Liverpool striker a ‘fraud’ as teammate ‘has no left foot’
Liverpool fans are not happy despite that win over Sunderland with three of the front four criticised.
We also have mails on Spurs, Forest, referees and Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Mail us at theeditor@football365.com
Ekitike is a fraud
Isak can’t get back quick enough.
I’ve kept it to myself for a while due to his misleading stats, but not longer – Ekitike is a fraud. 78 mins in to the game here and every promising move dies a death when he gets the ball. Another great header chance mirror image to the City one and he doesn’t even hit the target. Clown.
Patricio Del Toro
Slot subs leave a lot to be desired
I like Slot, the season has been kinda bad, whatever, obviously the situation before the season has had an affect as well etc…
So I’m not calling for his head and happy to give him another year. But my God is lack of substitutions is so frustrating. And constant starting of MacAllister who has dropped off form altogether this season. Don’t actually know what he does anymore. And Gakpo, don’t get me started.
What is wrong with giving Rio some minutes or starts. Gakpo literally has no left foot. And Chiesa is being messed about. Gives everything when he plays but only plays the last 10 mins of each game. Getting so frustrating.
Forgot about the main culprit, Salah? He can’t beat a man anymore… How can he not be subbed? Bench full of young lads who’d burst their bollocks for a run in the team.
Chris, LFC
READ: Szoboszlai relief as Liverpool end long-standing Premier League record
Gakpo and Salah are letting Liverpool down
Tonight was a very nervy win but a rare clean sheet and we limited Sunderland quite effectively I thought.
Wirtz is something else. His touch and in game vision and speed of thought are incomparable to anyone I can remember watching in Red. He deserved a goal or an assist tonight and probably would’ve had one were it not for…
Gakpo and Salah. My goodness I’m really lost for words to express how poor they both are. Multiple times Salah lost the ball when keeping it would’ve been easier. It’s just completely remarkable what a shadow he is of the player he was 9 months ago. I can’t think of a decline so sudden and dramatic in any other player of his calibre; maybe because the comparables were playing in Saudi and the MLS at his age?
Tonight Gakpo was ineffective but he wasn’t entirely predictable. At least a couple times he didn’t cut inside but instead went to the byline. Sadly he remained a net negative because he literally overran the ball or wasted possession almost exclusively.
I can’t help but think that if we had two decent wingers our attack could be devastating and that might mask our defensive issues a lot better. Or maybe Isak comes back from injury and finally Gakpo gets benched? I don’t trust Slot to have the sense to do this because if he had any sense Rio would’ve got minutes today or on the weekend.
Still at least it’s FA Cup this weekend so instead of rotating we can run the same legs and bodies into the ground.
Minty, LFC
Defending Arne Slot once again…
Glad to see some of the defence of Slot yesterday. Just from the F365 mailbox tab, since mid November he’s been called a fraud, cocky, a ‘blobfish’, an unsufferable egotist, and a fair number of other things beyond just saying he should be fired.
I think that Slot will go, but a 3+ month pile-on to a league winning manager seems increasingly unnecessary. Leicester acted with more grace; after all, Ranieri only won in ’16 with Pearson’s title winning squad from 2014 (troll).
But Andrew, Swansea saying Slot isn’t getting enough criticism at this point is bonkers.
Yes LFC gave Slot a VERY bad hand this year and he’s played it poorly. All that said, I don’t think his errors make a dent compared to bigger issue of the squad on paper not matching the squad on grass. Kerkez and Wirtz took months to meet the physical requirements of the league, and 205 million of the 450 spent have 17 league starts combined, and a third of those have come from back-up goalkeeper. The very heated debate on swapping LFC’s 4th and 5th choice forward isn’t solving all ills.
There’s little I can see that isn’t fixable, if Slot is properly supported by LFC. Against Sunderland, Wirtz, Salah, Jones and Ekitike all had very, very good opportunities to score, but were saved from being described as ‘toothless’ by a set piece.
