 "It’s all in the brain – Firstpost")
Arne Slot has insisted Liverpool’s summer spending spree has been a necessity to stop the club being left behind.
Liverpool’s £295million investment in this window has been a huge topic of debate, with the additions of Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike, among others, ensuring the dynamic of how Slot’s team attack next season will be radically different.
There could be more to come before the window closes, with Slot short of a central defender and still on the trail of Newcastle’s Aleksander Isak, whose patience at his situation on Tyneside has reached breaking point. It remains to be seen whether a deal can be done before the window closes.
Whatever happens, Slot is adamant the business Liverpool have completed was absolutely necessary. They only bought Federico Chiesa 12 months ago and another window holding back would, according to their head coach, have had detrimental impacts.
In an entertaining interview with the Men In Blazers Podcast, Slot told host Roger Bennett that he had become concerned about the possibility of rivals working out how to play against his team.
He said: ‘We think by adding the creativity of Florian, by adding the pace of Jeremie Frimpong, Hugo and Milos Kerkez we have quite a few guys that can give us weapons in games (that are tight).
Liverpool spent big this summer on stars like Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Jeremie Frimpong
Liverpool boss Arne Slot (right) spoke about why the spend was necessary on a new podcast
‘If you don’t evolve, if you keep doing the same thing, people do find the answers to your playing style. And that already happened the bits in the second part of last season – although, number wise, we got just as many points in the second half of the season in the first half of the season.
‘But I did see us struggling a bit more. I think we scored more from set pieces in the second part of the season, to make this one goal. West Ham United at home. Nottingham Forest away. Leicester City away, where we won with one-nil.
‘So we, we had to rely a bit more on our set pieces as well which is a very important part of football.
‘But in an ideal world, we are able to create even more chances against the low block than we did last season without losing our defensive structure.’
It will be fascinating to see how Slot uses all his options, not least youngsters Trey Nyoni and Rio Ngumoha, who have both been made part of the first team squad and who will certainly be asked to contribute – their efforts through pre-season have caught the eye consistently.
Ngumoha, who became Liverpool’s youngest player when he appeared in the FA Cup defeat of Accrington Stanley in January, has created a buzz and his goal in last Monday’s friendly against Athletic Club was a thing of beauty, with nine perfect touches on his right foot before sweeping in a shot.
Slot is not a man who will get caught up in hype and knows how to keep young players grounded but, equally, he recognises Ngumoha – who left Chelsea 12 months ago because he felt Liverpool would offer a better pathway – can do things differently.
‘Rio has had a good pre-season,’ Slot explained to Men In Blazers.
Slot felt that other teams had started to figure his team out during the back end of last season
Milos Kerkez (left) and goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili (right) also joined this summer
‘It took him a while to adapt, which is quite normal if you are 16 years old. He used to be with us last season once in a while and now, in pre-season, he’s done really well.
‘He brings in the quality. He is not afraid to take a one for one on making the right decisions. If he feels his teammate is in a better position than him, he will play the ball.
‘But I know how hard it is for 20 year olds, 25 year olds, 30 year olds to play every three days at this level. And this is something we need to give him – time.
‘At this moment, of course, he’s not a regular starter, but for him to train every single day at this level is going to be really hard and tough. So let’s give him some time, to adapt to everything – but he definitely made a promising start to this pre-season.’
For the full Men In Blazers interview with Arne Slot, listen here.
