tedious fall off perch | OneFootball

Are there any Liverpool fans who want Arne Slot to stay as manager after this tedious fall off their perch this season?

We also have some more thoughts on Man Utd but mercifully nothing on Arsenal. Send your mails to theeditor@football365.com

Arne Slot has to go after tedious fall

Last night had shades of Istanbul 2005 – Liverpool up against a clearly superior side, suddenly finding momentum in the second half that made us believe a miracle could happen.

On a different night, with the wind blowing towards the Kop, we might have won. If VAR hadn’t overturned the penalty – which was neither clear nor obvious – who knows? (VAR absolutely would have overturned the 2005 penalty v Milan, but let’s not get into that…).

But here’s the thing. We started the season as clear favourites for the league, and in the top two or three favourites for the Champions League.

We haven’t been knocked off our perch.

We’ve thrown ourselves off it; not in a fun, drunken way, knocking others aside as we go.

The fall has been a tedious Arne Slot way.

Pedestrian football, interspersed with the occasional muscle memory of Klopp’s heavy metal. But let’s be honest, we’ve never been in the mosh pit under Slot. We fling our arms around occasionally, but we hit ourselves as often as anyone else.

Arne Slot has to go, despite winning the league last year.

An astonishing thing to say. And Klopp’s fault as much as Slot’s.

But who could honestly argue we’d be better under Slot next season than Klopp or Alonso – both of whom are available and would jump at the chance to come back to a club they love. Will (2005>>>2025) Graham

…First. best they’ve played in a long time

Second how are Gomez and Robertson second choice? Kerkez and Frimpong share one brain cell and it’s always with the one without the ball. I bet they’re surprised by their own farts.

What the f*** happened to the midfield? Why isn’t Jones starting over Mac Allister first off. Why isn’t Szoboszlai permanent fixture midfield?

Don’t start me on not starting Mo and Rio.

It’s like Hodgson. Lovely man. Good coach. Job is too big.

Thanks for the caretaker Klopp team title. Also don’t let the door hit you on way out. Name redacted (with your kindness)

…I’m saying this at half time but it’ll be no less true in 45 minutes regardless of what happens.

You’ve got 45 minutes until the season is over. Maybe your career as Liverpool manager. You have to pick between an out of form Dutch winger who hasn’t scored in 3 months or a precocious talent who was man of the match in your last win and is so good that Chelsea, one of the best youth scouting operations in global football, won’t let you watch games at their ground anymore because you pinched him from there.

If you picked the former you’re Arne Slot and that means you are also an idiot. Minty, LFC

Wirtz than almost everybody for Liverpool

Can we talk about Wirtz again? Because watching Dembele stick two in, Kvara take defenders on and beat them and Barcola burn people off, you’re reminded what elite attackers should offer a team.

Just a quick reminder that Wirtz has been out performed this season by Dewsbury-Hall, Harry Wilson and Brenden Aaronson. He cost over £100m. After years of (justified) mockery for the likes of Antony, Sancho, Onana and the rest of the inane clown posse, can we please have some thrown their way.

He has been sh*t. Lewis, Busby Way

Are you Ole in disguise?

Now is the time when the Wilcox and co. should start judging if Carrick deserves the gig full-time. The arguments likening him to Solskjaer do have some merit.

Ole started off with a bang, mostly by virtue of not being the guy he replaced. He was able to rely mostly on vibes to go on a run of 14 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat in his first 17 games. Great results but it didn’t really tell us anything about how he’d react when results turned. Everyone was blinded by ‘Ole at the wheel’, that despite losing the next two games, he was given the job full-time. This should have been the time for Woodward (shudder!) to properly evaluate Solskjaer.

From Game 18 to Game 41, Ole oversaw 11 losses, 8 draws and only 5 wins. A bit of patience by the upper-management would have shown us exactly the type of manager Ole was – able to ride the wave of optimism, but seemingly had no answers when times got tough. What you need at the very top is a manager who is able to turn every set-back around almost immediately.

Carrick himself has started with 6 wins and a draw in his first 7 in charge, bringing vibes by virtue of not being the previous guy. But with 2 losses, a draw and a win in his last 4, the parallels with Ole are becoming harder to ignore. It’s now we really get to judge whether he is just Ole 2.0 or if Carrick really has something more about him.

I’ll admit that I was happy enough to have Ole around, at least until that Europa League final against Villarreal. If ever his game management could be called into question, that final was it. He made 1 substitution during extra-time (100th min), 2 more at the 116th min, and finally 2 more in injury time (120+3mins). Watching that final, it was obvious that the entire team was physically shattered by the 90th min and were pretty much dead on their feet for the entire period of extra-time. By comparison, Villarreal made 2 substitutions in the 77th min and 2 more in the 88th min, so had fresher legs and were the much more likelier of the two teams to win it in extra-time. The fact that it went to penalties was only due to the fact that Villarreal wasn’t all that good. If Ole had been clever enough to make changes earlier, they could probably have won it. From that point on I’ll happily admit to being #OleOut.

