Roy Keane has bizarrely instructed Liverpool to “show a bit of class” with the Reds having only picked up one point from their last three games since the Premier League title was wrapped up.
Arne Slot has taken the chance to rotate his starting XI and conduct some experiments against Chelsea, Arsenal and Brighton. And while the results have dipped, it doesn’t matter: the silverware has already been won and there is nothing for Liverpool to play for.
Given the relentless fixture schedule and extreme demands placed on players, using the time to take a break and give stars like Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister a rest could be a big advantage at the start of next season. But Keane is having none of it.
“Liverpool have switched off,” Keane said on the latest Stick To Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet. “They’re irritating me. It doesn’t matter [that they’ve won the league].
“But the fringe players and the B team are coming in — what kind of message is that? I’m thinking come on — show a bit of class. Salah scores a goal, and he’s taking pictures — the game’s still on. Liven up a little bit!”
Slot has already explained that he wants to give some of those who have been overworked this season a rest. Mac Allister will sit the Crystal Palace game out at the weekend, for instance, and then Liverpool will have a big pre-season.
The Reds are not in the first edition of the Club World Cup and so will have a longer summer than Manchester City. And moves are already being made in the transfer market to strengthen Slot’s roster of players.
“I’ve always felt that with fringe players — and it’s not a criticism — I’ve always felt that every great team has five or six players who, if one of those players is missing, you feel it,” Jamie Carragher said.
“Let’s go with Liverpool — if the goalie [Alisson] was missing, you’d feel it. [Virgil] Van Dijk, [Alexis] Mac Allister, [Mohamed] Salah — the rest around them are all good players, but they can’t cope on their own. They need the good players.
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“You’ve seen Liverpool’s center-backs [against Brighton] without van Dijk. That’s not a criticism — you go through every great team, there’s not 11 world-class players in a team. There’s normally five or six, and the other five or six are hanging on to their coattails.”
Liverpool.com says: There is absolutely no need for Liverpool to take the last few games of the season as seriously as it did before the title was wrapped up. It has earned the right to make rotation decisions.
Come the start of next season, Slot is likely to feel the benefit. He has had a break in Ibiza and his players were in Dubai, but they have put the work in to make that possible.
If you have to be angry with someone, it should be Arsenal and Manchester City, who dropped out of the title race early. It isn’t Liverpool’s fault that the others couldn’t make it more of a race.
