Alan Shearer fears Liverpool are suffering mental fatigue owing to the tragic loss of teammate Diogo Jota after naming four aspects of their defeat to Galatasaray in the Champions League that concern him, while Jamie Carragher has bluntly assessed the struggles of Florian Wirtz.
The Reds went into their UCL clash at RAMS Park, having suffered a first Premier League defeat of the season against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday. But in a performance that never got out of second gear, Liverpool lost for the second successive game after Victor Osimhen’s penalty – awarded controversially – condemned Slot’s side to defeat in Istanbul.
Their second loss of the season came in their 10th match, whereas last season it took until 29 games before Slot’s side were beaten for a second time.
And with Arsenal breathing down their necks in the title race, Slot will hope his side can bounce back to winning ways when they take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
While he stopped short of calling the loss a “crisis”, he did admit the Premier League champions were not in a good place right now and wondered if they were suffering after the tragic death of teammate Jota back in early July.
“They have been miles off it,” Shearer said in his co-commentary duties for Amazon Prime when asked by Jon Champion if he was concerned by the Reds’ lacklustre performance.
“I appreciate the pain that they had to go through losing a teammate in such tragic fashion, and you can’t underestimate the stress and everything else that’s put on players’ minds – it is clearly weighing heavy – but in terms of performances and energy, no, they’ve been miles off it!
“So yes, I am surprised given the money that they spent in the summer, bringing new players in.
“It’s not a crisis just yet. They lost on Saturday and have been poor tonight. They’re in a great position in the league, but they have a lot of work to do.
“It’s not a crisis, but it’s not been great either.”
Picking out four aspects of their play that will worry Slot, Shearer added: “They’ve looked nervous all over the park, losing possession and being very sloppy.”
Champion added: “They are a long way off the well-oiled machine they were last season,” with Shearer responding: “They have just not looked like scoring tonight and have not worked the goalkeeper at all.”
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Carragher laments another poor Florian Wirtz display
Slot opted to start with the costly German playmaker Wirtz, who was relatively anonymous at Selhurst Park on Saturday and failed to make his presence felt on Tuesday evening once again.
It now means the £116m playmaker has just one assist – for Hugo Ekitike in the Community Shield – in nine Liverpool appearances to date.
While a period of adjustment should always be expected for a player moving to a new country, his struggles are bound to be a concern for Slot and getting the player back to his electric form shown while playing for Bayer Leverkusen will be important if the Reds are to have a successful season.
So far, though, he’s not been at the races and Carragher fears Slot has a big problem to solve.
Speaking on CBS Sports Golazo, Carragher explained: “There are a few problems there that he’s got to fix, and it’ll be really interesting how he goes about it because he’s spent a lot of money on certain players.
“But right now, I don’t think the balance of the team is right, and the obvious one that stands out right now is Florian Wirtz. He’s just not at the races at all.
“He’s a young boy coming into a new league. He’s got plenty of time to go as a Liverpool player.
“But right now, I think he needs to come out of the team, Liverpool get back to what they were last season, and then go from there.”
Wirtz was given an average score of 3.34 on BBC Sport.
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On the subject of Jota, Slot has come clean on summer links to Victor Osimhen and has revealed how the tragic passing of the Portuguese forward forced the Reds’ hand in the transfer market.
Meanwhile, fresh reports in Spain claim Ibrahima Konate is on the brink of agreeing a free transfer move to Real Madrid at the end of the season, with a second source claiming Liverpool are well aware of his intentions and are ready to push hard to land their number one choice as his replacement.
On the subject of Konate, it’s claimed Liverpool must now fend off a new suitor in their quest to convince Konate to sign a new deal at Anfield.
At the same time, Rio Ferdinand has gone head-to-head with another pundit in a staunch defence of the “scapegoated” Reds star.