Arne Slot's defensive CRISIS confirms Liverpool fans' worst fears | OneFootball

Liverpool's sweeping squad changes this summer made for quite the endorphin boost.

A lot of money was being spent in the transfer market and big name players were being targeted.

You felt as though our signings were not necessarily being made on potential alone. Young players that were already excelling at the highest level made up the classification. The Reds were looking to build on their platform as Premier League champions and deliver an extended period of dominance.

However, fans did begin to question whether too much change had been sanctioned, leading to the squad being rebuilt, rather than renovated. Results and performances that matched were expected from the off and it's now clearer than ever that Liverpool are far away from delivering that quite yet.

Slot's issues laid bare for all to see

On Saturday evening, the Reds played at Stamford Bridge against a Chelsea side lacking defenders.

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Four centre-backs in total were missing from the matchday squad and given Liverpool have some of the most dangerous attackers in the world in Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz, Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo, you felt as though the Reds had an opportunity to make quite the statement.

But throughout the match, it became clear that things still weren't right. A screamer from Moises Caicedo split the two teams in the first half, with the Reds missing two big chances in front of goal.

In the second half, the match went even more in Liverpool's favour with two more centre-backs coming off for Chelsea, making it six defensive absentees. There were no excuses not to win.

A nifty touch from Isak to leave Gakpo a tap-in to scurry onto meant the game went to 1-1, but something utterly remarkable happened in the last half an hour, and it was truly baffling to watch.

Following an unnecessary first-half yellow card, Conor Bradley was taken off and moments later, we saw Ibrahima Konate also leave the pitch. Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch were charged with dropping into the defence and the midfield was boosted with Curtis Jones and Wirtz coming on.

That's right, two of Arne Slot's title winning midfielders were told to play in defence. Presumably, this was because Joe Gomez wasn't trusted to play next to Virgil van Dijk, while Jeremie Frimpong's defending can sometimes leave a lot to be desired. Regardless, it was an absolute mess on the field.

A mere two shots on target were delivered from 1.93xg and three big chances, against a Chelsea defence that was ravaged with injuries. Meanwhile, the Blues managed to get six shots on target.

Robert Sanchez, a goalkeeper whose error-prone nature is well established at this point had to make one save compared to Premier League debutant Giorgi Mamardashvili. Everything was out of sync.

To suggest that Liverpool are going to be troubled for the foreseeable is going a bit far in my view - of course, the players at Slot's disposal are better than the performances they're delivering. Three losses in a row is a poor run of form and the club has opened itself up to receiving speculation.

A lot of things aren't going right and they deserve to be analysed and pointed out. But the context behind the results paints a harsh picture - a 97th minute winner conceded against Crystal Palace, a soft penalty against Galatasaray and a 95th minute winner conceded against Chelsea, which will no doubt haunt Liverpool fans over the next two weeks while the players are out on international duty.

The squad is littered with quality, but the balance still needs tinkering with and certain players need find a way to get into form. There are too many weak links that are damaging the teams' chances.

Claims about the title race and Arsenal are overthought. We're only six games into the league season, but we have to - and inevitably will - improve over the next few weeks and months.

Right now, however, it's a waiting game. The cohesion within the squad isn't there. Once we're fully up to speed, we'll be a real problem. But for now, we've got take our medicine and allow Arne Slot the clarity of thought to make things right. Relying on late goals was never a sustainable practice.