No tactical changes, says insistent Slot despite harrowing run as Under-pressure manager won’t change defensive shape.
‘I don’t even have five defenders’: Slot says no tactical changes to halt Liverpool’s slide.
Arne Slot has stated that because the team is well-suited to his system and he has limited time on the training pitch to adopt a new strategy, he is unable to make significant adjustments to halt Liverpool’s decline.
Prior to Sunday’s Premier League trip to West Ham, Slot is facing mounting criticism after overseeing the team’s worst run in 71 years. In an effort to stop the decline, he has received requests in recent days to either change his style or cut Mohamed Salah and Ibrahima Konaté, who are both performing poorly.
However, the head coach has maintained that, given his defensive injury issues and the paucity of preparation time during Liverpool’s run of seven games in 22 days, a drastic revamp is neither the answer nor a possibility.
“Is the question: ‘Should I change dramatically?’” Slot asked. “I don’t know what is in your head but if, for example, you want another system with five defenders that could be an issue. I don’t even have five defenders.
“The system we are playing now suits the players best. They have played this system probably throughout their whole career and there is hardly any training time for us. So it is almost impossible to change our complete idea about football if we play every two days. I think we have played a lot of different lineups for reasons I prefer not to do because everyone was not available. We have used our whole squad constantly.”
Slot is certain that Liverpool’s calibre will win out and improve their season. The head coach acknowledged that Manchester City’s experience from the previous season, when they had just one victory in 13 games before emerging as championship contenders this season, was a reasonable parallel.
“I said already multiple reasons, and I can come up with an extra five or six, for why we are on a run of form like this, but they will never be enough to make up for the results that we have,” added Slot. “I am not sure but Pep [Guardiola] will probably have said the same. For example, we had injuries last season as well. So it is not like this season we have injuries and last season we didn’t so that helped us with a better run of form.”
“But indeed [the example of City is valid] because they have quality and we have quality. The best chance to come out of a situation like this is that we as a team and me as a manager bring the best out of these players again to bring us back to winning ways. If we didn’t have the quality we would have had a big problem. I think we have the quality and we have to bring the best out of them again.”