Slot’s Task: A Squad Built Off-Balance

I’m not pinning everything on Arne Slot, because not everything has been in his control. A disrupted pre-season and a messy, scattergun summer of recruitment are big factors, and you can’t just pretend they don’t matter once the first whistle goes.

Pre-season isn’t a nice extra, it’s the bit where you lay the foundations. If you’ve got multiple new first-team players, it’s where relationships form: distances in the press, who covers what in transition, where the full-back steps in, when the midfielder drops. In the Premier League you don’t get a gentle run-in. If you start undercooked, you’re basically playing catch-up every week.

Spending big doesn’t automatically mean spending well

I keep hearing the line: “we spent £450m, so it must be our best window ever.” I don’t buy that. Spending a huge amount is the easy bit. The hard bit is making sure it fixes the right problems in the right order.

The point isn’t that the signings are bad players. It’s that “good players” isn’t the same as “the players you needed most”. If you go heavy on the forward line, for instance, you’ve got to be honest about what you’re solving and what you’re ignoring. Two elite strikers might look great on paper, but if the squad already had attackers who weren’t available reliably across a full league season, you’re really paying for availability as much as quality.

The spine still wins you matches

Football people always talk about the spine: keeper, centre-back, central midfield, striker. That’s where games are controlled, where pressure is resisted, where the tempo is set. For me, we’ve loaded up at the top end and left the middle and back asking for too much.

Even in a title-winning season, it was pretty clear the midfield could be improved. A good run of form from one player can mask issues, but it doesn’t make them disappear. And at centre-back, it’s felt like we’ve been living off Virgil plus “any tall fella stood next to him” for too long. Virgil is still Virgil, but he shouldn’t have to do it all, every week, for 38 games.

So what’s fair on Slot?

Slot will still be judged on whether he can knit this lot into something functional and high-performing. That’s the job. But it’s also fair to say he’s been handed an unbalanced, underprepared squad and told to make it sing immediately.

Full-backs with question marks defensively, a young centre-half profile that screams “needs time”, and a midfield that looks light in the areas that decide big away games. That’s not an excuse forever. It is context, though. And right now, Liverpool look like a team trying to build the plane while flying it.

Written by Ron Keague: 3 February 2026