Liverpool banter 10

06 Oct 2025 23:32:01
Eddie001. You've said recently that the slow build up tactic of passing it between the centre backs is to bait the opposition into breaking ranks and finding a gap to penetrate. Question: if you can see this, surely opposition managers can see this too and simply brief their team not to. Time for a change in tactics now, no?

{Ed001's Note - I would say so. I always think fast movement is best as it drags players out of position and doesn't give them time to cover. You don't need players to move fast, the ball should be doing the work. It was always the same when we struggled against low blocks under Klopp, we would move the ball too slowly then as well. That just allows the opposition time to adjust. A bit like crossing early is more dangerous than peeing about doing a Peter Beagrie before crossing it. Possession is only as good as what you do with it.}

07 Oct 2025 00:42:13
my 11 year old made an observation during the Chelsea game. He said that when the defenders are passing the ball sideways inside our own half and then they launch a long ball forward that we lost, it takes Wirtz out of the game. I thought that was quite an astute observation as we'd be more effective working the ball forward and then camping in the opposition half.

at times we had the ball kind of in no man's land about 10-15 yards our side of half way going side to side and then not being ebal to move the ball to put pressure around the box.

07 Oct 2025 02:30:15
Thanks for the reply, Ed. You’re right. Speed is the solution. A few games of rock and roll instead of the symphony would be nice.

Low block teams are so well drilled not to do the exact thing this slow build up expects. They’re not going to move out the way and let us pass through them.

If you’re going to play possession based football look at Barcelona from the tikitaka days. Their team was always on the move. After every pass their players moved into space with triangles to allow the guy with the ball three options for a pass.

I hated that tikataka football. It was slow and ponderous and boring. But we’re miles away even from that.

07 Oct 2025 06:25:39
Liverpool don’t usually launch the ball forward tho, unless it’s maybe at the feet of our new keeper.

07 Oct 2025 07:08:36
Trent is going to win the Balon d’Or.

07 Oct 2025 07:32:22
We just need to change the mindset of constantly giving the ball to salah all the time, wirtz is left moving around and being bypassed just so salah gets the ball.
Reminds me of spurs where everything went through Kane, got to use wirtz more that’s why he was bought.

07 Oct 2025 08:11:36
The beauty of moving the ball fast is players are reacting and not thinking. They lose their shape and often lose their heads too.

Why do coaches overcomplicate every part of what is essentially a simple game.

07 Oct 2025 09:37:34
ED001 Peter Beagrie. not heard that name for a while . remember him beating his man several times with ease bfr attempting a cross . n then he'd try n beat himself bfr crossing it.

{Ed001's Note - used to drive me mad and so many ex-pros that played with him have moaned to me about not knowing when he would cross so they would end up not making a run at the right time.}

07 Oct 2025 09:46:40
In pre-season we played patches of one-touch football where the movement of the players was great and really exciting to watch. There were triangles of players all over the pitch and there was always an option for a quick pass. I have not seen anything like that since the season started.

We started the season ok going forward but losing all those 2-0 leads seems to have massively knocked the confidence (even though we found a way to win in the end) . These last couple of games we have again started ok but then conceded a needless goal and it has destroyed our confidence. Even then, against Palace and Chelsea we found a way back into the game but the team was set up so attacking that you will always be vulnerable at the back. It's risk/ reward. The opening 5 games it went for us but in the last couple of games it has gone against us. that's football and Slots crazy team setups late in games have won us more points than they have lost us so far.

07 Oct 2025 12:24:14
Ed01, moving the ball quickly (and effective set pieces) is the best way to break down a low block. No new ground broken in your comment. Well, except for bringing Peter Beegrie back from the stone age. Now that, was a blast from the past.

07 Oct 2025 12:43:23
In the chelsea game we had the ball nearly lost it in our pen area managed to pass our way out of danger passed it through midfield then it was passed out to MO who instead of taking on the full back turned towards his own goal passed it to a midfielder who passed it to slobz who passed to our keeper who then booted up the park which was won by chelsea player and they were on the attack . This happened several times so what play book is that out of . YNWA.

06 Oct 2025 21:14:11
It's crazy Sky sports. The talking Declan Rice for Ballon D'or. No way!

06 Oct 2025 22:17:17
That's Balloon of the Year?

You have already won the Poster!

