What Arne Slot was doing on Dubai trip says a lot after backlash as Liverpool struggles continue

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The Reds fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to Manchester United on Sunday as Arne Slot’s men suffered a fourth successive loss.Harry Maguire headed home in the dying embers for the Red Devils, who won at Anfield for the first time since 2016, as Liverpool were left cursing after conceding a late winner for the third Premier League game in a row.The Reds brought in eight new senior signings during the summer as part of a £450m spending spree, and broke the British transfer record twice to sign Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak.READ MORE: Arne Slot contemplates major Mohamed Salah decision as Liverpool injury update expectedYet Slot’s new-look side are yet to gel and have dropped to fourth in the Premier League table as their poor recent form continues.Despite Liverpool’s struggles, a number of their players did actually enjoy strong international breaks before being brought crashing back down to earth against Manchester United.Cody Gakpo scored three goals and registered an assist for the Netherlands across their two clashes with Malta and Finland, with Virgil van Dijk also getting on the scoresheet in the latter.Dominik Szoboszlai scored a stoppage-time equaliser and also recorded an assist in Hungary’s 2-2 draw with Portugal, while Alexis Mac Allister netted a brace in Argentina’s 6-0 friendly win over Puerto Rico.Meanwhile, Hugo Ekitike marked his full debut for France with an assist against Azerbaijan, while Andy Robertson set up Scotland’s winning goal in their 2-1 victory over Belarus.Mohamed Salah scored twice for Egypt in their 3-0 victory away at Djibouti to qualify for next summer’s World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States, with his brace also seeing him become the all-time leading goalscorer in African qualification.But despite finding the back of the net again, the Egyptian endured another difficult day back at Liverpool as he missed a glaring chance from close-range before being withdrawn late on when the Reds were in need of a goal.Salah continues to come in for criticism and scrutiny as his poor form for the Reds continues, but he is not alone.Slot might have led Liverpool to the Premier League title in his first season in charge since taking over from Jurgen Klopp but, inevitably, he has also been the subject of negative discourse from a frustrated fanbase - on social media at least.This has even led to the Dutchman being criticised by some fans for spending his own international break on holiday in Dubai.But that does not mean Slot spent his entire trip attempting to switch off entirely from the Reds’ struggles back on Merseyside.On the contrary, the Daily Mail reports that sources close to Slot insist he spent much of his holiday plotting how to fix his side’s recent run of form as he continued to study clips on his laptop.Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL packageThis article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn moreSky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle for the 2025/26 season, saving members £336 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games this season, an increase of up to 100 more.While that might not have inspired Liverpool to return to winning ways against United, it is clear that the Reds' head coach is determined to reverse his side’s flailing fortunes as he addresses what he has already admitted is one of the biggest challenges of his managerial career.“I think as a manager you face constantly challenges,” he said after losing to United.

“When I just started, you face the challenge of being a new manager and then you need to win games.“Then when you do well you go to a bigger club and people are like, 'Oh, let's see how he does over there.' Then you go to be the successor of Jurgen Klopp and people say this is the biggest challenge you ever faced.“Now we have lost four times in a row and that's also a challenge. If you win games you want to keep winning, if you lose games you want to start winning again.“Do we lose confidence?

I cannot see it yet, because every single game we've lost, we were able to create in the second half an unbelievable amount of chances.“If you look back at all the three games we've lost in the Premier League, if you just put all the highlights [next to] each other, you would say it's hardly possible that they lose this game.“So if we can keep producing what we are doing and do a few things a little bit better, then there is every reason to expect that we start to win football games again.“But I cannot promise you that on Wednesday evening we are again able to create eight, nine or 10 open chances. I hope so, and with the players we have then it will lead in the end to us scoring more goals.”Liverpool return to action away at Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday as their Champions League campaign resumes.