Yet another article about whether Liverpool can save their season? Well, what you have us do? The champions of England are on a run of six defeats in their last seven games and no team in Europe’s top five leagues is performing worse. The pain doesn’t look like easing up much either with Arne Slot’s side beginning a critical eight day period on Saturday that includes a Champions League clash with Real Madrid and a trip to Manchester City in the final round of league games before the international break. Before then, it’s a clash with one of the continent’s form teams in Aston Villa, whose four Premier League wins in a row have drawn them level with the Reds.
Though there is no suggestion that Slot’s employment status is up for debate, he seems to be feeling the pressure, making critical comments about the depth of his squad after Wednesday’s 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in the EFL Cup. Speaking on Friday morning, he felt compelled to row back on them, insisting he is “completely happy” with the players at his disposal. Those will not include Alexander Isak and Curtis Jones, though key midfielder Ryan Gravenberch is in line to return for Villa’s visit.
- Slot: “I am completely convinced by the strategy and the policy that we have but that makes the issue — if you call it an issue — is not all of them have had a proper pre-season or have been injured. When three or four are injured you go back to 16 players. I am a firm believer that 20 or 21 players is enough, but you have to keep them fit as we did last season. Alex [Isak] is a great example of this. A few others have missed out on pre-season or had injuries during pre-season. It has been more difficult than last season to keep them all available and if a few of them are not available, it comes down a lot to the same players. Maybe last season we were more lucky and now we are more unlucky.”
The pressure could be even higher on Slot come 4 p.m. ET on Saturday. Arsenal will be in action several hours earlier and will be strong favorites to win well at Burnley. If that happens there will be a 10 point gap between the champions and the leaders, who could barely have timed their struggles any worse.
Meanwhile it won’t just be the leaders thinking about putting daylight between themselves and Liverpool. Tottenham host Chelsea in the London derby for teams who you can’t quite put a finger on just yet. Are Spurs building solid foundations before their attack cuts loose later in the season? Can Chelsea just play 90 minutes with 11 men? Manchester City will be watching events at Anfield closely too, awaiting what promises to be a tough test from second place Bournemouth.
And I suppose if we’re talking about contenders in the top half of the table we need to address the surprise upstarts. No, not you Sunderland. Manchester United could find themselves second with a win at Nottingham Forest on Saturday morning. Yes, Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United. This Premier League season… Make it make sense.
Mark Your Calendars for Matchday 4:
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