Liverpool and Arne Slot are boring. That was the argument that was expressed on the radio on Tuesday evening during the ride home from Anfield. Real?
Top of the group stage of the Champions League with a perfect record of seven victories from Zeven. Six points ahead with another match in hand in the Premier League. One victory removed from a Carabao Cup final and still in the FA Cup. Boring. Real?
Try to bring the fans who witness a 2-0 win over fifteen-time European Kings Real Madrid, a convincing victory over reigning English champion Manchester City and Manchester United at Old Trafford in embarrassment, but to tell that their team is boring.
What part of scoring a winner in the 91st minute in Brentford last Saturday, what Bees boss Thomas Frank brought them to call them the 'best team in the world' is boring? Which part of the beating of Tottenham with 6-3 or watching Mohamed Salah that tears goals every week is boring?
If one of these things is boring, then football may not be the sport for you.
Okay, the style of lock is more patient and caretaker than the 'heavy-metal' geging of Jurgen Klopp. That was apparent from the first training of the Dutchman and is not up for discussion. But it is also more sustainable and if the result yields, it is entertaining for Reds fans.
Slot was asked on Friday to prefer patience over a neck breaking style and said: 'That is difficult for fans and also for my father as a fan. When I call him after a match, he says: “Ah, it wasn't as exciting as other matches of Liverpool” when he watched the match against Lille.
'I had to try to explain to him: you can easily lose these competitions if you start forcing all kinds of difficult balls – but he doesn't always agree with me. As a manager I was quite satisfied with our performance against Lille.
'I remember that Curtis Jones tried to play a ball from the center line that brought a little risk, but we lost that ball and they made a counterattack. So that is the risk that you run if you play against a low-block team.
'Nottingham Forest is probably the best in the competition if you play these' stupid balls' – I call them stupid balls – that my father would like to see us play a little more. That is the risk that they create many more opportunities.
'And it is a difficult balance between taking risks and admitting a lot, or having control and not creating that much. It is a balance that we have to find and I understand that it is difficult for fans who come to the stadium to see us win. Hopefully, scoring a lot in an exciting match is good, but you need two teams for that. '
The statistics support this. Data from OPTA shows that the general trend at Liverpool is a slower movement of the ball (measured in the direct speed of attacking movements across the field, which is on average 1.75 meters per second (3.9 mph) is under lock compared to 1 , 93 (4.3 mph) in Klopp's final last year.
There has been a dip in the 'high turnover', which was characteristic of the style of Klopp, which suggests that they are more methodical, both on and next to the ball. And the average attack under lock takes 11.7 seconds – slightly more than under Klopp during his term of office.
But honest game for lock. The fact that your son is an elite coach clearly does not make him immune to criticism, even after a historic start on Anfield, who resulted in 26 wins in his first 33 games and a real chance of a quadruple.
The Reds boss knows that his measured approach produces results-and he will not change just to please nocturnal radio presenters who want to force debates … or his father!
Football became much more robot -like in the 2020s. Let's use Pep Guardiola and Manchester City as the following example. On their pulsating, sizzling Best, City has been the best team in the world in the last ten years when it comes to ruthless winning and entertainment value.
If gamblers had had the chance to look at Guardiola, the best manager of his generation, they should have grabbed it. But what many may not notice is that the Catalan City has made a borer – or perhaps more sensible and more pragmatic – in his pursuit of perfection.
In his first seasons, such as in the 2017/18 season with 100 points, City was attacking, attacking, attacks. There were fast wing players who remained wide with two number 10s in midfield: David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne.
Although Savinho seems to be the first choice on the left, Guardiola often seems to give preference to reverse wing players, which slightly slows the game.
It used to look good, but their style opened them, especially in Europe. Painful defeats in the Champions League, all pocking because they were undone in the counterattack followed by Monaco, Liverpool, Tottenham, Lyon and Chelsea.
So Guardiola changed. Technically gifted wing players came in who, with room to exploit, returned and owned the ball. Think of Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez, Jack Grealish.
On the other hand, the wing defenders were taken away from their permit to attack and asked to fall in. The rear four that the Champions League final of 2023 won 1-0 against Inter Milan were Manuel Akanji, John Stones, Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake-four central defenders through trade.
Do the tens of thousands of City fans in Istanbul remember that evening that it was a reserved, boring competition about the whole? Absolutely not. Does it matter that because of their tactics they have less chance of beating teams with five or six goals? Absolutely not.
Mikel Arteta's Arsenal followed this example and when the injuries allow it, the Spaniard often plays with four central halves, so that Ben White and Riccardo Calafiori transform into widely.
Football in general becomes less exciting for fans. Various factors, such as the introduction of VAR, have played a role, and the fact that nowadays you would have trouble going to a elite level for less than £ 60, makes the achievements much weaker for your money.
Almost every Saturday the champion match on Sky Sports will be a better view during lunch, in terms of goals and drama, than the Premier League offer on TNT Sports. Football in the lower divisions looks less like a chess match and has more uncertainty.
But in the era of social media, negativity about almost everything is common with fans. That even applies to the very best teams. Liverpool is, to stay with them, the form side in England and Europe – according to the tables – but some supporters still complain.
Every Friday the answers to my posts on social media are flooded with fans who grumble about the questions that are asked. “Why didn't anyone ask him why our set pieces are so terrible?” Someone said yesterday. “Why don't you call on the owners because of the lack of signatures?”
Fenway Sports Group, the owners, are not saints – and fans are partly right if they think that a few new faces could strengthen their hunt for four trophies this month.
But some of them ensure that you want to answer: 'Liverpool is at the top of the competition, size, not in a relegation struggle. Stop whining and just enjoy it. “
In short, look at ange postecoglou. He is in favor of his Bang-Bang-Bang-Valenstijl and Tottenham is 15th in the ranking. Slot has been measured more, but his team is slowly becoming a winning machine.
There is nothing boring about that.
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