LOLiverpooLOL - Next Season

[Sanguine]

Crikey, this is getting serious.

Quite. How they put together that 1-0 win over Madrid is as much a mystery as their poor form.

Guardian has it spot on - when Van Dijk is on form you don't notice him. Soaks up attackers like a sponge, calm, wins the ball, lays it off, strolls around like a cyborg. You very much noticed him last night - petulant whinge after conceding an obvious handball, all over the place for two of their goals, tackling was amateur.

Ten goals conceded in three games is a shambles.

xG isn't everything (or much at all on here) - but does throw up something interesting, and maybe the tiniest crumb for Slot to hold on to. Since the Palace game when Nketiah got a late winner, Liverpool's xG scored is 25, and conceded is 15. In that time they have actually scored 14, and conceded 24. They are playing poorly - but not as bad as their results suggest. They are missing chances, and they are conceding sloppy goals.

How Slot rights the ship though I don't know. He must surely make some changes in the coming week - Gomez in for Konate, Chiesa into the XI, drop Salah for a start - games at West Ham and at home to Sunderland have to be guaranteed three points. Fail to win either and incredibly I think his job is at risk, just months after winning the title.

Edit - echoes of Chelsea 2015/16. Chelsea won the league comfortably the season before. Mourinho was sacked in December after losing 9 of 16 games.

[Royal Rother]

I don't want to make excuses for them, but, being reflective...

All elite sport is about maximising fine margins, and it doesn't take much to lose them, so I do actually wonder whether Jota's tragic death has actually taken an edge off them and that somehow, in the hard moments most matches will produce, football just doesn't matter to them, and Slot, quite as much now.

I know that doesn't necessarily explain why the new players, Ekitike apart, have been poor, but a loss of passion and focus can be infectious.

[BraisingsteakRoyal]

I don't really have a dog in this fight, and totally accept that they haven't been good enough overall...but....

On the occasions i've seen them this season (mostly highlights and MOTD, admittedly...) - they've often been all over teams in the first period - hitting the bar / post / going close etc - game changing moments that haven't gone their way. Is it at all possible that they've just been REALLY unlucky....?

In - before the first response to this is just "no".