After a 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at Anfield on Sunday, the alarm bells at Liverpool have officially been rung.
The Reds won the Premier League last season but after starting the Premier League season with five consecutive wins, they have only managed to secure one more victory, losing six of their 12 league games.
Arne Slot is increasingly found to have fewer and fewer in-game solutions to the problems opposition teams are giving Liverpool.
Perhaps worse yet, Liverpool seemingly have no ability to counter the aggressive style of play teams have adopted against them this season.
Gary Neville calls on Arne Slot to overhaul Liverpool system
Liverpool are 11th in the Premier League now and 11 points behind league leaders Arsenal.
It’s no surprise that many pundits and journalists are calling for drastic change at Anfield with Gary Neville arguing that Liverpool need to overhaul their system to get the best out of their very, very talented players.
Speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast, the former Manchester United defender said: “The manager has to change the style or the system and help them. It means being more solid in midfield and the back, and personnel changes.”
Neville continued: “[Milos] Kerkez is struggling, [Ibrahima] Konate is struggling so do you have to put four centre-backs in your back four and keep a narrow, tight back four and tell everyone you mean business to keep clean sheets and stop teams having chances on your goal.
“Then in midfield, you put a narrow four in there. That could be [Dominik] Szoboszlai, [Alexis] Mac Allister, [Ryan] Gravenberch and [Florian] Wirtz or [Cody]Gakpo tucked in a bit more narrow and you might leave [Mo] Salah off [Hugo] Ekitike or [Alexander] Isak or play Ekitike and Isak.
“Leave them up there, work as a two and do something a bit different. It feels a bit basic and I’m telling Arne Slot what to do but I’ve seen world-class managers drop their ego on how we are going to play, forget we’re a great side and a great club – you’re not as this moment, you’re easily beatable so have to do something different and pay teams respect and change.”
This period will be legacy-defining for Slot
While Neville’s suggestions might be wrong or just simply not the answer, something has to change.
Many fans online have argued that Slot deserves time because he won the Premier League last season, but top managers aren’t judged exclusively on what they win. It’s how they rebound from awful spells like this that cement their legacies.
Liverpool are almost certainly out of the title race but a lot can still be salvaged this season but Slot and his coaching staff need to find the answers as soon as possible.