06 Oct 2025 22:35:48
Have you also seen the piece entitled ‘how Maresca turned it around at Chelsea’? Are they serious?

He won one game! In injury time!

It’s a good result for them but it doesn’t mean he’s turned anything around. That’s if it even needed turning around in the first place!

Chelsea are Chelsea. They are capable of beating the very best sides on their day but they won’t be consistent enough to mount a title challenge.

The media just spout nonsense on whatever the flavour of the week is, what surprises me is how many people actually fall for it. I listen to games without the commentary and until you do it you don’t realise how much the commentators ‘opinions’ affect your judgement on how a game is going.

I’ve watched an entire game and thought we played well only to be told by Carra on SkySports how poor we were and how lucky we were to win then my mates echoing everything Carra has said. They literally tell us what to think it’s quite scary really that so many go along with it.

06 Oct 2025 23:12:08
Robbo - during the second half, not long before we scored my 11 year old goes - "They're (Chelsea) not very good aye"

he learnt a good listen later in the game after that comment hahahaha

but yeah it sruck me too that they were just ok. Makes it more annoying that we weren't good enough to beat them on the day.

06 Oct 2025 23:13:30
to be fair to Carra, he's been beating this drum since the first game since and we'd been winning.

07 Oct 2025 12:27:24
Roobo, keep in mind that these same people were the ones saying Maresca was staring down the sack. And anyone echoing a pundits like Carra and Neville are just embarrassing themselves.

Why? Cos when the wind starts blowing the other way, they will change their opinions again and won't be held accountable for saying the opposite earlier. It is what it is.

07 Oct 2025 12:58:58
It's embarrassing to just dismiss everything a pundit or journalist says. Especially when you claim not to even follow the media or social media.

07 Oct 2025 13:51:33
What commentary do they have on YouTube highlights.

Does Cara and Neville do that as well?

06 Oct 2025 19:17:33
It will be interesting to see the extent of Konate's injury in the coming days, if he does play for France and it gets aggravated we might be left with just Virgil and Joe as fit senior centre backs for Man Utd.

06 Oct 2025 19:51:47
I dunno what Joe did to Slot, but he seems to prefer putting players out of position to using him.

06 Oct 2025 20:10:52
You said it, SR esp. your last part.

06 Oct 2025 20:18:07
If I was Gomez and I was fit sat on the bench and the boss takes off 3 players in the 3 positions I play and prefers to play players out of position in them positions than me I’d hand in my notice.

06 Oct 2025 20:22:17
Joe's not had any type of pre season so putting him in early will just end up with him being injured.

06 Oct 2025 20:40:52
Slot doesn't rate Gomez and it's not hard to see why.
He's not that good. I reckon Slot was trying to replace Konate in the summer and everyone was up in arms.
As I said to OliRed earlier, Grav goes centre half because he's better on the ball than Konate, Gomez and Endo. He wants someone to pass the ball better and move it quicker when we need a goal.
It's not ideal but we didn't get another centre half in the summer and we need another midfielder that can replace Grav if he drops back into the back four.

06 Oct 2025 20:46:33
Didn’t Gomez play 90 mins against Southampton though.

06 Oct 2025 21:28:37
Joe's not had a pre-season, yet Mac Alister seems to play and stink up the joint without any pre-season whatsoever.

To me this is similar to when we had that injury crisis in defense in 2020-21. The ship steadied when we started playing CBs at CB because then we stopped playing midfielders out of position and thus weakening the midfield.

06 Oct 2025 22:40:18
The problem is that if Konate stays on when we need a goal, we might not weaken the midfield but it won't get the ball anyway. Konate does very little with ball and we might need someone to make something happen. Gomez is at a similar level to Konate in possession.
Add to that us losing the best long passer in the team- if not the League- in the summer and I can understand Slot reacting. Konate and Gomez slow the play down and are incapable of stretching the opposition with their distribution or by carrying the ball out of defence.

06 Oct 2025 23:14:34
If Konate is out with injury I really hope Slot doesn't spend the entire international break plotting a way to wind up with Chiesa at CB then he says "people complain when I don't play Chiesa then they complain when I do"

:D.

