The champions’ dilemma that left Liverpool and Man City in the same hole

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Now Manchester City and Liverpool meet with the possibility that the loser will be 10 points behind Arsenal, out of contention before the November international break.Champions tend to display a consistency and victories over Aston Villa and Real Madrid allowed Arne Slot to smile: “We were actually very consistent (before then) but we were consistent in losing so that wasn’t the idea.” They visit the Etihad Stadium with the scalp of the 15-time European champions but just three points from their last five league games and an admission that, after a summer when some £450m was spent, Liverpool altered too much.“Why did I change much more than last season? Nor was it Slot’s fault that Trent Alexander-Arnold opted not to renew his contract and departed for Real Madrid, though Liverpool had rather more agency in selling Luis Diaz, who has had an instant impact at Bayern Munich.It was Liverpool, too, who chose to commit a record £125m to Alexander Isak, a player with a questionable fitness record, whose decision to go on strike at Newcastle meant he arrived out of shape and who may be on the bench on Sunday but is yet to deliver a Premier or Champions League goal.

Slot could have changed more, had his recruits been fit. “There has been quite a lot of focus on our £450m spending but I could not use £250m of that until now because Alex has not for obvious reasons been at his usual level and Giovanni Leoni has after one game been out with injury and Jeremie Frimpong has almost always been injured until now.” The combined cost of the trio was nearer £200m just as the summer net spend, which he put at £150m, is in excess of £200m.But it is also notable that Slot found a winning formula by deploying fewer of his recruits, by recalling Andy Robertson for the flailing newcomer Milos Kerkez.

I think we have five or six very good midfielders who can all play together but they need to play more together to get the best out of every single player.”Slot has benched Florian Wirtz for the last three league games (PA Wire)It was nevertheless notable that Wirtz excelled on the left wing against Real. “I can tell you if, it is not this season it is the other season or if it is not now it is tomorrow, he will have great performances as a midfielder for Liverpool as well,” he said.