Liverpool enter the international hiatus with a troubling contrast between record and form. The Reds have won 70% of their matches this season and sit second in the Premier League, yet a recent run of results has exposed clear weaknesses. A seven-game winning start masked problems; Liverpool then lost three games on the spin prior to the October international break for the first time since 2023, beaten away at Crystal Palace, Galatasaray and Chelsea.<\/p>\n
Slot can use the pause to address four pressing issues. First, defensive organisation. Even in victory Liverpool\u2019s defence has been unsettled. In their first five wins this season they surrendered two-goal leads on three separate occasions. They were pegged back twice in the Community Shield as they ultimately fell to Palace on penalties. In the three recent defeats they were already trailing by the 16th minute. Liverpool have conceded nine goals in the Premier League\u2014more than Everton, Sunderland and Bournemouth\u2014and are allowing 1.38 expected goals on average per match. The unit that kept the most clean sheets last season is now being bypassed regularly.<\/p>\n
Second, the full-back rebuild has left gaps in transition. The arrival of Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez has brought attacking intent but also exposed space on turnovers, with Frimpong struggling to establish himself as a regular and Kerkez making a disappointing start.<\/p>\n
Third, Ibrahima Konat\u00e9. The 26-year-old has been singled out during a difficult defensive spell. His recklessness, poor positioning and unconvincing distribution have been scrutinised, and he has found life difficult against quick, powerful forwards such as Jean-Philippe Mateta and Victor Osimhen. Ongoing uncertainty over his future, amid Real Madrid interest, has added pressure with reports suggesting he appears increasingly likely to follow Trent Alexander-Arnold to the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u on a free transfer next summer.<\/p>\n
Finally, the impact of new attacking personnel on team shape. Florian Wirtz, the \u00a3116 million German, has been used in the No.10 role and has not provided the same defensive protection or work rate as Dominik Szoboszlai. Mohamed Salah, after 34 goals and 23 assists last season, has three goals and three assists in nine appearances this term, has missed three big chances and has a 12.5% dribble success rate. Slot must find solutions to restore balance without sacrificing the attacking firepower.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Four issues define Liverpool’s October break: defence, Konat\u00e9, Wirtz, and Salah at reduced levels…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[1023,299,1100],"class_list":["post-3658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","tag-alexis-mac-allister","tag-arne-slot","tag-defence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}