Have Liverpool already decided to sack ‘coward’ Arne Slot this summer?

It feels like Liverpool have already decided to sack the ‘coward’ Arne Slot; would Manchester United have done the same with David Moyes?

But first, we have plenty more about Arsenal.

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com in any event.

Labour are banter era Arsenal

I can see the Slot/Starmer parallel (both won big with declining teams in a weak year and the victory turned to dust soon after).  Mind you,  it’s no coincidence that both Starmer and Corbyn support Arsenal as Labour is “banter era” Arsenal – the unbearable hubris, the puritanical sanctimony, the complex pseudo-intellectual justifications for why they’re doing what they’re doing, the constant blame game, the complete inability to get rid of failing leadership figures and the occasional sliver of hope which stops them making the decisions that need to be made.
Matthew

What did you do?

How did you win the league? We deployed a style of tiki-taka where our patient passing would draw out the opposition to lose their shape and then we would search for an incisive pass to break the lines.

How did you win the league? We concentrated on high-pressing, high-energy bursts which allowed turnovers further up the field in dangerous areas, ruthlessly exploited by our dynamic trio upfront.

How did you win the league? We enjoyed incredible teamwork and camaraderie throughout the team, with some world-class counter-attackers and many of our players having the season of their lives.

How did you win the league? We managed to exploit refereeing inconsistencies and grey-area situations to such a degree that they had to change the rules on corners.
The Big P, Vancouver

Another annoying Arsenal aspect

Whilst it was raining heavily yesterday and I was thinking to myself..oh well I guess that’s the gardening off the agenda again… I started browsing on the numerous Arsenal sites I’m linked to and I came across (courtesy of the appropriately named ‘Pain in the Arsenal’) a potential feat Arsenal might just achieve this season that has never been achieved as of yet in the EPL that I automatically thought would ruffle yet more feathers of the anti Arsenal brigade desperate for them to fail at all costs!

The feat? That being since the formation of the Premiership no team has ever won it without having a single red card or penalty awarded against them. Liverpool came close but did pick up a solitary red card. So maybe a drastic improvement in discipline is yet another important aspect to go with their set pieces, defensive record and squad depth that might just help them over the line.

The case for a potential Arsenal conspiracy for them to win full stop gathers yet more evidence one feels (no LOL, just a chuckle). Still, it hasn’t happened yet and still might not do so. I’ll keep taking my Arsenal anxiety pills prescribed by my GP until it does!
Chris, Croydon

Sliding doors

I had a weird sliding doors thought about Arne Slot today but it’s a weird question for Man Utd fans to chew on;

If Moyes had won the league in his first season in charge of your lot but then had his actual first season in charge in season 2 would you have wanted to give him another year?

On the one hand, he’s taken over from a legend and won the league at the first time of asking but on the other hand he’s then taken the same group, maybe added some of his own choices and then made the team worse and also somehow lost the core of what they were even about for the previous decade.

That’s basically the difference right now. It feels like “our Moyes” had a much better footing in terms of inheriting peak Mo, peak Trent, peak MacAllister, Alisson and VVD combined with a low quality league last season. I feel like Ferguson bought Van Persie on his last legs to win the title himself but didn’t leave much of an inheritance for Moyes.

I will always give Slot that he used Gravenberch in a way that Klopp never seemed to consider but he also has failed the many youth players in our team since he took over. He’s mostly been a coward and had he signed Zubimendi like he wanted we wouldn’t have even seen Gravenberch develop in the way he did. This season he literally ignored Rio all season to keep playing Gakpo at LW to the detriment of all of football ever.

Personally I’d bin him but it looks like the management would rather persist and have to sack him at Christmas so there’s another season wasted. At least we’ll go into it with zero expectations this time around.
Minty, LFC

Slot is leaving

In response to some of the mails about Slot and whether he stays or goes does anybody think it’s already been decided ?

It’s why everything is so casual and we are limping over the line ? We have all been over the myriad reasons why he won the league in his first season and the reasons this one has been so disappointing. The biggest one for me was that he deserved the whole season and should not have been sacked up to now. Having won the league he deserved a full season to ‘turn it round’. He hasn’t.

Alonso makes sense because he coached Frimpong & Wirtz. If we have to do one thing next season its get the best out of Wirtz. Isak will be brilliant. He was on a par with Haaland when he was at his devastating best but that gets forgotten after he downed tools and then got injured. If he’s fully fit he is straight into my fantasy football team and captain.

Frimpong was at his best as a wing back. Kerkez looks like he would be too. Leoni looked a great signing and Jeremie Jacques is a player. VVD has struggled this year due to the mess around him rather than his personal demise so can thrive in a 3. 3 at the back means keeping Gomez. Gravenberch or Curtis Jones can easily fit in there too where required. I would love to see Isak and Ekitike upfront together with Wirtz as a free roaming 10 but that will have to wait. Szobo or Mac Alister partnering Wirtz with Isak banging in the goals would be wonderful to watch.

