French football journalist Julien Laurens criticized Arne Slot’s starting line-up during Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final second-leg loss against Paris St-Germain, describing it as “complete nonsense.”
Slot chose to give Alexander Isak his first start since December, sidelining Mohamed Salah again. Salah came on in the 30th minute after Hugo Ekitike was forced to leave the field with what appeared to be a serious injury.
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At halftime, Slot made a double substitution, replacing Isak with Cody Gakpo and Jeremie Frimpong for Joe Gomez. Liverpool started the second half aggressively but struggled to capitalize on their momentum.
“I don’t want to blame Arne Slot again as we did last week, but that lineup at the start was complete nonsense,” Laurens stated on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Football Daily podcast. “The second half should have mirrored how Liverpool began the match to energize the crowd. Starting with Isak made no sense. I don’t understand it.”
“Slot made mistakes in the first leg with his lineup and setup. We mentioned before the match that he couldn’t afford to make errors again. You can’t expect to change things at halftime and hope for a turnaround; he should have gotten it right from the start.”
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“In my opinion, he let the team, the club, and the fans down once more. Isak could only have played for 15 minutes. He made two passes and touched the ball five times; they effectively played with ten men in the first half. He couldn’t have managed 45 minutes—not even close; 10 minutes at best towards the end if you’re ahead 1-0, but never the full 45, especially not from the start.”
Former Liverpool full-back Stephen Warnock commented, “I watched Isak play against Fulham, and he was dreadful.”
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“He was virtually invisible against PSG. Gakpo contributed more in five minutes than Isak did in the entire first half. He is far from fit; he showed no sign of fitness this season, and it shows. To expect him to perform against PSG in such a critical match and think he could deliver a strong performance for 45 minutes is unrealistic.”
Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds