Gary Neville urges Arne Slot to swap formation and start overlooked Liverpool star - 'Drop your ego'
- mrwedwards
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Gary Neville has urged Arne Slot to ditch his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation if he wants to reverse Liverpool’s flailing fortunes.
The Reds dropped to 11th in the Premier League table after falling to a heavy 3-0 defeat at home to struggling Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
The reigning champions have now lost six of their last seven matches in the English top-flight, and suffered defeat in eight of their last 11 games in all competitions.
Such a loss of form comes despite winning the Premier League title at a canter last season and then embarking on a £450m spending spree which saw them break the British transfer record twice to sign Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak.
But despite signing eight new players, the majority of Liverpool’s new recruits are yet to find form since moving to Anfield.
Meanwhile, a number of Reds players have failed to recreate the levels that saw them win the Premier League last season, with the likes of Ibrahima Konate and Mohamed Salahfinding themselves the subject of intense scrutiny in particular.
And with Liverpool’s loss to Forest reiterating their defensive frailties, having now conceded 30 goals from their 19 games so far this season, Neville insists that Slot should change to a 4-4-2 set-up and bring in Joe Gomez at right-back in a bid to salvage the Reds’ season.
Neville
“The manager has to change the style or the system and help them,”
“It means being more solid in midfield and the back, and personnel changes.
“[Milos] Kerkez is struggling, [Ibrahima] Konate is struggling so do you have to put four centre-backs in your back four and keep a narrow, tight back four and tell everyone you mean business to keep clean sheets and stop teams having chances on your goal.
“Then in midfield, you put a narrow four in there. That could be [Dominik] Szoboszlai, [Alexis] Mac Allister, [Ryan] Gravenberch and [Florian] Wirtz or [Cody] Gakpo tucked in a bit more narrow and you might leave [Mo] Salah off [Hugo] Ekitike or [Alexander] Isak or play Ekitike and Isak.
“Leave them up there, work as a two and do something a bit different.
“It feels a bit basic and I’m telling Arne Slot what to do but I’ve seen world-class managers drop their ego on how we are going to play, forget we’re a great side and a great club - you’re not as this moment, you’re easily beatable so have to do something different and pay teams respect and change.
"I called on it a few weeks ago, I said maybe Joe Gomez should play right-back, Andy Robertson at left-back and play as a narrow back four. Be a bit more pragmatic.
“Something has to change in the collective in terms of how they are going to play.
“From an individual perspective you have to strip it right back to the foundations, whether that's sleep, stretching, eating, the tiny details. Do everything better.
“Slot is a brilliant manager with real class, but he's got to reverse and do something different - maybe make some difficult decisions.
“He's going to come under pressure, let's not get too carried away with that. The players have to step up, or it will become a problem."
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