Arne Slot could ruthlessly drop ‘smart footballer’ from his Liverpool lineup vs Galatasaray
Liverpool lost their first Premier League game of the season against Crystal Palace as their luck ran out following a crazy start to the campaign.
Up until Crystal Palace humbled them at Selhurst Park, Liverpool were on a run of form that saw them win five games in a row with late winners. The Reds remain top of the Premier League table despite Arsenal’s late comeback against Newcastle United.
While they were winning, a lot of Liverpool’s problems went under the radar, including Mohamed Salah’s concerning drop-off. The Egyptian has looked a shadow of himself compared to the player who managed 34 goals and 23 assists in all competitions last season.
Ibrahima Konate’s form this season is also a major worry, especially given links to Real Madrid, with his contract set to expire at the end of the season.
Arne Slot could drop Alexis Mac Allister for Galatasaray clash
Although he didn’t have a terrible game, Alexis Mac Allister seemed void of ideas and slow on the ball.
His fitness this season is turning into a major problem, and Liverpool need to get to the bottom of it.
Speaking to the media before the Palace game, Arne Slot hinted that Mac Allister is not ready to play multiple games a week.
“He doesn’t have to recover from last season; we need to build him after having such a poor pre-season,” Slot said at his pre-Palace press conference.
“He missed out two or three months and the first few weeks of pre-season. That is also an example like Alex where we try to manage his minutes to get him fit for the long term, not for the moment.
“We are definitely looking at him in a way that we try to prepare him for three games a week because that is eventually where he needs to go. To be fair, we were all expecting him to start the first day of pre-season; that’s why we took him out in the end [of the season], to have him ready for the first day of pre-season.”
Slot needs to simplify his tactical approach
After the excitement of the summer transfer window, Slot now has several world-class players across his team. He is, however, falling into the trap of trying to shoehorn them all into the same team every week, and it’s having a negative effect.
Mac Allister’s a top player, but he’s just unfit. Last season, Roy Keane described him as a “smart footballer” on Sky Sports, but until he can cope with the pace of the game, he needs to be protected against suffering a serious injury.
It’s borderline impossible to fit Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Mohamed Salah into the same lineup without compromising the fluidity of a team that won the Premier League last season.
Wayne Rooney argues that Florian Wirtz upsets Liverpool’s balance, but this is only the case if Slot constantly changes his role within the team. Wirtz will find his feet, but there’s a lot he needs to adjust to first.
If Mac Allister is going to be dropped against Galatasaray, Wirtz should start, but the four midfielders that began the clash at Palace cannot start together again unless Slot alters his approach entirely.
Liverpool, despite their strong start to the season on paper, have a lot of work to do to figure out how so many top players are going to play together moving forward.