Unwise buys and Slot’s struggles lead Liverpool back to ‘Brendan bad’

Echoes of demise of former manager Rodgers 10 years ago only increase anxiety at Anfield before crucial week

Liverpool will pay a heavy price for the foreseeable future if they’ve got these transfers wrong

29 Nov 2025 - THE GUARDIAN / Sport

Andy Hunter

‘Would you say this is Roy bad or Brendan bad?” was one of the more repeatable questions asked in the Anfield press box in between PSV Eindhoven’s third and fourth goals on Wednesday. The correct answer would have been “Don Welsh bad”, given he was the last Liverpool manager to preside over nine defeats in 12 games, back in 1953-54. But the on-the-spot consensus was “Brendan bad” for reasons that may increase anxiety at Fenway Sports Group as the club’s owners desperately await a recovery under Arne Slot.

The Roy Hodgson era, airbrushed from history by some at Liverpool, is too low a base for comparisons with Premier League champions. There are, however, some parallels between the current Liverpool crisis and the final 16 months of Brendan Rodgers’ reign at Anfield.

The 2014-15 season was the last time confidence in a Liverpool manager or head coach began to drain. It was also the last time the impressive development of a Liverpool team – one that went agonisingly close to an unexpected title triumph in Rodgers’ case – not only came to an abrupt halt but veered into a steep decline with several new signings on board.

FSG must hope the comparisons go no further, because that decline was precipitated by self-sabotage in the summer transfer window of 2014 and there is no conclusive evidence so far that it has avoided an expensive repeat in 2025. Responsibility for Liverpool’s ridiculous and unbelievable collapse – to use Slot’s own descriptions – is on the shoulders of a head coach who has struggled to find solutions and faces a critical run of Premier League fixtures in the next week against West Ham, Sunderland and Leeds.

The affable Dutchman has never shied from that responsibility and accepts that questions over his future are legitimate, only six months after leading Liverpool to their second league title in 35 years. He is not bringing the best out of an unquestionably talented group, whose commitment at the end of the losses to PSV and Nottingham Forest was questionable.

Slot spoke with Richard Hughes, Liverpool’s sporting director, to dissect the PSV defeat on Thursday, as he does after every game, and came away reassured that the club’s hierarchy still back him. But he knows faith in football is finite and the current rate of losses is unsustainable. The conversation and the questions should not be one-way, however, when the most extravagant transfer window in Liverpool’s history has failed to improve a title-winning team after 20 games. An outlay approaching £450m, that included committing to break the British transfer record twice in one summer, has brought only disruption and imbalance.

Liverpool’s fall is unprecedented, even with echoes of 2014 taken into account. Status, pulling power and finances comfortably restored thanks to Jürgen Klopp, and Slot’s success last season, Liverpool today have their choice when shopping at the high end of the market. Selling Luis Suárez and buying Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Lazar Markovic with the proceeds this is not.

Liverpool’s transfer strategy is led by Hughes and Michael Edwards, chief executive of football at FSG. Slot has input and a say on transfer targets but, as his head coach title demonstrates, his role is to work within the system FSG put in place after Klopp’s departure and coach the team. That is worth considering as the clamour among Liverpool supporters for Klopp to return gathers pace. FSG does not want an all-powerful manager in charge. Edwards would in all likelihood have not agreed to return to the club in March 2024 had that been the plan.

The reputations of Edwards and Hughes for astute, intelligent transfer dealings and long-term planning are well established. But right now, with Slot under intense pressure and Liverpool in the bottom half of the table – albeit while three points off fourth place – their approach to the summer window invites as many questions as the team’s results.

Were last season’s champions really crying out for the addition of Florian Wirtz’s creative class at a cost of potentially £116m? Why sign Hugo Ekitiké for up to £79m plus Alexander Isak for £125m when there is so little cover on the flanks, especially after the departure of Luis Díaz? Why sign a right wing-back in Jeremie Frimpong when a bona fide fullback was required? Liverpool will be paying a considerable price for the foreseeable future if, and it remains an if given the calibre of Wirtz and Isak, they have got this one spectacularly wrong.

Questions at right-back have had a destabilising effect on the Liverpool team. The club were powerless to prevent Trent Alexander-Arnold leaving on a free for Real Madrid but the consequences of his acrimonious exit have been extensive. Conor Bradley’s struggles with injury were well known before Alexander-Arnold went, hence the need for an established addition in that position. One did not arrive. Bradley, Frimpong, Joe Gomez, Curtis Jones, Calvin Ramsay and Dominik Szoboszlai have been deployed at right-back this season. The high turnover has undoubtedly impacted Mohamed Salah’s form. Switching Szoboszlai to defence has also deprived the Liverpool midfield of the team’s most effective player this term.

Slot had hoped Wirtz would provide the ingenuity needed to break down low blocks and turn the slender victories of last season into more emphatic routs. It has not happened. The Germany international, who could return from injury at West Ham tomorrow, might have been lured with promises of a team being built around him, as Arsène Wenger has claimed, but has had minimal impact in the Premier League when playing as a 10. Slot’s search to accommodate the playmaker continues.

Isak’s start to life at Liverpool has been worse than Wirtz’s. The most expensive signing in British football history was excused for a sluggish introduction by Slot on account of missing pre-season at Newcastle while effectively downing tools to force a move to Merseyside. Two months into his Liverpool career, the Sweden striker remains short of match sharpness. One can only wonder what the rest of the Liverpool dressing room makes of his behaviour at Newcastle this summer.

