There’s a version of this conversation where you’re nodding along at all the sensible things Arne Slot does, and then you look up and realise you’re still waiting for Liverpool to actually hurt teams.
That’s where I’m at. I can see the positives, clearly. I can also feel the drift. And right now the drift is winning.
The good stuff is real
Slot comes across as a likeable fella, and that matters more than people pretend. Not because you need your manager to be your mate, but because leadership in a football club is constant communication. Internally, externally, the lot.
On that front, he’s been excellent with the media. He’s had situations to navigate in a spotlight that never really goes away at Liverpool, and he’s generally handled it with calm, without lobbing players under the bus. That ability to absorb pressure is a trait you need here.
He also looks like a serious worker. You get the impression he lives the job, that he’s willing to put the late hours in, and that the family sacrifice is real. I respect that, even if respect alone doesn’t win you matches.
Where the football has gone flat
The bigger issue is the football is getting slower and safer as his tenure goes on. Early on, with Klopp’s patterns still living in the squad, it felt like a blend. Now the blend is fading fast.
We build up at a snail’s pace at times. When teams drop in and defend their box, we don’t move them, we don’t stress them, and we don’t look like we’ve got a reliable plan to open them up. You can pass it side to side all day, but if nobody’s being pulled out of shape, it becomes possession for possession’s sake.
And yes, we can still score on transitions. But even that has started to blunt because we don’t always attack transitions quickly anymore. The moments are there, then they’re gone, and suddenly we’re back to slow control against ten shirts behind the ball.
Adaptable shape, fixed philosophy
I’ll give Slot this: he’s shown he’ll tweak a formation here and there. The frustration is that the bigger philosophy rarely shifts. It’s still about control, building slowly and methodically, minimising risk.
That approach can work. Plenty of good sides have done it. But it comes with a non-negotiable: you must be brilliant at breaking down a packed defence. The rotations, the tempo, the movement between the lines, the bravery of the final pass. All of it. And I just haven’t seen the improvement there.
Without that, the football becomes dull, and worse, it becomes predictable. People have thrown around comparisons to Roy Hodgson’s era on entertainment levels. I’m not saying the team is that bad because it isn’t. But the feeling of watching a first half like the one against Spurs and thinking “is this it?” is creeping in more often than it should.
So what has to change?
For me it’s simple. Either we start scoring quickly against a set defence, or we change the philosophy to attack quicker more often. There are ways to keep protection without draining the life out of our own play.
I’m also worried about fitness. When the tempo drops, you can sometimes excuse it as “control”. But when it looks like legs aren’t there, that’s different. That’s a concern, not a style choice.
Right now, nothing in the performances makes me feel something is being built for next season. It feels more like sticky tape over the cracks. And if Slot won’t shift his approach, then the pressure is going to mount fast, because you can’t live at Liverpool without a plan for packed defences.
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