Same Patterns, Same Problems Under Slot

I’ve got to be honest, the bit that’s doing my head in isn’t even one bad result or one off-day. It’s the feeling of Liverpool playing the same way, running into the same issues, and then rocking up next time to do it all again as if it’ll suddenly click.

That’s where the frustration with Arne Slot lands for me. Not “he’s never allowed a dip” frustration, but proper head-in-hands stuff at how stubborn it all looks. The tempo feels flat, the risk feels coached out of them, and it’s hard to escape the sense that we’re making the game easier for the opposition rather than harder.

Possession without punch

There’s nothing wrong with keeping the ball. Liverpool have had plenty of great sides who could recycle it, drag teams around, then strike. But what I’m seeing too often now is the safe option becoming the default option.

Turn. Look up. Pass it back. Shift it sideways. Let the other lot shuffle across. Give them time to get ten men behind the ball, set their distances, and start enjoying their afternoon. It’s not that players are incapable of driving forward, it’s that it rarely looks encouraged. And once that becomes the pattern, you can feel the urgency drain out of the crowd and, worse, out of the team.

Confidence looks like it’s leaking

The other worry is how unsure the players seem. When a side is confident, you see little bits of initiative. A midfielder receives on the half-turn and goes. A full-back steps in and commits someone. A forward takes a risk early rather than waiting for the perfect picture.

Right now it feels like everyone’s waiting for instruction, waiting for the “correct” pass, and that hesitancy is deadly at Premier League pace. If you’re half a second late, the press is on you. If you invite pressure with slow circulation, you end up defending transitions you didn’t need to face.

So what’s the plan from the club?

And that’s the lingering question: if supporters can see the patterns, surely the people upstairs can too. Nobody expects a manager to have every answer instantly, but you do expect signs of learning. A tweak. A bit of bravery. Something that says, “Right, that didn’t work, so we’re changing it.”

If it carries on like this, it’s hard not to fear the season drifting by before spring even properly arrives. That’s not doom for the sake of it. It’s just what repeated, lifeless games tend to do to a team over time.

Written by NOTSOZIPPY: 12 January 2026