Liverpool ignored Arne Slot transfer warning – now they’re paying the price

Arne Slot had a specific transfer request rejected by sporting director Richard Hughes in the summer – and now Liverpool are suffering as a result.

The Anfield club hit the headlines with their big-money signings of Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz as they splashed out more than €450 million on arrivals during the summer, but the Reds also sanctioned several huge sales.

Liverpool’s biggest outgoing in the summer was Colombia international winger Luis Diaz, who was sold to Bayern Munich for €70m, accounting for roughly a third of the Anfield side’s transfer income.

Slot did not want the 28-year-old to leave Anfield, Caught Offside reports, with the Dutchman feeling that he was unfairly deprived of an “important” figure in his squad.

The report states: “Slot saw Diaz as a key player and pushed to keep him, but Hughes had the final say and made the controversial call to rubber-stamp his sale to Bayern.”

Given Liverpool’s struggle for offensive cohesion and general doggedness defensively, two attributes that the South American has in spades, the manager’s stance looks like it was the right one.

Diaz has certainly sparkled with Bayern, scoring 11 goals and creating five more in 18 appearances to date.

Carragher calls out Liverpool stars to step up

Liverpool great Jamie Carragher has called for new stars to step up at Anfield, citing the fact that Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk are not enjoying the type of form they showed last season.

“I think what you see now is Liverpool in 2018 under Klopp starting this sort of journey, being a great team, and then Slot comes in, and we are now seven or eight years later,” he told CBS Sports.

“The catalyst for Liverpool at the very start of that run was Alisson, Van Dijk and Salah. Alisson is injured a lot now so he doesn’t play so much. But you are watching Van Dijk now, not the same player, and Mo Salah looks like his legs have gone.

“I don’t like criticising them, and I think some of the criticism of them this season as players has been harsh.

“You are always looking for your leaders in your team to step up when things are not going well. I have been critical of Mo Salah off the pitch. I want him to come out and do an interview tonight and speak to the Liverpool supporters about what the players are going to do, what is going on in the dressing room, giving the supporters hope that things are going to improve.

“But I do not like criticising them on the pitch because they are absolutely legendary for what they have done.

“The legs have just gone, especially with Salah. Van Dijk cannot help other players now; he needs help himself. And that just means he is a normal centre-back, like I was at one stage. So maybe he is not superhuman right now. But they have been that good for the football club.

“I look at some of the others… step up. Can you only play well when they play well, or when they carry it? Their seasons last season were off the scale and everybody else enjoyed that, winning the league, and they are all league champions. They have got it on their CV and great. But when they are not there, where are they? Where are the others? Where are the other players?”