Given Liverpool’s heavy summer spending, many argue they should be the team to beat this season.
It is remarkable how the Reds have strengthened Arne Slot’s title-winning squad, already one of the strongest in the league last term. On paper, these new additions should make Liverpool the Premier League’s most formidable outfit.
But Paul Merson believes there is a glaring weakness rivals can exploit. Speaking days after Liverpool’s Community Shield clash with Crystal Palace, Merson highlighted the right-hand side as a concern.
Frimpong is not Trent, and Salah could suffer
Merson claims Mohamed Salah looked a shadow of his former self, suggesting the absence of Trent Alexander-Arnold could hinder him. He also questioned Jeremie Frimpong’s suitability for Liverpool.
As per The Mirror, the ex-Gunner said:
“It was a bit of a worrying performance from Salah at Wembley. I don’t think I’ve seen a player play that badly before in a football match.
“One thing that might be difficult for him this season is playing in front of Jeremie Frimpong. Compared to Trent Alexander-Arnold, he’s more like an attacking winger.”
Merson added:
“With Trent, Salah could make any run, and he’d be picked out. Trent would also attract defenders, leaving Salah more space. Trent could destroy you himself.
“Frimpong’s a good player, but he’s not a destroyer. He plays so far forward that he’s not a natural defender.
“Trent wasn’t either, but the same thing applies, really. I think Ibrahima Konaté could be too exposed. There’s a major problem down that side of the pitch, even more so than last season.”
Can Liverpool cope if Salah dips?
Salah single-handedly carried Liverpool to their 20th league title last season. But if the Egyptian King fails to replicate that form, Liverpool could face a frustrating campaign.
A less threatening Liverpool and a vulnerable defence should give other title hopefuls a better shot at glory. For Mikel Arteta and his side, this could be the opportunity they have been waiting for – a boost to their title ambitions.
If Arsenal live up to expectations after six impactful signings this summer, potentially seven with Eberechi Eze still very much still on Arsenal’s radar, they should be well placed to either set the pace or capitalise on any slip-ups from their rivals.
Did you watch the Community Shield clash between Liverpool & Crystal Palace?
Do you think Merson has a point?
Daniel O
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I do think Merson is absolutely right. Im a scouser and spending spree we have going on Will end up us beein worst than Last season. That right Side is a catastrophe. We should play one of the up coming central defenders on right Side.. Explaying right Side. Guehi, Salah. Unless we end up competing top four. And that is a fact!!
Liverpool was extremely lucky in the last campaign, it was like no one else really wanted it,
The injuries certainly didn’t help us, this time around it will be a different kettle of fish.
Should have read your comment before I wrote mine. Similar thought. 👍
I am still not convinced by Liverpool even if they won the League in holiday mode. It seems likes everything aligned for them. Man City and Arsenal were absolutely terrible at the same time.
Kept all their key players fit.
Man City, Arsenal etc can’t as poor as they were last season surely.
This is very comical thinking. So you are not convinced by the winners but are convinced by those who were terrible? And one of them last won it in 2004?
We have a problem with our left side which has not been addressed this window
LB – Zinny out of favor and out of form; Skelly too raw and red card/error prone, Ric nobody knows how many games he will play before going for treatment for months
CAM – Rice plays better deep, Kai has been an average signing in that role and Eze does not seem to be headed to AFC
Forwards – Gabby and Trossad do not have the overlap runs of the LB, remain isolated. Two players cannot be the problem, the tactics are.
We can only hope other teams destroy pool and we benefit from that. Else it hardly makes any difference to us because we have been poor on the left flank.
Absolutely!👍🙏
The window is still open for 17-18 days, so Liverpool have plenty of time to sign whomever they want.
They will definitely miss Trent
He’s a good, very fast right back
But it’s true that he Can be exposed defensively.
He’s known for attacking and good dribbling.
He can play left wing also
I think Liverpool will sign another defender before deadline on 1 September.