06 Oct 2025 23:29:04
If your tactics rely on your centre back when you need a goal you're getting it all wrong.

07 Oct 2025 07:36:16
It's not about relying on your centre back when you need a goal, stoneage. But you can't rely on Konate and Gomez to get things moving when we do need one.
Konate would be less replaceable if he was more solid defensively and we were conceding fewer goals.

07 Oct 2025 08:39:35
Gomez was completely crap against Southampton and was outshone by an 18 Yr old on debut. Probably some of the reason Slot doesn't play him.

07 Oct 2025 09:55:38
Konate has been abysmal in most games this season (far worse than Gomez v Southampton) . An injury might be a blessing in disguise. We cannot lose Grav from midifield though. If Konate is out give Gomez a run. Failing that stick Endo in there but our midfield doesn't work without Grav.

07 Oct 2025 12:35:06
Rigsby, and my retort to you is the same. Im not interested in "progressing the ball" right now. I am interested is us getting back to basics with a solid defence and playing players in their proper positions cos we're in a pretty deep hole here, in case you and Slot are asleep.

Also if Slot wanted a CB who could progress the ball, he would either have tried to sign one or try to convince the legendary Joel Matip to come out of retirement cos he was the best at it.
Instead, Slot is weakening the midfield by putting arguably his best mid. and only DM at CB with a CB on the bench (after moving his other best midfielder to RB with a RN on the bench) cos he "wants to progress the ball" and then puts Endo in the DM role who ironically, can't progress the ball. If you think any of that makes sense then, that's you. Many of the rest of us think that is literal insanity.

07 Oct 2025 12:55:49
Surprised no one mentioned Grav in defence last season when slot did it then.

Perhaps illegal streaming was down for those specific games.

07 Oct 2025 13:10:47
OliRed, Slot tried to sign Marc Guehi in the summer. It was all over the media. Did you miss it?

So you're not interested in progressing the ball when we were chasing the game at Chelsea? That's when Slot put Grav back into the defence. I suppose we could have gone back to basics. Defenders that can defend. Safety first. Put it in the stand. Even your mate 'Fede' Chiesa would struggle to score like that.

The legendary Matip was the best at progressing the ball, was he?
I take it you never saw Alan Hansen, Paolo Maldini, Rio Ferdinand or Franz Beckenbauer play, then?
And what's that other fellahs name?
Oh yeah, Virgil van Dijk?
The legendary Joel Matip 😂.

07 Oct 2025 21:55:01
Rigby, slot and co did try to sign Guehi, but really messed up,
Matip wasn't the best, but he was really good, at his peak, one of the best.

08 Oct 2025 07:20:39
Kop that, whether Slot and co messed up trying to Guehi or not is not the point. The point is that they tried to sign another centre half; one that can progress the ball quicker than Konate can.
I liked Matip but he wasn't one of the best at progressing the ball let alone the best. There are/ were loads better than Matip was.
Matip wasn't even the best at Liverpool!

06 Oct 2025 14:54:50
The championship winning teams that LFC have had over the years we never changed our system always played our best eleven bought two players a season put them in reserves unless they were to replace first team players we still won leagues and cups.

In the premier league over years they have had so called tinker managers now we have one and it seems to have started the same outcome losing games. I think Arne is over thinking things also taking our eye of the ball over waiting for Isak has not helped.

But i have no doubt Arne will 1. get us back on track and 2. learnt from this lesson.
YNWA.

06 Oct 2025 16:05:25
Arne is about to show us how good he really is, now that he has a world class squad .

06 Oct 2025 16:11:57
We’ve done exactly what you’ve said though iwillbered. We’ve replaced first team players who have left. In the case of Diogo it’s an absolute tragedy not a player leaving which left a huge hole that we will probably never fill but if you look at the signings we’ve made they are all replacements for players who are no longer there.

Trent - Frimpong
Tsimikas - Kerkez
Diaz - Wirtz
Diogo - Ekitike
Nunez - Isak
Quansah - Leoni
Kelleher - Mama

Now when you look at that list you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who says that’s not an improvement overall. The only one you could say is the right back area but we’ve got Bradley there who many were saying should’ve played in place of Trent anyway.

The squad is better than it was last season but they’ve just had a tough start culminating in a few extremely narrow defeats over the last week.

