Good thing Marma has gotten some playing time....oh wait

I kinda get why Slot hasn't been playing him tbh. He knows he has virtually no margin for error anymore and has just decided to roll with a top five keeper in the world for every game.

Agree in the PL, but he should have started in the FA last week and previous games as well. Said it then too. Too many games and too injury prone and here we are.

Unreal draw lol.

FA CUP QUARTERFINALS

Arsenal @ Southampton
Port Vale @ Chelsea
Liverpool @ Man City
Leeds @ West Ham/Brentford

Of course we get City.

Game day. Up the Reds!

Whether I agree with it or not, Slot is under immense pressure to get this team to at minimum a semi-finals again, in my opinion. I know we undoubtedly have the harder path, but as we get a bit more healthy (looking at you Isak and Wirtz), rotate Gomez and Frimpong at RB, Rio playing more and more, and our overall difference in play between the CL and EPL, I think getting to a semi-final should be the goal.

Looks like Wirtz out left and Szoboszlai behind Ekitike. Glad to see Gakpo finally on the bench

Elite start. Off a corner as per usual this year.

We're going to be the better team in open play, just need to keep our heads screwed on.

Yep. Excellent pressing the first 5 mins. Created a handful of chances. And then we are undone by a set piece. Need to take advantage of Sanchez's gifts

Hello Earth to Liverpool perhaps mark Osimhen....

The passing is so bad in the final third.

HOLY S*** WAKE UP VVD AND KONATE MY GOD

Get Mac Allister tf off the field and get Wirtz in the center of the park. Also get Frimpong on the field good lord.

We are what we are...and it's not good and a tough watch. Same stuff, different day. Wide open in the midfield, like unbelievably bad...acres of open space. Toothless/plodding on attack, and leaky in the back.

Mac Allister off, Frimpong on is also the change I'd make. We aren't playing that bad, just needed to put away at least a few of the chances we've created. Wirtz should have at least one goal by now.

Ekitike
Frimpong - Wirtz - Salah
Szoboszlai - Gravenberch
Kerkez - VvD - Konate - Gomez
Mamardashvili

But we all know Gakpo is coming on on the LW so.....

hoosierAG said:

---

We are what we are...and it's not good and a tough watch. Same stuff, different day. Wide open in the midfield, like unbelievably bad...acres of open space. Toothless/plodding on attack, and leaky in the back.

---

It's true, and I am not sure why it frustrates me so much still lol. I don't even blame Slot all that much. We're just bad around him in way too many positions, then you couple that with what he wants to do and it's disaster.

I think everyone always knew we'd fall off some and have to rebuild a bit when Salah, VVD, Andy and TAA either got old or left. But the level of fall off we have seen from Salah, Gakpo, Mac Allister, and VVD (not all year just at times) as been absolutely shocking.

It's the same ol' s..t with this team.

Referee was also a POS. They get away with murder and hacking but if we breathe wrong... What's funny is that all the fouls in the box during set pieces that should be called in the PL were given today. Even things that weren't fouls like VvD beating their GK to the ball. But if we foul in the box, we lose possession; if they foul in the box, they retake the corner. Lastly, fact that Davinson Sanchez got a yellow for the most innocuous kick but Osimhen, Yilmaz, Lemina, and Lang all escaped with nothing...

I predicted 1-1 which probably would have been a fair result. But 1-0 is not the worst thing to be taking back to Anfield. If Anfield and the Kop are loud and we catch an early goal, we'll win the tie. The longer the hold on to their advantage, the more they'll sit in a low block. Hopefully we are up for this 2nd leg bc they are there for the taking and are not very good away from home.

Completely fair or not, it's time to move on from Slot. It's not all him, but he isn't absolved from it either, and that's just the way it goes. Too much of this junk all year long and no improvement except when they got out of the complete suckage form, which isn't saying much. Regardless of roster/age issues, they have lost that mentality/desire it seems and are just so meh (at best) in everything. Securing CL next year isn't going to save him either at this point imo.

I just want this year to be over, Slot to get fired even though I think that's super harsh on him, and for us to sell Gakpo, Mac Allister, and Salah for whatever we can and move on.

Yeah I don't think CL matters one way or the other. Go get Alonso if you can and bring in more guys.

Don't forget Ibou. If not for a questionable offsides decision he would have given up an absolutely terrible goal where he made two boneheaded errors in one play.

