Arne Slot Under Rafa Benitez's Blanket

It's quite an image, isn't it?

Arne Slot had to act. He had to. Liverpool conceded 10 goals in three matches, scoring just once in return. Like his immediate employment prospects, the Reds needed to swiftly change for the better.

Out went Mohamed Salah, relegated to the substitutes bench. Thank goodness the Egyptian held a post-match press conference to highlight this else you might not have realised.

In came a harder working right flank. Dominik Szoboszlai took Salah’s spot with Joe Gomez starting behind him. Liverpool conceded 1.25 expected goals per game in league and Europe when Salah started this season; they have averaged 0.68 in the four matches since.

Those figures drop to 1.09 and 0.47 without penalties respectively. The first is decent, the latter truly elite. The improvement appears to have been achieved by Slot shifting his bedding in line with Rafa Benitez’s theory of the short blanket.

The challenge for any manager is to strike a workable balance between attack and defence. As Rafa once put it, “if you cover your head, you have your feet cold, but if you cover your feet, you have your head cold.” Do you pull the blanket up to protect the head that is your own goal or drag it down to keep your feet warm at the other end of the pitch?

(And if so, why did Benitez sign Peter Crouch? He was big, he was red and his feet stuck out the bed. Makes you think, doesn’t it?)

The blanket is only this big, Peter

Liverpool’s games have certainly changed in the No Salah era. Little of note occurred in any of the first halves, with Slot seemingly confident his charges could get the job done after the break. The passivity in the opening 45 minutes against Sunderland went too far, but that’s the issue of balance rising up again.

The Reds ultimately came within a 96th minute Leeds goal of three wins and a draw from four matches, three of which were on the road. As frustrating as Ao Tanaka’s equaliser was, there’s a foundation building for an assault on the second half of 2025/26. It’s valuable to evaluate what has changed to see if it can be maintained.