I think Slot is trying to manage workloads given the lack of preseason for most players and he’s trying to prevent injuries affecting us later in the season. I honestly don’t see it as tinkering but more necessity. We are not totally fit yet so sending them out all guns blazing would be foolhardy.

Let other teams do that and it might mean losing a few games and coming on strong in the second half of the season but that’s when the trophies are handed out.

If you want to compare with great Liverpool sides of the past I think (and you can correct me if I’m wrong here I’m going by memory) that Kenny’s double winners of 1986 were around 10th place at Christmas but then started firing all the way to the double.

It’s a long season that needs managing in the right way. We can’t let a one week period affect everything it’s just a tiny part of the season where we’ve lost a few games. It doesn’t mean we will continue to lose every game just like winning 3 in a row doesn’t mean you will win every game.

We just need to chill, we have a great squad that will be right up there when the medals are being handed out in May. We are allowing a disappointing week to turn into a disaster in our heads. It’s far from it.

06 Oct 2025 17:28:18
Arne Slot problem is lack of courage against the football committee. He should tell committee, I don't need so many new players, he should have courage to shout at Salah to help out in defence or face bench, he should have courage to put Isak on bench and start Ekitike who is on form.

He lacks courage.

06 Oct 2025 17:50:34
I think he racks 'ah dissaprin. Dissaprin come from within.

06 Oct 2025 17:59:23
I don’t think he lacks courage. He hooked Quansah midway through the first game of the season last year and the boy never saw the daylight. Salah was never good at tracking back, Jurgen had Henderson covering the backside of Salah for an entire decade. The big boys are always going to play no matter who the manager is.

06 Oct 2025 18:03:07
Salah had his best season when he was left as the most forward player and not tracking back, or at least I presume last season was his best? Damn good anyway. Salah gets so much stick and we are never happy, I was moaning at him being greedy and not passing! If he had passed and whom ever received the ball missed I would have moaned at him for not shooting.

06 Oct 2025 17:52:24
I don't think he lacks courage at all. He benched Salah last week. Slot for sure has his work cut out in the weeks ahead. He's been given a world class squad. Isak Wirtz class players. Slot needs to sort out what's behind them before we'll see the best of them.

06 Oct 2025 18:10:50
Robbo
None of the players you have mentioned have proven to be better than their predecessors so far. We all hope they will be tho but that’s another story.

06 Oct 2025 18:23:13
Are you still here, Leek? Like an annoying wasp when you're trying to eat food.

06 Oct 2025 20:13:59
I’m hardly one for wokemanship myself but someone has to call out Rugby Parker. Completely unnecessary and clearly racially offensive. We are better than that on here folks.

06 Oct 2025 20:14:28
Robbo, those players who left have written their names in the annals of the illustrious history of this club. It is up to the new players to emulate the departed ones (including the dearly departed DJ20) in this regard.

We hope they do it if not surpass their achievements BUT at the end of the day, they're going to have to go out there and do it. We all hope they will.

06 Oct 2025 20:57:58
Red flag, it's from a South Park episode, direct quote as it was the first thing that came into my head when I read "he lacks courage". Absolutely no offence meant, but apologies if any was caused.

06 Oct 2025 21:02:11
Salah has been ghosting in games all season and slot doesn’t bring him off when it is clear that he should bring on Chiesa slot has an agenda against chiesa and rewards Salah by keeping him on the pitch Salah has been a legend for us but is past his best now and he is one of the problems.

06 Oct 2025 21:33:19
haven't heard the transfer committee brought up for a while lol
next thing it will be "Arne is a yes man" :D

I don't think Slot is going to stop tinkering, it's what he does.

So i think we'll just be riding this out and hope that team figure it out!

06 Oct 2025 23:23:22
Dear God, I hope we win a game soon.

06 Oct 2025 23:52:34
I remember Slot not tinkering enough last season and getting knocked out of the CL and losing the League Cup final because of it.

07 Oct 2025 01:02:00
Salah did use to track back when he was younger and when he could get up and down the pitch. He helped Trent out a lot in defence back in the day. But his legs have gone and he's no longer able to do that, hence why he stays up top most of the time now. He has adapted his game as time went on to try and prolong his career with us.

But I think the changes on the right have affected his play since he now needs to look up and find players instead of instinctually knowing where the RB, RCM, and ST are now.

