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halfway into Arne Slaughterfirst event in liverpool, They scored 46 points, 6 points ahead of their opponents who had played one more game. Halfway through his sophomore season, they were ranked fourth. Is this fair? “Yeah, yeah,” Sloat echoed.
This shows that things are not going exactly as planned. It feels like an indictment given that two-thirds of their £450m spend has been on attacking players, with only one player having scored more league goals than Ryan Gravenberch, or more in all competitions than Dominik Szoboszlai.
This means that despite 0-0 draw with Leeds United on New Year’s Day It was the first goalless game of Slaughter’s reign, and it was reflective of wider issues. While scorer leader Hugo Ekitic had a terrible night, it was unclear who would score.
If it seemed that Liverpool had assembled a quartet in the summer, an unstoppable quartet, that was not the case.
Alexander Isaac Hurt, as he often was. Mohamed Salah As usual, he was playing in the African Cup of Nations, but only after being eliminated, The future is uncertainhis departure from the team was accompanied by a tactical rethink. Florian Wirtz struggled against Leeds United and is bothered by a minor hamstring injury.
Liverpool, a team seemingly built to beat their opponents, now adopt a less ambitious design. They were twenty percent of Sloat’s men. “Every game we play is tough and the two teams are very close,” he explained. “We’re primarily a team that’s probably better than other teams, but not enough. We’ve been within that 20 percent margin.”
The first five months of their campaign can be divided into three thirds. There was early brinkmanship and the victory was driven by late goals, but the game was too open. With six defeats in seven games, the title defense was effectively destroyed in November. The subsequent unbeaten run was accomplished without Salah, placing an even greater emphasis on stability.
“We struggled the whole time,” Slaughter admitted. “In terms of results, we started really well [but] The game was very close. Then we were at a point in the season where the games were still very close but we were always unlucky. Now we’re seven or eight games unbeaten but if you say that you feel like, ‘They’re flying in the league’. But that’s not what we’re doing. ”
Slott often laments that: Liverpool either need a magic moment or a set piece to break down a dense defense when their set piece balance is negative; when his players are not punished for their honesty, he hopes to get one against Leeds United. “It’s a small margin. So that could impact us getting three, four, five, six more points, maybe,” Slaughter said. But Liverpool have not beaten their opponents: they have drawn 3 times in the league, 11 games have been decided by one goal, and only one has been decided by more than two goals, and they lost that game.
“I’m going to keep working hard and the players are going to keep working hard to get our winning percentage above 20 percent and we can get even bigger and hopefully we can find a moment where we can fly all season long, but in the first 19 games it’s a constant battle,” Slaughter said.
Liverpool had to double down on their fighting ability. During their eight-match unbeaten run, they have kept four clean sheets and conceded just six goals; three of those came in 3-3 draws at Elland Road, and Slott believes Leeds actually created few good chances.
“I think it’s clear that we almost don’t acknowledge opportunity anymore,” Slaughter said. But there’s a trade-off. “It’s also clear and obvious to me that we found it difficult to create enough chances for all the possession we had and that’s not new to us this season.”
Captain Virgil van Dijk highlighted a more pragmatic shift. “There’s more emphasis on the fact that you have to defend as a team to prevent opportunities that go against you,” the defender said. “I think that has definitely happened. You can see the effort our midfield has put in to help us be the last line of defence.”
But in a season where Liverpool is out of balance, the team may suffer from lackluster performances and a lack of players with the potential to score goals. Their current unbeaten run puts them in eighth place. In their 100% winning start, no one has scored more goals. But in six of seven defeats, only Burnley has conceded more goals. Defensive improvements have come without Salah, but as Slott knows, Liverpool are not flying. Not when they’re still at 20%.