"It was their 6th win on the bounce in the Champions League, and 19th in the season so far with only three games not yielding a win. Still, there was no leeway from the boss and rightly so," says former Red Stephen Warnock.
“A coach needs to be that demanding all the time, players need pushing,” Warnock tells Tribalfootball on a zoom call having watched Liverpool play live in Girona on Tuesday night while doing punditry for the BBC.
“What Arne Slot basically said was, Girona caused Liverpool a lot of problems, and coming up against an even better team towards the latter stages of the Champions League, they will be punished. The players need to understand that so that when they do go into those latter stages, how do they deal with these better teams. What we saw last night was that there's still room for a lot improvement,” Warnock adds of a night where Slot brought out a stronger side than what was perhaps needed, considering the packed schedule of the upcoming fixtures.
“I believe his thinking behind this was to guarantee qualification without any hiccups along the road. Then maybe in the next couple of Champions League games they're able to rest players and concentrate on the Premier League. I also think, he just wants consistency within the squad and he wants that winning mentality,” says Warnock of a night that brought the return of goalkeeper Alisson who immediately showed he’s still got it.
“Arne Slot knows there are still problems within the system and he knows that the players are still learning. Everything has been going so smoothly and they haven't been tested too much, but you've got to find flaws within the system to get better at the system. Now a lot of questions will be asked after that Girona game. Why were we getting pulled out of positions? Why was it so easy for Girona to break on us? Was it a mentality thing?
“In the first ten minutes I thought Liverpool were in cruise control and I thought they took the foot off the gas. And what you can't do is go from cruise control and back up through the gears again. You've got to put your foot down and put teams to bed. So, he'll be bitterly disappointed with the performance, but equally pleased that it was a clean sheet and a victory,” says Warnock who came through the youth ranks at Liverpool.
Resting players might well be key to succeeding in the Premier League where Chelsea are currently the closest rival. Following the impressive win against Tottenham, “The Blues” are four points behind Liverpool. A month ago, Stephen Warnock told Sky Sports that Chelsea are still a couple of years off being title contenders. Does he still feel the same after four wins on the trot for Enzo Maresca’s men?
“Well, they might have accelerated their ambitions a bit,” he admits with a smile. “They've got the quality in forward areas to hurt teams. My concern would just be the goalkeeper, and they probably also need another centre-back. Also, I think Maresca could face a dilemma as to who to play in midfield and how it could perhaps upset a couple of players.
“He's tried Caicedo at right back and then he likes to push him into that midfield role but will that keep Lavia and Enzo Fernandez happy? When you're winning games it's quite easy to keep players happy, but we’re seeing a little bit of unrest now with Madueke. He's finding it difficult because Jadon Sancho's come in the team. Maresca’s also found a position for Neto, so now Madueke's out the team and he's not quite happy.
"These are new things for Maresca to manage because players are desperate to play when teams are winning. They'll be in the title race but I still think they will fall away come March or April.”
- Stephen Warnock was speaking to Tribalfootball on behalf of BetBrain