Alan Shearer believes Arne Slot does not yet trust two of his Liverpool players and said the Dutchman’s side are ‘all over the place’ at present.
Liverpool may have won their first seven games in all competitions, but endured a troubling fortnight prior to the international break.
Three losses on the bounce saw the Reds drop to second in the table, and doubts emerge over what has been an unconvincing start to the season for the defending champions.
Despite spending almost half a billion pounds in the summer transfer window, Liverpool have appeared disjointed and lacking control, a far cry from the slick, well-oiled machine that romped to the league title last year.
One particular problem has been at right-back, with the Merseyside club clearly struggling to replace the all-round qualities of Trent Alexander-Arnold after his move to Real Madrid.
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Jeremie Frimpong was brought in for £29.5million from Bayer Leverkusen over the summer, while academy graduate Conor Bradley has also had opportunities, but both have flattered to deceive.
And Shearer believes that Slot has lost faith in his two natural replacements for Alexander-Arnold at present, hence why the Dutchman has often opted to deploy midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai in the role.
‘Slot doesn’t trust Frimpong yet at right-back,’ Shearer told Betfair. ‘He doesn’t trust Conor Bradley hence the reason he played Szoboszlai there.
‘Gomez was on the bench, and he put Gravenberch at centre-back instead and I guess the balance is all over the place at the moment. It’s not just Mo Salah, it’s down the left and right side.’
Shearer, though, is confident Slot can turn around Liverpool’s worrying recent form, adding: ‘Arne Slot is a brilliant coach so it’s a matter of time before they do get firing.
‘Now’s the time for other clubs to try and build a lead because it was only six days ago that Arsenal were five points behind Liverpool.
‘Two games later, they’re a point ahead. Things can move pretty quickly, and Liverpool will get better, as will Salah.
‘Salah will come back to his best, start scoring goals and we’ll all look back and wonder what the fuss was about.’
But even if Liverpool can get back to their best, Shearer believes that the title must surely be won by Arsenal this year after their latest summer spending spree, which has left them with an embarrassment of riches in their matchday squad.
‘It has to be Arsenal’s year to win the Premier League,’ he added.
‘They’ve spent an absolute fortune, finished second for the last three years so we know, and Arteta knows that the eyes will be on him and he has to win the Premier League this year. When you spend the amount of money that they have, second is no good.
‘They’re strong, have had a really tough start and they’ve come through it. That’s great credit to Mikel Arteta.
‘If you look at the substitutes bench from last season against West Ham in February, compared to now, there’s only two players on that bench from what there was last weekend.
‘The big difference is that, when Martin Odegaard went off, he was replaced by Zubimendi. That’s the difference.’
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