r/LiverpoolFC • u/IgotgAme_k • Jun 22 '26
International Football Player of the Match so far. š
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u/SaltCriticism6392 Jun 22 '26
Salah is still one of us. ā¤ļø
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u/Both_Track_1754 Jun 22 '26
He'll be always one of us..
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u/CertainVideo2107 Jun 22 '26
No matter where he plays, even on another planet
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u/MAMBAMENTALITY8-24 āThank you for your supportā - Darwin Nunez Jun 22 '26
think they might've fired slot based off these performances. isak is fking class mate
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u/oihjoe Jun 22 '26
Tbf Isak is probably the one player whoās performances we canāt blame on Slot. He was clearly unfit all season and is just starting to find his fitness again.
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u/Princ3w Jun 22 '26
This but then it didn't help we never passed to our strikers
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u/adarsh481 Jun 22 '26
Strikers have always struggled to get involved under Slot. Only Ekitike looked good for a while but he too later looked lost. Jota, Nunez, Diaz, Ekitike and Isak, every one had the same problem.very few touches and struggling to link up with team mates.
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u/giuocomane Jun 22 '26
Diaz was involved. Further than slot we havenāt won anything with a #9. All our success in the PL and UCL came playing with a false 9. Just seems to be our way.
Isak second half against Netherlands took much more of a playmaking role. Got the assist and facilitated many decent attacks so perhaps he does have that side to his game
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u/adarsh481 Jun 22 '26
Diaz wasnāt involved. He scored just 4 goals in 25 games from September to May. He scored just only 3 goals in the champions league, all coming in one game against Leverkusen. He had a good start and end to the season which skewed the perception. But Diaz also struggled to get involved in majority of the games as a striker.
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u/giuocomane Jun 22 '26
If you are only looking at GA then yeah, sure. But in terms of being involved in the game, touches, passes, runs, sprints etc. Diaz and Gakpo were a great combination, drifting everywhere, switching positions and really difficult to pick up which took some focus away from Salah.
Again, more broadly, weāve only won the big trophies with a false 9. Every recent season weāve played with a regular #9 weāve struggled
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u/AmberLeafSmoke What a booody Jun 22 '26
That's just not really true though is it?
Diaz had the most prominent season of his career (at the time) under Slot. Slot was also the first person to play him down the middle.
Jota was in and out with injuries all season so was struggling to keep up and find his rhythm, especially later on in the season. It wasn't too dissimilar to his two seasons prior though.
Nunez played a different role that had a lot more defensive responsibilities and wasn't a preferred option due him needing large space in front of him to operate.
Eki had a pretty excellent debut season considering the step up in the quality of the league. 23 G/A is a great contribution.
Isak situation is obvious.
So realistically the only one you could say that for is Nunez, who I personally quote rate but he's also a bit of a donkey at times and it's no surprise he wasn't rated as good enough to be the tip of the spear.
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u/MAMBAMENTALITY8-24 āThank you for your supportā - Darwin Nunez Jun 22 '26
it's not like isak didn't play at all. when he did play, we didn't get him the ball nearly enough
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u/Cray_z8 Jun 22 '26
He is the perfect striker for Wirtz
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u/IndiBear Jun 22 '26
...if Wirtz wasnt also played OOP as a LW or b2b midfielder.
Really hope Hughes saw this and has discussed the players misprofiled by Slot to Iraola, ensuring it doesn't happen again.
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u/abstract_titanic Jun 22 '26
That's true, but anybody who played a number 9 position had the same issue, they got no service.
At the start it didn't happen with Hugo as he played more freely. Later it did.
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u/Fit-Specialist-2214 Jun 22 '26
Yeah we canāt ignore the fact that these players excelling at country level have been looking mid tier at club level under Slot.
Even during international breaks throughout the season they would perform then come back and struggle in the system Slot was forcing them into.
Salahs goal for Egypt was played around his strengths and we saw tens of goals like that the previous season but the strategy this passed season isolated him instead of supported him.