The whole night he looked uncomfortable trying to deal with Osimhen and looked completely overmatched.

We are lucky to leave that game only down 1 and we still have a real chance to win the tie at home. We just need every single player to perform much better...

#SlotOut
That was atrocious. Left two subs on the bench, gassed our midfield for the weekend. It's time. At this point he's costing LFC millions by the day. It's so hard to watch this team play football. I think the locker room is gone and he's a dead man walking. Galatasaray is terrible on the road but there is nothing in this team that gives me any confidence we score two at home to take this tie. This is bad.

I really don't think it's quite that simple as to why this team has been so poor in games this year, but as hoosierAG stated above, when you're the manger of a club like Liverpool you're always going to wear a healthy chunk of the blame for whatever happens.

Do I think if we went out this summer and bought a CDM and two wingers with juice, and sent Mac Allister, Salah and Gakpo packing, that we'd be a whole heck of a lot better WITH Slot? Yeah I do. But again I also understand that there are things that have happened this year that are just completely unacceptable, and the overall mentality of the team has changed for the worse.

ETA: I was discussing Liverpool with one of my best friends yesterday, and the way I described what this offseason and this season has been in my eyes, is that Liverpool added high quality fixtures and finishes to a house that whose foundation and framing was starting to age, deteriorate and show cracks.

I think I am now firmly in the SlotOut camp. He has sucked the life out of the players.

I mean just look at this set up:

Liverpool went from gegenpressing to thispic.twitter.com/qt6EtGdUr3

— Dom✨ (@footy_road) March 10, 2026

No cohesion. Individual running aimlessly. No structure or plan it seems. Or if there is one the players either don't know how to execute it or don't know when they should all be executing it.

I saw an older interview of TAA talking to Gary Neville about how Klopp would set the team up. I am paraphrasing, but it basically boiled down to they were allowed, more encouraged, to take risks higher up the pitch. Bc even if they lost the ball, their pressing was so good as a team that they would then win the ball back when the opposition thought they were on a counter and thus be more open. We don't press anymore, we just kind of like lackadaisically block a passing lane and that's about it. There's no real team approach to it.

And then Salah may have lost a step or two but Slot does him no favors by leaving him on an island out wide. On of the best inside wingers of the last decade and he barely touches the ball more than 8 yards from the sideline:

Salah's touch map against Galatasaray. 😵

The Egyptian forward clearly isn't getting the ball in dangerous places. Has Arne Slot managed to stop his greatest goal threat? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/zHg9bmt9Oy

— Onze Masr 🇪🇬🇬🇧 (@Onzemasr_EN) March 11, 2026

And the last thing I will say about Slot's set up, because I can't find the actual picture. But there is a freeze frame that I saw when we were in possession, VvD had the ball. He had Ibou to his right, Macca on his left. And there was no one in the middle of the pitch. The person drew a circle with a 25 yard radius and not a single Liverpool soul was in it.

Like many on here and online. I almost don't even look forward to Liverpool games anymore. It feels like 2009-12 all over again. I mean just look at Slot's last 50 games. Pitiful

🔴 Arne Slot's record after 100 #LFC games.

The defeats have more than doubled in the last 50 matches. pic.twitter.com/VDXcjkkrCq

— This Is Anfield (@thisisanfield) March 11, 2026

He did the right thing in his first 50 where he just tweaked the system a bit, plus Salah had an unreal season. But now that he has to implement his own ideas, he is lost.

I think the lack of a press is one of the biggest issues with this team. I don't think in modern day football you have to play heavy metal, balls to the wall all out pressing all the time. But what I do think is that when you get teams in a specific look you need to be able to press them and press them effectively, and we don't do that whatsoever.

Now, is it Slot and the way he has us playing? The players? The mentality? I truly don't know and it's probably a mixture of all three.

[🟢] NEW: “Liverpool, from what we hear, are steadfastly behind Arne Slot and he’s under contract until 2027 and they want him to be their coach. The hierarchy are determined that he is the man to get things right.

“If they were looking at a recruitment process for coaches,… pic.twitter.com/AfyumWRBVZ

— Anfield Sector (@AnfieldSector) March 11, 2026

Not the news I would have wanted to hear

If they mean this they better go out and spend more massive money this summer, because if they don't AND stick with Slot we'll be in for a world of hurt.

I think Slot understands and can describe proper high level tactics. I just don't think he will be able to get these players to buy back into what they once mastered.

