How to Kill an Atmosphere: The Arne Slot Way

    The Anfield crowd is known throughout England for getting the team up for any game and is feared by many of the game’s legends. Over the past decade, Liverpool fans have been expecting high-intensity, chaotic games where the opposition feels helpless, but recently, the opposition seems more confident at Anfield than Liverpool does. The Arne Slot system that brought the title to Liverpool is no longer the same system. What has been present this season has drained the team’s creativity, and with it, the atmosphere at Anfield.

    Perhaps the most damning evidence of just how slow the Liverpool team are at the moment came in the first half, with the score level, the ball is with Van Dijk with Liverpool having shifted Chelsea just enough for Rio to be in some space on the wing, but instead of the pass going straight to him, it goes from Van Dijk, to Kerkez, who takes three touches, and finally on to Rio, who has been pressed by Gusto and is forced to go backwards. Liverpool is not passing from point A to point B, but rather from point A to C to B. The focus in the Liverpool team at the moment is retaining possession, which is good, but it feels more like a training drill on how long the team can keep the ball rather than actually trying to score. It took Liverpool’s striker, Cody Gakpo, 41 minutes to get his first touch, not his fault, the fault of the system. Under Klopp, Liverpool’s full-backs were committed to playing high and wide, whereas now they are committed to staying in a flat back four. This stems from one thing: the lack of a real holding midfielder. Alexis Mac Allister was one of the best midfielders in the league last season, and whilst Gravenberch got the credit for his progressiveness and silky smoothness, it was Mac Allister who did a lot of the ‘ugly’ work required for a holding midfielder, but with his incredible dropoff this season and the clear lack of a six this season, Liverpool have to be worried about defending and sitting back. Liverpool also has far too many players who slow the game down: Mac Allister, Gravenberch, and Jones. Great teams have one or two that do it, but the players around them speed it up. Mac Allister last season was able to switch it and speed up the game; similarly, Gravenberch also did, but neither seems to do it anymore. It’s sterile domination. Even when Liverpool dominates the ball, the game feels eerily lifeless.

    At Liverpool, it is very hard to lose the crowd, but it seems Arne Slot has managed to overcome that, unlike many of the challenges he has had this season. The Liverpool crowd react to intensity, intensity that doesn’t exist anymore. Liverpool is constantly recycling the ball, slowing the tempo and dropping the intensity to the level that it gives the fans almost nothing to cheer on. There is nothing uplifting about the style of play. There used to be moments in games when the crowd would explode, and the players would react to that explosion, creating another explosion, and the cycle would continue. But now there is no inspiration on the pitch for an explosion to happen. The Anfield pitch is one of the smaller ones in England, which allowed Liverpool to trap opponents and box them in, but at the same time, to play on it, Liverpool needed a higher tempo to get through the opposition. That doesn’t exist anymore, and there is no intensity to overcome the opposition, so they get comfortable. Against Chelsea, there was a long period where Liverpool were the team under pressure. The football may be efficient, but it is disconnected from the Anfield energy and isn't even working anymore. Perhaps the most evident sign that Slot lost the fans? Boos on the 67th minute when the dynamic Rio was substituted off for Isak, and then boos again at full time.

    Whilst Slot has brought structure to the football, it is too structured, and has meant Anfield has lost what made it special, the emotion. With Arne Slot set to stay, Liverpool are taking possibly one of the biggest gambles this summer, not on players, but sticking with Slot whilst an eager to join Alonso is waiting on the wings. It will certainly be hard for Slot to bring the fans back on his side, but the start of that solution is surely injecting some much needed energy into the Liverpool side. Liverpool do not just need to win matches - they need to make Anfield feel alive again.