Arne Slot has now suffered his 13th defeat of the entire season, as Liverpool couldn’t handle the might of Galatasaray in a 1-0 loss in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Heading into this daunting tie, Liverpool had gotten back to winning ways in the FA Cup after a Premier League bump in the road at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Therefore, the expectation might well have been that Slot’s Reds would go on to beat Okan Buruk’s hosts, to inject even more positivity into proceedings on Merseyside.
Instead, the ever-fluctuating mood at Anfield has hit a depressing low, as Mario Lemina who funnily enough once played for Wolves was the match-winner, as his seventh-minute header proved to be decisive, in a contest that Liverpool showed little fight or bite in.
A thorough examination of his defeat must be had, as Liverpool need to work out what went wrong sharpish, so they can still leap into the coveted top-four positions back in Premier League action.
Here are some five major talking points from the demoralising first leg slip-up.
1. Liverpool’s hoodoo in Turkey continues
Istanbul was once the setting for one of Liverpool’s most magical nights in the Champions League, as the 2005 final between AC Milan and the Reds saw the then Rafa Benitez-led side overcome a three-goal deficit to reign supreme.
Amazingly, though, while lady luck was on their side that day, Liverpool have never won on Galatasaray’s home soil, in the exact same capital city, and that unfortunate hoodoo was not broken on Tuesday evening.
Losing 1-0 earlier in the season should have been a warning that this mid-week clash wasn’t going to be straightforward, and Liverpool just couldn’t deal with the high-intensity nature of their opponents all evening long.
One day, surely this jinx will be forgotten about, as Liverpool comes to RAMS Park and wins, but it’s an unwanted statistic that will remain jarring, for the time being.
2. Liverpool’s hot-and-cold attackers
While Slot and Co. obviously have unbelievable attackers in their ranks, with Mohamed Salah a world-class performer on his day, alongside Hugo Ekitike sitting on a sturdy 16 goals this season, they are prone to an incredibly wasteful performance up top, all the same.
That was definitely the case during the 1-0 loss, as several big chances went begging from the away side, which included Alexis Mac Allister squandering this opportunity in the second half.
There just seems to be no consistency in their attacking performances at the moment, considering Slot’s men put five past a hapless West Ham United defence in late February.
Whereas, on Tuesday night, they let 15 shots pass them by without a single goal to show for their efforts.
3. Liverpool shouldn’t go all in for a new Konate contract
Having tied down Ryan Gravenberch to an extended deal in recent times, Ibrahima Konate is another high-profile figure at Anfield who needs to sort out his contract situation very soon.
The French titan’s current deal expires at the close of the season, with the latest updates coming out about talks indicating that there has been ‘little progress’ made.
Off the back of Konate’s nightmarish showing at RAMS Park, Liverpool must ensure they don’t go all in to try and extend his deal, as the 6-foot-4 centre back didn’t look comfortable whatsoever in the heart of the defence in Turkey.
Indeed, he would lose possession 16 times and would generally look shaky throughout, as Liverpool now second-guesses whether they should go down the route of tying him down to an extension or just let him walk away.
4. Wirtz was rushed back prematurely
Wirtz will be sticking it out on Merseyside past this current season, for sure, as he was a major £116m investment last summer.
He has shown flashes of his brilliance this campaign, with six goals and assists next to his name donning Liverpool red, but he looked way off the pace in Istanbul, after returning from injury.
Wirtz, much like Mac Allister in the second half, would spurn several openings that came his way, as Cody Gakpo eventually replaced him in the 73rd minute.
Perhaps shoehorned in to try and add more firepower to Liverpool’s attack, it was an alteration that just did not work, as the up-and-down German potentially drops back to the substitutes bench when Tottenham Hotspur come to town.
5. Is a reset needed?
The general mood at the end of the 1-0 loss from the Liverpool masses was one of deep impatience with the number of senior individuals consistently letting the Reds down during tough matches.
As previously mentioned, this defeat was the Reds’ staggering 13th defeat of the campaign, as Slot’s camp just continues to look more tired by the matchday.
Slot might well be better served by gifting figures such as Rio Nguhoma more chances to see if they can impress.
A long-term vision needs to be in place, and if the losses keep stacking up, not even the Premier League-winning manager could be safe from a possible reset.
