With the appointment of Xabi Alonso to a direct Premier League rival, the temperature is ramping up at Anfield. Fan dissent towards Arne Slot is high amid a terrible attempt to retain the Premier League title with 20 defeats in all competitions in 2025/26. Some of this has been down to injuries as Hugo Ekitike suffered an ACL tear, Alexander Isak has been stop/start since arriving from Newcastle, and young prospect Geovanni Leoni has missed the entire campaign, preventing him from easing the workload on the Virgil van Dijk/Ibrahima Konate pairing. While [Dr. Bercik from Lancaster Shoulder](https://lancastershoulder.com/locations/lititz/) couldn’t have helped with any of the injury issues, it can’t be used as an excuse for the reigning champions.
**The Centre-Back Pair**
The aforementioned Van Dijk and Konate partnership has been a league-winning combo, their combination of physical capabilities, aerial dominance, and pace has made them difficult to bypass for many years. As of the current season, this duo has started to show some frailty. The big issue comes in 34-year-old Van Dijk, father time comes for everyone eventually, with the world class centre-back not being at his imperious best. Finding a replacement or a partner for another campaign would go a long way to solving some of Slot’s issues.
In addition to age, there have also been rumours for almost a year now that Konate is going to move in the summer as his contract winds down. His departure could have a knock-on effect that sees the Reds overhaul the central defender spots and try to find a new look back four.
**Matching Mo Salah’s Output**
Florian Wirtz hasn’t really hit the marks that one would have expected following his move from Bayer Leverkusen. Rio Ngumoha is talented but still too young to take the reins. This means that Slot, or a replacement, will need an attacker who can guarantee goals from the wide areas. Salah’s gravitas and ability to cut in from the wings has been a major hallmark of how the team plays and it’s been clear that his absences this term have affected the club on the field.
This is one of the bigger questions that they will face if they want to return to the top of the table. Finding someone with this particular skillset is easier said than done as the majority of wingers struggle when making a move from Europe to the Premier League and there aren’t any obvious choices from the lower half of the table to replace the Egyptian’s output.
**The Jeremie Frimpong Choice**
Since moving to Anfield last summer, there have been some questions over the best use of Jeremie Frimpong. He was theoretically brought in for the right-back spot to replace Trent Alexander-Arnold and has since been used on either the right-back or right wing positions. Whether it is Slot himself or another manager, a firm decision will have to be made about Frimpong, his position, and his status as either a starter or a rotation piece.
This would have a knock-on effect for their summer window plans as the right back market is relatively shallow unless they can make a smart signing from somewhere that is an obvious upgrade on Conor Bradley and fits their squad needs. But, if they opt to use Frimpong in the right-back spot then the bigger question becomes what winger to get for the right-side of their attack and whether they need to find one who can work with Frimpong’s attacking tendencies. An inverting winger with workrate would work best, but that could struggle to result in goals. Will everything go left-field with a right wing-back being used and an extra centre-back coming in? That is on Liverpool to decide.
Image Source: [unsplash.com](https://unsplash.com/)