Man City defeat EXPOSES one huge Arne Slot problem

Two steps forward, one step back. That’s the story of Liverpool’s week heading into the international window.

Victory against Aston Villa last weekend snapped a Premier League losing streak. And a win against Real Madrid served notice that the Reds had - perhaps - finally turned the corner.

But then came Sunday against Manchester City. A disaster.

Let’s get the soft penalty and the disallowed goal out of the way first. How can VAR decide that Jeremy Doku was fouled by Giorgi Mamardashvili but a couple of seasons ago offer nothing when Alexis Mac Allister was kicked in the chest by the same player?

And, similarly, Andy Robertson was deemed to have interfered with Gianluigi Donnarumma’s line of vision on Virgil van Dijk’s header.

But again the same processes allowed a John Stones header to stand against Wolves last season when Bernardo Silva was obscuring the goalkeeper’s vision.

All we are asking is a bit of consistency. But those incidents aside, Liverpool were battered by Pep Guardiola’s team and deserved very little from the game.

Arne Slot leaves Liverpool high and dry

The Premier League champions were second best in every department - and could not involve their forwards in any decisive manner.

Doku ran riot with his individual quality taking the game away from the visitors at the Etihad. However Arne Slot left his Liverpool side high and dry.

This was the third game on the spin where at least 10 of this 11 started. Last week against Villa, Cody Gakpo played instead of Florian Wirtz.

But for the Madrid game - and here against City - the lineup was unchanged. Real Madrid represented arguably Arne Slot’s side best game of the season thus far.

But it took A LOT out of them.

Liverpool running out of steam

He opted with a familiar-looking team - with last season’s title-winning midfield intact.

And although the results were positive for Villa and Madrid, here the team looked leggy and in all honesty out of gas.

Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai are both better than what they showed in Manchester. Alexis Mac Allister’s continued selection remains baffling meanwhile - particularly when Curtis Jones is biding his time.

Liverpool’s midfielders did not have the energy and were not capable of producing their usual work rate. And Slot was unable to see it coming.

Arne Slot needs to trust his squad

The big problem that the Liverpool boss is running into looks very similar to last season. He’s got his favourites and he will pick them come hell or high water. But he’s got diminishing returns out of his teams as a result of the exertions they put into matches.

And against City it caught up to them.

What’s the solution? The “reserve” players have got to step up and demonstrate more to Slot that they are worth starting games. That goes for Jones, Federico Chiesa and more.

And Slot has got to give them a chance. Because the longer he goes on picking the same team, the more pronounced the dropoff when they run out of energy.

That’s something he’s got to think about as the final international window of 2025 opens. When Liverpool return it’s Nottingham Forest and PSV. Better will be expected.

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