Our Liverpool fans’ jury return after a bad week for Arne Slot and his players got worse with another injury-time defeat, this time at Chelsea
Paul Wheelock is the head of sport at the Liverpool ECHO, overseeing Everton FC and Liverpool FC coverage, having previously held the position of content editor and Blood Red: Liverpool FC podcast and video editor. He used to be a football club correspondent, reporting on Blackburn Rovers for the Lancashire Telegraph and Chester FC for the Chester Chronicle.
Arne Slot, head coach of Liverpool, has some thinking to do(Image: Tom Dulat/Getty Images)
It’s was a bruising week for Liverpool. Heart-breaking, late Premier League defeats at Crystal Palace and Chelsea, sandwiched between a disappointing Champions League reverse at Galatasaray, means Arne Slot has been left to mull over losing three successive games for the first time as Reds boss.
The silver lining is that the Galatasaray loss was not damaging and, while Arsenal may have moved top of the Premier League table, the defending champions, after a difficult run of fixtures to start the season, and after a challenging summer, remain just one point off the pace.
But perhaps the international break has come at the right time for Slot and his players. But what do our Liverpool fans’ jury think?
OPINION
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The mini wobble continues. I was hoping this funk in performance would be arrested by now, but it is a funk that was seeping undetected through the team from the very start of the season.
Although he has made some important contributions this year, on any view, Mohamed Salah is not at his best. He looks a little lost, and he has lost the ability to finish in recent games. A bold statement I know, but the Egyptian King may need some respite, some time on the sidelines to freshen up.
I can’t remember a time when Salah has spent time as a sub, which perhaps further strengthens the case for some rest. I would like to see Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak lead the front line, with Florian Wirtz behind. It’s a tweak to our usual line-up, but Ekitike and Isak are robust in the press and killers in the box. That’s one of the striking omissions from Salah’s games this year: he doesn’t seem to be working back or pressing as much.
Another star Liverpool player who is underperforming at the moment is Alexis Mac Allister. He has been a diamond in the team for so long, but he looks tired, or even injured, to the extent that he has been a passenger in games.
I have never considered that Curtis Jones is a top midfielder, or a midfielder who should be in the line up each week, but what he will give the team is hard work and pressing.
Together with Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch, I wonder whether this combination as a short-term fix may make us a bit more defensively stable. It was like the Chelsea players were passing through straw men in midfield at the weekend.
Keeping with the gloomy, pessimistic theme this week, is there also a case for Joe Gomez to be given a run in next to Virgil van Dijk? We had all hoped that Ibrahima Konate would return to his previous heights, but if anything, he looks to be shrinking in performance.
Arne Slot needs to get the team alchemy right, and he needs to do it soon.
James Noble
This is one of those international breaks that potentially comes at a good time for Liverpool. Off the back of those three successive defeats at Crystal Palace, Galatasaray and Chelsea, a change in rhythm and, in the case of many of the players, scenery hardly feels the worst thing.
Mohamed Salah’s two goals on Wednesday helping Egypt to a 3-0 victory over Djibouti and World Cup qualification demonstrates some of those potential upsides. The interlude can also be a source of perspective, making it that bit easier to contextualise things and weigh up where we stand.
One point off the top of the Premier League and three points from a possible six in the league phase of the Champions League is a context we’ll aim to improve, but is also a decent foundation to build on.
Individual performances, and structural and tactical questions can become that bit less all-consuming, that bit easier to observe and assess with some distance with a break. Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak offered promising signs at Stamford Bridge and elsewhere too, and there are other elements of encouragement to lean into.
Come next week, we’ll hopefully be in a good place to positively build on the foundations of the early season ahead of another busy spell, starting at Anfield against Manchester United next Sunday.