Lost Liverpool in a £450m mess of their own making

Arne Slot's struggle to integrate his new signings constrasts starkly with last season's settled team, writes Richard Jolly

- Richard Jolly

Go back a year and Liverpool were in the middle of a run of eight straight victories, near the start of a spell of 15 victories and one draw in 16. Arne Slot's every decision seemed to pay off. He was prospering by not buying. He proved ideally suited to Jurgen Klopp's players.

Twelve months on, the struggle is to adjust to his own. Winning without spending back then, he is losing after paying record sums now. Slot has gone from eight consecutive victories to four defeats in a row. It is uncharted territory: for him personally, and for Liverpool in the decade since Klopp's appointment.

Slot's honeymoon period included a demolition of Manchester United. His worst run so far culminated in an Anfield loss to them. Liverpool can sense a rapid shift in fortunes. “We are coming from a season where everything was unbelievable,” noted Virgil van Dijk. Now this stretches credibility. At the least, they have offered belated vindication for Klopp: he long railed against the notion that the transfer market was the answer to everything. Now Liverpool have spent £450m and, from having a team notable for their clarity of thought, seem caught in confusion.

The previous time they lost four in a row, they were failing to integrate a band of new signings. They included Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert, Lazar Markovic and Alberto Moreno. While Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Divock Origi and Emre Can eventually came good, the class of 2014 was not Liverpool's finest spending spree.