Arne Slot has 'opened himself up to ridicule' as Liverpool boss makes game plan confession
Liverpool don’t have their troubles to seek, which hasn’t been helped by Arne Slot telling every other manager what his team can’t deal with.
Football is always changing, wheels are reinvented, and this season has seen Liverpool struggle with a return to the dark ages.
Long throw-ins, in-swinging corners on top of the goalkeeper and midfields being missed out aren’t anything new, but it has caught Arne Slot cold and seen the Reds boss cut a frustrated figure in the dugout. A tactical plan only goes so far, and he now needs his players to step up and fulfil their side of the plan too. Andy Robertson clearly wasn’t happy post-match in calling for his teammates to deal with the physicality of their opponents better.
Arne Slot slammed for Liverpool defeat excuses
Slot has always been open and approachable in post-match press conferences, this can be a good, or bad thing and his comments after the defeat to Brentford have raised a few eyebrows. Speaking on the BBC Football Daily podcast, The Telegraph’s Luke Edwards couldn’t quite believe what the Liverpool boss admitted: “And I think we are talking about a team and a manager that keeps making the same mistakes, turning in the same performances. Arne Slot has stupidly opened himself up to ridicule with some of his comments in the media about, ‘oh, it's for the team aren't playing how we want them to play. They're being mean and putting long balls and long throws and the balls in the air’, and it's made him sound a bit stupid.”
To which presenter Rick Edwards replied: “All I'm saying is he's made an observation, which is completely backed up by stats, that everyone is playing a lot of long balls against Liverpool. And he's also said, fair play. They've sort of figured out how to play against us.”
“He doesn't seem to know how to solve it,” retorted Luke Edwards. “No, no. And that's really the problem. But it is a significant change that everyone has looked at and thought, aha, this is what you do. And they're right,” replied Rick Edwards. But Nigel Reo-Cocker agreed with Luke Edwards: “Why would you put that out?” and criticised Slot for telling every other manager in the league what his team’s biggest weakness is.
Was Slot out of order?
The truth is. Slot didn’t need to tell every team in the Premier League what his side aren’t very good at dealing with, because every team knows already. The problem, or perception, is how the manager comes across as a result. It is like moaning about a team sitting in a low block when you’ve not been able to break them down. Whatever the other team does, Liverpool should be able to find a way, as they did last season. Players who can’t cope with the demands should be dropped.
There were plenty of occasions when Liverpool didn’t play well on their way to winning the Premier League title, but still emerged with all three points. It looked like it was status quo earlier in the season when results were exceeding performances only for the wheels to fall off in spectacular fashion. What Slot has said doesn’t change what Liverpool need to do in the coming weeks and months, however, he now has to lead, as he did through tragedy in the summer.