Pundit insists there should be “no shortcuts to success”
Jamie Carragher has said that Liverpool’s struggle to deliver on the pitch after spending north of £400m in the transfer window is good for football.
The club started highly positively this season, winning their first seven competitive games and creating a five-point gap at the top of the Premier League table, but they have now hit a wall, losing back to back against Crystal Palace in the league and Galatasaray in the Champions League.
What is more, despite the wins Arne Slot’s side have visibly struggled. They’ve shown defensive fragility by throwing away the lead in four of those first seven games, even if they have ended up winning all. They’ve also relied on late winners in six of those seven matches.
Liverpool bolstered their title-winning squad last summer with a remarkable investment of over £400m, the biggest single-window spend by any Premier League club in history. Carragher labelled the club’s early season struggles despite their spending as “reassuring”.
“It is reassuring because creating and maintaining a winning team has to require much more than signing huge cheques, otherwise the chasing pack might as well give up,” said Carragher, a former Liverpool defender.
“You need to build connections, and dedicate hours on the training pitch to ensure everyone knows what is demanded with and without the ball so the balance is right.
“Liverpool spent nearly £450m on new players over the summer, regardless of how much they recouped via sales. For the greater good of English football, it would have been disheartening had that level of investment led to instant brilliance.
“Just like Chelsea have discovered after spending £1.5bn over the past three years, there should be no shortcuts to success.”
However, Carragher backed Slot to succeed and said he was “excited” as a Liverpool fan.
“It is exciting because I am looking forward to seeing how Slot goes about making the necessary adjustments and improvements.”
