Another defeat to Galatasaray confirms that Liverpool s dilemma is far beyond expectations

Van Dijk's career and reputation have always been based on "staying in danger". As the most calm and composed central defender in his contemporaries, his calm and composed demeanor is one of the sources of his great influence. If you panic due to continuous losses, it is not him. This is indeed the case. "We shouldn't panic, but improvements must be made," the Liverpool captain warned. Gerald once led the Red Army to create miracles in Istanbul, but Van Dijk failed to replicate the miracle this time.

After losing to Crystal Palace 1-2 away, Liverpool lost to Galatasaray 0-1 again. The Reds' record this week is likely to deteriorate further, facing the risk of a three-game losing streak under Slott for the first time.

The first two defeats have changed the narrative trend of the outside world. Previously, even if there were flaws in performance, they could still win, giving people a feeling: once everything goes smoothly and all the staff is running in place, Liverpool will show extraordinary strength. However, now, the impression has become: the law of average has finally caught up with Liverpool. No one can always win the final moment, and the Red Army's luck has dried up. If you are unable to keep the lockdown for a long time, sooner or later you will bring corresponding punishment. A team that is still looking for chemistry in every part is hard to beat.

Slot left Istanbul with resentment: he was dissatisfied with the penalty awarded to Liverpool, dissatisfied with the penalty awarded to his team that was later cancelled, and he was not satisfied with what he thought was the exaggerated performance of the Galatasaray player.

This day is far from Slot's best time; if his substitution adjustments work, his interpretation of these controversial events might be different. The choice to put Salah on the bench was partly due to the Egyptian star's long playing time recently; Slot wanted to make sure Salah ended in a better form than last season.

However, he picked the wrong game to exclude the core player from the starting eleven. He let Flynn replace Salah on the grounds that few others in the team like to play on the right wing; but Slot has spent £450 million to sign ups this summer, and the outside world will not give him too much room for trial and error.

He chose Sobosloy as the right back instead of using a full-time defender, and his idea was that Galatasaray usually set up a traditional winger on the right and an incisive winger on the left. But the opponent changed his strategy, and Irmaz used his strong breakthrough to continuously attack the Hungarian international and eventually created a penalty.

However, even if Slott trusted Sobosloy too much. Sobosloy is among the few players this season who can play near his best form; Alisson has not made many saves before, but unfortunately injured after his outstanding performance against Crystal Palace and Galatasaray.

But there are very few such players: perhaps including Van Dijk and Heraffenberg; Chiesa had a brilliant performance in a short appearance, but missed the trip to Istanbul due to injury; among all kinds of new players, Ekitic is the only one who truly performs stably.

Mamadashvili may be asked to fight alongside Alisson when he appears on the Stamford Bridge. But there have been calls before, and the struggle to replace Kelkez with Robertson, and this call has not stopped yet. On the other side, it's hard to get rid of the feeling that Slott doesn't fully trust Flynnon to be a right-back.

On the offensive end, Isaac has not yet fully entered the state. Of course, this is partly blamed on the way he took when he left Newcastle. But his only goal in five appearances (none of them did not play 90 minutes) was when he scored in the League Cup against Southampton. Although Wiltz has been preparing for the pre-season, his performance has continued to be disappointing; this will remain a problem until he gets back and Liverpool finds the offensive and defensive balance he needs when he has the appearance.

Leoni was at least good in his debut, but this would be his only appearance this season, with his season being cruelly ended early due to a serious injury. As Connate continues his ups and downs, the shadow of that missed signing target, Mark Guy, will become increasingly prominent throughout Liverpool's season.

The pursuit of zero-blocking, balanced offense and defense, and a chemical reaction to this team with a new look continues. For Slot, his goal is to have more and more effective rotations than last season without affecting the record. His roster is not as thick as Arsenal, with fewer choices in central defenders, defensive midfielders and right wing positions, reflecting some of the choices Liverpool made when building the roster. This also increases the difficulty of the challenge: how to keep players in good physical fitness and in good condition, how to readjust the lineup around Isaac and Wilz, how to avoid the team being stretched, and how to regain control of the game.

Carrager once pointed out that their game was too much like basketball attack; although Slott had his offensive instinct, his early success was based on solid defense.

Slott's Liverpool seemed to be at ease in the Premier League and Champions League group stages last season. This year's journey is even more dramatic. Liverpool once enjoyed this thrill, but just as Slott once lamented that the reward after winning the league stage last year was to draw Paris Saint-Germain, looking back at the process of advancing to the quarterfinals at that time, it seems even more precious. As shown in the past week, the journey now may be even more bumpy.