Arne Slot must face up to huge Liverpool problem that exposes summer transfer error

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Liverpool head coach Arne Slot was unable to do anything on the sidelines as his players found familiar issues impossible to move beyond and Erling Haaland ran riot

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot.(Image: Mark Cosgrove/News Images/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

As Federico Chiesa got himself ready to come on, with Liverpool already four goals down at this point, the Italian fell over as he attempted to take his tracksuit bottoms off.

It felt like a sign of how things were going for Liverpool, despite the Reds having started on top. As soon as they fell behind to Erling Haaland’s penalty, that was that. Mentality monsters? No longer.

That Chiesa was one of those called upon from the bench — alongside the ineffective Cody Gakpo in attack — kind of summed things up too. Quite simply, the 28-year-old has done nothing to suggest he can make a long-term impact.

Contrast that with the options that Pep Guardiola’s side call turn to: Tijjani Reijnders, Phil Foden and Omar Marmoush only got 19 minutes each. Nathan Ake, Mateo Kovacic and Rayan Ait Nouri didn’t even come on.

Liverpool spent big last summer but as Arne Slot has said many times, that was to replace rather than expand the roster. That has proven costly.

Those in the home end chanted, briefly, that Slot will be sacked in the morning. That isn’t the case, in large part because there are mitigations.

Arne Slot said the only positive from Liverpool's 4-0 loss at Manchester City was that the losing margin wasn't greater

But though a new head coach wouldn’t stop Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk’s blunders or offer a much-needed refresh in midfield, Slot has to be getting more out of his players. Here, that they started well only makes it even more startling that they are so broken.

Second-half collapses have been a familiar story for Liverpool. Having begun so well here only makes the 4-0 scoreline — Slot’s heaviest defeat as Reds boss — even harder to stomach.

Games with PSG coming up only look more terrifying in the wake of such defensive weakness. Meanwhile, next weekend’s visit of Fulham will be anything but straightforward.

Slot doesn’t have that many options to mix things up and the defining games are coming thick and fast. At the moment, the only time that Liverpool can rest in matches is when it is too far behind to bother putting it all in.

Come the summer, Liverpool needs more numbers. It needs more speed and quality, and it needs another big refresh.

The players it has are good. They won the Premier League title less than a year ago.

There simply isn’t enough of them, though, with intensity — ironically, given Pep Lijnders was in the opposite dugout — having long exited the description of their identity.