07 Oct 2025 04:49:39
the problem is amplified because we have Isak who cannot press as well and doesn't track back.

We knew this is going to be an issue and quite a few called out here. we wanted more of a hustle buster with brain and not just king chaos.

07 Oct 2025 08:09:19
Would be nice if the same posters who slated Jota and his professionalism for years showed some class now and didn’t keep using his name in vain to receive post likes.

07 Oct 2025 11:58:02
Robbosleggs, I understand what you are saying I am not slagging the players or the manager but I was trying to make the point that we would sign two players each season they would go into the reserves and were taught how we played playing against men of their age now we have an under 21 team that has kids as young as 16 playing it is great for the kids but not enough experience against grown men .

The lads we signed this window some of them could have done with a short time in the old reserves because they are finding it difficult to intergrate into the system. The point about tinkering i was trying to make was we have seen managers tinker with their teams and believed it was working two of them actually won the premier league and were sacked the next season for tinkering and getting beaten but and one won premier in first season. I do not want Arne to fall into that trap .

Wirtz when you bring in a player of the caliber of Wirtz you give him the ball let him work his magic you only have to look at enzo at chelsea when he first come people were saying a waste of money look at him now why because when his team mates get the ball first thing they do is look for him instead we look for MO all the time and he has two markers some times three if Wirtz gets the ball early and starts making things happen the opposition will move men on to him leaving MO free . YNWA.

06 Oct 2025 14:51:33
You cannot tell a player he does not have to come back and defend when under pressure as it puts pressure on the rest of the team. Bradley needs to learn to defend before he goes bombing up the pitch. Teams are exploiting his runs and counter attacking the space he leaves and konate not covering as he used to (head somewhere else?) Macca is not in a good place he is leaving to much for grav and slobz to do( is his head elsewhere?)

Gakpo is like a wind up toy just does the same thing every time you don't even have tell your defenders how he is going to play they know how.

Wirtz is an excellent player but before he signed he was not playing well for national team and has carried it on with us. Mo can not keep playing every game his performances are telling us that and should be telling Arne too. Let's just hope we can turn our form around.
YNWA.

06 Oct 2025 15:00:56
Can we stop it with this Gakpo nonsense already? He was one of our better players against Chelsea, plus he scored. If we won that game, nobody would be complaining about him.

06 Oct 2025 15:35:57
Maybe Salah could help Bradley out a bit more instead of just watching from a far.

06 Oct 2025 15:59:03
I’m a big Gakpo fan but I think he’s struggled this season.

I don’t think he had a bad game against Chelsea but I also don’t think he had a good one either.

Definitely more players struggling more than he is.

06 Oct 2025 16:24:50
@PB, I agree with you on Gakpo. That being said, his performances have dipped from the start of the season cos he is simply playing too much football with no rest. Notice he never gets rotated or given a blow.

Gakkers plays near tons of minutes for majority of the games which after a while, start to take a toll physically and mentally. I just think he needs to rest to recharge and get his mind and body right and start afresh.

Again, we have a Chiesa chumping at the bit to play any attacking position esp. on the left as that is his real position (where Gakkers plays) BUT Slot won't start him to give Gakpo a blow. Not a manager. Just a guy who says what he sees.

06 Oct 2025 17:13:48
I don’t think anyone is having a go at players but have to say that both Gakpo and Salah have been poor so far this season. Chiesa should have been given the nod over the last few games for either of them, he’s deserved his chance.
You can’t keep playing players who are underperforming currently and both of them have been so far.

Love both of them but it’s true either could have been dropped before now.

06 Oct 2025 18:01:19
If you offer me Gakpo and Diaz I would always have Diaz. Direct, can beat a man, terrific in tight spaces and works his socks off. Gakpo posses none of it.

06 Oct 2025 18:06:08
Gakpo like the majority of the team has not started the season well whatsoever. He wasn’t the worst against Chelsea but far from great. Maybe that’s standard we should be aspiring too and plenty of posters have mentioned similar before the Chelsea game.

06 Oct 2025 18:40:37
Everyone is ganging up on LFC:

guardiola manager of 115 charges and counting, at the EMPTYhad!

Arteta ex First Team Coach at man cheaty! under guardiola.

Maresca ex First team Coach at man cheaty! under guardiola.

