Tony Pulis has scathing Arne Slot verdict as Liverpool boss causes own problems

Tony Pulis

Tony Pulis believes Liverpool's squad overhaul during the summer transfer window has upset the balance of the team.

The Reds offloaded several high-profile players during the off-season – including Luis Diaz and Trent Alexander-Arnold – and brought in a number of new stars.

Those new signings have been among Liverpool's most disappointing players this season, with Milos Kerkez and Florian Wirtz both struggling on the field, and Alexander Isak and Jeremie Frimpong having missed a lot of games due to fitness issues.

Pulis believes that Liverpool changed the squad too much during the off-season.

He told Grosvenor Casinos: "

Pulis: Arne Slot had a great balance last year and he knew what his best team was. Now he's spent all this money on bringing in top players. Where do you fit them in?

“Who do you leave out? Sometimes as a manager, you create your own problems and issues by doing that.

“There was a very settled team last year, and everybody could look at it, maybe one or two positions, but the rest of it picked itself.

"Now you've brought different people in, and you think you've sent it forward, just to make an example of it.

“Are you going to play two up there and then break the balance? Are you going to play someone, or not play someone, you've just spent over a hundred million on and is on an absolute fortune?

"So he's got other issues. What happens again, as a manager, sometimes you think, well, I've got to fit them in.

“And by fitting them in, you lose complete control of the balance of the team that made you so successful the year before. So I'm sure he's experienced enough.”

“I'm sure he'll work it out. It might take him a couple of weeks, a couple more weeks, or a month or two to work it all out.

“But the balance, I have to say this and I want people listening, the balance of your team is so important. And sometimes the best individual players might not fit into that team that wins week in, week out.

"Putting them in there actually can misplace the balance, and you don't get the performances that you do without them."

Perhaps surprisingly, Pulis still thinks that Liverpool could be in the title reckoning come the end of the season, despite the team's recent struggles.

"I think if you look at it now, at the beginning of the season when they signed the players, you think they are definitely going to be winning it again, and they have got an unbelievable chance.

“But you look at Arsenal, Arsenal are more settled. I think Mikel Arteta has brought, everybody was on about the forwards, he's brought that centre-forward in.

“I think they've added people who can go into the team without upsetting the balance of the team. And he (Slot) has brought players in that might just have unsettled that balance a little bit.

"But he'll find his way. Liverpool will be there, or thereabouts. Arsenal, I think it's Arsenal and Liverpool for me [will be challenging for the title]. I don't see anybody else.

“Chelsea have done well, but they seem a little bit up and down at times. They've got unbelievable talent, Chelsea. Unbelievable. And if they get it right, they could beat anybody at any given time."

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