1 week ago
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Arne Slot has been told that Florian Wirtz's introduction to the Liverpool team has coincided with the team losing its balance.
Wirtz joined Liverpool from Bayer Leverkusen for a seismic transfer fee during the summer transfer window, with the Reds staving off competition from the likes of Real Madrid and Bayern Munich to land the 22-year-old.
Despite his obvious qualities, Wirtz has not settled at Liverpool as well as many thought he would, and former Liverpool star Joe Cole has suggested that the team should revert to its tried and tested system in a bid to find some form. Wirtz started against Brentford on Saturday as Liverpool lost a fourth successive Premier League game, leaving the club in sixth position in the standings.
"Things are tight in terms of Liverpool's title defence," Cole said on TNT Sports. "We all backed them at the start of the season.
"They had improved their squad, buying Florian Wirtz, who was the best player in Germany, but there is no balance in their team right now.
"They were beautifully balanced last year. There was nobody counter-attacking on them and set pieces weren't a problem, so they need to go back to the tried and tested for a few weeks."
Cole knows a thing or two about struggling at Liverpool as a big-name signing. The former England international left Chelsea for Liverpool in 2010, but made just 26 Premier League appearances for the Reds after flopping at Anfield.
Liverpool fell behind inside the opening five minutes at the Gtech Community Stadium and never regained parity with the Bees, who are now just two points behind the Reds in the standings.
Of Brentford's win, Cole said: "That's why we love football. We had drama, quality and passion. Keith Andrews has just taken the baton off Thomas Frank and he is just pushing this football club up the table. This is Brentford's moment.
"A wonderful performance from the team."
After recent losses to Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Manchester United, Slot said that the game against Brentford was the one in which Liverpool looked least likely to emerge from with a positive result.
"You cannot compare all of them (the losses) but the most concerning thing is that you lose four times in a row," Slot said.
"Afterwards you can judge the performance and today was the worst in my opinion from all the four. Again, conceding a set-piece and not scoring one makes it hard to win a game of football.
"We didn't do the basics right in the first half and parts of the second. They won more duels than us, they won more second balls than us and if you come here and you know if you are going to concede goals then one of them may be a set-piece and a counter-attack is also one of their biggest strengths and that's how we conceded two goals.
"I'm not sure the referee would have given them the penalty but it turned out to be inside. After going 3-1 down we tried, made some substitutes but maybe if I am completely honest, them scoring at that moment in time was more likely than us to make it 3-2."
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