The new signings owe Slot but are not solely responsible for the downturn of a champion team reeling from the immeasurable loss of Diogo Jota and in uncharted territory on the pitch, too. It was noticeable how often Slot used the word “fight” during his press conference to preview the West Ham game. Liverpool must show more over the next week, or the unthinkable will come a step closer.

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How dismal run unfolded

20 September

It all looks so good. A 2-1 win over Everton puts Arne Slot’s side top with five wins from five – though they flag in the second half. “When you play your third game in seven days you know the second half could be tough,” says Slot. “We ran out of energy, but we didn’t run out of mentality.” Three days later comes a 2-1 League Cup win at Southampton, teeing up a trip to Selhurst…

27 Sep - Prem

Crystal Palace 2

Liverpool 1

Eddie Nketiah strikes with virtually the last kick, shattering Liverpool’s 100% start. Slot, shown a yellow card, says later: “Disappointing first half and disappointing end to the game. Once again, credit to Palace. It’s not the first time we have lost against them. But we were able to create a lot against a Palace team which hardly ever concedes chances.”

30 Sep - Ch Lg

Galatasaray 1

Liverpool 0

Slot leaves Salah on the bench and Liverpool again fail to spark, looking vulnerable. Alisson goes off injured and £116m Florian Wirtz is anonymous.

4 Oct - Prem

Chelsea 2

Liverpool 1

Wirtz is dropped, Salah restored – but the Egyptian again struggles. Estêvão hits the winner in added time; Slot goes into the international break looking to regroup.

19 Oct - Prem

Liverpool 1

Man Utd 2

But those hopes are dashed when Harry Maguire’s late header seals United’s first win at Anfield in nearly a decade. “Do we lack confidence?” says Slot. “I cannot see it yet, because every single game we’ve lost, we were able to create an unbelievable amount of chances. If we can keep doing that and do a few things a bit better, we will start to win games again.”

22 Oct - Ch Lg

E Frankfurt 1

Liverpool 5

And sure enough … Hugo Ekitiké starts alongside Alexander Isak for the first time as Liverpool finally click. It feels like a turning point – though Isak goes off injured.

25 Oct - Prem

Brentford 3

Liverpool 2

And it proves a false dawn. Milos Kerkez looks fragile, Wirtz goes unnoticed and Liverpool drop to sixth. Slot calls it “the worst performance in all four losses”.

29 Oct - Lg Cup

Liverpool 0

Crystal Palace 3

Slot plays the youngsters in the Carabao Cup last 16, and Palace pick them apart. 18-year-old Amara Nallo is shown a straight red card in the 79th minute.

1 Nov - Prem

Liverpool 2

Aston Villa 0

Real relief for the manager as Salah scores his 250th Liverpool goal and fans chant Slot’s name. “It means a lot,” he says. “It happened at 0-0, not when you are leading, not when you are top of the table, but when you’re in a difficult situation for the club, for the team and for me. To get the support the players got, the support I got, is what makes this club special.”

4 Nov - Ch Lg

Liverpool 1

Real Madrid 0

The revival seems to continue – only the brilliance of Real keeper Thibaut Courtois keeping the score down. Slot urges his side to build momentum…

9 Nov - Prem

Man City 3

Liverpool 0

But City stand in their way. Liverpool are outclassed and City fans chant “what a waste of money” as a disconsolate Wirtz is subbed. Slot blames “my gameplan, not the players”.

22 Nov - Prem

Liverpool 0

Nottm Forest 3

Isak starts, disappears and is subbed off on 67 minutes. “Of course, it’s a very, very, very bad result,” says Slot. “Lately it is almost constantly that we miss our chances.”

26 Nov - Ch Lg

Liverpool 1

PSV 4

The visitors romp at a shell-shocked Anfield, making it nine defeats in 12, Liverpool’s worst run since 1953-54. “We fight on,” says Slot. “We will try to improve.”

***

‘System we are playing suits the players best’

Liverpool manager says time pressures and injuries mean major overhaul not an option

‘If you want a system with five defenders that could be an issue. I don’t even have five defenders’

29 Nov 2025 - Sport

Andy Hunter

Arne Slot has said he cannot make dramatic changes to arrest Liverpool’s slump given the squad is suited to his system and he has little time on the training ground to implement a new approach.

Slot is under increasing pressure before tomorrow’s Premier League visit to West Ham having presided over the club’s worst run in 71 years. He has faced calls to drop the underperforming Ibrahima Konaté and Mohamed Salah in recent days, or to shake up his style in an attempt to halt the slide.

But the head coach has insisted a radical overhaul is not the solution, or even an option given his injury problems in defence and the lack of training time during Liverpool’s run of seven games in 22 days.

“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 adamant that Liverpool’s quality will prevail and turn their season around. The head coach accepted the experience of Manchester City last season, who endured a run of one win in 13 games but have re-emerged as title contenders this season, is a fair comparison.

“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. We have the quality and we have to bring the best out of them again.”

Slot revealed he has received more support than usual from his father, Arend, during Liverpool’s sequence of nine defeats in 12 games. The 47-year-old said Slot Sr could be critical of his title-winning team last season but is acutely aware of the difficulties his son is currently going through. “As a dad, he knows how difficult it is for me,” said Slot. “To give me another hit is not the best thing you can do as a dad. He is a bit more supportive now than when we are winning.”