Liverpool manager Arne Slot has suggested that seeing his side have less possession of the ball could be the answer to their recent problems.
The Premier League champions suffered their sixth league defeat of the campaign at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday as they were thrashed 3-0 by Sean Dyche’s men.
The hosts dominated possession but failed to break down a resolute Forest backline who secured back-to-back league victories at Anfield and ensured Liverpool remained in the bottom half of the table.
Slot, who is preparing his side for a Champions League clash with PSV tomorrow night, believes the Reds must tighten up defensively if they’re to return to winning ways.
“Maybe, I don’t know, but I’ve said this many times in Holland as well that if I have to defend for half an hour, I’m in the defend mode and throwing myself in front of every ball,” the Dutchman said when asked if concentration is an issue for Liverpool (via Hayters).
“Our defenders and our 11 players maybe also including the goalkeeper are only thinking about ball possession.
“In the moment they have to defend, they are not and we are not as switched on as we should be. Maybe the answer is less ball possession because that’s what we had against Real Madrid and that’s what we had against Villa and both of the games we won.
“I don’t think it’s a general thing, otherwise you cannot control or dominate the game like we do if you don’t win enough duels but in moments we have to defend better because Man City was the same, even though they were the better team in the first half, they didn’t create that much, but the few times they did create, we were lacking intensity in our duels.”
Despite dominating the ball, Liverpool didn’t really look like scoring other than Alexis Mac Allister’s effort which was headed off the line by Elliot Anderson early on.
Every time the ball broke down Forest looked dangerous and were worthy winners once again on Merseyside.
It’s remarkable that Slot is struggling to get a tune out of his players despite the big money spent in the summer and the successes of last season.
We’re struggling to break down low blocks at the moment and then look extremely susceptible on the counter-attack – with the balance of the team not quite there.
With the quality we have on the pitch it’s expected that teams will sat back against us and it’s right for us to take the game to whoever it is we’re playing, but if a slight tweak of our approach is required to get back to winning ways then so be it.
The majority of Kopites remain fully behind the former Feyenoord boss but performances, and more importantly results, need to change quickly.
Let’s hope we can return to winning ways tomorrow evening.
So why did we pay 116 million for wirtz? Wirtz was bought unlock defences in a possession game to outpass the opposition and to control the game. Most teams like forest on Saturday will sit deep and let us have the ball and counter attack. It’s unacceptable for Liverpool football club to just sit back and play like the away team at Anfeild, especially after spending 450 million. The problem isn’t when we have the ball, it’s when we lose it. We don’t win the ball back quickly enough, the tackling in midfield is non existent. We don’t press like we once did, we don’t play the high line anymore, the truth is we can’t defend. Away from home there’s nothing wrong in certain games to sit deep and counter, but you can’t do it at home.
What I’ve seen seen this season if we have everyone behind the ball sitting deep and not playing possession football, we still will ship goals, we can’t defend. We don’t have the right midfield players. All the best teams, especially the Liverpool teams that won the big prizes played possession football, keep the ball, but when you loose it you are organised and are able to defend. Slot is trying to find answers but he’s running out of time.
I know the problem, play Jones get beat 💯