Arsene Wenger says Arne Slot ‘destroyed’ his Liverpool team with one transfer deal over the summer.
Despite winning the Premier League last season, Liverpool decided to spend over £400m on new signings in the summer transfer window.
Slot appeared to have constructed one of the strongest squads in history and a team capable of dominating domestically and in Europe.
But the defending champions endured a miserable start to the campaign, losing six games in all competitions to slip seven points behind new title favourites Arsenal.
Liverpool at least appear to have turned a corner, ending a four-game losing run against Aston Villa at the weekend before beating Real Madrid in the Champions League.
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It remains to be seen whether Liverpool are at the level to compete for the Premier League or Champions League but Wenger has questioned the decision to disrupt a title-winning midfield by signing Florian Wirtz.
Liverpool completed a club-record £116m deal for Wirtz in the summer but the former Bayer Leverkusen star has endured an underwhelming start to his Anfield career.
Wirtz was benched for Saturday’s win over Aston Villa before coming back into the starting line-up for the visit of Real Madrid on Tuesday night.
‘Liverpool is an interesting example,’ legendary former Arsenal manager Wenger said on beIN SPORTS before Liverpool beat Madrid.
‘When Wirtz had the choice between going to Bayern Munich or to Liverpool. He said to Liverpool, “I come to you if I play No.10, I do not want to play wide”. Liverpool to get him say, “okay”.
‘So they start him, they destroyed their midfield because their midfield was [Ryan] Gravenberch, [Alexis] Mac Allister and [Dominik] Szoboszlai, to play Wirtz they took Szoboszlai out.
‘What have they done against Aston Villa? They came back to their normal midfield of last year.
‘Tonight [against Real Madrid] they play Wirtz but I am sure Wirtz will play on the side because the manager has said, “if you want to play again you have to play wide because I do not want to disturb the midfield”.
‘So that will be interesting to see, but certainly he will have to play left where he played when he was at Leverkusen.’
Slot was ‘very pleased’ with Liverpool’s win over Real Madrid and said his team produced a ‘great performance’.
‘Very pleased. It’s been [some] tricky weeks for us, many away games, hardly any rest in between every single game,’ the Anfield boss said.
‘Again, we only had two days in between this game but the same was there for Real Madrid.
‘It helps if you can play in front of these fans and you can play in front of Real Madrid because I think that brings the best out of my players and out of our fans.
‘A great performance against a team that only lost once all season. It could have been a bit more maybe.’
Liverpool’s recent resurgence will be put to the test this weekend when they face Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in a huge Premier League clash.
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