Arne Slot booed at Anfield: Liverpool fans unhappy with style of play as Chelsea draw exposes creativity problems | Football News

Welcome to The Debrief, a Sky Sports column in which Adam Bate uses a blend of data and opinion to reflect on some of the key stories from the latest Premier League matches. This week:

• Slot’s Liverpool also lacking creativity
• Cucurella exploits Liverpool weakness
• Doku’s finishing can change his game

Liverpool have a creativity problem too

Arne Slot suggested following Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Saturday that the boos were inevitable because supporters judge matches on the result. But the crowd reaction during and after the game at Anfield was mainly because of the performance.

The fans were agitated early, even when Liverpool were in front. They could smell that the momentum had shifted away from their side well before the equaliser went in. The Liverpool boss reacted frostily when asked afterwards if his side had sat back intentionally.

“I said it after we scored the 1-0 and then we had a big chance for the 2-0,” said Slot, sarcastically. “Didn’t you see me screaming on the sidelines, go back, go back, defend your own box, defend your own box? Of course it is not the idea for us to back off.”

He added: “I think it is not fair to me that anyone could ever think that I tell my players to back off or to drop down and not pressing.” He later conceded this is what happened. “It did look like that, that we dropped down, but that was never the intention.”

Liverpool wrestled back some control in the second half against a Chelsea side that had lost their previous six Premier League games. But they still struggled to create. That lack of thrust to their play has become a common – and growing – complaint about Slot’s side.

When it was over, Liverpool had amassed an expected-goals total of 0.56, their lowest since a tight win over Arsenal in August. You have to go back to 2021 for the previous occasion they created so little at home – and there were no fans in the stadium for that.

This is an inconvenient truth for Slot given that he has frequently framed this season as a finishing problem. He is not averse to mentioning expected goals but Liverpool actually rank seventh in the Premier League on this metric – their worst rank in a decade.

His side average 321 passes per goal this season, up from 234 passes per goal last time around. Fans are not fond of possession that leads nowhere. “It is not my idea to like ball possession,” insists Slot. “I like to create chances, I like to create and score goals.”

How best to make this happen is what cuts to the heart of the Slot conundrum. As former Liverpool favourite Jamie Carragher put it on Sky Sports recently: “The worry is not that there is no identity. That is the identity. So it is on the manager’s shoulders.”

It appears that he will be given the chance to find the solutions. “I know what we need to get that done,” says Slot. “I am 100 per cent convinced that we will be a different team next season than we are now. Different in terms of results, different in how things look.”

The obvious adjustments are to the defensive structure. A holding midfielder is needed. A new right-back too. But Liverpool’s potency is also a concern. And if the boos at Anfield are any clue then Slot has work to do to convince the crowd that he holds the answers.

Cucurella exploits Liverpool weakness

Speaking to Chelsea’s interim head coach Calum McFarlane after the game against Liverpool, it was a chance to ask him whether he specifically targeted the opposition’s right side as a weakness to exploit. “It was definitely something that we knew,” he said.

Curtis Jones, a natural midfielder, was operating in what has been a problem position for Liverpool this season. Marc Cucurella, a left-back by trade, was deployed in an advanced role ahead of Jorrel Hato and proved to be a real outlet throughout the game.

Cucurella had six touches inside the opposition box at Anfield. No player on the pitch had more. In fact, in what was the Spaniard’s 148th Premier League appearance, it was only one fewer than his record number of touches in any game in the competition.

“Cucurella is not a winger. He has played there before, he told me. But even when he plays left-back or rolls into midfield, his movement off the ball is at a real high quality, and the timing and the understanding of when to do it,” explained McFarlane.

“It is something that we knew with him in that position, we could maybe expose. I thought he was unlucky not to get an assist, and he created a lot of problems for them.” Indeed, it was only a narrow offside call against Cucurella that denied Chelsea a winner.

Doku’s finishing elevates his game

A word too for Jeremy Doku whose late-season heroics for Manchester City may well not be enough to take his team to the Premier League title but could mark a seismic shift in his career. Always a thrill to watch, there are signs he is adding to his game.

It was privilege to be at Everton to see his two stunning strikes in that game – one with either foot – but the fact that the City winger was able to reproduce that for the breakthrough goal in the 3-0 win over Brentford on Saturday is particularly encouraging.

Doku has long got into good positions but he has now scored as many Premier League goals inside a week as he did in total in each of his first two seasons in the competition. As ex-City striker Daniel Sturridge pointed out on Sky Sports, that suggests progress.

“That is a go-to finish for him now. That is two games in a row where you are doing the same thing. The repetitions in training pay off. You get the feeling. When you get the ball in that area, you see the picture that you once saw and know where you want to put it.”

Doku’s main responsibility remains providing width for Pep Guardiola’s side, running at defences and providing service to his striker. But if he is to become a serious goal threat when cutting inside that changes everything. He could become a superstar.