Carabao Cup 4th Round Football Thread ** spoilers ** [28th - 29th October 2025]

[BaZ87]

If it was me , and to be clear I am not a premier league manager, I'm only another forum armchair football coach. I'd have played this 11

I could maybe get my head around Wirtz and Gakpo's inclusion in the squad but never in a million years would I be playing Salah or Konate. We're seeing Salah struggle to play the same amount of minutes as he played previously, and he wasn't playing domestic Cup games previously. And with us down to 3 CB's thanks to Leoni's ACL injury and knowing Ibou's proneness to a muscle injury and that he's likely to be starting another 3 games in 7 days, playing him today would be asking for trouble.

Oh and Danns & Bajcetic are injured. And I'm better than Williams.

 

[C Kent]

If it was me , and to be clear I am not a premier league manager, I'm only another forum armchair football coach. I'd have played this 11

Woodman (though I'd have been tempted to see what Pecsi offers)

Gomez, Konate, Williams, Robertson

Endo Mac Allister

Wirtz

Gakpo Danns Salah

Then I would have substituted out for the likes of Ngumoha, Chiesa, Kerkez, Chambers, maybe even Bajcetic ONCE we had the lead and able to play from a position of strength rather than behind. I wouldnt have started with Kerkez and Ramsey in defence , Nyoni and Morrison in midfield and Chiesa up front

Danns is injured for a start.
'Once we had the lead'
Salah has been ******* garbage all season, why start him in an essentially meaningless game? Some people have been crying out for Chiesa to start over salah for the past 4 or 5 games and yet now people want salah to start over Chiesa, weird.
Konate has been ropey all season and now you're starting him along side Rhys Williams?

Gakpo and Wirtz I would agree should possibly have been on the bench, but folks want Ngumoha to get game time and now you want him benched? Slot can't win can he.

 

[Tombstone]

I could maybe get my head around Wirtz and Gakpo's inclusion in the squad but never in a million years would I be playing Salah or Konate. We're seeing Salah struggle to play the same amount of minutes as he played previously, and he wasn't playing domestic Cup games previously. And with us down to 3 CB's thanks to Leoni's ACL injury and knowing Ibou's proneness to a muscle injury and that he's likely to be starting another 3 games in 7 days, playing him today would be asking for trouble.

Oh and Danns & Bajcetic are injured. And I'm better than Williams.

Danns is injured for a start.
'Once we had the lead'
Salah has been ******* garbage all season, why start him in an essentially meaningless game? Some people have been crying out for Chiesa to start over salah for the past 4 or 5 games and yet now people want salah to start over Chiesa, weird.
Konate has been ropey all season and now you're starting him along side Rhys Williams?

Gakpo and Wirtz I would agree should possibly have been on the bench, but folks want Ngumoha to get game time and now you want him benched? Slot can't win can he.

As I say, I'm just an armchair forum tactician, you have to excuse me for not being as talented at football management as yourselves

 

[Sui]

Not the worst performance, played well just couldn’t make the most of the chances. Solid minutes for some players and hopefully a learning curve for Tzimas.

Baleba starting to look better as well. Now I just wish Mitoma would hurry up and be healthy. We’ve gone too long without him!

Arsenal players could spend some more time in the gym mind, caress them with the softest of touches and they fall over.

 

[Bigpig]

Not the worst performance, played well just couldn’t make the most of the chances. Solid minutes for some players and hopefully a learning curve for Tzimas.

Baleba starting to look better as well. Now I just wish Mitoma would hurry up and be healthy. We’ve gone too long without him!

Arsenal players could spend some more time in the gym mind, caress them with the softest of touches and they fall over.

well they do play for free kicks and corners. It’s their main source of goals

 

[fez]

Liverpool got lucky in the first 5 games with late goals but now the cluelessness is fully out in the open for all to see. He also brought in Giovanni Bronkhorst into his coaching staff who I don't rate at all.

Personally (not to offend anyone) I see Liverpool losing to Aston Villa, RM and Man City. Slot will be gone by Jan IMO at the latest.

Even last season Liverpool were not great for chunks of the season and Salah dug them out of so many holes. I'm not remotely joking when I say that without him being on an absolute rampage I don't think Liverpool come close to the title. I don't know what the final scores on the doors was by season end but at quite an advanced point in the season Salah had a hand in about 65% of Liverpools goals.

They've moved away from Salah being their main man and now Slot has to find a new style which he is struggling to do. They have gone down the same path that United did for years and it doesn't really work these days. I'm sure he will find some balance this season and Liverpool will be fine but I don't think its going to magically click like some people are suggesting.

 

[Nate75]

Even last season Liverpool were not great for chunks of the season and Salah dug them out of so many holes. I'm not remotely joking when I say that without him being on an absolute rampage I don't think Liverpool come close to the title. I don't know what the final scores on the doors was by season end but at quite an advanced point in the season Salah had a hand in about 65% of Liverpools goals.

