Put Liverpool’s 2025-26 season under the tactical microscope and the reading is damning for Arne Slot.They regressed by 24 points from their title win in 2024-25, that being the biggest drop-off by any team. This was their worst defensive campaign (55 goals conceded) since the 1990s, while their 63 goals scored was 23 short of last year, the club’s fewest since Jurgen Klopp’s debut season a decade ago. And they lost 12 times, treble the number of 2024-25 and 2023-24.For Slot to go from silverware to sacked in the space of a year might sound harsh and typical of the modern head coach merry-go-round, but the truth is there have been question marks about Liverpool the whole season. They lost nine times in a 12-match run across all competitions in a two-month span from September to November, just one win came from six Premier League games in January, while they took only 12 points from their final 10 league games.They had bleak exits to cup competitions. Slot rotated heavily and went to a 5-4-1 for the 3-0 League Cup defeat at home to Crystal Palace in October. This April they were outclassed in the FA Cup quarter-finals by Manchester City (4-0), and four days later lost the first leg of their Champions League tie (also a quarter-final) 2-0 against Paris Saint-Germain. That Slot went to a back five versus the European champions, what he accepted were “survival mode” tactics, illustrated how weak they had become.Rewind to the opening game of this Premier League season, when Liverpool beat Bournemouth under Friday night lights at Anfield. They won by a flattering 4-2 scoreline. Having been cruising at 2-0 up until 64 minutes, they conceded twice in quick succession from vertical attacks, before scrambling two late goals to recover the win.Slot oversaw seven wins at the start of the season however three times they threw away 2-0 leads (also against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League and Newcastle in the Premier League). At the time the argument was that results mattered even if the matches were chaotic, and completely at odds with the flawlessness Liverpool showed in 2024-25.Their title win was built on tidy possession play, some high pressing, and scoring first, which meant they could often sit in a mid-block and hit teams with counter-attacks — which got the best out of Mohamed Salah for his 29 goals in 2024-25. That tally dropped into single digits (seven, including one penalty) this season for the first time in his nine years on Merseyside.Problems quickly compounded. Sacking Slot does not change the fact that Liverpool were too top-heavy in their recruitment, spending more than €350m on strikers Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak plus No 10 Florian Wirtz. Even their full-back signings of Jeremie Frimpong (a wing-back from Bayer Leverkusen) and Milos Kerkez (from Bournemouth) were attack-minded.Repeat injuries for Frimpong and Isak struggling for fitness complicated their starting XI choices. It’s of some benefit for Slot’s successor that Salah departs this summer because there is no straightforward way to construct a forward line featuring him, Isak, Ekitike and Wirtz without shoehorning players into unorthodox roles or leaving the team light defensively.