We had great success last year with Arne because he didn't change much and brought a bit of calm to Jurgen's team. In the years prior, Jurgen pushed the lads really hard, so they were organized, tough and aggressive come gametime. One of my favorite Klopp stories is from the first year when he showed up. He made the players train multiple times a day, often in the evening. The players at the time really resisted this change in training schedules and asked Hendo to go speak to Klopp. Hendo walks in and says "some of the lads don't really want to practice so late in the day"...Klopp looks him dead in the eye and says "Who?...Have them come talk to me directly"....and not a single player dared step forward.

Slot's calm explanation of tactics worked well for our Klopp hardened warriors. He instilled a patience through the whole team and reduced the physical burden in practice to preserve their legs. This approach had its merits at the start of last season and carried us to a title, but it came a price. That success, along with a lax in training standards, has quickly eroded the organization and intensity that Klopp built. As we sit today, Arne cannot become the authoritarian that built this squad because he let Mr. NiceGuy out of the bag. It would seem hypocritical and fake for him to change his management style which just won the league. So we are stuck with a stepdad who the kids tolerate, but don't fear, doing his (limited) best to instill discipline. Its just not going to work...

I think FSG will definitely can him at the end of the year. That announcement is more a mark of doom, than a public backing of support. If he really was the right guy, the management doesn't have to make such a statement.

I just saw that Arsenal barely escaped Leverkusen.

I've been thinking about this a while, especially in regards to the EPL but also to all of European football to some extent. But are we entering an era of UEFA football that will be defined by some level of parity?

This year in particular but even dating back to last year, I feel like the traditional powers of football are struggling more on a weekly basis than ever before. Someone who's been watching longer than I have please correct me if I am wrong, but I get the feeling that the days of the big five dominating teams below them on a week in and week out basis are gone, and perhaps some level of recalibration is required for what success looks like in the EPL.

I am not saying that is the main problem for Liverpool this year, far from it. But perhaps our downfall this year is coming at a time when getting a 1-1 draw away at Crystal Palace is actually a really solid result, whereas 10 years ago it was expected for Liverpool, City, Chelsea etc. to go away to Palace and dominate and win 2 or 3-0, and that just isn't realistic anymore.

Again not saying this is our main problem because it's not. Just simply pointing out that perhaps we as fans need to recalibrate what success looks like in this time of football because of the quality around the big boys these days.

Edit: City is also now getting spanked.

PL teams can't play real football and get exposed by the good teams that can.

Overreaction for first leg for knockout round? Maybe, maybe not.

May be a slight overreaction (but then again, maybe not):
- Spurs are in free fall so I'll give you them. Their poor GK will take the blame but that entire club is in shambles
- Chelsea were in the tie vs PSG until the last 15 mins
- Liverpool despite playing like dogsh*t did inexplicably have a goal overturned by VAR (not sure how you can argue Konate's intervention was "clear and obvious"). If they leave Turkey with a 1-1 scoreline, the tune being sung would be slightly different. (To be clear, I am still #SlotOut)
- Valverde played the game of his life and City were caught out by it
- Newcastle should be taken a 1-0 lead to Spain but suffered a late penalty.
- Arsenal were Arsenal'd by conceding a set piece and then were gifted a penalty to save them. They just live off set pieces and look quite poor in open play. My favorite is watching Rice scan the field 12 times before receiving the ball and then passing it backwards or sideways.

I expect:
- Atletico to cruise past Spurs now
- Chelsea's collapse in the last 15 is now probably too much of a deficit to overturn and they'll be eliminated
- Liverpool should advance past Galatasaray
- City are capable of coming back vs Real Madrid who are easily down 4-5 starters. If Pep doesn't overthink and just plays his best XI, they just might do it
- Newcastle will fold in Barcelona
- Arsenal will score off another set piece and do just enough to advance
- The Bayern machine keeps purring
- And the Norwegian fairytale continues with Bodo/Glimt taking care of Sporting

Which makes your QF matchups:
- PSG v Liverpool
- City/RM v Bayern
- Barcelona v Atletico
- Bodo/Glimt v Arsenal

Then I think we get a PSG v Bayern and a Barcelona v Arsenal in the SF with my predicted final of Bayern v Barcelona. Six PL teams in the R16 and the PL will be lucky if 2 make it to the QF. So maybe not that much of an overreaction