Obviously we need to exploit any weaknesses of our opponents but need to take all positions of Liverpool seriously because they are the ones to beat (and City too). I expect Liverpool to be ready and full strength by deadline day.
I do think their problem is on the left.
Robertson looks finished.
They have issues across their backline.
If you saw the last game they played though they weighted their attack heavily to the left. Salah didn’t see as much of the ball as I expected. Wirtz and Etikite seemed to drift over there and partner up with Gakpo. Won’t always be that way I’m sure but it was interesting…
Yeah.
It was interesting.
It is almost always interesting when your troublers fail like they did.
☺️
Wishing you many more interesting games this season and beyond.
Liverpool need a CB and to replace Diaz, their most productive player last season. They have not replaced Jota and Trent Arnold will be hard to replace. And they were not lucky last season. They were the best team in the league!!!! FA cup winners and league cup winners can be lucky. But league winners win it on merit.
They’re apparently in for Guehi.
They need him more than Isak.
Never mind Liverpool, what about the weakness in our left back position?
???
We have an England international and an Italian international. I presume you mean tactics, positional play Arteta plays.
I believe the one thing that will stop us lifting the title in world cup year will be complacency
Player for player we can.match all the top teams in the league
Our Squad depth is stronger than ever
Experience. We have that in abundance of finishing 2nd 3 season in a row
I won’t make excuses as we have all heard them before and I won’t blame as all are to.blame not just a few players or manager or the owners
I have always been optimistic at the start of each campaign but always felt we lack a final component to get us over the line
This season i am more then confident and we have some fabulous component added to get us.ove the.line
I cannot wait for us to get our campaign started
I believe there are a few teams waiting to get rinsed by us which would be nice
Onwards and upwards
Onwards and upwards
Me either
I can’t wait any longer
Gunsmoke & Goonster
If you guys are following football and not just only Arsenal, you people will know what you’re saying is also applicable to Liverpool both in 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 season
In 2022/2023 season, they lost 21 players in just 26 games and most of there players returned towards the end of the season.
In 2023/2024 season they had 35 separate injuries and there key players missed combined total of 1,383 days, compared to Arsenal’s 1,297 days last season.
And you know what’s surprising about those misses, none of our players assist/outscored Salah in any of those season till date. And people still criticize Salah for having a bad season in one of those season.
So stop talking about injuries as if we’re the only one affected by it.
The impact that Man City’s and Liverpool key players have on there team is way bigger than ours and that’s why when they get injure, there team go down hard.
Imagine every team is fit throughout the whole season, do you think Arsenal will be 2nd in 3 seasons in a role?
Even last year will be a 3 man race with Man City in the picture.
There was even a time that only two players was fit in Chelsea’s team in 2022/2023 season.
Injury is part of football, what the opposition need is to seize the opportunity just like Liverpool.
Here is hoping all our players stay fit these season to challenge for the league..
Chelsea’s 1st Eleven I mean.
Yes Bobs
Arsenal didn’t just suffered from injuries to players, but it was the injuries to key players that derail our campaign.
You are right, Man City wasn’t the same without the aging KDB, Surely the missing of Rodric cost them dearly
Gunsmoke, City lost their best three players when Rodri was injured…and it was so early in the season! We won’t get that sort of luck this time.
You’re right.
Does anyone talk about injuries as if Arsenal are they the only ones affected? Reasons for Liverpool being unable to sustain title challenges in the last few years include significant injuries to key players. Injuries have also being cited as one reason for MC’s drop off last season. However, whenever people cite injuries as an issue for Arsenal last season some disgruntled individuals claim this is a mere excuse.
In each of the last few seasons Arsenal’s title challenges have been impacted by injuries. In each of the last few years that MC have won the league they have been amongst the least injury hit team in the PL.
Not the season before last though David when Arsenal had a relatively injury free season.
Thank you Jax, David will surely leave out the 2023/2024 season out.
