‘Where is the midfield?’ has become an increasingly asked question from Liverpool supporters, with a viral image from the defeat against Man United putting Arne Slot under the microscope.
Liverpool slumped to their worst run of form since November 2014 with their fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions, as the pressure builds on Slot to show what his plan is.
The team look a shadow of their former selves and the idea of ‘killing a team with passes’ is nowhere to be seen, instead Liverpool’s build-up structure has gaping holes.
In the aftermath of the defeat to Man United, an image of Liverpool’s midfield set up has gone viral, viewed hundreds of thousands of times, due to there being no midfielders in midfield.
The snapshot (below) from the first half shows Milos Kerkez in possession and zero Liverpool players in the centre circle, Ryan Gravenberch blocked by Bryan Mbeumo and no simple pass across to Ibrahima Konate.
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Liverpool’s midfield at the time (Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister) are all positioned on the left side of the pitch, with Mac Allister barely even in the shot.
It left Alexander Isak and Mohamed Salah isolated and it is no surprise then that Liverpool’s build-up play is as stunted as it is, with no players presenting for the ball.
As they instead surge forward, it leaves sizeable gaps if the ball is turned over and the player in possession has little choice but to play the ball backwards or force a poor pass forward.
Against United, Slot ended the match with Florian Wirtz and Curtis Jones as his midfield pairing, furthering the disconnect with two players whose instinct is to be ahead of the ball.
It's almost like Slot wanted to copy how Guardiola used to have KdB and Silva as his 8s, playing as no.10s in half spaces and his wingers hugging touchline. Fernandinho held position. But Pep's defenders filled central spaces and were good at ball progression. We left chasms. https://t.co/UsMrbJUFzw
— Red (@TaintlessRed) October 19, 2025
Thank you for this shape Sir Slot. So easy to build up with all that midfield presence ?? pic.twitter.com/HSLjiwFxtM
— Denis (@DenisN223) October 19, 2025
The plan appears to be that there is no plan, with Slot’s decision to load his team with offensive-minded players only resulting in defeats.
After the match, he said: “We do take a lot of risk in the moment; after 55 minutes, I think we had six or seven offensive players on the pitch.
“That might also maybe not be an excuse but be the reason why the structure in defending a set-piece against [Crystal] Palace and now was not as perfect as we usually are, because normally you play with four, five, six defensive-minded players but at that moment we are on the pitch with seven or eight offensive-minded players.
“That’s not an excuse because they should do better, we should do better, but maybe it’s not a coincidence that exactly in those moments of time we concede a set-piece.”
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