After defeats to Crystal Palace, Galatasaray and Chelsea, Liverpool find themselves under major scrutiny, not because of attitude or effort, but because of structure.

For all the technical quality, the expensive recruitment and the clear tactical language Arne Slot has tried to impose, the team’s shape no longer convinces – beautifully assembled on paper but alarmingly easy to play through in reality.

There is an unmistakable anxiety surrounding Liverpool at the moment. It isn’t hysteria or overreaction, but a collective recognition that something fundamental has shifted.

The side that once looked built to suffocate opponents has now lost its fear factor. For all the precision and possession, the control that defined Slot’s best work has faded, leaving a team elegant in design but fragile in practice.

Tweaking, not replacing

Slot’s early conversations with Jurgen Klopp provided the framework for his early analysis.

Klopp’s Liverpool had intensity and belief in abundance, but they had become stretched, too open in transitions, too dependent on emotion, too thin in control when fatigue or form wavered.

Slot’s task was not to dismantle what Klopp built, but to mask those frailties.

Liverpool matured and learned to rest within games without losing...