2 months ago
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Liverpool boss Arne Slot has come under scrutiny after Tony Pulis accused him of disrupting the team’s balance.
Liverpool ended its losing streak on Wednesday with a commanding 5-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League, as Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Cody Gakpo, and Dominik Szoboszlai found the net.
The Reds travel to Brentford on Saturday, aiming to halt the run of three consecutive Premier League defeats and close the gap on leaders Arsenal, who host Crystal Palace on Sunday. Despite the morale-boosting result, questions remain following the club’s significant summer overhaul, though Slot will hope the win eases any uncertainty surrounding his position—for now.
The revamp of the squad during the transfer window is what Pulis believes has disrupted the balance of team this season. "Arne Slot had a great balance last year, and he knew what his best team was", said the former Stoke manager.
"Now he's spent all this money on bringing in top players. Where do you fit them in? Who do you leave out? Sometimes as a manager, you create your own problems and issues by doing that. There was a very settled team last year, and everybody could look at it, maybe one or two positions, but the rest of it picked itself.
“Now you've brought different people in, and you think you've sent it forward, just to make an example of it. Are you going to play two up there and then break the balance? Are you going to play someone, or not play someone, you've just spent over a hundred million on and is on an absolute fortune?
“So he's got other issues. What happens again, as a manager, sometimes you think, well, I've got to fit them in. And by fitting them in, you lose complete control of the balance of the team that made you so successful the year before. So I'm sure he's experienced enough.
“Putting them in there actually can misplace the balance, and you don't get the performances that you do without them. Yeah, interesting times."
While Pulis believes Liverpool has a chance at retaining the title, he thinks Arsenal could be difficult to beat, having got the balance right.
"I think if you look at it now, at the beginning of the season when they signed the players, you think they are definitely going to be winning it again, and they have got an unbelievable chance," the 67-year-old told Grosvenor Casinos.
“But you look at Arsenal, Arsenal are more settled. I think Mikel Arteta has brought, everybody was on about the forwards, he's brought that centre-forward in.
"I think they've added people who can go into the team without upsetting the balance of the team. And he's brought players in that might just have unsettled that balance a little bit.
“But he'll find his way. Liverpool will be there, or thereabouts. Arsenal, I think it's Arsenal and Liverpool for me. I don't see anybody else.
"Chelsea have done well, but they seem a little bit up and down at times. They've got unbelievable talent, Chelsea. Unbelievable. And if they get it right, they could beat anybody at any given time.”
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