Liverpool theory simply doesn't stack up - with quick Arne Slot change needed

Liverpool's running stats have come under scrutiny this week, but that doesn't tell the whole story about a tough season for Arne Slot, even though energy levels have been lacking

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot during a training session.(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Fatigue, Arne Slot said, could perhaps explain it. Milos Kerkez used the word "tired" in his post-match assessment too. That is, at least, a plausible explanation for being low on energy against Brighton.

Three days earlier, Liverpool had played an important Champions League game. There were only 62 hours between the final whistle there and kick-off on the south coast, with the likes of Mohamed Salah out injured and Hugo Ekitike limping off only eight minutes in.

"[Not having much time between games] is the situation," Virgil van Dijk said. "I was also surprised when I was on the training pitch yesterday, and I only saw the amount of players that I saw, but that is the situation. So yeah, tough."

Van Dijk's comments have been misconstrued by some on social media, but he meant that there is a lengthy number of absences at the moment. Liverpool was also needing to recover from Wednesday and prepare for Saturday inside a tiny timeframe.

But while the turnaround to Brighton was particularly extreme, it is also true that Liverpool has failed to win six of its 10 league matches that have followed European games this season.

There is a wider pattern, and the Reds seemingly don't have a deep enough roster to be able to cope on multiple fronts.

It can be argued, of course, that Liverpool needed to show more fight at the Amex Stadium. That is fair. It is also true that the game against Galatasaray was won well before the final whistle, and Slot opted not to make changes earlier in the second half.

Arne Slot during the Liverpool training session at AXA Training Centre on March 17, 2026 in Kirkby, England(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Curtis Jones, who came on for Ekitike at Brighton, was also a viable alternative to start ahead of, say, Alexis Mac Allister, who has long looked jaded, but the Liverpool boss chose not to bring him into the initial XI.

So, that Liverpool looked so lacking in intensity once more — once its identity, and now seemingly a distant dream — was a legitimate concern, but data about distance covered require a little more context.

You will no doubt have seen the stat by now that Liverpool has been outrun in 26 of their 30 games this season. That doesn't, though, tell the whole story.

Liverpool was outrun in 26 of its 38 Premier League games in the 2021/22 season, in which it came close to winning the quadruple under Jurgen Klopp. The Reds collected 92 points that year.

At that point, however, Liverpool was dominating matches. Its players didn't need to run as much because they were seeing much more of the ball, and letting that do the work instead.

This season, Liverpool has very rarely been comfortably ahead in games and able to cruise. There has always been something to battle for — either a comeback, or holding onto a marginal lead.

There have been an unprecedented number of late goals — for and against — which have come as a result of games being in the balance right the way through the 90 minutes.

Running and energy levels are clearly important determinants in how a team performs. More significant, though, is Liverpool becoming better in possession, more fluid in attack, and more clinical and controlled at both ends.

Cut out the mistakes in defense and start looking more like a solid unit in attack, and debates about the distances being covered will be rendered irrelevant. For now, they are just the latest hypothesis being put forward to explain a baffling drop-off.