Spiky Arne Slot Hits Out at Untold Story of Liverpool’s Season

Slot had some scores to settle regarding the representation of his team in the media.

Arne Slot had some issues to get off his chest before 2025 was over. / Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Getty Images

Liverpool manager Arne Slot repeatedly referenced the injury issues which have ravaged his underwhelming reigning champions, bemoaning how they have gone unreported this season in comparison to the club’s transfer spend.

The Dutch boss has come under unprecedented scrutiny this year. After romping to a debut Premier League title with almost exactly the same squad he inherited from Jürgen Klopp, an extravagant summer spend has not fulfilled the expectations generated by such excess.

Liverpool were rarely convincing during a seven-match winning run to start the season before spiralling into a dire sequence of results heading into autumn. Slot lost four successive matches for the first time in his managerial career as the Reds ultimately racked up nine defeats in 12 games, the club’s worst slump of form in 72 years.

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In the wake of a particularly damning 4–1 reverse at the hands of PSV Eindhoven, Liverpool have strung together a seven-game unbeaten run. While these performances have been riddled with many of the uncertainties and inconsistencies which have dominated the campaign, Slot argued that his theoretically thin squad of players are not getting the credit they deserve.

A question about Curtis Jones’s improved availability prompted the Liverpool boss to point out the necessity behind his continued fitness. “If you look at our bench you didn’t see any player that is a midfielder that has played more than 10 minutes in the Premier League so far,” he sniffed, referencing the youthful substitutes who watched Liverpool narrowly beat Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.

“That’s why I’m so pleased with our current results, because if we would’ve dropped points people would probably talk about the fact of how many players we miss.” he continued. “But we don’t drop points and that’s why no-one is talking about the players we miss. Maybe because they only talk about how much we spend!”

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Slot Bemoans Lack of Liverpool Game Changers

Arne Slot has endured a tougher second season in Liverpool than his first. / Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA/Getty Images

Liverpool were without the suspended Dominik Szoboszlai for the visit of the Premier League’s worst side, while Mohamed Salah was otherwise engaged with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations. Alexander Isak remains sidelined with a broken leg, forcing Slot to start £116 million ($156.3 million) summer recruit Florian Wirtz out wide opposite European champion Federico Chiesa.

Cody Gakpo, Liverpool’s second top scorer this season, came off the bench. Yet, Slot still felt compelled to point to a lack of alternatives at his disposal which existed last season.

“A way to have game management is also having the opportunity to make substitutions,” he fretted. “Maybe to bring an extra defender in or these kind of things. Last year a lot of times when we were 2–1 up, or one goal up, I brought Wataru Endo in. I already said, I don’t know if everybody notices it, but we miss quite a lot of players. That’s why it’s so special for these players [who] are fit that they are bringing these results in.”

Slot’s supposedly lack of options has not hurt Liverpool from a position of strength this season—the Reds have dropped a league-low two points after taking the lead—but is borne out when they fall behind. Only two clubs in the division have collected fewer points than Liverpool from losing positions this season.

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Slot’s ‘Interesting Story’ for Liverpool’s Season

Alexander Isak (middle) suffered an injury in Liverpool’s clash vs. Tottenham Hotspur. / Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

“Unfortunately, Giovanni Leoni, we won’t see him this season, and Alex [Isak] is going to take a long time before we see him again,” Slot mused. “You can do the numbers [about] how much money that is and if you combine that with how much we’ve sold, that’s maybe an interesting story to make.”

Slot has routinely tried to balance the focus on Liverpool’s summer spend—which was an unprecedented £415 million—by pointing out the quality of player which left the club over the same window. Luis Díaz and Darwin Núñez were offloaded to Bayern Munich and Al Hilal respectively for around £110 million. When balancing the tally of players who were bought and sold last summer, Liverpool only recorded the second biggest net spend of any club on the planet.

Leoni and Isak account for around £151 million of that outlay and will likely miss the vast majority of Liverpool’s matches this season. While the absence of a 19-year-old defender with no prior Premier League experience probably shouldn’t be overstated, no club would choose to lose their record signing for so much of the season.

Fortunately for Slot, Hugo Ekitiké—who boasts four times Isak’s goal tally this season despite costing a fraction of the price—remains fit. If the Frenchman did get injured, there would be plenty more reason for Liverpool’s manager to have a long moan.

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