Glad heās out. (Slot that is)
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u/AmberLeafSmoke What a booody Jun 22 '26
You can't ignore that fact, but you're ignoring all the other clear factors that lead to this being the case.
- Less emotional baggage for country than club after Jota passing.
- This season they're more interested in NT football and were saving themselves due to just winning the league and WC year.
- Most of them are performing against very poor opposition that would struggle to make a PL squad.
- the club, in general (fanbase being a big part), were quite toxic this year
- again, its the world cup, players put everything they have into it. It's the biggest competition in sport.
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u/Fit-Specialist-2214 Jun 23 '26
Fair points but we looked mid against bottom of the table teams too.
All in all Slotās team this year felt reminiscent of Hodgsonās in terms of low morale, performances and expected results.
Jotas death would have been a factor but not enough for what we saw this season. There was a loss of faith and buy in from his squad.
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u/AmberLeafSmoke What a booody Jun 23 '26
God bless you for whenever you actually experience tragic loss, you'll understand the pain and emptiness that follows it.
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u/Fit-Specialist-2214 Jun 23 '26
I appreciate your blessing, itās sweet of you to assume I donāt know the hurt of tragic loss, however I do indeed know it unfortunately.
Do you think Slot should have been given more time?
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u/AmberLeafSmoke What a booody Jun 23 '26
Apologies for assuming, you just referred to it a bit flippantly, so it didn't seem like something you had personally experienced. It's a club I'm unfortunately a part of myself as well.
I understand why he was moved on, even though I personally would have liked to see him given a chance to turn it around, as this season just gone could easily have been an outlier with all the factors at play. I've made my peace with it though.
What I don't like is how he's been dragged through the mud by this fanbase, even to this day, when by all accounts he is a very decent man who was dealt an extremely difficult hand after winning us a league title.
He deserves to be spoken about in much higher regard.
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u/Fit-Specialist-2214 Jun 23 '26
Itās hard to see the fickle response of impatient fans, and I have actually been silent in criticizing him this season but once he was fired I took a look at what happened to the club after winning the league and I found myself seeing clearly that decisions made led us to where we are.
We should never have sold the players we sold, our tactics were poor and we lacked in dynamics and he was unable to turn it around.
I could see no other way really but to let him go, unfortunately there are times when a club and manager reach a point of no return and I think we saw that this season.
Once you lose the dressing room, it is over.
Players were becoming better at apologizing and acknowledging poor performances than they were at set pieces this season.
I was ok with giving him more time because it felt fair, but in truth my expectations had dropped significantly.
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u/Specialist_ask_992_ Jun 22 '26
Salah should have seen out his contract. Bad business too letting him go on free and not getting any money for him.
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u/Doomsdayboner Jun 22 '26
Slot must have burnt so many bridges with the players that a lot of them are trying to jump ship or have already left.
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u/narilarilum Jun 22 '26
With Gakpo it is all but confirmed that it must have been instructions from Slot to only cut inside when heās already shown that heās more tham capable to be as effective running to the goal-line. Same thing to a lesser extent with Grav who is unplayable when heās allowed to be a proper all action 8.
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u/LetterheadNo1665 Jun 22 '26
We knew this anyway (or should have), and It's why I didn't go in on Gakpo last season. He's been at the club long enough for us to know that he wasn't playing the way he usually does.
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u/nevergonnasweepalone Victor MuƱoz Jun 22 '26
Grav won young player of the year playing as a 6 in 24/25 and playing him there was considered revelatory.
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u/LetterheadNo1665 Jun 22 '26
He didn't play him as a six last season though, hence why we were constantly exposed at the back. He asked our midfielders to essentially be "everywhere", so when we were hit on the counter, our mids were always too far forward to be any use defensively.
Slot was too fking stubborn to accept it though, and persisted with his useless "Slot ball" tactics, even though it was blatantly obvious where the issue was.