And may i remind David that, City players always get injure every season but they are lucky to get the injured players back (especially KDB and John Stones) around February every season and that is why most City EPL wins charge start from February every year. But last season wasn’t to be and they lost more players to injury.
Southampton lost all there players to injury that they started playing there academy players and got relegated.
Every teams pass through those phases, so we don’t have to complain about it
As a matter of fact, every team that won the EPL never pass through injury difficulties. Even Leicester won the league in 2015/2016 when most of our players got injure in December/January, that was when Cazorla injury started. Even Sanchez missed 50+ days of matches and Koscielny and BFG were in and out of the team. And no injury excuse during those periods.
Team winning the league have a way of making there players stay fit and Arteta has managed to do that in 2023/2024 season, so I believe he should be able to do it again with a large squad.
No more excuses.
To be fair Bobs, we did have long term injuries to Timber, Partey, Jesus, Tomiyasu & Smith Rowe, but overall it wasn’t so bad compared to what we’re used to.
Yes. Some people are almost twisting themselves in knots here to try and “prove” which teams had the most injuries, the most significant injuries and whether that had the biggest negative impact on their league performance in “x” or “y” season.
Here’s the thing though, it doesn’t matter now (even if it mattered then). City, Liverpool and every other team won what they won. Or, in Arsenal’s case, didn’t win what they didn’t win. There’s no note at the bottom of the honours page along the lines of “… but Arsenal (or whoever) had lots of injuries”.
Depends what you mean by relatively injury free. We lost Jurien TImber, Tomiyasu, GJ, and Partey (amongst others) for a good part of the season.
Those are all top level first team players. The injuries are all overlooked because Arsenal still managed a creditable PL challenge.
I’m going on memory but according to Arsenal Insider we had the “second-least total time lost through injuries among English top-flight clubs across all competitions” during that season,
I’m not certain of the accuracy of that reference but i agree we didn’t have the same number of injuries as several other teams. However, the profile of the players who were out due to injury gives some insight into why it was difficult for Arsenal to sustain a title challenge. MC, on the other hand, who already had a stronger squad were much less affected by injuries.
I do largely think he has a point Jax.
The simple of it is that injuries or lack thereof do affect every club and those injuries or lack thereof do affect results whether it’s the Arsenal or any other club.
Exactly my point bruise
A few of the posts read quite a lot like wishful thinking to me. I suggest we wait and see what actually happens over 2025-26. After all, nobody at this stage forecast what actually happened last season, did they.
Rather than concentrate too much on the supposed/perceived weaknesses of other likely contenders, I’ll be hoping Arsenal’s massive summer investment pays off on the pitch. If, for any reason, it doesn’t though the effect on our club will likely be greater than a reverse for Liverpool over 2025-26 will have on them.
Keeping only Liverpool in our sights will be a grave mistake as I think this season will be way more competitive than the last. You can’t ever rule Man City out especially after the strengthened over the last two windows and Chelsea has quietly made some astute buys helped on by our generous donation of course. My focus is more on the consistency of our play. The boys need to o find their peak form and maintain it consistently over the season and Mikel needs to find tactics that wins us football matches.
Absolutely!👍🙏
For me, Arne Slot is a goal getter and good tactician. He’s going to sort out that weak area for sure and if he doesn’t he will still know how to balance it in between plays and players selection. Unlike Arteta that that imposes his favorites irrespective of whether they fits in or not, sticking to one pattern no reformation in between games. Finally there’s urgent need to look for a drug that will effectively flush out The Chelsea’s opium from his brain because Noni Madueke is never an upgrade to Martineli or Trosarred. Ademola Lookman would have been superb by far and even cheaper. I’m seeing what transpired over Suarez transfer playing out with Eberechi Eze right now. Arteta must deliver either Epl or Champions League trophy this season or resign.
Arsenal have enough weaknesses of our own to worry about other team’s. We are not the complete package, but whether we can overcome our weaknesses to maximise results this season will be the big one.