Arne Slot is beginning to come under some pressure at Liverpool as he fails to get the best out of his expensively assembled squad.
The Reds lost for a fourth successive game on Sunday after being beaten by a late Harry Maguire goal for Manchester United.
Having spent more than £400m on six new players during the summer break, Liverpool had been expected to hit the ground running and challenge for the title once again.
Although they won their first five matches, things have since taken a turn for the worse, with the Liverpool squad looking bizarrely worse for the heavy investment.
For Slot, he now has no place to hide. The Dutchman was praised to the rafters after taking over from Jurgen Klopp and barely spending a penny. Nobody had expected the success that followed.
However, with the team now being built, rather poorly, in his image, the money spent has increased expectation and scrutiny on the Liverpool head coach. And as the knives of the fanbase begin to sharpen, Klopp may have just accidentally put Slot under more pressure to succeed.
Jurgen Klopp hails ‘perfect’ Liverpool squad
Klopp was never given such riches to spend by the Liverpool owners during his nearly nine years in charge. He could have reason to be resentful towards the Reds this season.
Nevertheless, the German knows a good football team when he sees one and while speaking to Steven Bartlett for Diary of a CEO, Klopp suggested that Slot now has a ‘perfect squad’ at Liverpool.
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“Isak is an incredible striker, incredible striker. Flo Wirtz, you all will eat your words, he is an incredible talent. Ekitike, incredible player, that’s just offensive players. It’s just a really, really good squad,” he said.
“If the young centre-half [Giovanni Leoni] is not getting injured it’s a perfect squad. Now he’s injured that doesn’t help, you might be short in that position, but otherwise it’s a perfect squad.
“Two super left-backs, really super right-backs, it’s just a really good football team, that’s how you set a team up. Now you have to deal with situation, they all think they should start but that’s the normal job. You don’t have to worry about Liverpool, they will be fine.”
While it is good to hear the legendary former Liverpool manager speak some calming words on the Reds’ current predicament, he may have inadvertently ramped up the pressure on Slot.
The Liverpool squad is indeed incredibly good, so why exactly is the head coach struggling so badly to make it work?
No excuses for Arne Slot to hide behind
Part of the issue at Liverpool is of course that bringing in so many new players – all of whom could be potential starters – in one go can disrupt balance within a team.
Nevertheless, as Klopp says, these are all incredibly talented footballers. For the right manager they could become simply incredible.
Slot can definitely still be that right man for Liverpool, but there have to be some positive signs soon.
If the Reds cannot get going under his leadership, there is a chance that he is simply not the person needed for the long-term growth of the team.
‘Perfect’ is perhaps too strong a word for Klopp to use for the current squad. There are certain deficiencies that are glaringly obvious to see.
But with his predecessor raving about the players at his disposal, Slot should be feeling the pressure start to creep up. There can be no more excuses.
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