Various match reports described the performance as impressive, dominating and controlled, as it often was last year, when I don’t think they would had Liverpool not scored a fourth goal from a corner in just a few weeks, having not scored any under the old set piece coach sacked in December.
Against Sunderland, Konate and VVD were glorious, when they have often appeared drunk, and so the team only needed one goal to win. It’s almost as if Slot-ball might work; xG regularly suggests it’s able to break down a low block, it just hasn’t until now had goals from corners bail out strikers missing sitters and hitting the woodwork, or often been required to score several times just to get a draw.
As at the beginning of February 2026, Opta had LFC creating 12.2 chances per-game this season, which was the best in the league; The best. They’ve only failed to score in 4 of 26 games, and two of those were Arsenal and City away. From the 7 league games played in the second half of the season, LFC have scored 11, but conceded 9 and very much could have conceded double that, including 6 from Bournemouth, Burnley and Fulham. They are 19th from 20 in terms of conceding from corners, with 10 conceded by mid December when they let in 9 in total last season. It’s obvious where the shortfall is, and I’m not sure Slot picking Chiesa will fix it. He certainly can’t pick different centre halves as the club have twice denied him one. He’s replying on VVD and Konate regularly playing as they did last night; As they did last year.
He won a title in his first year. In his second season, he got 33 points from 19 games. I’ve written in to say this before, but that’s a level of performance Pep delivered for City at the start of last year, and very comparable to what Mikel Arteta has delivered in 5 of the last 6 seasons despite being elite. I say this only partly to laugh at Arteta, but also to question the confidence that a replacement for Slot would definitely be better? Arsenal’s faith in Arteta has likely now paid off (unless Arteta delivers a mid-thirty points return for a 6th time….).
In integrating Wirtz, Ekitike, Kerkez, Gravenberch, and Mamardashvili, if Slot goes he has substantially moved the team forward. If he stays until the summer, he’ll also have navigated the contract wrangles and tumult of Trent, Salah, VVD, Konate and Curtis Jones, which is no small thing.
I’ve the usual fan overconfidence and idiotic hope that this side is still good enough to win the FA Cup. What started as a faint hope he achieved it to shut up rival fans, has now become me hoping he wins it to shut up some of his own fans, which is just sad.
One question for LFC fans: how attractive do you think a rainy part of northern england would be to a new manager, if the club sack Slot despite winning a title, and then have to replace Alonso if he stacks-it and falls out with the players like he has in Madrid, or even just rage-quits due to a Director of Football delivering questionable support?
Tom G
Thomas Frank only the latest scapegoat
Enough’s gone wrong with my own club of late to wade too far into another’s mire, but exceptions are made when the mire is universally that of the Tottenham. For all their disillusioned support pining for lost love Pochettino, how not can they foresee it is destined to underwhelm and disappoint.
I’ve never much rated the word when discussing football managers but Pochettino rather is a fraud (or minimally, fraud-adjacent). He would not move the needle and it would all end in tears yet again.
After the second-leg comeback against Barca at Anfield seven years ago now, I’d tuned in eagerly the next night to see who we’d face in the final. I wanted Ajax for the cache of their name in Europe, knowing a final won or lost against them would reflect ever the better in annals of history than a bantery one-off name like Tottenham, theirs bereft of any real weight or pedigree to speak of. But Ajax exited in dramatically late fashion (obvi) and we now share an historical if misaligned European encounter with Spurs like two ships from vastly different seas passing in the night.
It’s so easy being Arsenal in their rivalry with Spurs. It is one-sided beyond reason as to even be referred to as rivalry and exists as little more than geographical construct, really. I never understood what it is any reasonable Tottenham fan would want from their “rivalry”, from the league, from their place in the world game, and from anyone blessed enough to be appointed their gaffer.
They say they want pretty champagne football and won their one second-tier trinket in two decades playing abysmally in the final against equally abysmal opposition, and now crow about how legendary a night it was.
