Arne Slot doubled down on his promise that things will be better at Liverpool next season after watching his team decisively beaten by Aston Villa.
If fans were reticent to believe him after last weekend’s dismal draw against Chelsea, they were even further from accepting his promise on Friday night.
“I think then they [the fans] are underestimating what a window can do, what a new start can do and I think we know quite well what to improve,” Slot said with a hint of a smile as he faced the press at Villa Park.
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This sounds like it was aimed at Slot…
The Dutchman may very well believe that himself. He is certainly doing his best to get others to fall into line with him. But the stark truth is that Liverpool fans have seen what Slot and Richard Hughes can – or rather can’t – do in the transfer market, and they will not be bought by shiny new additions.
Instead, supporters want to see their head coach do the job that he was brought in to do: coach! He has a group of very good players sitting there waiting to be picked up from the floor and given a tactical plan. Rather than pining for different ones to improve his fortunes, Slot should be getting on the training pitches and focusing on changing Liverpool’s fortunes from within.
More transfers will not fix Liverpool
It should have set alarm bells ringing for every Liverpool supporter that Slot seems to believe that the only way to improve this team is by adding new players to it.
There are so many things wrong with Liverpool at the moment that dipping into the transfer window to fix it all is simply not an option.
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Sure, the Reds need some gaps plugging in the squad, and there can be improvements across the board, but they are hardly going to sign a new starting XI having splurged the best part of half a billion pounds 12 months ago. The truth is, nor do they need to.
It is hard to pin down the exact issue at Liverpool this season, but it is clear that a big reason they have been as bad as they have is because of Slot’s poor tactical framework.
He has also failed to improve a failing, weak mentality, which, given these same players won a league title one year ago, is not a case of problems with individuals. It is a systematic failure which comes from the top.
Rather than looking outside for solutions, Slot needs to examine his own methods, behaviours and tactics, and start from there. Once he has rectified the basics, then you can start adding the pieces that you don’t yet have.
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Slot can still be the coach Liverpool so badly need
When he first arrived at Liverpool, and throughout the majority of his first season in charge, Slot had looked like a breath of fresh air tactically.
For all of Jurgen Klopp’s brilliant traits, he was never seen as being the best manager when it came to adjusting Liverpool’s style of play.
If the Reds were found out during matches under Klopp, the German often appeared stumped at how to change things and turn games in his team’s favour.
Slot changed that almost immediately, regularly tweaking things in-game to adapt to the specific needs of matches.
For whatever reason, though, that ability has completely deserted him this season, with his team looking more one-paced than they ever did under Klopp.
While it is hard to see it at the moment, if there is a chance that Slot could tap back into whatever he was drawing from during his first six months in the job, he can still turn things around at Liverpool and be the coach everyone needs him to be.
New signings can certainly help with that, but they will not be the be all and end all that Slot is trying to portray. Instead, it has to come from him. It still can, but as he moves further and further away from what made him successful with the Reds, that is becoming less and less likely.
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