Having had 24 days off between games, that display against Leeds shows that Carrick may not have it either. He waited for 15mins after Martinez’s sending off before belatedly making a double substitution, when it was obvious to all after that limp first half that he should have done something much sooner.

Both of these instances also bear a resemblance to Fergie’s final season in charge. When Nani was sent-off in the Champions League second leg against Real Madrid, he stood by like a deer in headlights while Mourinho immediately made a positive sub in Modric. Within 7mins Modric had scored the equalizer. With Fergie still seething at the injustice of that admittedly ridiculous red card, Mourinho shuffles over, whispers to Fergie seemingly agreeing with him. In hindsight, it should be interpreted as mind games to keep the red mist over Fergie’s eyes and prevent him from reacting and making any kind of tactical changes. Within 3mins of the equalizer, Ronaldo scores the winner for Madrid. It takes Fergie another 4mins before making substitutions in the 73rd, 81st and then 87th min, by which time the tie was long over. That was also when I knew that Fergie’s planned retirement was the right decision.

It’ll be pretty hard for Carrick to squander a 7-point lead over Chelsea for a CL place with 6 games remaining, but if results don’t improve markedly and he doesn’t show much tactical acumen from now until then, Wilcox and co. should do well by saying thanks and then parting ways. Sanjit (the wheels on the bus) Randhawa, Kuala Lumpur

…I kept up with developments in the United vs. Leeds (United) game via text updates, and by all accounts it appears that Leeds fully deserved their win. Hopefully it’s just a bump in the road rather than the beginning of a meltdown, but I do wonder if a couple more limp defeats between now and the end of the season might actually be useful for (Manchester) United in the medium to long term.

Champions League qualification really should still be secured given their position, even if they follow that game up with defeat to Chelsea at the weekend. But there’s the obvious elephant in the room of the impending managerial appointment, and the six games to come will doubtless influence that.

There’s a possible scenario to unfold over the next 5 weeks whereby United scrape 9-10 more points together while losing another couple of games unimpressively, and finish 4th/5th. It’ll be harder to endure than seeing them win 6 in a row and finish clear in third, but if it gives INEOS cause to plump for an external managerial appointment, that may well be for the best.

I’ve hugely appreciated Carrick’s quiet impact since January, you can’t understate the upturn in results between then and now. But the Newcastle and Leeds games do give pause for thought when it comes to longer term planning. With all respect to those teams, a side with aspirations to rejoin the elite should not be dropping 6 points across those 2 fixtures. Nor should it be possible to make excuses for the same team underperforming after a quick turnaround before a game (Newcastle) but also after too much of a break between games (Leeds).

All a long-winded way of saying that my ideal outcome is for Carrick to steer us into the Champions League spots, accepting a hefty bonus and the thanks of the board, before a proven top-level manager is appointed to take over from a position of strength. Crazy to think that they’d be the first permanent United manager to assume the reins with the club in the CL since David Moyes. Which hopefully would not be an omen. Keith Reilly

Yoro was a rotten choice

Man Utd did not lose that game because of Ugarte, they lost it because United have lived off luck since January, and more importantly the didnt play Ayden Heaven instead of Lenny Yoro!

Heaven kept United afloat for 5 weeks when all the central defenders were unavailable. He di enough to have kept his position. However depending on a less physically capable defenders in Yoro, who’s distribution has always been questionable was the key issue against Leeds. On a lesser note, United were dreadful until Martinez was sent off. Patrick D

Let’s talk about refereeing (again)

Another week, another spectacle of refereeing in a United match. I’d like to simply highlight two things that seem to have been missed:

Firstly, any hair pulling is not a red card. The actual rule details that if it is not in a challenge for the call, and with force. Given Martinez had just been forearmed in the face a split second before the pull, and indeed was obviously challenging for the ball I think there’s plenty of mitigation for a sensible ref to take here, given it’s a physical game. If DCL doesn’t have long hair, he pulls his shirt, just like DCL is doing to him. The rule should not give an advantage to those with long hair. Again a sensible referee would acknowledge that.

Secondly, I imagine not many people have seen the first Leeds goal, but explain to me how that’s not a foul on Yoro. I’ve seen so many United goals ruled out by VAR where there is the tiniest letter of the law infraction (see this ref against Burnley) but in this case DCL has simply taken Yoyo out, nowhere near the ball, but I guess it’s fine because…

Narrative. Subconscious or worse, I am convinced the refs are creating game states that improve the spectacle. Closer end of season races, more stakes.

For me in the end football is a game decided by very few moments. Goals and red cards are extremely correlated to results. The inconsistency I’ve seen this season on both is utterly incredible. We shouldn’t be okay with it.