Arne Slot makes Liverpool admission and explains what is 'much better' compared to last season

Liverpool may be sitting atop the Premier League table in its bid to retain last season's hard-fought title, but the critics have been quick to circle as it confronts its sternest test of a challenging week.

The Reds travel to Chelsea on Saturday hoping to prevent a third consecutive loss for the first time during Arne Slot's tenure, following damaging defeats to Crystal Palace and Galatasaray that have knocked their Premier League and Champions League ambitions.

Fitness concerns, star players experiencing dips in form, and bedding in numerous summer arrivals have all played a part in patchy performances, with Anfield icon Jamie Carragher suggesting midweek that Liverpool currently doesn't resemble an elite side.

However, Slot has rejected claims that his squad is grappling with numerous issues, though he acknowledges they aren't assisting that narrative by shipping avoidable goals — a weakness that has resulted in merely four clean sheets across 21 fixtures.

"In the last two games we've lost, we've lost a few very simple balls and that adds to the thought, 'Wow, are we playing poor?' as we let ourselves down," said the Liverpool boss.

"We were 2-0 up against Bournemouth (on the opening day), very, very, very good game, much better than we've played in the second half of the season. But then we concede two, and everybody is starting to be more negative about that as well.

"And I can come up with a few other examples. Against Atletico Madrid, it was an unbelievable start of the game, but then they come back in the game, and all of a sudden the general opinion is not as positive anymore.

"There are enough positives to take from this season. If you talk about open play goals, we've done much better in the first part of this season than the second part of last season.

"But there are also things we definitely have to improve. I'm the first one to acknowledge that."

Tuesday's 1-0 defeat in Istanbul marked just the fifth occasion in 66 matches that Liverpool has drawn a blank under Slot, with the manager acknowledging that constant changes in midfield aren't assisting $157 million (£116 million) signing Florian Wirtz in settling after another inconsistent performance during the week.

"We've brought in a very different midfielder than we had [in the number 10 role] last season, which we think we needed because the amount of goals we found from open play in the first part of last season and the second part of last season, there's a big, big difference," he said.

"The different set-up in midfield (this season) is not only because I wanted it, it was a lot of times also because we needed because of the injuries or suspensions we had.

"You can mainly improve a team by meetings, individual or with the team, and not as much on a training ground, but the best way to improve a team is to play a game, because there you can see the issues and there you can try to adjust it.

"But we haven't had much training time with the new set-up when we had time to train. Until September 1 you have quite a lot of training time, but players came in later as we all know and players were injured in that period of time."

The Reds suffered just one defeat across all competitions during the opening half of last campaign, yet endured eight losses following the New Year as Slot acknowledged that opposition sides have begun adapting more effectively to his tactical approach.

"A new manager came in (at Liverpool) and everybody thought, 'oh, let's start to play against Liverpool!'," he said. "And teams played in a completely different way in the first half of the season against us than they did when we were top of the league after half of the season and when we were top of the Champions League.

"And I can see this going now into this part of this season. We have to find answers to that."

Though only Manchester City has found the net more frequently from open play than Liverpool in the Premier League this campaign, the Reds are being hindered by struggles from set-pieces.

Dominik Szoboszlai's thunderous free-kick against Arsenal remains the sole dead-ball scenario from which the Reds have scored in the top flight, in contrast to seven for Arsenal and five for Saturday's opponents Chelsea.

"We've unlocked teams in the second half of the season by scoring seven corner kicks," Slot stated.

"The team we face on Saturday has scored more than 50 per cent of their goals, although they are on eight points, from set-pieces. The number two of the league has scored 60 per cent of their goals from set pieces.

"So they have the same issues if they face a low block, but the way to unlock a low block is we have to do better, we have to find the ways of unlocking that, maybe scoring the first chance we get. But that's not the only thing."