Slot continues to search for balance as daunting trip to leaders Arsenal nears

If Liverpool have become a "handbrake on" team, as Jamie Carragher suggested at the weekend, one has got to question the role of manager Arne Slot in all of this.

The Dutchman has repeatedly insisted his principles have not changed from last year - but why not, when the players at his disposal are completely different profiles to those of last season's title-winning success?

All the best managers in world football adapt their style to suit their personnel. Pep Guardiola is the master of it. Sir Alex Ferguson rebuilt Manchester United squads over two decades. Carlo Ancelotti has done it all over Europe by adapting to the set of circumstances he's working with, akin to Jose Mourinho.

You don't win league titles in four different countries without the right mix of tactical intelligence and flexibility.

Speaking on Monday Night Football a few weeks back Carragher said Slot needs to become like a "Real Madrid manager", by finding a system to suit any given group of players.

Constantly innovating strategies and systems is part of the modern game and that does not have to compromise identity - something Liverpool have lost. Slot had players last year - Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz, and the late, great Diogo Jota - who had bite and edge. They had maverick energy, something a bit different, not always effective but always unpredictable. Trent Alexander-Arnold could be categorised similarly.

This version of Liverpool, far more methodical, does not have that same quality. Mohamed Salah's drop-off is another unfortunate by-product of that fact. Liverpool have spent an extraordinary amount of money on the way to becoming a very ordinary team.

"This is not how you imagine a Liverpool team to play," said Carragher before Slot's side dropped more points at Fulham on Sunday. "I expected performances to improve. I understand the manager making it about results to build confidence, but the football is taking longer than most expected. We need to see more goals."

At this same stage last season (having played a game less), Liverpool had scored a league-high 47 goals. Their goal difference was +28. That total has dropped by 15, down to 32, and there is a staggering disparity in their goal difference which has plummeted to +4.

Away from home the problem worsens. Liverpool have conceded more than they have scored on the road this season, losing as many games (four) as they have won. Where has the basis of Slot's front-footed style (that he professes not to have changed) disappeared to?

Speaking from Craven Cottage, he claimed to want to "create five times as many chances as we do now," but also admitted Liverpool have a problem balancing being more expansive with being too easy to play through. "I do know in the period of time when we were playing more open, I don't think we created more chances but we conceded much more."

Does the data back that up? Actually, no. If we use Opta's big chance metric as a measure, across Liverpool's last five fixtures where the football has been more deliberately more conservative, they have conceded eight big chances to opposition sides - two more than in the five games before that.

In terms of chance creation, Liverpool have generated 10 in this latest run, compared with 12 across the run before. Narrowing off has stifled Liverpool's creativity, unlike Manchester City, who are thriving using wingers that tuck inside to help central rotations. City are the league's top scorers.

Where Slot can point to progress, however, is goals conceded; four across their last five is a marked improvement on the 10 in the previous block. But at what cost? None of the phases of this season, post-summer overhaul, have been ideal or sustainable.

First came the dramatic late winner phase, where luck was exhausted beyond its bounds. Then came the inevitable slump where results nosedived and all manner of vulnerabilities surfaced; poor in transition, woeful at set-pieces, unable to deal with long balls. And now we arrive here, unbeaten in nine across all competitions but with much of the spark and verve faded from performances.

None of those three junctures suggest the Liverpool reinvention is working. Stamping all the excitement out of the structure in an attempt to better results will only be tolerated for so long at Anfield, with a fanbase that have been treated to the delights of 'heavy metal football' for much of the recent past expecting to be entertained. And they simultaneously expect to win.

The reality of managing one of the biggest clubs in the world is that neither result nor performance level can be compromised for extended periods of time. By narrowing the structure to become more compact and therefore harder to break down and ultimately beat - often sacrificing an attacker in favour of an additional midfielder - Slot has made Liverpool boring to watch. Every movement seems laboured, a yard slower in pace and invention.

Using this more measured approach, Liverpool have only won the xG battle in two of their last five outings. Serious questions have got to be asked if bottom club Wolves are outperforming Liverpool's expected goals value at Anfield. And not by a small amount, they more than doubled the home side's total.

And the final stage of games continues to be chaotic, too. Only Burnley have seen more goals in the 90th minute or later (10) than Liverpool's nine - five for and four against. Clearly Slot cannot legislate for Harrison Reed's once-in-a-lifetime screamer at Fulham, but it speaks to a lack of control and game management late on. "From a throw-in, in that situation, it should not be so easy to get a shot on the edge of the box," noted Carragher.

With Alexander Isak out longer term and Hugo Ekitike nursing a hamstring issue, the requirement is for the likes of Cody Gakpo and Florian Wirtz to step up. Both scored at Fulham and both will need to be sharp again when Liverpool go to Arsenal on Thursday, live on Sky Sports. Might the shackles loosen?

Get this one wrong, and Slot will likely come in for far more criticism than playing with the 'handbrake on'.