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Liverpool's recent draw with Chelsea highlights ongoing struggles under manager Arne Slot, raising concerns about the team's performance against weaker opponents.
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Lewis Steele: Slotâs Liverpool are making bad teams looks good
There was a weary tone running through the latest episode of Media Matters on Anfield Index, as Dave Davis and Lewis Steele dissected another frustrating afternoon for Liverpool under Arne Slot.
The discussion centred on Liverpoolâs draw with Chelsea, though the broader concern was far more troubling. For Davis and Steele, this was not an isolated bad performance. It was another chapter in a recurring story that has defined large parts of Slotâs season.
Davis opened with a line that captured the mood perfectly: âGod, that Chelsea draw still lingers, doesnât it? It feels like a defeat.â
That frustration framed the conversation that followed, with Steele delivering perhaps the harshest assessment yet of Slotâs Liverpool.
Steele admitted he felt like he was repeating himself every week. âI feel like I say the same every time I come on the show,â he told Davis, before offering a blunt summary of Liverpoolâs form.
âYou have a little period where theyâre good and then, eighty percent of the match, theyâre terrible.â
Those words landed heavily because they reflected exactly what supporters at Anfield had witnessed. Liverpool started brightly, took the lead through Ryan Gravenberch, then gradually retreated into themselves. Steele described it as a team abandoning its own strengths.
Photo: IMAGO
âThey seem to just forget that theyâre good,â he said. âThey retreat back on the pitch and they invite pressure.â
It was not merely the result that bothered him. It was the pattern. Steele pointed to several matches this season where Liverpool had allowed struggling opponents to look comfortable.
Liverpool is struggling with consistent poor performances, particularly in matches against teams perceived as weaker.
Liverpool drew with Chelsea, which has been seen as part of a troubling trend in their season.
Analysts and fans are expressing frustration over Liverpool's inability to perform well against lesser teams.
The performance appears to be worsening, as recurring poor displays have become a defining aspect of the season.
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âChelsea are a bad team and they came to Anfield and looked like a good team,â he said. âI think thatâs what has happened a lot this season with Arne Slotâs Liverpool. Heâs made pretty average teams look good.â
Steeleâs criticism became even sharper as he reflected on the wider consequences of Liverpoolâs inconsistency. Referencing dropped points against Wolves, Chelsea and Tottenham, he argued that Slotâs biggest problem was allowing inferior teams to dictate matches.
âSlot is making bad teams look pretty all right,â Steele said. âAnd that is the biggest legacy of this season for me.â
Davis immediately described that assessment as âa pretty damning oneâ, and it was difficult to disagree. The frustration inside Anfield was obvious, particularly after Liverpool surrendered control despite taking an early lead.
Davis noted how the atmosphere inside the ground shifted as the team dropped deeper. âEveryone was getting irate, werenât we? Like, why are you backing off? Why have you stopped playing all of a sudden?â
Steele admitted he could see Chelseaâs equaliser coming long before it arrived. âYou could see that Chelsea goal was coming for ten minutes before it did go in.â
That feeling of inevitability has become a recurring issue around Liverpool this season. The team often begins matches with authority, only to lose momentum and confidence as games drift away from them.
What made this Media Matters episode particularly compelling was the absence of overreaction. Neither Davis nor Steele sounded emotional or theatrical. Instead, there was a sense of exhaustion at watching the same bad patterns repeat themselves.
Davis even described the experience as âgroundhog day againâ, a phrase many Liverpool supporters would recognise after another afternoon where control disappeared far too easily.
For Slot, the concern now stretches beyond one disappointing draw. Liverpoolâs inability to sustain pressure, dominate weaker opponents and maintain authority inside matches has become a defining talking point of the campaign.
As Steele repeatedly stressed throughout the discussion, the issue is no longer occasional. It is structural, visible, and increasingly difficult to dismiss.