richard hughes is more culpable than arne slot

Signing a new starting six makes sense, but only if this shifts to a midfield three, otherwise they won’t be able to keep hold of the current midfield talent, and the new signing would come at the expense of benching the likes of Gravenberch, Mac Allister, or Szoboszlai.

A new starting 6 in this setup will leave Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Jones, and Mac Allister all competing for just one spot, as if this system wasn’t already a poor use of our squad. There’s no 4-2-3-1 like this and Liverpool should probably play with one fewer forward and one more midfielder.

Also it’s not that Liverpool’s midfielders lack quality in possession, It’s that there’s no pairing among them that can bear the extremely load this team places on the pivot in and out of possession. I don’t think signing another midfielder would balance this setup either/

In this system Liverpool lack legs around Wirtz as we lack an athletic winger to act as a carrier from depth or provide defensive cover, and the fullbacks can’t push high enoughvin this setup. Gravenberch and Szoboszlai are good carriers but their mobility is limited in the pivot.

Liverpool’s back four has only one passer, and even with Mac Allister the pivot isn’t nearly ball dominant enough to compensate for the FBs+Ibu. Wirtz can help but his range isn’t outstanding and he isn’t a carrier, his progression comes through combination play with runners, which this system lacks

And they’ve saved their largest bully for the climax.

Liverpool used to be very well run, after this transfer window it’s a bit more ambiguous.

Also Liverpool were very thin, never addressed that, and yet that never became a major issue in their title runs. Klopp basically played the likes of Mo, Sadio, and Virgil into the ground season after season, and almost miraculously? they avoided injuries and just kept performing.

The difference in metrics was much more significant than what the points total suggested, Liverpool were often lucky in the league but needed even more luck, yet season after season they refused to invest to try to narrow the gap.

That was the true with Klopp in knockout games, but in the league his Liverpool were often lucky and famous for overperforming their metrics.