Arne Slot sacking completes a remarkable fall from grace
There are many questions surrounding Slot’s transfer dealings, but owners Fenway Sports Group’s football CEO Michael Edwards and sporting director Richard Hughes must also take responsibility.
Liverpool’s key power brokers were showered with bouquets in the summer. Now they need to get the bricks.
Liverpool appeared so committed to the Isak deal, so exiled to Newcastle after the player’s one-man assault on a move, that they felt they could not back down even after signing Ekitike.
Did they really need Isak? The more you watched Liverpool before he broke his leg scoring in a win at Tottenham Hotspur in December, the more he looked like the most expensive vanity purchase in Liverpool history.
Isak came out unfit and suffered a groin injury. When he did play, he looked listless and off pace, at the expense of Ekitike, who was playing well at that point, not giving value for money for such an exorbitant fee.
The broken leg was another serious setback for a player looking to provide Liverpool with a lethal lead forward. Even his return was disrupted by “minor” fitness issues.
Wirtz, whose deployment behind the strikers disrupted Liverpool’s midfield foundations and left them horribly vulnerable all season, was moved from his central role to the wings at a time when Slot was searching for answers. He showed real class, but like Liverpool, he didn’t come close at all.
And did picking up new signings so quickly mean that Slot and Liverpool had pushed a key acquisition aside on their list of priorities and failed to deliver?
Crystal Palace captain and England defender Guehi was a top target not only as Virgil van Dijk’s partner but also as a protector for Ibrahima Konate, whose contract is about to expire.
Cue the perfect storm.
The palace refused to sell. Konate’s form went into sharp decline. Van Dijk suddenly looked fallible. The solution was lost because Quansah was sold.
Come January, Manchester City needed defensive reinforcements and paid a bargain £20 million for Guehi; this was £15 million less than the amount Liverpool subsequently accepted.
It was interesting to hear Slot describe Guehi as a “fantastic signing” after his outstanding performance in Manchester City’s win at Anfield.
And despite all this, Slot lost the golden touch that it was guaranteed in its first season.
He successfully changed formations and personnel. The substitutions that had worked so well last season now smacked of desperation (for example, defender Konate replacing striker Ekitike in the 55th minute of the 3-0 home defeat against Nottingham Forest) and were accompanied by some wishful post-match decisions and “positive” talk out of nothing.
The season started with Liverpool looking enthusiastic and open. Wins were secured with high-wire acts from last-gasp winners, but it all fell apart when Crystal Palace turned the tables with an injury-time goal at Selhurst Park in September to suffer their first defeat.
