In the span of just one week, Liverpool have gone from being in a prime position to win a treble to now being in contention to only lift the Premier League title this season.
After all the hard work that the squad put in to establish themselves as one of the best teams in Europe, the last 7 days seems to have taken some sheen off the campaign.
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Despite this, Liverpool are favorites to lift the Premier League trophy with a 12-point headway and need to recalibrate the focus on the same.
Last night, against Newcastle United, most of Liverpool’s players on the pitch looked completely knackered out. The midfielders in particular, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister, seemed to have no legs left in them and it was an extremely painstaking watch, especially for around 70 minutes.
When quizzed about rotations last month, Slot had revealed that he did not think that was a sustainable option at this stage of the season.
Now, it does feel like the Dutch tactician dropped the ball with his decision to not rotate the XI, that has in turn came back to haunt him
Lack of Squad Depth
Not all the blame in this situation should fall on Slot. After all, it is quite incredible what the Dutchman has managed to do with the squad at his disposal despite not making many transfers in the windows. The team in general is not blessed with depth, unlike some of their other rivals.
Defensive midfield was an area that really looked thin-staffed coming into this season. Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch are not natural DMs but they have been superb. However, playing almost every single minute in recent times has not helped.
The former Feyenoord manager failed to get a holding midfielder, moreover, he has been reluctant to use Wataru Endo, who is the only semi-decent option for the position. The Japanese play breaker has been solid whenever given the chance but Slot has mostly used him to protect the lead.
One has to take a look at the recruitment of Liverpool and seriously analyze how they could be this complacent about reinforcing the current squad. However, this is just one of the reasons that resulted in their absolutely catastrophic week.
Slot’s Favorites
As they say so often, the proof is always in the pudding and last night showed Arne Slot exactly what went wrong with during his first season with the Merseyside club. Make no mistake, the 46-year-old has hardly put a foot wrong thus far but this is one that he will look back at with some regret.
Two players who looked energetic and fresh after coming on against Newcastle United and capable of doing something were Federico Chiesa and Harvey Elliott – two players that Arne Slot has hardly used in recent weeks when the schedule was hectic. Ultimately, it was the Italian who ended up scoring Liverpool’s only goal on the night.
Harvey Elliott offered more creativity in the few minutes he spent on the pitch than most of the Liverpool players. With the likes of Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota hardly offering anything in attack in recent weeks, it begs the question as to why Slot did not give more chances to Chiesa and Elliott, to name a few.
Mohamed Salah has had to do all the heavy-lifting with the rest of the attack not contributing and when it mattered the most, twice this season, the Egyptian failed to step up. No one can have complaints against the African superstar though, considering just how good he has been this term.
This is a lesson for Slot that rotations are very important, especially in English football and he should be trust the players in the upcoming weeks. Chiesa deserves a start ahead of Luis Diaz from the left and the Dutch coach needs to be brave enough to make this call.
Despite having a 12-point lead with 9 games to go, Liverpool will understand that the title is anything but a formality.
Every game is important and let’s wait and see if Slot hands his players some rest in the weeks to come and makes full use of the squad at his disposal.