Iraola worked with Stephen Hughes at Bournemouth so it would not be a surprise to see him coming instead although I think he is favourite for the Man Utd job.

Alonso is the emotional option who would galvanize the club and get the fans back onside immediately. What he did at Bayer Leverkusen was superb. Getting fired after a couple of months at the egotistical white hanky club is not something to besmirch his reputation or character.

FSG know what they are doing. Best run club in the world for the last 10 years. We do not need another squad reset. Thank you Arne Slot for an amazing premier league, it all went against you this season, it needs a change.
Hong Kong Ian (are we really going to sell Alisson?) LFC

VAR in the bin

The Scottish title race has been incredible this year — if you’re not watching it, you’re missing out. But yet again — VAR has cast its dread hand over everything.

It’s bad enough that VAR had to take centre stage for the West Ham- Arsenal game, and that an entire season seems to have been decided by what three blokes saw on TV — but now in the last minute, last kick even, of the Motherwell-Celtic game, VAR has to stick its nose in and find a foul where no-body else did.

Was it handball? Was it an elbow? Or was it simply a coming together that if it happened anywhere else on the pitch there would be a half-hearted appeal from the player and then we’d move on.

We have become trapped in a situation we didn’t want — that the game is being re-reffed, that we can’t enjoy our game in its natural spontaneity because of the fear that some microscopic misdemeanour will be dragged back and then analysed in super slow motion. We’re not looking for clear and obvious errors.

Arguably the only ‘Tech’ that has worked in the modern game is goal line technology because we can all accept it as a fact. Everything else is opinion. I’m not a Hearts fan at all (c’mon Hibs) but I’m outraged on their behalf that their entire season could hinge on a decision as rubbish as last nights.
Dan, London.

Are you not entertained?

In response to Eric in LA, whose life seemingly revolves around sex and football, when can we all visit !? It was an interesting analogy (I am being kind…) but not the answer.

Without speaking for almost everyone (which I am about to…) ‘we’ all loved the Arsenal team of just 3 years ago when they were playing fast, free flowing exciting football. Odegaard was tearing it up having just arrived from Real for 25M. Saka was absolutely on fire, as opposed to the fatigued, injury ravaged shadow we have seen since he broke down in the premier league run in last season.

Essentially I think it breaks down to 4 reasons as to why we really absolutely HAD to give that West Ham goal and deny Arsenal the win:

Schadenfreude – the feeling of pleasure or satisfaction derived from another persons misfortune. Specifically to feel a sense of relief or cosmic balance when an arrogant or harmful (to football) person finally faces consequences. Having been a pretty turgid campaign where Arsenal have over relied on set pieces, time wasting, obstruction, and Arteta’s insistence on never being in his technical area (please book him referees….), a last minute goal in a ruckus of players seeing Arsenal drop 2 points from a corner would have been perfect. Do they really deserve to win the league with this drivel ?

Boring football – London Stoke – similar to the point above but more related to Arsenal of 3 seasons ago. How did a club spend a billion pounds and decide to play Tony Pulis football. Surely for that sort of money everyone would want to tune in and watch an Arsenal match rather than this drudgery. I love football and like to watch as many games as possible but this season has been awful. Too much focus on stopping the opponents play, but also in all fairness better mid table teams and a stronger 3 promoted teams making games harder to win.

‘Are you not entertained’ – Maximus Decimus Meridius in Gladiator. Might be controversial but I do think the reason a lot of people haven’t burned down Manchester City yet over the 115 charges is because Pep Guardiola has played bloody good football, signed bloody good players and given us some superb Premier League games and contests. We don’t really mind how much money they have magicked up, it’s been fun to watch. Arsenal have not given anywhere near as much to the game.

The song – ‘2nd again, 2nd again, 2nd again ole ole’ – my god its catchy. I want Arsenal to win the league but I just couldn’t stop laughing when I heard this the first time and saw the social media clips of it getting sung at random places and fans. Amazing how the power of a song can change opinions. If you want to keep singing the song the team has to be 2nd. Forget the fact a cheating sports washing dictatorship would be the recipients of this misfortune, I want to keep singing the song next season.

So there you go. Nothing to do with sex. Unfortunately…..
Hong Kong Ian (see you all in LA) LFC

The most classic Mailbox…

That I’ve read in my F365 days. Sort of late reply but thank you all. Amazing. And very poetic that it ended with a Peter G email explaining with the headline “Some rare praise for F365” – this formerly good football website for probably 427 reasons you can all come up with – why Tickner’s article was amazing because it was.
MAW, LA Gooner (I told you guys we got this.)