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Journalism of Courage
Slumped to the ground, his hands on his head, Mohammed Salah looked crestfallen a minute upon resumption of the ragged, often playing out to wild and erratic beats, encounter between Chelsea and Liverpool on Saturday.
The Liverpool talisman was through on goal; the goal-hungry left-foot coiling to burst the ball through the nets. Defenders were hovering; they always do. These are Salah-situations; he would have already scored in his mind, processing the nuances of space, flight and bend. Yet, the ball soared wide of the near post. Salah knew this was not his day; or this has not so far been his season. When it is not Salah’s day or his season, since the turn of the decade when he elevated himself to the plane of the elites, it’s not Liverpool’s either.
In 10 games this season, he had netted and assisted three goals apiece. Not horrible numbers, but only because he has set his standards so high, and that his team is enduring a bumpy ride, that his unusual profligacy is being noticed.
The Chelsea game was the third straight game he has not scored or lost, and the third the English champions have lost on the spin. For most teams, in most situations, it’s not catastrophic enough a run to be called a crisis. Most teams would merely call it one bad week, to be trashed from memory when the international break winks in. After all, they are still a point behind table-toppers Arsenal. But not after Liverpool’s seamless transition from the Jurgen Klopp to Arne Slot era, not after they strolled to the title, not after a £450 million rebuild, and not least because they have teetered and tottered this season, seldom wielding the swagger of champions.
A few numbers capture their creaking supremacy. Only once, in the opening game against Bournemouth, did they win by a margin of two or more goals. The rest have been genuine scraps. A 90+10’ minute winner against Newcastle United; a 90+5’ minute spot-kick winner against Burnley; a 90+2’ goal against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. As many as eight goals have arrived after the 83rd minute, victories barged through will, which the wizened pundits would say is a sign of great teams, that they win even when they are performing to their optimal levels.
But Liverpool’s early season blues is not merely an instance of good players experiencing an inevitable rough patch, or them coping with the tragic loss of their colleague, Diogo Jota. It has to do with the manager struggling to stitch together a balanced and coherent side. Slot is still figuring out his best combination.
The makeshift back-line was porous against Chelsea. It featured Milos Kerkez on the left, Virgil van Dijk-Ibrahim Konate at the heart of the defence, and Conor Bradley on the right, instead of the injured Jeremie Frimpong. Minutes into the game, Konate sustained an injury and he was forced to move Ryan Gravenberch, the midfield pillar last season, to the back. When the game ended, another influential midfielder, Dominik Szoboszlai, was turned into a makeshift right-back. Managers have to improvise when hit with injuries during a game, but sacrificing the midfield rock for a centre-back, even more baffling as Joe Gomez was warming the bench, would not be considered one of Slot’s most inspired decisions.
The full-back headache has been raging this season. Even when Frimpong was fit, Liverpool have missed the ingenuity of Trent-Alexander Arnold. Frimpong is quicker, perhaps trickier, but not as refined as Trent. On the opposite flank, Kerkez has not contributed as much offensively as Andy Robertson in his prime. Up-field on the left, the verve of Luis Diaz is missed. Cody Gakpo is inconsistent and without the Colombian’s industry. Suddenly, what was Liverpool’s biggest strength last season, the frightening pace and cunning on the wings, is their most glaring vulnerability. It was not that Liverpool were utterly flawless last season, but individual form, managerial charisma and structural robustness glossed over them.
A tactical conundrum upfront has made matters complex. Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike are two high-grade forwards. But Liverpool cannot squeeze both into the same playing eleven, and hence are forced into an inconvenient rotation. The long-term plan would transform Ekitike into a left-sided, wide forward, but the plan would take time to bed in. The other alternative is a 4-2-2-2, with Isak and Ekitike tangoing as a strike pair. But that could leave the midfield vulnerable, with wide expanses in the midfield. Ekitike’s best in the Bundesliga has come in a 3-5-2, operating in tandem with Omar Marmoush, the Egyptian who moved to Manchester City in the January transfer window. It’s improbable that Slot would entertain any of these structures.
The struggles of Florian Wirtz, the £116 million acquisition, has hindered Slot’s rebuilding too. He has flickered, rather than shone. He displayed moments of brilliance in the game against Atletico Madrid, but seemed overwhelmed by the sheer physicality of the Premier League. He is still adapting to the way Liverpool press (as, to an extent, are Ekitike and Isak). The press Szoboszlai (then operating as 10) and Diaz initiated were central to both the tactics and structure of Liverpool last season. These are classical teething-in woes that players of this calibre are expected to overcome.
“The more they play together the more they will connect,” the Liverpool manager said after the Chelsea game. “You have to work really hard to reach a certain level and then it’s very hard in football because you also play against very good teams to keep that level going. What I mean by that is consistency. But it’s clear that we had our changes in the summer. Players came at different moments,” he added. And how he solves the riddles would be the most fascinating phase of Slot’s tenure so far, which could potentially differentiate him from a one-season-wonder to an era-defining managerial great.
