Liverpool news: Jamie Carragher hands Arne Slot £100m warning as Reds boss explains team issues

Arne Slot will be hoping to stop Liverpool’s losing run to two games as they travel to Chelsea on Saturday but he’s been given advice by a Reds legend to drop one of his major stars

Liverpool are in desperate need to earn a positive result against Chelsea on Saturday after suffering their second consecutive defeat. The Premier League clash at Stamford Bridge will follow the Reds’ surprise 1-0 loss to Galatasaray in the Champions League.

While many expected Arne Slot’s side to bounce back in Europe after their last-minute capitulation to Crystal Palace last weekend, it was yet another abject performance by the league champions, who lost Alisson Becker and Hugo Ekitike to injury during the match.

Despite starting the season off with seven wins in a row, their performances were far from convincing. Slot’s side needed late winners in every victory they earned, aside from their 2-1 triumph against Everton.

The lack of cohesion within Slot’s new-look side has come as a surprise given their signings of Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, who’ve yet to fully settle to life in Merseyside. With Slot already being told to bench one of his marquee signings and the Dutchman himself explaining the disjointedness of his squad, Mirror Football takes a look at all the latest news from Anfield.

READ MORE: Victor Osimhen’s Liverpool comment speaks volumes after Galatasaray stun RedsREAD MORE: Giorgi Mamardashvili’s one-word comment speaks volumes after Arne Slot Liverpool warning

Carragher’s £100m warning

Jamie Carragher offered particularly damning analysis of Liverpool’s performances this season following their shock defeat to the Turkish giants. While noting they’ve brought in supreme talents like Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz, the Reds icon admitted they’ve not only lacked in attack but have become a worse team defensively.

Speaking on CBS after Tuesday’s match, the pundit said: “Liverpool are not playing football, they are playing basketball. It’s just end-to-end and I don’t think top teams play like that, and I expressed that to the manager early on.

“He’s obviously a fantastic manager, but right now Liverpool went from a top team, but also a workman-like team, and they sprinkled a bit of stardust on it in terms of the transfers they brought in. And they haven’t gained anything going forward, but they’ve lost a lot defensively.

“I think for the manager now, last season was such a smooth ride; he now needs to really earn his money. He did last season, won the Premier League, but there are a few problems he has to fix. It will be really interesting how he goes about it, because he spent a lot of money on certain players.”

Carragher specifically pointed out Wirtz, who has yet to register a goal or assist in the Premier League or Champions League, and urged Slot that he must drop the 22-year-old to the bench in order to restore the balance to the team.

“Right now, the balance of the team is not right, and the obvious one that stands out is Florian Wirtz, he is just not at the races at all,” Carragher added. “He’s a young boy, coming to a new league, and has plenty of time to go.

“But right now, he needs to come out of the team, Liverpool get back to what they were last season, and then go from there to try to build some confidence and some stability. Right now it looks like a mess.”

Slot explains team problems

With the seven major signings Liverpool made in the summer comes major competition for places. However, Arne Slot admitted the lack of continuity in his line-ups is in fact due to several of his players having lacked a regular pre-season.

The Dutchman has named the same starting line-up only once this season, a far cry from the consistency of his selections last season. The Reds are still top of the Premier League and remain one of the favourites for the Champions League but consecutive defeats to Palace and Galatasaray has shone a light on their deficiencies.

Speaking after the game, Slot said: “What you see is, and I think I explained this many times, is that there are a few players from us that missed pre-season so you simply cannot play them every single [game]. Well, you can but then that could become a risk of players becoming injured.

“We have seen this more and more because the demands go up more and more, and if the demands go up you have to prepare players for these demands. That means that it is not always that I want to rotate but sometimes I need to because a player is not ready to play three times 90 minutes in seven or eight days.”

Similar to Pep Guardiola, Slot voiced his dislike of a 25-man squad but admitted the smaller size of his team has the potential to cause issues should they suffer multiple injuries simultaneously.

“I like my squad so much, but we don’t have 25 or 26 [players], so if we end up with two, three or four injuries, 15 or 16 players, where Rio and Trey are two of these 15 or 16, then need to play almost all the minutes and then things can become complicated,” he explained.

“But this is a decision we have made together, I completely believe in this, because if you have 25 [players] it’s very hard to manage your squad. But as a result of that, with Hugo, Alex, Conor and Mac Allister not having the pre-season a player should have, that also results in the fact that I cannot play them every time.”

Ekitike’s ‘confident’ injury stance

As if the defeat in Istanbul wasn’t enough, Liverpool lost both Alisson Becker and Hugo Ekitike to injury in the second half. While the injury to the Brazilian looked more ominous who immediately called to the bench after making a save from Victor Osimhen, the Reds could get a reprieve when it comes to the Frenchman.

The 23-year-old was forced off after stretching for a pass by Dominik Szoboszlai who was said to feel “something when he reached for the ball” said Slot.

Despite scans to be had on the seriousness of the injury, The Athletic reported that Ekitike was “confident” that he only had cramp in his hamstring rather than anything more serious.

The striker’s absence for their Saturday clash against Chelsea would be felt heavily given their defeat to Crystal Palace last weekend which he was suspended for. With his five goals to his name this season, Ekitike is the club’s top scorer, with two more goals than Mohamed Salah.

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