Just how does one reconcile being a Tottenham supporter. Once upon a time, AVB, Sherwood, Nuno, Conte, Mourinho. Now Heitinga, Redknapp, Mason, Glasner, Poch… interim, caretaker, 100-year contract, wizard hat, what difference does it make. They’re better off selling rights for a BBC version of Squid Game pivoting solely into commercial enterprising on the back of a fancy stadium ground replete with endless concerts and NFL tie-ins. This is footballing purgatory defined.
Eric, Los Angeles CA
…Spurs are so desperate to stop Arsenal winning the league that they have sacked their manager just so they can have the new manager bounce when they play Arsenal in the league.
Andrew Goonerabroad Brown
As for Forest and Dyche…
By all accounts, Marinakis sounds like a massive tw*t, but sacking Dyche when in a relegation battle is very good. Suck that one up, PFMs.
Finlay x
Shock as more fans of more clubs think their club suffers bad decisions
I have to disagree with TX Bill and his recollection of the Everton goal disallowed against Villa a few weeks back – do you really believe Harrison Armstrong made no attempt for the ball? Look at it again – he literally jumped right in front of O’Brien and narrowly missed heading the ball in himself. There’s an argument to be made that he impeded Guessand who was jumping just behind him, and who incidentally also looked as if he was fouled by O’Brien when making his own jump.
That said – even as a Villa fan I actually thought the goal should have been allowed to stand, as it was an excellent cross and the ball never looked like going anywhere other than O’Brien’s head.
On a related note, us Villa fans have our own issues with officials this season – 26 games in to the Premier League and not a single penalty awarded to Villa to date seems a ludicrous stat. Compare 2 incidents over the last 2 nights – Chelsea got a penalty when João Pedro is going away from goal and gets a 2 handed shove in the back. Yet when Tammy Abraham gets a 2 handed shove in the chest while attempting to shoot last night – no penalty.
Fortunately Villa scored from the corner immediately after the incident, but for me it sums us the inconsistent penalty decisions which happen all season, and which some of us paranoid Villa fans believe go against Villa more often than not.
David Horgan, Dublin
Hair today
I wrote in after the Huddersfield/Luton match where Alfie May was sent off for a ‘hair pull’ (look at the clip – he clearly is trying to grab his shoulder, no intent, no violent conduct, referee didn’t see it and went off player complaints) It wasn’t published but in it I said there needs to be rules about players hair needing to be properly tied up.
Last night there was a blatant pull on Semenyo hair that went unpunished. Huddersfield were told there was no tolerance for hair pulling despite the circumstance so how was this deemed not violent conduct? This is much much clearer and highlights the dismal state of refereeing in this country, and the lack of consistency.
Anyway I digress – there needs to be a change in the rules that all hair has to be tied up to avoid this happening, similar to Army/Police of above the collar.
Oh and Foden should have absolutely been sent off too….
Sara HTFC
More on Man Utd hair boy and the Man Utd c***
Wee note re hair boy, he’s donating his locks, when they eventually come off, to a charity who make wigs for children who have lost theirs due to cancer. A charity to whom he has already donated £7k according to the guy who runs it (heard it on t’wireless).
Re Ratcliffe, agreed – utter, utter, c**t. John Matrix said it better than I could have done, and the point re greedy right wing offshore tax hoarding arseholes who know the price of everything and the value of nothing is well made. To those who hold the same views, I say f*** you, but if you do, be under no illusion that they are frantically pointing at immigrants for no other reason than to scapegoat them in order to hoard yet more money in a vain attempt to fill a hole in their soul.
As Malcolm X said, I have more respect for a man who says what he means, and means what he says. Just tell us you’re an avaricious, xenophobic, arsehole.
RHT/TS x
(Simon Jordan can f*** right off too, for holding the same abhorrent views, the smartarse grifting prick)
