Liverpool wake up to critical £200m CRISIS | OneFootball

Liverpool have spent an incredible amount of money this summer. But they've now walked into a crisis that needs fixing.

This has been a transfer window to remember at Liverpool. The Reds have spent on a level they've never reached before, signing upgrades across the board.

If you include Giorgi Mamardashvili's arrival, even if he was technically signed a year ago, we've seen additions in every area of the pitch. The Georgian will rival Alisson Becker in goal - we'll have to see how that goes.

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There are additions at full-back, of course. Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong are now the most expensive left-back and right-back respectively in Liverpool's history.

Hugo Ekitiké is the most expensive forward in Liverpool's history. He joins from Eintracht Frankfurt and started with a bang - a brilliant goal just four minutes into his competitive debut on Sunday.

And then there's Florian Wirtz. He's now the club's record signing and potentially the British transfer record, should all add-ons be met (and a bigger deal doesn't happen in between).

Incredible spending, then. But there's a problem.

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Liverpool lean left

Liverpool looked electric at times against Crystal Palace in the Community Shield. As mentioned, it took four minutes for some great play down the left to find Wirtz who set up Ekitiké for a wonderful goal.

Liverpool were much the better team, in fact, until Palace made a substitution on 29 minutes. That saw Will Hughes enter the fray and he essentially just sat in the Wirtz's space.

So what did Wirtz do? He drifted towards the left, as he prefers. Only, Palace's back three wasn't leaving much space in the middle for Ekitiké, who also drifted left.

Cody Gakpo was playing on the left, meaning he was naturally in that space. Seeing a problem?

It was actually worse than that. Kerkez is a left-back who excels at over and underlapping, getting beyond the winger and stretching play.

That's incredibly difficult to do when three teammates are operating there. It leaves no space to run into, which meant Kerkez frequently looked like a left-sided centre-back at times.

Even worse, Dominik Szoboszlai, playing in the middle of midfield, likes to drift wide and that was his side of the pitch. It meant Liverpool had five players all wanting similar space.

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The above is Liverpool's average positions for their starting XI against Palace (per Sofascore - you can find more match data here). The Reds are ridiculously lopsided as everyone bar Mo Salah and Jeremie Frimpong look left.

That has the added effect of isolating the right side, who rarely saw the ball. Salah had just 26 touches across the 90 - he averaged 49 last season.

A problem exacerbated by not having Trent Alexander-Arnold out there as a playmaker from right-back. That essentially forced the team to play on both flanks but it's no longer the case.

This is why that Hughes substitution neutered Liverpool. It left them unable to play through the middle and with so many players all taking up positions on the left to compensate, too few were left on the right.

Liverpool were disjointed and lost. No one was able to show what they can do as they either didn't have the space to do it or didn't have the ball.

This was always going to be something of a problem, of course. Wirtz, Ekitiké and Kerkez contributed to the issue as they're all new players who aren't yet used to playing with one another.

But it's also down to Arne Slot. He's got to find a way for these stars to play their natural game together, in a way that doesn't compromise what they do nor compromise what teammates want to do.

It's a challenge but one we know he's up for. It'll be an interesting season to say the least.