They've moved away from Salah being their main man and now Slot has to find a new style which he is struggling to do. They have gone down the same path that United did for years and it doesn't really work these days. I'm sure he will find some balance this season and Liverpool will be fine but I don't think its going to magically click like some people are suggesting.

I wouldn't say they have gone down United's path just yet...

Apart from one thing that stands out. They have spunked a load of money on "big" players and lobbed them all into mix together and hoped for the best!

 

[fez]

I wouldn't say they have gone down United's path just yet...

Apart from one thing that stands out. They have spunked a load of money of "big" players and lobbed them all into mix together and hoped for the best!

Well no, that takes years and years of awful decision making at every level of the club. They have however bought players seemingly without a clear plan for how they will play as part of a unit.

 

[sigma]

Well no, that takes years and years of awful decision making at every level of the club. They have however bought players seemingly without a clear plan for how they will play as part of a unit.

I find it hard to believe that a pretty well run club doesn't have a plan. I'm sure they do, it's just not working and I'd guess they have a plan to rectify.

Hopefully as per SAF/United it was Klopp and Salahs magic which was the key to their success and they have a decade of doldrums ahead

 

[C Kent]

The only signing 'that doesn't make sense' would be one of the fullbacks as he hasn't used 2 attacking fullbacks before- and you can see that Kerkez is a good 10/20 yards further back when compared to where he played for bournemouth as he's being shoehorned into the formation. A fair few of us were wondering why Frimpong and Kerkez were bought, I think one of them was a dof purchase.

Wirtz: Slot was talking about a '10' this time last season.
Ekitike/Isak: we've been after Isak for well over a year and Ekitike was needed given we'd lost Nunez/Diaz and Jota.

He's also given the 2 in the middle more of a licence to get forward when compared to last season so of course we're more 'open' and teams are hitting that space, it's not really all that different to how teams would target Trent and the oceans of space he vacated under Klopp.

 

[Robbo]

It does make a nice change having Liverpool as the crisis club rather than ourselves, however brief it may be. Their next 3 games are very tough, too.

Questions should rightly be asked of Slot, he's got to forge a new identity for this team and so far he looks out of his depth. There is a lot of quality in the squad though so I can't see this being a long term thing, even if that means a different manager eventually.

 

[the wopster]

It does make a nice change having Liverpool as the crisis club rather than ourselves, however brief it may be. Their next 3 games are very tough, too.

Questions should rightly be asked of Slot, he's got to forge a new identity for this team and so far he looks out of his depth. There is a lot of quality in the squad though so I can't see this being a long term thing, even if that means a different manager eventually.

I can see them getting rid if they fall out of the champions league places and look unlikely to qualify

 

[C Kent]

I can see them getting rid if they fall out of the champions league places and look unlikely to qualify

I agree, I can see newcastle getting rid of eddie howe after spending 250 odd million and currently sitting in the bottom half of the table, especially if results don't improve and you fail to qualify for the cl. Who will you replace him with tho?

 

[the wopster]

I agree, I can see newcastle getting rid of eddie howe after spending 250 odd million and currently sitting in the bottom half of the table, especially if results don't improve and you fail to qualify for the cl. Who will you replace him with tho?

Could be worse, could have spend almost half a billion in one window, breaking the transfer record twice and look complete *****

 

[C Kent]

Could be worse, could have spend almost half a billion in one window, breaking the transfer record twice and look complete *****

and yet we're still above you lot and and only a few points behind the league leaders. If we're in a crisis what does that make the likes of chelsea who are below us, man city who are a point above us etc? Obviously i was jesting about yourselves, but that's because no one really expects newcastle to do anything so your league position is to be expected

 

[the wopster]

and yet we're still above you lot and and only a few points behind the league leaders. If we're in a crisis what does that make the likes of chelsea who are below us, man city who are a point above us etc? Obviously i was jesting about yourselves, but that's because no one really expects newcastle to do anything so your league position is to be expected

Going to be a sight to see watching slot’s Liverpool turning into ETH’s Manu over the next few months, your team is completely unbalanced, VVD has fallen off a cliff, you have nobody to replace him, salah is an empty shirt, there is only your midfield that is competent.

 

[IPBA]

Genuine question, has there ever been a Dutch manager that has succeeded in the PL? Louis van Gaal flopped at Utd (I think), ETH flopped at United and now we have Slot and his cluelessness.

 

[C Kent]

Genuine question, has there ever been a Dutch manager that has succeeded in the PL? Louis van Gaal flopped at Utd (I think), ETH flopped at United and now we have Slot and his cluelessness.

I guess winning the league isn't succeeding these days

 

[Shamikebab]

Hiddink is the only other one that could be considered

 

[IPBA]

I guess winning the league isn't succeeding these days

If you mean Slot then, did he really win the league with his tactics or was it the leftovers of Klopp's system which he let play out?