The Reds’ big spending this summer threatens to upset their stability with more emphasis on the forward areas despite growing defensive frailties.
The pressure of big spending and defensive concerns
Spending can bring its own problems. Some footballers can be weighed down by their price tags, though there were precious few signs of that when the £100m signing Florian Wirtz found the £69m buy Hugo Ekitike to score four minutes into their Liverpool debuts. But some teams can be unbalanced by expenditure.
Arne Slot assessed a first meaningful match after Liverpool gave their defence a £75m makeover and concluded: “We need to be better defensively.” It wasn’t an attempt to make the Community Shield an indictment of Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez, his deluxe pair of new full-backs. Rather, it was a broader view.
Attacking upgrades versus defensive solidity
It may be a temporary glitch, and Slot is determined to ensure it is, but he nevertheless considered the evidence of pre-season friendlies as well. It was not merely the two goals Crystal Palace scored at Wembley, their 14 shots, their xG of 2.12, or some fine saves by Alisson.
Slot ran through the goals Liverpool had conceded: four to AC Milan, one to Yokohama F. Marinos, two to Athletic Bilbao. It amounts to nine in four games; indeed, it was nine in the last four Premier League matches after winning the title. Yet, in a curious way, they may matter less than three friendlies and the Community Shield now.
Slot has not paid the best part of £300m to strip a side of its solidity. But the danger can be that strengthening one half of the team weakens another. The Liverpool of Wirtz and Ekitike look an attacking upgrade to their own manager.
The path to success: balance between attack and defence
“In the whole pre-season we saw how we are able to create more opportunities and dominate maybe even more,” he said. “Last season we had a lot of ball possession but it didn’t always lead to goalscoring situations. Now we are better in creating and getting promising situations than we were in the whole of last season.”
Liverpool threaten a blistering brilliance. But if football can be a zero-sum game, Slot noted that zeroes could be the basis of their success. They won 25 league games last season. In only two of those, against Southampton and Tottenham, did they concede two or more goals.
