Arne Slot confirms Liverpool's transfer strategy after watching 'direct' styles

Several Premier League teams have looked to employ a more direct style of play; 27.5 percent of goals in the competition this season have come from non-penalty set pieces

Arne Slot is refusing to change Liverpool's strategy(Image: Getty Images)

Arne Slot and Liverpool are refusing to change their summer transfer strategy after watching "long ball after long ball" this season.

The Reds started this campaign as the defending Premier League champions, but they have struggled to keep up with the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City in the title race. Slot's players are fifth in the table, 16 points behind Mikel Arteta's Gunners in first.

One reason why Liverpool has struggled this season is that some teams have adopted a more direct style of play. The Reds themselves have looked to make the most of set pieces in recent weeks; no team has scored from more non-penalty dead-ball situations than Liverpool in the Premier League since the start of the calendar year.

That shift to a more direct style has seen Liverpool win four of its last five Premier League games. Yet Liverpool struggled to cope with "long ball after long ball" - as Slot put it - earlier in the campaign.

Speaking ahead of his team's game against Wolves at Molineux on Tuesday, Slot revealed that he's not enjoying watching Premier League soccer as much this season because it's more direct. For example, all three goals scored during Arsenal's crucial 2-1 victory against Chelsea on Sunday came from corners.

The Reds boss was then asked whether Liverpool would look to change its summer transfer strategy in light of the Premier League's more direct style this season.

All three goals at the Emirates on Sunday came from a set piece(Image: Getty Images)

"We have our own model over here, as I said many times, and our model is that we sign young players," replied Slot.

"It's normal for younger players that they have to adapt usually more towards the Premier League, than if you sign players that have already played in the Premier League, that are 27 and are already in the end of their physical (growth).

"But it's exactly the reason why we have our model, because we believe that players can get better. This club has shown that we can achieve things, as we did five years ago and last season, with our model."

Liverpool's 2026 summer spending spree has already started, with Jeremy Jacquet, a 20-year-old defender, arriving from Rennes. Slot added: "A rebuild takes time, a transition takes time, and that's what we did last summer.

"But we didn't expect the league to become like it did this season. You couldn't know this because last season it wasn't as extreme as it is this season. That is usually what happens. If a team has a success in a certain area then it is being copied.

"Ten to 15 years ago, a lot of people wanted to play like Barcelona. Let's hope the one that wins the World Cup has a great style of play, wins it by scoring open play goal after open play goal and doesn't win it for a different reason.

"(The Premier League is) powerful in the sense that every ball is being kicked forward, especially in the beginning of the season, that was especially against us.

"That has settled down a little bit in my opinion. In the first 10 games or something, it was just long ball after long ball after long ball, direct style."