Let’s get one thing clear straight away – Liverpool’s defeat to Fulham should not make any difference to this season’s title challenge.
Even after a chastening day at Craven Cottage, the Reds are still 11 points ahead of Arsenal and need as many points to wrap up the Premier League crown – if not fewer.
So, should the way Liverpool collapsed in the London sun be a concern? Well, yes and no. No, for the aforementioned reasons. Even if the Reds crawl over the finish line, it’s still a league title, and there isn’t a single Liverpool supporter who would have been able to find fault in that just a few years ago.
But it’s one thing winning a title and another being handed it because your opponents have thrown in the towel. Mikel Arteta’s selection at Everton suggested that he’s entirely focused on the Champions League now, all but conceding defeat in the title race.
The last thing Liverpool wants to do is give Arsenal any sort of sniff that it might be able to get back into this. And yet, even with a first piece of silverware within his sights at Anfield, Arne Slot is yet to learn from a mistake that even he’s admitted to.
The Liverpool boss’ apparent reluctance to rotate his squad is becoming more and more frustrating for supporters as they watch their team stumble to the title. The problem could not have been encapsulated better than at Fulham on Sunday.
Up until the final 15 or so minutes, the Reds had been pretty awful. The difference in those closing stages? Harvey Elliott and Federico Chiesa were on the pitch, and, like they did in the Carabao Cup final, they did more than anyone who started the game to almost get Liverpool back into it.
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The pair showed the sort of input that Slot had been calling for his players to rediscover after that defeat at Wembley. “Show them the work rate they have put in for so many games in a row,” Slot said just last week.
“Paris Saint-Germain was a great example of that, so maybe, maybe, maybe I made the biggest mistake by not rotating enough.”
Not only that, but he insisted that he trusted those players who have consistently found themselves on the fringes of the starting XI.
“It is not to say that if you don’t play someone, you don’t trust them. I do,” Slot said.
“But probably I find the other ones a bit better; otherwise, I would make a different choice. Or they fit better in the team. Mo has certain qualities and Dom has certain qualities and these help each other.
“Whereas with other players, it is a bit more difficult. That is what makes a team. I cannot play with 11 Mo Salahs and I cannot play with 11 Dominik Szoboszlais.”
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Well, here we are, two games after the last international break of the season, and we’re still talking about Elliott and Chiesa not getting their opportunities. Meanwhile, Salah and Szoboszlai, the two players Slot picked out specifically, had such little effect at Craven Cottage.
The reluctance to call upon Chiesa is particularly baffling at this point. Sure, Slot might prefer Diogo Jota as his No. 9, but there can’t be many – if any – Liverpool fans who believe the Italian wouldn’t be a better option than Darwin Nunez now. Yet, the Uruguayan was still introduced before Chiesa on Sunday.
There’s no getting away from the fact this season is a learning process for Slot. He wouldn’t have experienced the sheer amount of games he’s had to juggle back in the Netherlands, and that’s before you take into consideration the expectation that Liverpool will have of progressing far into every competition.
Making mistakes is part of that process, but showing he can learn from them is the more crucial aspect. Slot needs to show he has learned, and that means giving the likes of Elliott and Chiesa their chances – especially when others are faltering.
