Liverpool break losing streak as Arne Slot runs into the perfect opponent for his Mohamed Salah gamble

With a place in all the wrong sorts of history books on the horizon on Wednesday, Liverpool rallied. When Rasmus Kristensen crashed in at the back post to deliver a 26th-minute lead for Eintracht Frankfurt, the scrabbling through the Anfield annals began. Not since 1953 — a time before Shankly, King Kenny and Stevie G when the club were careening towards the second tier — had a Liverpool side lost five on the spin. Instead, they ran in five of their own, a robust comeback that, if nothing else, suggests that their confidence is not so fragile that it can be blown off course by the most ordinary of opponents.

That is what Eintracht Frankfurt were. Rather than a high-stakes Champions League clash, this had the feeling of an early round EFL Cup game that Arne Slot was intent on taking seriously. Frankly, there are plenty of teams in the lower reaches of English football who would have been embarrassed to concede goals as basic as those handed to Hugo Ekitike and Cody Gakpo. That is to say nothing of the set piece defending that allowed Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate to glide in the direction of corners they headed in with ease.

Mohamed Salah is not a player who likes watching on from afar at the best of times. These are not those for the Egyptian but he could have been forgiven for quietly seething that Slot had not afforded him the opportunity to get his eye in against a team who looked good value for each of the 29 goals they have now conceded in 11 games across all competitions this season. Instead, he spent the first 73 minutes watching on from afar in a Liverpool side seemingly constructed to jam the big three summer signings no matter what.

For two-thirds of them, it proved largely successful. Alexander Isak had his openings in 45 minutes before his substitution. However, he remains moored on one goal, lacking the sharpness that both Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike showed. A groin issue — the fourth he has suffered since the start of 2023-24 — means that the wait might go on for a while yet. In front of goal, Isak still looks like a player who needs the preseason he spent on strike in a bid to force this faltering move. “We’ve played him for the second time in three days and he’s had to go out,” Arne Slot told TNT Sports. “Let’s hope for the best. It’s not an easy balance to find with a player who has been out for so long.”

Isak’s absence does at least afford Liverpool the chance to roll with what worked tonight. Slot’s quasi 4-4-2 was not necessarily the reason why Wirtz got his first competitive assists in a Liverpool shirt, a simple enough run behind a chaotic Frankfurt backline and square ball to Cody Gakpo. If that was straightforward, it was nothing on Hugo Ekitike’s equaliser, Andrew Robertson able to redirect a cross into the Liverpool area into the acres of empty space Liverpool’s forwards were attacking and Frankfurt’s defenders had abandoned. They know only too well at the Waldstadion what comes next when Ekitike is one-on-one with a goalkeeper, the star of last season’s side returning to show his old employers what Champions League quality looks like.

Frankly, Frankfurt did not seem up to Premier League standards either and that should just nag at the back of Slot’s mind. The system changed but in the first half in particular, it did not look like the big picture issues had been solved. Whatever the shape of the six ahead of them, this defense looks vulnerable, particularly down flanks that the hosts could routinely unpick with a one-two. Jeremie Frimpong’s hamstring injury in the 17th minute robbed him of the chance to get reps in, but neither he nor Conor Bradley looked at ease going back towards their own goal.

It did not help that a midfield of Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai, whose goal was customarily excellent, was too easily countered through. Kristensen’s goal was all too familiar for those who have seen Liverpool this season, scrambling to deal with danger long after the warning alarms have gone off. All those issues were picked at in the third of the game that culminated in Frankfurt’s only goal. Better opponents than this one will make more of their good spells and won’t fall apart as swiftly as this one did.

Equally, you can only beat the team that is in front of you. After their slide, Liverpool needed one like this. They made the most of it.