Liverpool wobble as Slot recalibrates stellar squad

Virgil van Dijk has built a career and a reputation on not panicking.

- RICHARD JOLLY

The most laidback centre-back of his generation can derive some of his considerable authority from a calm demeanour. It would be out of character if his reaction to back-to-back defeats were to panic. It wasn’t. “There shouldn’t be panic, but improvement is needed,” counselled the Liverpool skipper. Steven Gerrard famously led Liverpool to victory in Istanbul. Van Dijk did not.

A 1-0 loss to Galatasaray followed a 2-1 setback at Crystal Palace. With Chelsea on Saturday, there is the potential for the week to get worse, for Liverpool to enter territory they have not previously charted under Arne Slot by losing three in a row.

The first two have brought a shift in the narrative. There was the sense that, by winning with flawed performances, Liverpool could look exceptional when everything clicked and everyone gelled. Now there is the impression that the law of averages has caught up with Liverpool. No one scores late winners forever and their supply has dried up. Sooner or later, a difficulty keeping clean sheets will bring its own form of punishment. A team looking for chemistry in every section is rarely all-conquering.

Arne Slot departed Istanbul aggrieved: by a penalty decision given against Liverpool, which Victor Osimhen scored, by one given for them, which was then overturned, by what he saw as the dramatics of the Galatasaray players.