Arne Slot says it’s time for his revamped Liverpool side to prove they’ve adapted to a summer of major change, starting against Manchester United on Sunday.
The Reds spent nearly £450m, breaking the British transfer record twice for £116m Florian Wirtz and £125m Alexander Isak, while selling players to recover about half that amount.
With eight signings and 10 departures, Slot believes the team must now find consistency after three straight losses to Crystal Palace, Galatasaray, and Chelsea.
He also insisted he won’t abandon Liverpool’s playing style for a more direct approach despite current Premier League trends.
“You are expecting more and more if players are longer together and they have missed out on players more than a few times in pre-season and during the first part of the season,” Arne Slot said.
“So you would expect it to go better and better but like I said I see a lot of comparisons between the second part of last season and the first part of this season, there is not much difference.
“The only difference is that we have conceded more goals than we did in the second part of last season.
“The way the game flows is similar and the second part of last season we scored seven very, very, very important set-piece goals where we are now on zero from seven games.”
He added: “I think that playing style of long ball and second ball is not a playing style a team has had that has won this league in the past 10, 15 or 20 years.
“If you want to win the league you cannot, in my opinion, it’s not able with that playing style.
“But it is a very fair answer to playing against Man City, playing against Liverpool, playing against Arsenal, to play against Chelsea, to play against all these top teams in that style.
“I don’t see this style at any team in Europe that wins the league. It’s not Bayern Munich, not Barcelona, not Real Madrid, it’s not Liverpool, not Man City… but it is a style of play you see a lot happening to Man City.
“Long ball, low block, long ball, low block, long ball, low block after they were so successful and this is what you see quite a lot at the moment with us as well.
“The way to break it is a special moment like we had in the first half of the season a lot or a set piece like we had in the second part of the season and these two things we haven’t had as much as I had hoped for, but still, still, still, still we are the team that created the most from open play.
“Open play. That is something positive to take but what is not positive is that we have conceded nine goals, four from set-pieces.”
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