Jamie Carragher has raised concerns over Liverpool’s summer transfer activity, arguing that Arne Slot may need to adjust his approach to make the most of the club’s costly acquisitions.
Speaking to The Fan Debate by the Overlap, the former Reds defender compared Liverpool’s recent business to the kind of summer Real Madrid might have, rather than a typical Liverpool approach.
“It felt like a Real Madrid summer, not a Liverpool summer,” Carragher said.
He elaborated on why he believes the scale of the reining Premier League champions spending could be creating challenges for Slot:
“And there was something about it that…We all love our teams buying players, don’t we? Spending money and big names. But there was something about it that I was a little bit, ‘Oh, it doesn’t feel Liverpool like this, but okay, great. We’re buying, we’re doing this, we’re doing that.’
“And I was thinking on the way because everyone’s had an opinion on, ‘He should play him, he should play him, he should do that.’ Because it’s been a Real Madrid summer in terms of buying big players, does Slot almost need to be like the ultimate Real Madrid manager?
“And I always think of [Carlo] Ancelotti, and I feel like Ancelotti every summer, you’d almost be thinking, ‘What’s he going to do with that?’ Even last season there was, ‘How can he get [Kylian] Mbappe and Vinicius Jr in the same team?’”
Carragher stressed that Ancelotti’s true genius was his ability to seamlessly integrate multiple world-class players while keeping them performing at their peak
“But if you go back to his AC Milan teams or his Real Madrid teams, that was his greatest strength as a manager. He’d find a way, whatever system, and he’d get the best players on the pitch where they wanted to play and almost do it for the players rather than…
“I think in this day and age the game’s almost a manager’s got his way of playing. It might be a system. It might be his style and they’ve got to fit into that.”
The 47-year-old believes Liverpool should adopt a more flexible approach. rather than forcing players to fit Slot’s preferred system, he thinks Slot must adapt his system to accommodate the club’s new stars:
“It might be a case of actually, you know what, we’ve got to make this work, not so much they’ve got to come into the Liverpool team or the Slot idea and play,” he said.
“So we always play under Slot, don’t we, 4-2-3-1? That might have to change in terms of getting the players in.”
He also addressed the situation surrounding Florian Wirtz, who he previously suggested could be dropped, noting that side-lining such an expensive player isn’t sustainable:
“Because you know, when you’ve spent that sort, you know, type of money on the players. I mentioned about [Florian] Wirtz maybe coming out the team, but that couldn’t last forever.
“He’s cost over £100m. You’ve got to try and make that work. So, I’m sort of intrigued how he does it going forward, how he gets these players into the team. Because I even think Ekitike and Isak, he’s got to find a way.”
Carragher was particularly clear on the need to get Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak into the starting lineup, pointing out the risk of wasting big-money signings if they don’t play regularly:
“You can’t have it every week if Isak starts and he comes on off with 20 minutes to go. You have to find a way where they can play together at some stage.”
With the Reds having lost three consecutive matches, Carragher warned that frustration could build if players don’t get the minutes they expected. For him, Slot’s immediate task is to identify his key players and adapt his tactics to get the best out of them.
“Despite Slot’s host of options, Liverpool have lost three games on the bounce and his players are only going to grow frustrated if they are not being given the minutes they anticipated.
“It is therefore a necessity for the Dutch boss to identify who his key players are and adapt his system in order to accommodate them.”
For Arne Slot, the challenge is not just managing talent, but reshaping his approach to ensure that the £450m summer outlay translates into results on the pitch.
The coming weeks will reveal whether the Dutch manager can strike the balance between his system and the demands of world-class players, or if Liverpool risk seeing their big-money signings underutilised and their ambitions stalled.
