Wayne Rooney has suggested that Arne Slot may be getting an easy ride from the media over some of his decisions in Liverpool’s defeat to Galatasaray on Tuesday.
The Dutchman sprung some surprises with his starting XI at RAMS Park, with Dominik Szoboszlai at right-back and Jeremie Frimpong moving to a right-sided attacking role in place of Mo Salah, who was surprisingly benched.
With the Reds falling behind to a penalty converted by Victor Osimhen after 16 minutes, the cavalry was eventually called from the subs’ bench and the tactician made a few positional alterations, but to no avail as the game finished 1-0.
Rooney suggests Slot has been getting off lightly this week
Speaking on The Wayne Rooney Show, the former England striker claimed that Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim would be ‘slaughtered’ over some of the decisions that Slot made for the Galatasaray game.
The 39-year-old said of the Liverpool head coach and his team: “I thought they were really poor. I think a worry for me would be them losing the game and it looked like, even with still quite a bit of time left to go, he’s just put every attacking player on the pitch and just said, ‘Right, go and figure it out’.
“It could’ve got a lot worse for Liverpool with the amount of times they’ve given the ball away at the back and losing it and getting broke on, and Alisson getting injured.
“I think when you win the league, like Arne Slot did last season with Liverpool, then sometimes some of the decisions you make get overlooked.
“His decision to play a midfield player at right-back and a right-back at right wing was… [pause] for instance, if that was Amorim at Manchester United, he’d get absolutely slaughtered.”
A rare misstep by Slot during his hitherto brilliant Liverpool reign
Did Slot get it wrong with his starting XI on Tuesday night? The final score and the flurry of in-game tactical changes would suggest that he did, and he hasn’t been immune from criticism from pundits throughout a difficult week for Liverpool.
He may have felt justified in taking some selection gambles against Galatasaray – Szoboszlai has impressed at right-back in previous games this season, while Frimpong has experience of playing as a right winger and may need to do so when Salah goes to the Africa Cup of Nations in the winter.
Those decisions backfired in Istanbul, but unlike the notoriously stubborn Amorim and his eternal allegiance to a 3-4-2-1 formation, Slot was willing to deviate from Plan A in order to try and secure victory. It didn’t work in midweek, but it’s worked on previous occasions when he’s switched things up mid-game.
Also, whereas the Dutchman took on the unenviable task of succeeding Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool and romped to the Premier League title at the first attempt, his counterpart at Old Trafford has lost more than half of his 33 top-flight games in charge and secured a grand total of 34 points in that time.
The Reds boss might have erred with his team selection on Tuesday, but it was a rare aberration during what has so far been a hugely successful reign at the Anfield helm, which is far more than can be said for Amorim in Manchester.
All manager’s make mistakes, klopp made many. When slot was appointed last season we all expected there to be a dip and a transitional period where slot needed time to do it his way. He wasn’t happy with the very high line and risky offside trap and said on day one he would drop slightly deeper. He did well last season, he was humble and just got on with the job. This now though is very much a slots Liverpool team. New signings, the pressing has gone, so has the high line and squeezing teams in winning the ball back quickly. When you also spend massive money the expectation and pressure ramp up. In the next few months we will find out how good slot really is. He has big decisions to make and lots of work on the training ground . Carragher said on Tuesday that we are playing like a basketball team, and that we were identical in the early days of klopp. Yes we were, and klopp solved it with defensive stability, he bought van dijk, fabinho, Alisson, and gone was the kamikaze football, we could grind out results, we went on and won the champions league and premier league. If you can’t defend then you’ll always fall short.
Again, read some, but it descends into denseness again. Some factual correctness, but also spin towards misrepresenting the facts.
Re. Mistakes.
Usually best to keep a clear desk policy with such. It keeps the air clearer and emotions of all parties under control.
Diagnosis of truth is also much easier.
If the system is such that mistakes occur esp. due to unclear communication, or heaven forfend, downright lies and cruelty to cover up other “infringements”, then is it not clear that the system needs renewing ?
Perhaps NOT with those who wish to drag it (or are unable to stop dragging it) back to corruption involved ?
Ps. Misty, you forgot to mention then£450m.
Today of all days. Shucks ✌👍
No improvement in legibility or pertinence to the article.
With due respect, Wayne.
Despite the recent drop in form, LFC are not consistently losing.
Injuries and loss of confidence in a few key players seem the root cause.
The underperforming of Man Utd has been evident since Ferguson left.
That root cause at Man Utd is their business and for them to sort out.
Successive managers appear to be not up to it, or they’re impotent to solve it.
It’s not as if they don’t have the money, but the top players appear to sense something.
The recent departures of Garnacho, the bad blood with Rashford and Sancho speak volumes to agents and their players.