Anfield 'one of the easiest places to play' as Liverpool home form sees Arne Slot walking sack tightrope

Liverpool’s home record this season does not make for pleasant reading for Arne Slot.

After 15 Premier League games, they have scored 27 goals and conceded 17, and have an almost 50/50 win ratio with only eight wins, four draws and three defeats. Hardly the form of champions. Anfield under Jurgen Klopp was a fortress, now teams at the bottom end of the table fancy their chances with Tottenham the latest to take advantage of a weakness that has crept into a team struggling for form and consistency.

Anfield no longer a fortress for Liverpool

According to former Man United midfielder Paul Scholes, Anfield isn’t the place it once was for visiting teams: "Anfield was always the toughest place to go," he said on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast. Jamie Carragher mentioned it loads of times, you had the fans on top of you and the players on top of you. They've lost that determination to stop the other team. It's just not there any more. They've become almost a possession-based team. Florian Wirtz is a brilliant, brilliant footballer but I think he's made them more into a possession team.

"I think under Klopp and probably under past managers as well at Liverpool, the last thing they're thinking about at home is playing football. They're just thinking about kicking the *expletive deleted* out of you and steamrolling you and stopping you from playing. Now this last year and a half it's become probably one of the easiest places to play and you'd never say that about Anfield.”

Have Liverpool’s problems been a long time coming?

Scholes also picked up on Liverpool’s current slump not being a surprise and that the signs were there as early as last season: "They won the league, brilliant, they won it quite early last year," he said. "Naturally, you are going to drop off a bit but the signs were there towards the end of last year they've lost the determination to stop the opposition. They're still good, they still want to be a nice pretty football team - but you've got to stop the other team.

He added: "When we talk about philosophies of managers and football clubs - how many times did we speak about Ruben Amorim coming to United with his own philosophy playing the way he wanted? Man United had their own philosophy, I think it's almost a similar way for Liverpool. Liverpool aren't a possession team, they're just not - they're all over you like a Jurgen Klopp team. Now he's (Slot) trying to do it a little bit different and I just don't think it suits Liverpool."

Scholes is right, it is never one thing, but Liverpool are much more passive and have nowhere near the control that they once did. Slot is a pragmatist which, after Klopp’s tenure, is hard to take for those who love front-foot football, despite delivering in his first season in charge.