Arne Slott runs out of excuses at Liverpool – Premier League hits and misses | Soccer News

Slott wants answers, not excuses, and he has neither.

Arne Slott says his job is to provide answers, not excuses, to Liverpool’s current predicament, with just one point from their last three games.

The problem is he doesn’t have anything. The Reds looked to be slowly but surely getting back into gear with four wins from five games, but dismal performances against Wolves, Tottenham and now Brighton have sent them back to the brink.

Manager Jamie Carragher said last week that patience was wearing thin among fans at Anfield and after a false dawn in midweek when they showed off their intensity and front-footed football in a 4-0 win over Galatasaray, they were back to square one on Saturday.

Despite that comment, Slott made the excuse that Mo Salah was absent and Hugo Ekitike was forced off early on. However, Liverpool’s lack of chance creation and lack of entertainment has been a consistent problem throughout most of the season, regardless of the talent of these two players. I needed an answer weeks, if not months, ago.

When website Sky Sports asked for comments following the team’s 10th defeat of the season, the most in 10 years, Liverpool fans were furious with the manager.

No matter what happens in the final seven games of the season, there are some things he has to fix. But if it doesn’t end with Champions League qualification, it may be too little, too late.
Ron Walker

Why releasing Casemiro is the right decision

There is no doubt that Casemiro will play an important role for Manchester United this season.

During the win against Aston Villa, the home fans chanted “One more year”.

His experience, positional awareness and winning mentality have helped steady the ship in a midfield that has often lacked structure and authority. At times, he seems like the glue that holds things together, and the glowing reviews reflect that.

But United’s long-term ambitions cannot be built around short-term solutions. And performances like the one against Bournemouth remind us why it is best to move in the summer when his contract expires.

Against Bournemouth’s energetic midfield, Casemiro was repeatedly exposed. Faster players passing him underlined the still-growing limitations of his game’s mobility. He struggled to regain ground and was booked for a cynical foul, but perhaps more worryingly he lost the ball 14 times, a significantly high number for a player whose primary responsibility is to protect the ball and simply set the tempo.

Premier League midfielders are built on athleticism, pressing, and quick switching abilities. Releasing him on a free transfer at the end of the season might feel like a loss on paper, but in reality, it could represent a smart team evolution.
lewis jones

Welbeck shows Tuchel what England are missing

Danny Welbeck has every reason to wonder why he hasn’t found a place in Thomas Tuchel’s England 35-man squad. Even before his double against Liverpool, he was the top English scorer in the Premier League this season.

It’s hard to know exactly why he was left out of Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Tuchel may believe that the 35-year-old’s best days are behind him, or that his arrival is only a short-term measure given his age.

But Welbeck scored his 11th and 12th goals of the season on Saturday afternoon and is enjoying the most lucrative season of his long career.

This puts him four points ahead of Ollie Watkins, who could end the Premier League season without scoring in double figures for the first time in his career, and Calvert-Lewin, who has already scored 10 goals but has only scored once in the past two months.

Welbeck has far exceeded his expected goals (2.47 points), while Watkins and Calvert-Lewin are both behind (both -1.7 points).

It is probably too late for Welbeck to be selected in Tuchel’s final World Cup squad despite his tournament experience, but it is undoubtedly England’s loss and Brighton’s gain that the top scorer now gets a few well-earned rest.
Ron Walker

Fulham need to tie up Wilson, but it won’t be easy

It’s understandable why Fulham fans are starting to worry about the future of star man Harry Wilson. Wilson’s recent man-of-the-match performance helped turn around struggling Burnley at Craven Cottage.

The forward, already the hosts’ most dangerous attacking outlet, cut inside and smashed a low left-footed shot inside the near post as the Cottageers quickly went from behind to leading after half-time.

It was Wilson’s 10th Premier League goal in a hugely impressive season and his highest ever for a return to the top flight, with many of them also on the shortlist for this season’s goal and one that will be coveted this summer even if he chooses not to extend his stay in the capital.

The Wales international’s current contract expires at the end of the season, but manager Marco Silva reiterated after the match that there was “no news yet” regarding a new deal for the club’s arguably player of the season.

If this impasse continues, you can bet your money is on the line that there will be a line of suitors waiting to lure the 28-year-old away from the west London club where he has spent the past five years in grace.
rich morgan

Garner at his best on the pitch against Chelsea

Beto won the man of the match award, but David Moyes rightly pointed out that James Garner was the best player on the pitch. He did a great job of saying that Garner’s pass to Beto opened the scoring and unlocked the Chelsea defense, but he did more than that.

Garner, who returned to midfield after playing as a right-back against Arsenal, produced a flawless performance in Everton’s 3-0 win, throwing himself into tackles and completing more passes than any of his team-mates in the final third to celebrate his England call-up.

If Thomas Tuchel wants to prove Garner is good enough, he should watch this game against Chelsea’s expensively assembled midfield. “The level of the players he’s playing against will always be a deciding factor in how well he can perform,” Moyes said.

“I think he took it in stride. He took it as a challenge. The way he played tonight, his effort to get the ball back and his speed, that’s another aspect of his game that we need because we don’t always have the ball like Chelsea.”

As Moyes pointed out, Garner has been playing like this for some time now. “It wasn’t just tonight that he performed at that level and that’s why he was called up.” Garner’s call-up before the World Cup didn’t surprise anyone.

“He’s been in the spotlight and he’s had to keep that going, whether it was tonight against (Enzo) Fernandes, Elliott Anderson at Nottingham Forest or Declan Rice at Arsenal. He’s doing a great job considering the level of players he has to play against.”
Adam Bate

Chelsea have problems in both boxes

Everton were great against Chelsea and David Moyes knew that. “It’s hard to say we didn’t deserve to win tonight’s game,” he said in a subsequent press conference, going on to say it would be “crazy” to suggest otherwise.

It was easy to see what he meant, as Everton showed far better intensity than Chelsea, who won 3-0 and reduced the gap between the teams to just two points. However, it is also true that goal expectation data showed that Chelsea had a better chance.

Despite all the scrutiny on Liam Rosenior, it reveals something about Chelsea’s problems in both boxes. These players have been unclinical at one end of the pitch, failing to score in their last three games, while continuing to make fatal errors at the other end.

It was a story of two goalies at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Jordan Pickford made two great stops to deny Enzo Fernandes. The shot was hit straight at Roberto Sanchez and writhed over the goal line. Chelsea were in the lead at the time.

Rosenior’s style and status mean he is reluctant to criticize players who need to be kept in the team. “I always want to protect my players.” But Chelsea look like a team on the brink of a season as pressure mounts on their head coach.
Adam Bate

Leeds have forgotten how to score at the worst times

Another 90 minutes and Leeds faced another blank. The 0-0 draw with Brentford will not be remembered for long, but for Leeds it added to concerns that their season is starting to drag. They have not scored in four games in a row in the Premier League and have not found the net once in 419 minutes of football. Strip it down further and the numbers become even more alarming.

The only goal scored from open play in the final 581 minutes of the Premier League was by Noah Okafor against Chelsea on February 10.

What makes this run particularly concerning is that there are no clear signs that it is coming to an end. Against Brentford, Leeds put pressure on and threatened at times, but they lacked the most important final moment. Crosses flowed harmlessly, shots were taken away and promising positions collapsed with little defensive resistance.

Bottom margins are always fine, but such goal drought tends to have consequences. Leeds is currently having an affair with a man.
lewis jones