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For perhaps the first time in his Liverpool managerial career, Arne Slot could face the media in a Friday press conference feeling some pressure.
For the majority of his tenure at Anfield, the Dutchman has breezed into pre-match briefings, laughing and joking with reporters on the front row. Indeed, his last at the AXA Training Centre began with some light teasing of a journalist, which was soon clipped and shared on social media.
Will he approach Friday’s Chelsea preview with the usual spring in his step? Maybe. Slot has rarely allowed on-field frustrations to intrude on media duties. Yet, no matter his demeanour, the Liverpool head coach cannot feel quite as relaxed as he did last Friday.
The seven days seem to have skewed the perception of the Reds’ start to the season from underwhelming to concerning. That is the prevailing media narrative, at least.
In the wake of defeats to Crystal Palace and Galatasaray - Liverpool’s first real losses of the campaign - Jamie Carragher claimed his former side is playing basketball. Wayne Rooney stated Ruben Amorim would be “absolutely slaughtered” for making the mistakes of Slot. Ally McCoist has changed his mind on Liverpool being title favorites. Jason McAteer has said Liverpool is lacking “real characters”. You get the picture.
That criticism will not evade Slot’s attention. He is aware of the public discord surrounding his side. That was underlined last month when the 47-year-old responded curtly to suggestions that Liverpool had spent heavily in the summer window, highlighting that much of the media analysis tended to overlook the club’s transfer income and relatively frugal approach to the market in recent years.
But after suffering successive defeats for just the second time in his Liverpool career, Slot shouldn’t expect many fluffy, effusive questions on Friday.
That said, the media reaction has felt extreme in recent days; perhaps a sign of Liverpool’s burgeoning status. Everyone wants to tear the champions down, after all.
But many who gleefully sharpen the knives seem to have overlooked that Liverpool is currently top of the table and has won five of six in the league, all while Slot oversees a major squad overhaul.
Just a week ago, Liverpool was praised for grinding out late wins despite not playing at their best — the hallmark of any title contender. Should two performances have changed that narrative so drastically?
No matter where you sit on that debate, there’s one area few fans can disagree on: performances must improve.
With a run of seven matches against Manchester United, Eintracht Frankfurt, Brentford, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa, Real Madrid and Manchester City after the October international break, Slot cannot afford for the subpar showings to continue.
Some solutions are obvious ahead of the trip to Stamford Bridge. The first would be to select a traditional right-back after Dominik Szoboszlai's gruelling experience against Galatasaray.
Selecting the Hungarian as part of a back four may work against teams that intend to defend deep - as was the case against Arsenal and Burnley - but not when facing sides with the threat of repeated penetrative attacks.
Mohamed Salah will almost certainly be reintroduced to the side, many will feel now is the time to drop the error-strewn Ibrahima Konate in place of Joe Gomez, and even having Federico Chiesa to call off the bench will be a welcome boost.
Slot has more nuanced issues to deal with, though. Chief among them is how Liverpool reduces the number of individual mistakes and remains more solid through its core. Getting better returns from Salah and Florian Wirtz is a must, while set-pieces have been an alarming fragility this term.
What is also unclear is what sort of challenge Chelsea will pose. Having started the season so encouragingly, Enzo Maresca’s side has picked up just one point from its last three league outings and could be without up to nine players on Saturday.
Even during the midweek win over Benfica, Chelsea failed to impress, and if it loses at home to an old foe, the London club will face a drawn-out inquest over the international break.
The same can be said for Liverpool, of course. Three points and, perhaps even more crucially, a convincing performance will manage to suppress the increasing clamor around the Premier League champions. Anything less and the dissenting voices will only increase.
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