Liverpool had strengthened in the summer transfer window; however, it seems they have lost some key personnel along the way.
While it was a great start to the season in terms of results for the Reds winning their opening seven games in all competitions, despite not playing very well, it has quickly turned sour in recent weeks.
Arne Slot has now gone from an unbeaten run to six defeats out of seven in all competitions, which has left them seventh in the Premier League table, surprisingly behind rivals Manchester United.
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This has been put down to a few factors, that have included defensive fragility, tactics of other teams, and the summer business taken on by Liverpool.
They may have brought in the likes of Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak to great fanfare, but the latter has not delivered as yet for the Reds up front like one of the men who lined up for Slot last year.
Photo by Nikki Dyer – LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty ImagesDanny Murphy says Luis Diaz is a big miss for Liverpool
Luis Diaz was sold in the summer transfer window for £65.5 million to Bayern Munich after being a key part of the success of the Dutchman’s debut title-winning year following the departure of Jurgen Klopp.
It has left the team with a gap of sorts on the left-hand side because it realistically only falls to Cody Gakpo, who is the starting left winger, with no fully formed alternative ready to rotate with him.
Diaz’s departure is something that Danny Murphy has highlighted with the transfer business of his former club this season as a player who is now a ‘huge miss’.
READ MORE: Martin Keown is right about two key Liverpool exits that have affected Arne Slot’s team this season
Speaking to talkSPORT, he explained: “This big turnaround of players that they’ve had, not only have some of the players from last year not hit the heights, a lot of the new signings are struggling with the size of the task, you can see it, it’s a bit much for some of them to take and I’ve seen it before.
“When you go to a club like Liverpool, players, especially young players, take time. They haven’t brought in a 28-year-old established (player). That’s not what they do, in fact, the most established player they let go was probably Diaz, who was 28-29, and they got such money for him, but he’s been a big miss.”
Danny Murphy is worried after Liverpool’s performance vs Brentford
It is a problem with the recruitment that they did not go out and buy an extra player on the left. Even if Ekitike can play there, he cannot start there most games.
However, Murphy admitted that he was not worried about this run of form because he saw it as a blip, watching both the Manchester United and Chelsea defeats.
Now, the Englishman is worried about what is happening at the club because of the ‘worst performance’ he has seen all season against Brentford.
“So I think at the moment he’s realising that all teams are going to try and do this to him, and he’s going to have to find a way to negate it. Now, I wasn’t too worried up until Brentford because I thought the United and Chelsea games were on the knife-edge, so the Chelsea away game, second half, was like a cup game,” he said.
“They were attacking, we were attacking. They were attacking, we attacked. Could have gone either way and Liverpool made plenty of chances. They looked in the game, and United got the win and were resilient and played well. Liverpool opened them up a lot and missed some terrible chances.
“So I was thinking just one of these little bad weeks or two where things don’t go your way. They go to Frankfurt. They win. They smash them. They were 1-0 down in that. That was a worry, but yeah, they were poor.
“Now he changed the system. Played a 4-4-2 in Frankfurt. Now, because of the injury to Isak, he’s gone back to a more orthodox system at Brentford. But you know what’s happening at Brentford, don’t you? We all do. And they fail, but they fail badly. I mean, it was the worst performance I’ve seen Liverpool have. So there are some big question marks.”
The Brentford performance was one of the most disappointing of the season so far, but it was always going to happen.
Keith Andrews plays the exact type of football that is Slot’s kryptonite, and has done so brilliantly all season.
It is now down to the Dutch manager to adapt his style to find a way of pushing aside the problems he has with those who like to play long-ball football, and he needs to do it very quickly.