First troubling sign Richard Hughes and Arne Slot are at ODDS

Arne Slot was Richard Hughes' first major hire at Liverpool. But are the two actually on the same page?

Richard Hughes took over as Liverpool sporting director in June 2024 but in truth, he was appointed months before that. His first major decision was to hire Arne Slot as head coach - an incredible decision, it turns out, as the Dutchman delivered the Premier League title in his debut campaign.

But there are some caveats there. For one, Hughes didn't actually make any major player decisions in that first season. He signed Giorgi Mamardashvili from Valencia but left him on loan there, while Federico Chiesa was an opportunistic signing right at the end of the window.

That was it - one player who wasn't added to the squad and another that Slot didn't end up using. It wasn't exactly easy to gauge how they'd operate together.

That put a lot of pressure on the summer, with Liverpool deciding to go all-out with their spending. They twice broke their transfer record, signed new full-backs (for record amounts each) and moved on a large chunk of the squad.

So how has it gone? Well, the first signs are actually awful. Liverpool have been atrocious at times this season, suffering their worst period of league form since the 1950s.

And now with the way Slot is talking, we're seeing some suggestions that he may not be on the same page as Hughes.

The Alexander Isak problem

Liverpool's biggest signing of the summer was Alexander Isak. He's now the most expensive transfer in British football history - and he has not hit the ground running.

Now, part of that was because he didn't have a pre-season with Newcastle United. That was always going to make things difficult as he played catchup with the rest of the team.

But is that the only reason? Not according to Slot, who talked this week about having the wrong kinds of players around the Swede.

"[The low block from opponents] makes it harder for him compared to his time at Newcastle but I think it is also him adjusting to his teammates and his teammates adjusting to him," said Slot, per the Guardian. "But it is obvious and clear that we have not the profile of [Newcastle’s] Jacob Murphy, for example, available at this moment at this time."

With all due respect to Jacob Murphy, who is a very good player, you'd like to think Isak would be able to operate with the likes of Mo Salah, Florian Wirtz and Cody Gakpo around him. So it begs the question: if Isak depends on having Murphy-types around him, why on earth didn't Liverpool move for one?

Slot clearly believes he doesn't have the right profile of player around his most expensive signing. Now, is this something he has only just discovered or something he felt all along?

Either way, it doesn't reflect well on Liverpool for spending an incredible amount on a player who their head coach doesn't believe has the right teammates around him. Either you sign the right profile, too, or you don't sign the player.

Someone plainly made a mistake there, then. If Slot is right.

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