Arne Slot Under Pressure After Liverpool Spend Big

Liverpool icon Jason McAteer has exclusively told GIVEMESPORT that boss Arne Slot is under increasing pressure and that the summer spending spree could come back to bite the reigning Premier League champions as it has resulted in there being difficulty pinpointing the Anfield giants’ best starting line-up.

The Reds made Alexander Isak the most expensive acquisition in British history when he completed a £125million switch from domestic counterparts Newcastle United just before the deadline, while Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Milos Kerkez were also among the big-money arrivals on Merseyside.

But Liverpool have fallen seven points adrift of table-topping Arsenal after a 3-2 loss to Brentford last weekend consigned Slot’s side to four consecutive Premier League defeats, leading to McAteer admitting that the hierarchy will be frustrated with how the start of the season has panned out.

Slot in a Race Against Time to Reignite Title Dreams

McAteer, who made more than 130 appearances for Liverpool during his playing career, believes that Slot needs to quickly find a solution and end the underwhelming run of results if he wants to ensure he is still in the Anfield hot-seat for the long-term instead of being dismissed by Fenway Sports Group.

Although the Reds registered a convincing victory over Eintracht Frankfurt last week, improving their hopes of progressing to the knockout phase of the Champions League, they suffered a defeat to Brentford a matter of days later and have given themselves a mountain to climb as they seek to defend their top flight crown.

The reverse at the Gtech Community Stadium came after they had also been beaten by arch-rivals Manchester United, Chelsea and Crystal Palace, while they were on the wrong side of a 1-0 scoreline when they faced Turkish heavyweights Galatasaray last month.

Liverpool cannot be ruled out of the battle to be crowned champions at this stage, but McAteer is adamant that Slot needs to quickly oversee an upturn in form and make his side more defensively solid after the vast majority of his summer budget was spent on attack-minded big-names.

The former Republic of Ireland international, speaking exclusively to GMS via the home of football betting, said: “Although Liverpool have lost a little bit of ground, they are not out of the race. Slot is under pressure now because I think his buffer has gone. The points gained from late winners bought him a bit of time and room for error. Unfortunately, he has eaten into that buffer in the last four Premier League games.

“The history of the Premier League over the last five years will tell you that you can’t lose more than six games. Otherwise, you’re out of the title race. But I think there is a bit more competition this season, with a few other teams taking points off the top six. I do think clubs will have a little bit more room for error this season than most, but he is under pressure not to lose too many more points. He has got to find a solution quickly.

“If you do want to look at the stats and data, two clean sheets in 13 games is not right for a start. The manner in which they are conceding goals is not right. The team is dysfunctional at the moment, so where do you start unpicking the problems?

“I think there’s no divine right to bring in £450million worth of signings, they hit the ground running, and you just run off into the sunset and win another title at a canter. History has told us that, at times, big signings can take a bit of time to settle in.”

Expensive Acquisitions Upset Balance of Reds’ Team

Liverpool added Isak, Wirtz, Ekitike, Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong, Giovanni Leoni and Freddie Woodman to their title-winning squad ahead of the summer transfer window slamming shut, while Giorgi Mamardashvili also made his long-awaited arrival after an agreement was initially reached with Valencia last year.

But McAteer feels that making such drastic changes may come back to haunt the Reds as the recruits are still forging relationships and adjusting to their new surroundings, while the importance of Trent Alexander-Arnold has been emphasised since his decision to leave his boyhood club for Real Madrid.

“Changing three or four players can upset the balance of the team,” conceded the 54-year-old. “It can upset the tactics of the team and how it functions. The manager has changed tactically and he lost players as well. You’ve got to take that into account. Trent Alexander-Arnold has slipped out the door and the impact of him leaving is being highlighted right now.

“I just think Liverpool are tactically changing things, even though it’s quite subtle. Arne Slot is trying to get the players he has bought into the team to settle, plus attempting to find the right balance that suits all 10 outfield players, but there are components within that team that are just not working.

“If you want to talk about individuals, I think Florian Wirtz is obviously struggling with confidence and struggling with the position he is being asked to play. I don’t think the manager really knows where his best position is at the moment. Certain players are still trying to forge relationships with each other, which can be crucial.”

McAteer also feels that Ekitike, who is testing himself in the Premier League for the first time in his career after making the summer switch from Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt, should be at the forefront of Slot’s plans and his performances warrant becoming one of the first names on the team sheet.

“I actually feel sorry for Ekitike,” added the ex-midfielder. “He has been Liverpool’s most productive player in front of goal. He came to Liverpool with an enormous transfer fee for his age and he hit the ground running. I think he has been the best signing that Liverpool made in the sense of performances and productivity. He has also been the player who has settled quickest.

“He has been really, really unlucky to be left out of the team at stages. Slot needs to be careful with him because his performances, for me, actually warrant the start. You don’t want to lose the player and Ekitike feeling like he is playing second fiddle to Isak. That’s where the manager needs to be brave. He has been brave with Wirtz.”

Isak Must Not be Seen as Automatic Starter at Anfield

McAteer has called on Slot to become more ruthless and, despite splashing the cash in order to welcome Isak to Liverpool, there is a feeling that the Dutch tactician should not be taking the Sweden international’s price tag into account when selecting his starting line-up.

“I don’t buy into the fact that because he cost £100-odd million that he should be nailed-on as a starter for Liverpool,” admitted the former Tranmere Rovers and Blackburn Rovers man. “When you look at Wirtz, he has probably not started three of the last five or six games. Why should Isak be any different?

“It’s very difficult comparing Jurgen Klopp to Arne Slot, because they’re two completely different characters. But one thing that Jurgen was good at was identifying when a player wasn’t in the best form or when a player wasn’t suited to a certain team. Although he predominantly didn’t change a great deal tactic-wise or even from his formation, he was a good judge of whether a player was suitable for the fixture.

Although Isak proved to be a deadline day signing from Newcastle, following lengthy negotiations and the frontman’s decision to go on strike at St James’ Park, Liverpool were left frustrated when Crystal Palace pulled the plug on a deal which would have seen central defender Marc Guehi seal a switch at the eleventh-hour.

That has resulted in Slot having to be heavily reliant on captain Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate, particularly after Leoni was ruled out for the rest of the season thanks to tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, while Joe Gomez has also been an option to come into the backline.

But McAteer thinks FA Cup-winning England international Guehi may have been higher on Liverpool’s list of transfer priorities before influential figures behind the scenes felt they needed to alter their focus when Isak was making it abundantly clear that he was desperate to embark on a fresh challenge on Merseyside.

He confirmed: “I’ve got my own take on the Guehi situation. This isn’t based on inside information, just my opinion. I think Liverpool had already gone too far down the line with the Isak deal. They brought in Ekitike as cover because, at one point, it looked like they might miss out on Isak.

“Once Isak began to push for the move – and he clearly knew about Liverpool’s interest – it created pressure on Newcastle. I don’t know the exact details, but it seemed that Isak forced the issue to the point where Liverpool felt they had to act. They’d invested too much time and effort to walk away. The money was ready, negotiations had progressed, and with Isak effectively distancing himself from Newcastle, Liverpool had to complete the deal.

“Because of that, I think the Guehi move was pushed aside. In my view, Guehi might originally have been the priority target, but once Isak’s transfer gathered momentum and reached that decisive stage, Liverpool had no choice but to finalise it. That decision naturally had a knock-on effect.”

All statistics courtesy of Sofascore – correct as of 28/10/2025