Slot Talk: “We Have to Be Better than the Last Time We Played Wolves”
On Tuesday, a Liverpool side chasing the Champions League places were defeated 2-1 at the hands of the worst side in the Premier League. On balance, that’s not a great result. Now, they face that side again on Friday, taking on Wolves away at The Molineux for the second time in a week.
This time, though, it’s in the FA Cup. Normally a chance for silverware, given the Reds’ league struggles it could instead go down as something of a distraction, and it will be interesting to see exactly how head coach Arne Slot approaches things from a rotation and squad strength point of view.
“We have a few options,” Slot noted at his pre-match press conference. “We don’t have a first eleven, but we do have a few options. I always have options to bring in so we do have a few options. But again, not for the first time this season it’s three days after a game we’ve again dropped points.
“That is something I’ve seen us doing too much this year, so again it’s three days after the last one and we have to be better than we were the last time we played Wolves. But I’m not a tactical genius if I tell them they have to play faster, everyone can tell this—but we will say it before the game.”
Whatever the root cause, as has too often been the case this season Liverpool were slow and far too static in their buildup against Wolves on Tuesday, holding possession but hesitant to press the issue. And in the end, if all the players are slow, static, and hesitant it falls to the coach to fix it.
In year two under Slot, the intensity of the Jürgen Klopp era appears fully drained from the squad and whatever identity it is that’s meant to replace it remains hard to identify from the outside, with time running out for the coach and his players to show there’s a path forward this season.
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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