‘It’s blown up in their face’ – Carragher uses Arsenal star to make ‘worried’ Liverpool point

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher insists he is “worried” about the direction the Reds are going in as they look likely to keep Arne Slot as head coach.

The Reds won the Premier League title under Slot last season as Liverpool in a brilliant first campaign for the former Feyenoord manager.

However, after spending over £400m on new players this summer, the Reds have gone backwards under Slot this season with several of his starting XI not putting in the same level of performances as last term.

There have been several things that have hampered Slot’s ability to get the best out of his group of players, like injuries, but Liverpool are still on course for a place in the Champions League next season, when earlier in the campaign it had looked in the balance.

Recent good results mean that Liverpool are six points ahead of sixth-placed Bournemouth with only three Premier League matches left to play this season.

Liverpool brought in Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong, Giovanni Leoni and Milos Kerkez in the summer transfer market and Carragher is worried that Slot will make the same mistake by bringing in more technical players like Arsenal midfielder Martin Zubimendi.

READ: Who will be the next manager of Liverpool after Arne Slot exit?

Carragher told Sky Sports: “Am I worried about where Liverpool are going? Yeah, I am.

“I think it will be really interesting who Liverpool buy in the summer, what the profile of player will be. Going for just good players hasn’t worked, it’s blown up in their face. There’s a lack of physicality.

“We’re in a situation now where we look at the teams who are looking for a manager: Real Madrid, Manchester United and Chelsea.

“Those three clubs we just mentioned sacked their managers midway through the season. They ended up with [Alvaro] Arbeloa whose never managed before, [Michael] Carrick who had been at Middlesbrough and young [Liam] Rosenior which it was too big a jump.

“Maybe those big managers aren’t around at the moment, those figures aren’t available. Xabi Alonso is the one that’s making Liverpool fans think: ‘We don’t want to miss out on him’.

“We can’t be a club who continue for the next five or 10 years saying, ‘Oh, we want Jurgen Klopp football’.

“The fella is a genius. He does football better than anybody. So whatever manager is going to come in, he’s going to play his football.

“The worry is not that there’s no identity. That is the identity.

READ: Liverpool ready ‘significant offer’ for Barcelona superstar in first of five signings

“So it’s on the manager’s shoulders. And I go back to last year when Liverpool didn’t sign anybody, but the one player he wanted was Martin Zubimendi again, another technical footballer.

“I’m not saying that doesn’t work. The most successful team in the Premier League over the last 10 years have been a technical football team, but we’re going away from what Jurgen Klopp was, because this manager wants that.

“This is where he’s taken this team. And that’s the worry for me, is this actually going to go more of the other way?

“Or are we thinking Liverpool needs to go back to last season? Or is Arne Slot thinking, ‘No, we actually need more technical footballers?'”

Speaking after Liverpool lost 3-2 to arch-rivals Manchester United on Sunday, Slot said: “The margins are not so big between us being able to win a game like this and not.

“I know quite clearly what we need to improve. We are already working in these weeks hard on that, because we have a bit more training time.

“The same issues come back and that’s not a complete surprise because there’s not a lot you can change during the season.

“For us, for me, it’s quite clear where we have to improve. And we will next season.”

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