Jim Boardman and Jay Reid are back to talk all things LFC from Liverpool in the latest episode of Scouser Tommies.
In this week’s show Jay and Jim look back at the home victory against Chelsea and the midweek win against Leipzig, before looking ahead to the trip to North London and Arsenal.
The more we see the Reds playing under Slot the more we see the differences he’s bringing to the club. As Jim says, the squad Slot took over wasn’t that far from being a great team, but fresh eyes have found ways to improve it without changing it. Far too early in the season to say just how good a squad it is now, but it’s becoming more and more obvious just how good Slot is at managing games and instilling into his players the importance of picking and choosing when to force things.
The win over Chelsea came despite some PGMOL-level refereeing, to the extent that Arne Slot’s usually calm exterior was blown away.
Jim and Jay were impressed with Curtis Jones, who covered for an internationally broken Alexis Mac Allister. The local lad celebrated his new dad status with some excellent play, winning a pen, winning another pen that was somehow disallowed, and winning the game. Well, getting the winner. Has he moved ahead of Dominic Szoboszlai in the midfield pecking order?
Jay has some constructive criticism for one member of the Liverpool XI who has been involved in the last couple of games, one who has been showing a trait that has bothered Jay for a while. Nothing he wouldn’t say to the player’s face over a brew, should he ever happen to be in the same place drinking a brew, but something that needed saying. And now it has been.
For all that good play from Curtis at the weekend he was held back on the bench for the Champions League game, which earlier in the season might just suggest Slot was reverting to more of his favoured eleven. But with the boss saying after the game that he brought Mo Salah off half an hour from the end with one eye on Sunday, could it mean Curtis was being saved for that? Robbo also made way in midweek, for a player better at taking corners, but again does that suggest he was being saved?
One player who has got a good chance of starting is Darwin Nunez. Arguably Slot’s second choice central striker, the Uruguayan has shown in his most recent minutes that there’s far more to him than that chant sung so originally by every set of opposition fans. With Jota out injured – through a foul that Sunday’s ref maybe should have punished more appropriately – Darwin could get some time to prove to Slot that he’s worthy of more game time regardless of the misfortunes of other players.
With a League Cup game to come in midweek there’s plenty more rotation to come, but for those big games – the League itself and the Champions League – Slot does seem to be more reluctant than previous managers. As Jay points out, that could well be in no small part down to players being in a better position to play more minutes due to changes in training and tactics. One standout player in this regard, as Jay says, is Ibou Konate.
When the boss does need to rotate, thanks to the squad he inherited he has plenty of good options to go with almost anywhere on the pitch. If there is one place that doesn’t really apply, it’s at centre-back. Slot can turn to Quansah or Gomez, both good cover, but it’s no criticism of either of those players to point out just how much better the two first-choice centre back are. The better they are the harder it is to rest them, but the longer they play the more chance there is of a fitness issue.
Next up: Arsenal, a side who might be a few players short come kick-off. It’s a huge game as far as the season goes, a defeat for the Reds doesn’t bear thinking about but a Liverpool win would really open a gap up between the current leaders and last year’s runners-up. As Jay explains, a draw would not be a bad result, and it may well be that Slot sees it that way too, which may see a more cautious approach from the Reds than we’ve been used to at their place.
The thought of the Arsenal boss, of course, reminds us of his days across the park, days that still give us something to smile about. Talking of which, the residents of that soon to be demolished wooden monolith have been giving us more to laugh about. Never change.