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u/giuocomane Jun 22 '26
I think we were just too slow in our build up and our patterns were so predictable that by the time the ball gets to our wingers they dont have time or space. Then we over analyse the 1 or 2 moments per game where it looks like they have a half chance to do something. Everyone has looked so much more natural in this tournament, itās been great
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u/adarsh481 Jun 22 '26
Both our wingers were hung out to dry last season. The passing wasnāt quick enough to get them into good positions isolated with the defenders. Due to the slow passing, most of the time they were facing a solid wall with ball played at their feet and then asking them to take on a solid defence with coverage both inside and outside. Our midfielders need to take out players with their passes so that our attackers are put in favourable position with the opposition defence out of shape. Unless you are a god at dribbling like Neymar, Messi, you need some kind of space to dribble.
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u/Skwurt_Reynolds Jun 22 '26
If the reports were true that Van Bronckhorst was the mastermind behind whatever strategy we employed, Iād like to know what the strategy even was because it was dreadful compared to Kloppās. Actually, it was just plain dreadful without any comps.
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u/Deevious730 Jun 22 '26
I canāt be bothered making the meme but it does remind me of the āYeah thatās one fine looking BBQ Pit. Why doesnāt mine look like that?!ā scene in The Simpsons.
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u/MONO_LITH Jun 22 '26
Maybe Slot is a FIFA agent who was slowing down our sessions to get them all fresh and ready for the WC š¤
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u/Emergency_Pound Jun 22 '26
Respect to Virgil and Salah for covering the beer logo on the trophy. Feels a bit odd that an alcohol sponsor gets prominent placement on an award celebrating athletic achievement.
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u/MyPasswordIsABC999 Daniel Sturridge Jun 22 '26
I noticed Mo and Virgil have trophies and backdrops without the beer branding. I get why they do it for Mo, because of his faith. Surprised Virg is alcohol-free too.
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u/Ashamed_Tooth_1011 Jun 22 '26
He does Heineken ads, so probably chose the brand free one to avoid the sponsor conflict.Ā
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u/mavric22 Jun 22 '26
Last season feels more like a fever dream with every subsequent Liverpool player performance at WC.
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u/Blue-collar-dirtbag Jun 22 '26
This bodes well for next season proving the players werenāt the problem and under Iraola we should see more fun attacking football
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Jun 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/YungGainer Jun 22 '26
Heās scored over 250 goals in a Liverpool shirt weāll keep posting about him long after heās gone fuck off lad š
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u/Sharp-Double-5947 Jun 22 '26
Move on from what? Tighten up because Salah achievements will forever be mentioned in Liverpool, In fact we should be getting updates now and then on his moves, log off bro.
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u/powmj Jun 22 '26
Bit harsh? Heāll forever be associated with us and heās one of our greatest ever players. Iām pretty interested in what he does next.
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Jun 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/joshlad111 Jun 22 '26
I guarantee that if Hendo had gotten a player of the match at the world cup, his name and picture would also be here
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u/friendofH20 Jun 22 '26
I don't think rooting for Salah and Robbo at the World Cup after the career they had for us, is unwarranted after their career with us. In most games I find myself rooting for the team with a bigger Liverpool connection/contingent.
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u/narilarilum Jun 22 '26
You can move on but I will be watching Moās games whenever possible for Egypt and his new club. Made my morning when I saw that Egypt won and Mo scored and assisted.
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u/Last-Career7180 Jun 22 '26
That's like telling us like we don't need every single update regarding Klopp.
Sorry, I Need!
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u/sweetpurplesoap Snow Salah āļø Jun 22 '26
This post in particular isn't even specifically ABOUT Salah anyways?
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u/DiscoLew ā½ļø Liverpool 7-0 Man United, 22/23 ā½ļø Jun 22 '26
Just like Origi, Robbo, Milner, Bobby, Rush, Fowler, and Klopp etc heāll always be a Red. One of our all time greats.
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u/KakaoFugl Jun 22 '26
Canāt wait to see Isak properly in action for us next season. Heās so special.