Arne Slot sack demanded for ‘dim-witted non-tactics’ as ‘arrogant’ captain exposed

Liverpool losing to Wolves is quite something. Is it time for Arne Slot to go? Liverpool fans seem to think so.

Send your views on all subjects to theeditor@football365.com

Arne Slot is a hypocrite

Arne said that Arsenal and their corners were boring him and hurting English football. Please watch Liverpool tonight. Arsenal and Everton clones in the 6 yard box. I don’t blame them if it brings results but I do hate hypocrisy.
Tony Clarke

Whose fault is it this time?

As if This Means More FC got beat by Wolves, even though they gave Salah a charity equaliser. I love football sometimes.
RHT/TS x

(Can’t wait to hear why it’s someone else’s fault though)

No excuses, Liverpool were awful…

You could laugh at Wolves having 3 shots on target and scoring 2 goals but actually I think that would hide the reality that Liverpool were total shite for 70 minutes and then abandoned all shape, structure and plan for the final 20 in search of a win. Slot has rolled the dice like that multiple times this season and almost every time we have lost. Good that he’s learning at least.

Rio looked decent but struggled to attack when they doubled up on him. It was a breath of fresh air that we finally had a winger on the pitch again who the opposition wanted to double up on; Gakpo can tackle himself and today also managed to clear a Curtis Jones goal bound effort onto the crossbar. Mo finally did score a league goal but then immediately managed to pick out a Wolves players when we had a 4 on 2 moment to win the game. He made that defender, who will go down as part of one of the worst teams to ever grace the league, look like prime Virgil.

Speaking of Virgil, for the first Wolves goal Virgil clearly gets a push and in the replay looks a bit annoyed and seemed to expect a whistle. It would be handy if he learnt that referees are shit and had he done a Gabriel and gone down holding his head like he’d been punched they probably don’t score that goal. He was almost arrogant in his expectation that he would get the decision and the way he played the game. Either be more strong or go down like a sack of potatoes.

It’s clear the owners want to roll the dice and see if Slot works out until the summer. It’s remarkable that they’re giving him that time given it’s clear he has no idea how to coach this side or to get them attacking well. Mo had one of his best seasons last year and looking at how Slot literally has no clue what to do with him and Gakpo out of form makes it clear that actually he wasn’t the main driver of success last season. He came into a perfect storm of Salah, Trent, Szoboslai and Macallister at a peak and, to Slot’s credit, plugged the Zubimendi hole with Gravenberch which I don’t think many people saw as a thing.

A new manager would hopefully get a bounce, put a spring in Mo and Curtis Jones, probably stop playing Gakpo and all that would probably equal success on its own. For me this game is more clear evidence of what needs to happen and it’s the owners dime if Slot misses the champions league with his dim witted non tactics at this point.

God we are terrible and I’m mostly annoyed because I traded reading my excellent book for watching that joke.
Minty, LFC

READ: Slot predicted ‘slow’ Liverpool defeat as Van Dijk humbled on history-making, record-breaking night

…I think it’s time to realise something.

I think Arne is a decent manager, he must have had something about him to do well enough to be approached by Leeds, erm Tottenham and later Liverpool. However this is not working.

What happened last year was a perfect storm, Jurgen signed off with a team whose muscle memory was intact, the squad and the camaraderie was at its highest point and in reality we were probably at the right time for a new “dynasty” to be built.

What Arne wanted was to bring in more control, less gung ho football. And what materialised was a team that knew where the accelerator was when they needed it but also knew where the gearstick was if required! No additions needed (wouldn’t surprise me if FSG said he gad to prove himself with the squad before investment) and with City struggling, and no other team really there we cantered to the title, however….

Twas a false dawn! After winning the league we spent a literal f**k ton of money for the “dynasty” to continue. The reality? Quality players bought no doubt, but the heavy metal has now become a very quiet operatic verse. Sideways and backwards passing, occasionally remembering how to attack but otherwise playing with no game plan. Sadly thats Arne’s game, in Holland this may work, here and against a team of Wolves’ ability (not to take away credit, well played!) Its a no go.

Kernel has taken grief, Salah has been thrown under the bus, Macca has looked lost! Dom has stood up well, Konate had one of his moments. Does a player go from creating 40G/A in a season to 10 in a year? Im 43, I’d expect it at my age but for Mo? Straight answer…no.

So the reality, there is no Jurgen Klopp return, completely unrealistic. But there has to be an Arne out narrative, and it needs to be sooner rather than later. Who replaces him? God only knows, everybody and their dog will be saying Xavi but im not so sure. One thing I would say is get Stevie G in the door in some capacity, even if it is learning in the background, send him to 18/19’s again, the lad loves the club and has seen the club’s growth the last 20 years. He’s nowhere near manager/coach/assistant coach but to players like Curtis/Trey he could make a difference.

Also if I see Cody f****n Gakpo check in on his other foot one more time I’m gonna lose my s**t! Give Rio a start!
Cowlick

The greatest of escapes?

