Arne Slot sets new Liverpool challenge and makes style pledge before Man United

Arne Slot says now is the time for new-look Liverpool to show they have fully adapted to a summer of change, starting with Manchester United

Arne Slot says now is the time for his new-look Liverpool to show they have fully adapted to a summer of sweeping change at Anfield - starting with Manchester United on Sunday afternoon. The Reds' transfer window was a historic one.

They spent a record sum of close to £450m that included breaking the British transfer record twice for £116m Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak Isak at £125m. Liverpool recouped around half of that in sales as eight players were signed and 10 departed.

The adaptation process of so many new arrivals was a contributing factor behind three successive defeats prior to the international break, against Crystal Palace, Galatasaray and Chelsea, but Slot thinks now is the time for his reshaped team to improve their patchy form.

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"You are expecting more and more if players are longer together and they have missed out on players more than a few times in pre-season and during the first part of the season," Slot said.

"So you would expect it to go better and better but like I said I see a lot of comparisons between the second part of last season and the first part of this season, there is not much difference.

"The only difference is that we have conceded more goals than we did in the second part of last season.

"The way the game flows is similar and the second part of last season we scored seven very, very, very important set-piece goals where we are now on zero from seven games."

Slot also stressed that he is not looking to alter Liverpool's style of football to a more direct one, despite the top-flight trend appearing to edge towards a reliance on longer balls and set-pieces this term.

He added: "I think that playing style of long ball and second ball is not a playing style a team has had that has won this league in the past 10, 15 or 20 years.

"If you want to win the league you cannot, in my opinion, it’s not able with that playing style.

"But it is a very fair answer to playing against Man City, playing against Liverpool, playing against Arsenal, to play against Chelsea, to play against all these top teams in that style.

"I don’t see this style at any team in Europe that wins the league. It’s not Bayern Munich, not Barcelona, not Real Madrid, it’s not Liverpool, not Man City… but it is a style of play you see a lot happening to Man City.

"Long ball, low block, long ball, low block, long ball, low block after they were so successful and this is what you see quite a lot at the moment with us as well.

"The way to break it is a special moment like we had in the first half of the season a lot or a set piece like we had in the second part of the season and these two things we haven’t had as much as I had hoped for, but still, still, still, still we are the team that created the most from open play.

"Open play. That is something positive to take but what is not positive is that we have conceded nine goals, four from set-pieces."

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