Against Leeds United we conceded three, and on the face of it that sounds like the same old story. A daft penalty, set pieces, and suddenly a game we were cruising in turned into another collapse. But if you actually look at the open play stuff, they barely had a sniff before it all unravelled.
That’s basically what Arne Slot has been getting at when he says we’re not giving up the same kind of chances in open play anymore. You can disagree with loads of what he’s doing, but on that specific point, is he really miles off? Given how often we were getting done in transition earlier in this bad run, it feels like progress in at least one department.
Open Play Control Is An Actual Step Forward
People talk like if every issue isn’t fixed at once then nothing counts. Football just doesn’t work like that. Sorting out one big weakness is still something, and limiting open play chances is a big thing in this league.
You can see there’s been work on the press and on the build-up. Against Leeds and against Inter the spacing between players looked much better. We weren’t as stretched, the gaps between the lines were smaller, and the options around the ball were clearer. Konate, for example, looked far more comfortable, receiving and passing in areas where he had support instead of being left on an island. That sort of thing doesn’t happen by accident.
Is it perfect? No. Are we still too easy to rattle from set pieces and moments of chaos? Definitely. But controlling open play a bit better is still one part of the job actually being done.
Endless Negativity Ignores The Tweaks
What’s grating at the minute is the constant refrain that “this won’t work in the Premier League”, repeated over and over like saying it enough times will somehow speed up Slot’s exit. You can be sceptical without pretending nothing has improved at all.
A lot of the criticism boils down to us being slow and laboured on the ball. Fair enough, some passages are. But at the same time, there are clear little adjustments to make us harder to play through, to give us more control in midfield and to stop us being immediately wide open every time we lose it. That side of it barely gets a mention, because some have already decided the manager isn’t for them.
You Don’t Have To Love Him To Acknowledge The Work
No one is saying Slot has to be the Liverpool manager for years to come. I’m not even certain he should be. But while he is here, it feels wrong to just bin off anything he does well because it doesn’t fit the narrative.
You can hold two thoughts at once: that this side still has big problems that might limit us, and that the coaching team has actually improved certain aspects of our play, especially our structure in open play. For me, that deserves at least a bit of credit, even if your mind’s not made up on him long term.
It’s easy to scream about the collapse and the goals we concede. It’s harder, but fairer, to acknowledge the small gains alongside the obvious flaws.
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