Arne Slot says it is “almost impossible” to make major changes to his Liverpool blueprint right now, insisting he still has full belief in his ability to revive the form of his struggling squad.
The Reds are enduring their worst run of results in 72 years after Wednesday night’s damaging 4-1 Champions League defeat to PSV Eindhoven at Anfield.
The loss was Liverpool’s ninth in their last 12 matches across all competitions and has left them in the bottom half of the Premier League table, just six months after storming to a record-equalling 20th league title.
Slot’s position has naturally come under heavy scrutiny ahead of what could prove a defining week in his tenure.
Liverpool travel to West Ham United on Sunday before facing Sunderland at home and Leeds United away in quick succession.
The Dutchman believes that the congested fixture list is limiting his ability to implement any sweeping tactical changes, arguing that there simply isn’t enough training time to overhaul an underperforming team.
“Is the question should I change dramatically?” said Arne Slot when asked whether he needed to shake up his starting side.
“If for example you want another system with five defenders that could be an issue. I don’t even have five defenders.
“It suits the players best the system we are playing now, 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.”
Remarkably, dethroned champions Manchester City endured an even worse spell at the same stage last season, winning just one of 13 matches.
They ultimately recovered to finish third, reach the FA Cup final, and launch another title challenge this term.
Slot has pointed to City’s revival under Pep Guardiola as evidence that Liverpool can still rescue their difficult campaign.
“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,” he said.
“I am not sure but Pep 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 can help) 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. I think we have the quality and we have to bring the best out of them again.”
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