And for the record LFC have lost "FOUR" competitive games this season, the first one in Arne's second loss in a final at the club, and the last three games on the bounce.

@Wirtz 007, there will only ever be one truly great iconic 007!

06 Oct 2025 18:45:51
Gakpo has no competition now. Rio has hardly featured and Chiesa is not liked in any way no matter what he does.

06 Oct 2025 19:54:35
Iwillbered - Arjen Robben is one the best right wingers of the modern era and made a career out of doing exactly the same thing time after time, game after game.
Knowing Gakpo is going to do something is one thing, stopping him doing it is another, if anything I'd say it shows how good he is. Only chance we had of getting a draw against Chelsea was down to him and yet people still knock him. I don't get it.

06 Oct 2025 20:18:40
Westwood, I ain't knowking Gakpo. Im a huge fan of his and this, since he signed. He started the season well scoring and assisting in the first 2 games. After that, he started to struggle and with Slot having him start every game, he looks mentally spent as Slot won't rotate him with either CHiesa nor RIo in games. I just think he needs some rest to get him fresh and have him start again rejuvenated physically and mentally.

06 Oct 2025 20:23:20
Patrick burger, cody did not have a good game v chelsea he was pushed inside all the time lost the ball so many times or poor passes and yes he scored from 3 ft from goal scoring does not make it he had a good game mate . I like cody but he along with several other players are off the boil i have no doubt they will improve YNWA.

06 Oct 2025 23:36:45
OliRed, Gakpo does get rotated and he hasn't started every game.
I remember you had a lot to say about Wirtz starting on the left instead of him just over a week ago.

07 Oct 2025 01:05:41
By all accounts, we wanted Diaz to stay and offered him a contract. He was the one who wanted to leave.

Why do we have an obsession over players who want to leave us instead of supporting the players who actually want to stay and play for us? First it was Mane, and now it is Diaz. Do we have a thing for players who leave us for Bayern or something? ;)

06 Oct 2025 13:38:53
Hello fellow reds, just my take on current circumstances.
We are still only 1 point of the top, all the teams will have these kind of phases when results are not brilliant. Remember we beat arsenal who didn't even lay a glove on us an apparantly the media has them as this great team who will win evrything, time will tell.
Then we have players who are not upto full fitness and not fully integrated due to fitness, suspension and new club, like Mcallister, jones, ekitike, isak, kerkez, wirtz, Bradley, frimpong etc. just give it time, we will click!
Just on the chelsea game, isak header an salah chance start of 2nd half, we had other opportunities as well, which if taken would have been a different result. I know it's ifs an buts, but we are creating enough, just not finishing and final ball has been poor. Its the premier league and small margins.
Finally on jota RIP, I think we have to factor in what effect that has had on the club.
Not making excuses for the team, just saying their are many factors and we should keep the faith, we will fire up soon!

06 Oct 2025 14:41:58
7 games played …. 1 pt off the top when we’re still not playing well …. I’ll take that all day .
After the break what better way to get it right than Man U at home
Arsenal always start well then fizzle out.
But the cream always rises to the top …. and we will 👍🏼.

06 Oct 2025 16:01:09
Plus we “won the weekend” title 2 weeks ago.

06 Oct 2025 16:26:25
Fully agreed, @Liver. It's not all bad, at the end of the day. It could be worse than it is which buys us a bit more time for Slot to get his ducks in a row.

06 Oct 2025 18:02:30
We were 5 above Arsenal two weeks ago and now finds 1 below them. How exactly is this “not all bad”?

06 Oct 2025 18:06:14
Didn't win the weekend trophy 🏆 this weekend Oli! Not sure you grasp the point of the weekend trophy, it's to win everyone.

06 Oct 2025 19:55:38
Every team has a dip, hopefully this is ours. Whilst disappointing there's no reason this squad of absolute quality playing ability cannot go on a City style run. Here's hoping.

06 Oct 2025 20:28:17
Also if you think "winning the weekend" means winning the game on the weekend. And if you think it has anything to do with a trophy or whatever, you are even further away from what this means than I thought. This is what you get from parroting other people's nonsense. Sad.

06 Oct 2025 21:34:46
it is a game of margins mate and often people overlook these fine margins when they go your way, but then over-emphasize how bad things seem when they're not.