Arne Slot knows what must happen next after 'completely honest' Liverpool admission

Arne Slot says he has been surprised by the length of time it is taking a new-look Liverpool to get up to speed this season, with 2026 set to be a big year for his team

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot is feeling the heat(Image: Paul ELLIS / AFP via Getty Images)

Quite obviously, it hasn't been the start to the season that Liverpool was expecting. Sitting in seventh spot before the final round of fixtures before Christmas, Arne Slot's side has work to do.

Having already lost six games — two more than in the whole of last season — Liverpool is playing catch-up. Things are so congested, though, that as 2026 comes around, there is a lot still to play for.

Mikel Arteta's Arsenal, for instance, up until the last couple of games, seemed to be sailing towards a first league title since 2004. The Gunners are only 10 points ahead of Liverpool, however.

Manchester City, with Erling Haaland flying, is eight points clear of the Reds, while Aston Villa has a seven-point lead over Slot's men. Chelsea, in fourth spot, only has two more points than Liverpool.

After winning each of its first five Premier League fixtures without playing well, the talk around Liverpool centered around imagining how good it would be when things finally clicked.

While the title race might now be too far away to be thinking about anything other than securing a route back into the Champions League, it remains the case that things can — or at least should — only get better from here.

Slot speaks at his Liverpool press conference to preview the trip to Tottenham(Image: Liverpool FC)

"I think we are getting closer and closer to the team I want us to be," Slot told reporters on Friday.

"That has gone with ups and downs, let’s be completely clear about that, but for me, that makes complete sense because of all the changes we made during the summer. We made them on purpose, because we thought we needed to.

"If I’m completely honest, maybe I didn’t expect it to take as long as it did. Looking back and reflecting on it now, I’ve been too positive.

"If you go with a new group, or not all of them are completely ready to play every single game 90 minutes in this intensity, you have to adapt. Sometimes he can play, then he cannot play, so it takes maybe a bit of time. And we’ve been very unlucky."

Florian Wirtz, in time, will become a game-changer in the Liverpool system. Alexander Isak, at some point, will find his feet — and he has already proven himself as a top-level performer in the English game.

Hugo Ekitike, the biggest success of any Liverpool summer signing to date, has played well so far, but there is much more to come from him. All across the team, there is more potential to be unlocked.

As Slot heads into a vital period of the season, though, that needs to be realized. With Mohamed Salah at AFCON, it should be easier to get an idea of what the summer transfer master plan was in the coming games.

Things have taken longer to fit together than Liverpool and Slot anticipated. As the halfway point in the season approaches, however, that will need to accelerate.