Lessons Learned: Arne Slot Makes Interesting Decisions in Liverpool’s Defeat to Tottenham Hotspur | OneFootball

What Did we Learn as Liverpool Suffer Defeat at Tottenham Hotspur

There is a second leg at least I suppose. Well whatever happened in this one, the thing we were after was no injuries and we didn’t get that. The other focus before kick-off was about whether Trent not starting was tactical or rotation. By the end though, it was another game where you just thought it wasn’t good enough again. Liverpool look anything but their fluent best at the moment and considering it’s been a largely full strength team the last two, that’s a slight worry. We look at the lessons learned from a Carabao cup semi final first leg defeat.

Centre Back Issues

Liverpool only had three fit centre backs at the start of this game and it wasn’t good news when Jarrell Quansah limped off after around half an hour. Ibou Konate came on late and you could tell it wasn’t a change that Arne Slot really wanted to make. Konate was poor for the spurs winner despite all the talk of whether Bergvall should have been on the field or not. Endo is the back-up now it seems and dependent on how bad the two injuries are, it might be a key time to go into the market. Van Dijk has a new softener every half hour at the moment.

Photo: IMAGO

Back To Back Stinkers

That two games in a row where you have to be honest and say we just weren’t very good. It was a flat performance with little fluidity and Arne Slot will be clipping up a fair few things tomorrow. Tsimikas and Bradley were understandably rusty and struggled in their minutes. Curtis Jones has had a great season, but he was poor again and how we’re missing Szoboszlai at the moment. Slot clearly doesn’t fancy Harvey Elliott as all the evidence points towards. Worryingly though, there’s been a drop off in recent performances and it’s a slight concern.

Photo: IMAGO

Context Is Key

As much as this stings a bit, there are bigger things to concern ourselves with at the moment. For a start, there’s a second leg so this is well and truly alive. More importantly though, there’s a game against Nottingham Forest in six days time and the first teamers need to click into gear for that and sharpish. Szoboszlai being back feels massive and it’s important that many are given Accrington off completely. We could really do with good news over Quansah and Gomez soon, otherwise there’s a risk of how short we are. Not the start to 2025 anyone wanted though.