After defeat to Galatasaray, Arne Slot insisted his side are “not so far” off the level of last season, but on the evidence of the 10 games so far this campaign that is far from the reality.
The Turkish side scored via a rather soft penalty, but they created further chances in a very similar fashion to how Crystal Palace had sliced open the Merseysiders in their 2-1 win four days earlier.
Two consecutive defeats have ended a winning start to the season for the reigning Premier League champions, but the far from convincing performances before that means few observers are surprised. “This is not a shock, it’s been coming,” said Jamie Carragher in his post-match analysis.
The real transition is now
Slot’s first term as manager ended up not being a transitional season, with very little turn over in players and a style of play and system that followed on from Jurgen Klopp’s.
But after a summer of mass change, involving seven first-team signings and the departures of three players who played key roles in last season’s success, it’s this second season that is setting up to be the one of transition for Liverpool.
The issue of Florian Wirtz as No.10
The problems appear to be numerous; Mo Salah is no longer involved as he was last season when he plundered 34 goals in all competitions; of the two right-back options neither seems to be the answer and instead a midfielder, Dominik Szoboszlai, has become the preferred option; Ryan Gravenberch is getting forward more but that’s leaving the defence more exposed; Ibrahima Konate looks all at sea and incapable of playing the progressive passes from defence.
Alexander Isak’s four touches of the ball in 30 minutes, while being 1-0 down, illustrate how poor Liverpool are in their build-up play and getting their attack opportunities. Which is odd given the opportunities they constantly created last season for the likes of Darwin Nunez. Then, the problem was finishing the chances, now, the problem is that they can’t create chances for their new fowards.
The issues, though, can arguably all be traced to one change Slot has made: playing Florian Wirtz as the Number 10.
Let’s be clear, Wirtz, whose move from Bayer Leverkusen to Liverpool in the 2025/26 summer window makes him the eighth most expensive player of all time, isn’t necessarily the issue and the £116m signing is adapting to a new club, but Slot’s use of him and consequential change in system has made Liverpool very unbalanced.
Key to last season’s success was a midfield trio of Gravenberch, Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister that complemented each other and provided the functional heartbeat of the side to build around. They covered ground, pressed as a unit, understood each other’s roles and allowed those around them to flourish.
So when Wirtz was first signed back in June, no wonder many foresaw the German playing a similar role to that which he occupied at Leverkusen and indeed the national team, that being from the left side of attack.
With Luis Diaz expected to depart, which he, of course, eventually did, it seemed Wirtz’s arrival would be somewhat like-for-like. This became more logical when Milos Kerkez, an exuberant left-back known for getting to the byline and overlapping, was signed.
It all made sense; Wirtz would play from the left, cutting inside and linking with the No.9, Kerkez would provide the width, while Szoboszlai would do the hard running inside to create the space for Wirtz.
But then came the reports of Wirtz having been promised the Number 10 role during talks with Slot, something the player and manager have since confirmed. The question became, how is that going to work then?
And now, 10 games in, the answer is far from clear.
Wirtz as the Number 10 has meant Slot has changed to more of a 4-2-3-1 shape, than 4-3-3, and means one of Gravenberch, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai has been moved from midfield – in Szoboszlai’s case often to right-back and in Mac Allister’s often to the bench as he struggles with a return from injury.
Accommodating Wirtz as No.10 unbalances Liverpool
The knock-on effects of accommodating Wirtz in a central role have created far more issues than they have solved.
Salah is now less involved and being asked to stay wider in order to allow Wirtz the space centrally. Kerkez is, quite bizarrely, being asked to stay back as almost a third centre-back at times and at others he’s asked to play inside rather than wide, as that’s now Cody Gakpo’s job to provide the width.
Meanwhile Gakpo offers significantly less unpredictability than Diaz offered on that left side meaning Liverpool have lost another attacking dynamic. Then you have Konate, who opponents are happy to allow to have the ball in build-up, incapable of playing out from defence and frequently being caught on the ball. No wonder Marc Guehi was wanted.
The other elephant in the room is the loss of Trent Alexander-Arnold and his exceptional passing during the build-up play. Liverpool, and especially Mo Salah, miss the No.66 more than anyone is willing to admit publicly. Replacing him, in terms of the squad, with a player in Jeremie Frimpong who isn’t exactly an actual right back and is now being used on the right wing, doesn’t seem like the best planning.
The knock-on effects of accommodating Wirtz in a central role have created far more issues than they have solved.
Indeed, if you took a ‘best XI’ of Liverpool right now, the position you’d say was weakest was right back.
Slot has indicated that Wirtz’s creativity and passing ability will somewhat replace Alexander-Arnold there, hence then the desire to play Wirtz centrally and for him to drop into deeper areas than we would have expected. But so far it isn’t exactly working.
Slot’s controlled structure and build-up play now looks completely unbalanced, somewhat chaotic, and far more open.
You could argue Wirtz was a player Liverpool didn’t need, given the success of the midfield three last season. But even if so, it’s the use of him as a Number 10 that seems, so far at least, to be quite idealistic – but impractical in reality.
Perhaps it’s simplistic to think that by moving Wirtz to the left, going back to 4-3-3 with Gravenberch, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai, allowing Salah to play the role he did last season, would fix things. But a solution is needed in the short-term.
Liverpool and Slot have created issues that they didn’t need to create; another being the insistence on using the raw Kerkez rather than the experienced Robertson at a time when the team has enough changes already. Kerkez, just 21, could have been allowed a slow integration, at least giving Liverpool some stability with Robertson still in defence.
“Right now it looks like a mess,” added Carragher. “It’s not the losses, it’s not the defeats, it’s the performances. And this has been coming from day one. Liverpool got battered by Newcastle the second half of that game, and Newcastle had 10 men.”
