Brutal Liverpool decision set to cost Arne Slot his job

A brutal decision

Slot needs to get Liverpool playing consistently but that's incredibly difficult to do when players keep getting injured. He's been down a centre-back for months now after Giovanni Leoni's knee injury on debut ruled him out for the season.

It stretched Liverpool thin, with Joe Gomez battling for fitness as the Reds' only backup centre-back. But the situation has gotten worse.

Alexander Isak is out indefinitely with a leg fracture. Now Conor Bradley is out for the season after knee surgery - something that puts incredible pressure on the right-back position.

For one, Gomez is also the primary cover there. Jeremie Frimpong is the only recognised right-back but he's also playing on the wing in Mo Salah's absence.

Liverpool can pull centre-midfielders out into wider roles to offer cover. The problem there is that Slot's big 'fix' lately has been to pack the midfield and he can't do that if he needs to play them at right-back and on the wing.

It feels as though Liverpool are one more injury away from things completely collapsing, honestly. Which makes the decision, reported by the Athletic, to not sign anyone this month a strange one.

It's very difficult to see how Slot can turn things around with this squad if he's not getting new arrivals. Things are just too thin and more poor results are surely inevitable - at least, how can Liverpool find consistency with this group?

A top-five finish is far from guaranteed, either. The team is eight points behind third-placed Aston Villa and eight points behind them are 14th-placed Tottenham Hotspur. Missing out would surely cost Slot his job, with Xabi Alonso now waiting in the wings.

But Liverpool's decision to keep the squad as it is may have made it all inevitable.