They won’t get the lowest ever PL points tally, they look like they won’t even finish last. Let’s talk about the real Wolves focus.

They are the form team in the Premier League, are 11 points from safety with 24 still up for grabs, with a run in that includes crucial six pointers against West Ham, Leeds and Spurs.

You heard it here first, Wolves are staying up!
Will Wymant (why did we ever doubt them?), EFC

Tim Nice But…

Sam, Tim Sherwood is a lot of things, but ‘perceptive on Sky’ sure as a sugar ain’t one them.
Ben

People are just jealous of Arsenal set-pieces

Those critical at Arsenal’s prolific set piece record sound a bit sour grapes that they didn’t think of it first – and, frankly, why hasn’t all of global football thought of this, already? It’s an undefended kick into the 6yd box. *OF COURSE* clubs should get very good at this. It’s only that Arsenal considered it first that people are grumpy. And it’s actually quite weird that it took this long for teams to give set pieces more attention.

At a time when teams – English ones, in particular – hibernate in the penalty area for large stretches of the game, set pieces offer opportunity to sides who actually care about winning.

If teams don’t like Arsenal scoring on set pieces, then they should spend as much time on defending them as Arsenal do drawing them up.
Drew Collins

You’re not complaining about set-pieces, you’re complaining about Arsenal

There are no new problems in football. Everything everyone’s complaining about has been complained about by your father and your father’s father. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good moan and partake whenever I can but as soon as you start talking about Arsenal I dismiss your opinions as the parroting of a mindless drone.

You’re not complaining about grappling at corners, you’re complaining about Arsenal. You can pinpoint every infraction by an Arsenal player while ignoring all the pulling, holding, rugby tackles and blocking by their opposition. There might be a point about grappling in general but you invalidate it by only talking about Arsenal.

You complain about Everton’s corners but not about Everton, you use it to complain about Arsenal. You don’t complain about this happening in every game that’s been played in the past forty years, you only complain about Arsenal. You don’t have an opinion, at best you have an agenda, at worst you’re just repeating what someone else has said.

You can complain about the standard of refereeing, god knows I do most days. You can point out how their weakness in certain aspects of the game can, and will, be taken advantage of by all the teams in the league. You can talk about how Arsenal have cheate…..oh sorry, no, I’ve stopped taking you seriously. Because you see, you didn’t mention Spurs or Chelsea who have conceded one penalty, which is only one more than Arsenal. You didn’t mention Utd, City or Villa who have only conceded two. You didn’t say that if Arsenal had conceded the same as Brentford, the worst offenders with seven, their defence would move from the best in the league to just the second best. You only talked about Arsenal. You only wanted to complain about Arsenal. You listened to Gary Neville and wanted to parrot it so you too could complain about Arsenal.

This is the hard truth you have to swallow. Arsenal are really good at corners. They’re really good defensively. They’re the league’s top scorers and they’re the league’s tightest defence. They’ve the best disciplinary record. They’re really good at those things because… well, you know all those things you’ve taken the piss out of Mikel Arteta about for the past 7 years, those things. Those things you thought were banter were actually hard work. All those opinions that were given to you, all of them were wrong. You were wrong. You’re still wrong now. We’re not going to change the rules of football to salve your punctured ego.
SC, Belfast

READ: Modern football is rubbish. But we are getting the game we all deserve…

…For all the pearl clutching about ‘stopping Arsenal’ and the systematic ‘blocking’ and ‘grappling’ that Arsenal (and every other team) supposedly does at every corner has anyone actually considered what would happen if there was zero tolerance to anything vaguely resembling unfair contact in the box from corners?

Arsenal have one of it not the best GK in the league at claiming a cross or high ball, they also have a team stacked with tall physical players and players like Gabriel who are elite at timing their attacking headers or throwing everything they have at defending headers. Finally they also have 2-3 of the best corner takers in the league who can regularly fire a flat whipped corner on an exact target.

Remove any contact from corners from the attacking or defending team and Arsenal might just be even more deadly from corners! Wouldn’t that just be deliciously ironic.
Rich, AFC

Some rare love for F365

Just thought I’d say for the record, I started reading your website about 6 months ago, and it’s helped me get back into football in a way I had not since I became radically disillusioned circa the Qatar world cup. (I’m trying desperately not too think too much about this year’s one, cue queasy emoji)

I noticed your Mailbox taking a lot of heat from Arsenal fans recently. Seems a tad odd considering you’ve repeatedly described them as probably the strongest team in Europe currently, but I suppose people will always be particular about how they take their tea. I am sure they mean well, even those given to the most eloquent of prose (lol Jim!).

Anyway, just thought I’d say I think you’re all doing a great job – many a giggle have I had to stifle whilst reading your pages during tedious hours at work, these last few months. Please keep on keeping on and kindly note, I also don’t much care for VAR.

Warmest regards
Guy