“Arne Slot wanted Liverpool to be more like PSG, but that's pure Postecoglou» The attack, signed by Telegraphis violent. Fourth in the Premier League standings, four lengths behind leader Arsenal, Liverpool are still very far from having lost their crown as champion of England. But after a transfer window worth nearly €500 million, the English media did not expect to see the Mersey club play as poorly as Nottingham Forest (18th), the former team of Ange Postecoglu, fired after only a month on the sidelines. The Reds and their coach Arne Slot are logically facing a wave of criticism after their defeat against a Manchester United far from being the best version of the Red Devils (1-2). Beaten for the fourth time in a row, in all competitions, Liverpool is in crisis and will have to react quickly during the trip to Germany in the Champions League (against Eintracht Frankfurt).
MU had targeted the weaknesses of the Reds
“As a manager, you are constantly faced with challenges. When you're starting out and you have to win games, when you move to a bigger club, when you take over from Jürgen Klopp and people say: 'This is the biggest challenge you've ever faced.' “Today we lost four times in a row, and that's also a challenge. The life of a football manager is also a constant challenge. Have we lost confidence? I don't see it yet, because in every game we lost, we managed to create an incredible number of chances in the second half. If we continue to produce what we are doing and maybe improve a few things, then we have every reason to believe that we will win football games again. Of course, there is also the fact that in addition to the two goals we conceded, we conceded maybe two or three more chances. This is always the problem we face when we are 1-0 down, so we have to take a little more risk“, declared Slot at a press conference.
For his part, Ruben Amorim logically savored this success which allowed MU to achieve a second success in a row and climb to ninth place. There is still a lot of work left for the Mancuniens, but this victory against the great rival from Mersey relieved everyone within the club. “I think it's the biggest victory of my time at Manchester United. It means a lot today, but tomorrow it won't matter much. It's three points and it's a great victory. We fought for every ball, we lost our composure in the second half, but the spirit was there and that's the most important thing. If you have the mind, you can win any game. It was a good day and now I'm focusing on Brighton. I'll enjoy it, but let's focus on Brighton. It's really important. I don't have many victories in Manchester. It's really important to follow through, every detail of this match, the spirit when you're going through a bad moment or you're in control, all the little things were perfect.»
Kerkez, it's starting to do a lot
And among the little things that worked well was one of Amorim's instructions. After the match, Matthijs de Ligt revealed that Manchester United had targeted the Reds' two weak points. “We knew Liverpool had weaknesses, particularly at full-backs», confided the Batavian to the microphone of Viaplay. As a reminder, this sector of the game underwent enormous changes this summer with the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid and the recruitments of Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong for nearly €90 million. Against MU, the first was not good, while the second was doubled by Conor Bradley and only came on at the end of the match in place of Mohamed Salah. But once again it is Kerkez who is targeted. On the pitch, for example, we have seen a lot of Virgil van Dijk moving to the left side to compensate for the shortcomings of the former Bournemouth resident.
Shortcomings that everyone has pointed out. Starting with former Liverpool player Steve Nicol. “I think there are so many major problems. Yesterday we looked at one of the title contenders, Arsenal, and I said it then, it's defenses that win you titles. This is why Liverpool now no longer have any chance of winning this title. (…) Conor Bradley seems to have lost half of his talent since his debut, Konate has had a disastrous start to the season, Van Dijk seems to be doing too much and Kerkez seems overwhelmed. But these are the pillars of your team, and they are not working“, he confided on ESPNimitated by Gary Neville. “I think the individual performances of Liverpool's defenders were really poor. The left back (Milos Kerkez) hasn't found his feet yet… he plays like a 10 year old left back, he's everywhere and nowhere at the same time“, said the former MU legend on his podcast. Already singled out by Arne Slot last September, Milos Kerkez is not solely responsible for the Reds' ills. But the Hungarian has his work cut out for him to make amends.
