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There’s a strange, heavy feeling around Liverpool these days, a kind of muted acceptance that things are coming apart faster than anyone expected. You could sense it again at Anfield last weekend when they lost to Nottingham Forest.
Liverpool aren’t collapsing. They’re not falling apart in dramatic ways. It’s worse than that.
They’re leaking. Quietly. Week after week. A slow drip of bad habits and confused performances.
Slot won them the league last season, losing four games in 38. But right now, they’ve lost six from 12, and Liverpool look like a side slipping further from what they used to be.
Twenty league goals conceded already.A team that once felt unbreakable now looks as fragile as wet paper.
There was a time when going behind woke Liverpool up. Now it deflates them. You watch them concede the first goal and you can almost see the shoulders drop.
How did a team so relentless last season tumble into a free fall this sudden?
Start with the obvious. Liverpool can’t keep clean sheets. They concede cheaply, repeatedly, and in ways that don’t speak of structure but of uncertainty. The high line that once worked like a weapon has turned into a liability.
Van Dijk and Konaté do not feel strong defensively anymore and appear very vulnerable.
Too many gaps in midfield. Too many runners are allowed to run free. Too many situations where Liverpool look half a second too slow, half a step too late. The team looks extremely vulnerable to opponents’ offensive transitions.
Slot’s Liverpool have possession, but not purpose. The ball moves, but not quickly enough to hurt anyone. The transitions that once defined Liverpool, those devastating, clockwork surges, are gone. What’s left is a team that keeps the ball but doesn’t scare anyone with it.
They brought in Hugo Ekitike, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz for huge fees to complement Mo Salah and Gakpo, but only one of them, Ekitike, has hit the ground running. And in a season when Mo Salah isn’t at his usual level, you’d expect the others to step up, but that hasn’t been the case.
The real question is whether Slot can fix the problem, or if the clock is already ticking.
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One problem for Slot and Liverpool is that teams aren’t allowing them to play the way they want.
Liverpool now have a weakness to long balls, as many teams in the league have leaned into more direct football.
Last season, Liverpool averaged 177 presses per match; this season, that number has dropped to 141, a reduction of 36 (20.4 per cent), which corresponds with the 47 fewer open-play passes their opponents are completing on average compared with last season, an 11.9 per cent decrease.
By going long, Liverpool’s opponents are completely bypassing their build-up phase, and with it, denying Liverpool the chance to press, thus preventing them from playing the way they want.
The one win they managed in their last seven league games, in which they lost six times, came against Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, who allowed his team to play a relaxed, possession-based game. Liverpool’s first goal came from a mistake from Villa. allowing them to press.
Stats from The Times show that Liverpool win fewer matches when their opponents play long.
Slot himself knows this is an issue, having repeatedly spoken in his pressers about teams playing long. The question is, how hard is it for him to identify a solution? Instead of just pointing out the problem, he needs to fix it.
Slot’s game against Nottingham Forest was his 50th, and he has won 31, lost 10, and drawn 9. That’s an excellent ratio for a coach.
There may be no need to panic about whether he should be let go, but this clearly cannot continue, and a turnaround is essential.
Right now, they are a mess that urgently needs to be cleaned up.
How long does Slot have to prove he can turn it around? Only time will tell.
