Slot spots 'positive' signs at struggling Liverpool

Arne Slot stated on Friday that Liverpool have made a step forward in their previous two fixtures and feels Florian Wirtz is starting to settle in as he works to rescue the teams campaign.

The clubs Premier League title defence has unravelled over the last few weeks with six losses and only two victories in their most recent nine league outings.

Yet in spite of this poor streak they remain just two points adrift of fourth placed Chelsea prior to Saturdays visit to faltering Leeds.

Sitting in ninth position Liverpool picked up four points from their last two encounters with a 2-0 win away to West Ham succeeded by a 1-1 stalemate at home against Sunderland this week.

This came after three heavy losses including a 3-0 setback at Manchester City then a 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at Anfield and a 4-1 reversal against PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League at home.

Four points from two games marks an improvement over the previous two home matches according to Liverpool boss Slot in his press briefing.

We dropped both of those and let in seven goals he noted.

In these latest two we were merely one unlucky bounce from securing two shutouts.

The Dutch coach continued Thats certainly progress when set against conceding seven in two outings We avoided conceding from set pieces in both which counts for something.

Consequently we achieved two decent results and I notice encouraging developments from the summer recruits who are showing greater reliability in their play.

Florian Wirtz stands out most clearly but the trend applies to Milos Kerkez too Alex Alexander Isak netted his debut Premier League strike in the previous match.

There are encouraging aspects to build on though obviously we are not yet at the level we aim for let that be plain We have improved on the period after those 3-0 and 4-1 defeats.

Liverpool invested roughly £450 million $600 million in fresh talent during the summer window overhauling their forward line via high profile signings of German creator Wirtz and Isak.

However both have taken time to adapt with Wirtz still goalless across all competitions even if his surge and effort produced Liverpools leveller versus Sunderland on Wednesday though it went down as an own goal.

Slot conceded that his initial priority is regaining a top four spot which guarantees Champions League qualification.

He pointed out that Liverpools proximity to the top four highlights the leagues competitiveness.

It improves year on year for clear reasons with all clubs awash in funds he remarked.

And that underlines just how tight the gaps remain but returning to the top four is undoubtedly our primary target.