Six months in the past, Arne Slot’s Liverpool have been celebrating Premier League glory at a euphoric Anfield. That unforgettable April afternoon is now beginning to really feel like a sepia-tinged reminiscence.
On Sunday, the champions slumped to a fourth straight defeat in all competitions, slightly below half of the tally they shipped within the entirety of final season (and three of these have been of zero consequence because the overriding mission was already achieved).
The two-1 loss to Manchester United noticed the Reds concede their tenth and eleventh top-flight targets of the marketing campaign, in comparison with simply three on the equal stage 12 months in the past, with Jamie Carragher decrying that as unsustainable if his former membership are to retain their title subsequent Could.
Bascombe: Slot’s Liverpool paying homage to Postecoglou’s Spurs
In an article for The Telegraph reflecting on Sunday’s end result, Chris Bascombe drew unfavourable comparisons between Slot’s Liverpool and the staff they beat on the day that the Premier League crown was secured final spring.
He wrote: ‘Liverpool’s new model of “heavy metallic soccer” is at present extra Spinal Faucet than AC/DC. Chaotic and infrequently comical, a fourth consecutive defeat maintained the theme of Arne Slot’s season. Far more of this and the panic stage in Liverpool’s title defence shall be dialled as much as 11.
‘Slot got here into this marketing campaign looking for to create a facet worthy of comparability with European champions Paris St-Germain.
‘The sobering actuality is that they have seemed extra like Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur within the opening weeks of their title defence; nice to look at and stuffed with attacking intent, however defensively flawed and taking so many dangers they may want gamblers nameless on pace dial.’
Liverpool are a delight for neutrals, however torturous for their very own followers
The Postecoglou comparability is a topically scathing one for Liverpool, with the Australian getting his P45 for the second time in 5 months on the weekend as he was ruthlessly jettisoned at Nottingham Forest after solely eight matches in cost.
Though the 60-year-old will really feel vindicated by Spurs’ Europa League triumph final season, a Seventeenth-place end within the Premier League was appalling, and to lose 22 top-flight video games with a file of 64 targets scored and 65 conceded was fairly extraordinary for a membership of their stature and assets.
Bascombe reported final month of how Slot used PSG as a blueprint for the Reds’ summer time recruitment as he sought so as to add tempo to his facet with the signings of Jeremie Frimpong, Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak.
Liverpool have develop into a delight for impartial observers and torturous for their very own followers, with a lot of their matches growing into end-to-end affairs and missing any semblance of the management which outlined the early a part of the Dutchman’s reign in autumn 2024.
It hurts to say this, but when there’s one former Spurs supervisor that our present head coach needs to be looking for to emulate proper now, it’s Jose Mourinho and the customarily impenetrable machine that he constructed at Chelsea within the mid-2000s.
It wasn’t particularly compelling viewing, however it yielded constant outcomes, which is precisely what Slot and the Reds want amid their present malaise.
You may watch Slot’s full post-Manchester United press convention by way of Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
