Arne Slot, Manager of Liverpool, acknowledges the fans following the team's victory during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Liverpool at London Stadium on November 30, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)placeholder image
Arne Slot, Manager of Liverpool, acknowledges the fans following the team's victory during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Liverpool at London Stadium on November 30, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Arne Slot has Liverpool heading in the right direction but should he make changes to the side that will face Tottenham?
The table never lies. A cliché as old as the game of football itself as Arne Slot chips away at the damage that was done over the first four months of the season with a Liverpool squad that is still very much in recovery mode.
After the summer transfer window shut, it would have been unthinkable to suggest that the Reds would find themselves 10 points behind the Premier League leaders and all but out of the title race with the targets for the season now being adjusted accordingly.
Sitting in sixth place and only two points behind fourth, closing the gap now becomes the priority and establishing a winning formula with a squad clearly in transition. Going back to basics has paid off for the manager and how he dealt with Mohamed Salah’s falling out shows that he hasn’t lost the dressing room either.
How Arne Slot can save Liverpool’s season
One of the biggest issues since the opening day has been consistency. Not just of performance or result, but of team selection and tactics. The saga at right-back has almost summed up the whole campaign given how many different players have filled in at one stage or another and it became clear early on that Florian Wirtz wasn’t just going to fit into the system that won the league at a canter last year. Add Salah’s dip in form and Alexander Isak still not being fully match fit and it is easy to see why Liverpool have looked far from fluent.
In the last five games there has been a change of approach. Liverpool look organised, aren’t conceding the same volume of chances and are starting to see partnerships developing in the final third too. Dutch managers are known for their love of wingers and yet playing without them has seen Slot find some answers. Until confidence is restored, it would be highly unlikely for Slot to deviate too far from the current game plan, even if Salah’s performance against Brighton suggests that he is willing to bury the hatchet and get back to doing what he does best. The Reds boss has found a way to get Dominik Szoboszlai and Wirtz both into the team in attacking areas without leaving the defence exposed.
With Tottenham up next, Liverpool have found a system and game plan that works and, other than bringing Conor Bradley back in for Joe Gomez, Slot should stick by the players who are starting to get results and starting to provide positive performances.
With Salah off to the African Cup of Nations in a better mood, there are no real selection dilemmas for Slot. Hugo Ekitike is clearly in better form than Isak and he should avoid the temptation of trying to force them into the same starting XI, Isak now has to earn his place. The league might be gone, however, keeping clean sheets and beating teams like Real Madrid and Inter Milan suggests that winning the Champions League could be possible.
Slot fires back as Liverpool show signs of recovery
Slot, in his post-match press conference, responded to the defence looking more solid and performances in general after the win over Brighton, via the club’s official website: “That's funny, this is what people now say if you win 2-0 and then all of a sudden we were solid. But I think we conceded in one game more than we did in the last four games. But now all of a sudden it's solid because we won the game. And when we had a draw or are conceding in the last minute against Leeds, I assume that people weren't as positive as after this game.
“But we had a lot of chances as well. In my opinion, we are starting to play better and better on the ball as well. And from the last five games we've played, we kept three clean sheets and that is something to build on, especially after conceding four against PSV [Eindhoven] and three against Nottingham Forest.”
Slot is right, Liverpool only conceded one shot on target against Brighton which hasn’t happened overnight. They should have beaten Leeds and dominated Sunderland. In isolation, more than enough was done to win those games and the change in formation is key to the current run, the last thing Slot should do is start tinkering.
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