Arne Slot admits that Alexander Isak is nothing without Jacob Murphy as £125m nightmare continues for Liverpool
Oh, what a time to be a Newcastle United fan with a bitter heart right now. Liverpool are unravelling before our very eyes, and the Toon Army are inhaling every molecule.
At the centre of their demise is, of course, their £125 million, record-breaking striker who has just one Premier League goal this season and can barely get in the team.
On top of that, Arne Slot is losing the players, crucially, Mo Salah, who is Mr Liverpool. They would be absolutely nothing without his contribution over the last few years, but of late, he's warming the bench alongside Isak.
And why can't Salah get a game? Well, because he's not Jacob Murphy, apparently. At least, when you read between the lines of Arne Slot's recent quotes, that seems to be the case.
Arne Slot can only dream of having a player like Jacob Murphy
Quotes surfaced on Saturday from Arne Slot where he's essentially saying that Alexander Isak doesn't work without Jacob Murphy. It took Newcastle fans a while to believe that the quotes were even real, but this is genuinely what he said:
“The main difference for him is that we are facing here many times a low block and it is not that it never happened at Newcastle but not as much I think. I think this season the league has changed, we see so many more low blocks than I saw last season. But I see this not only against us, I see this in many games.
"It makes it harder for him compared to his time at Newcastle but I think it is also him adjusting to his team-mates and his team-mates adjusting to him. But it is obvious and clear that we have not the profile of Jacob Murphy for example available at this moment at this time.”
Inject this entire thing directly into our NUFC FEED
So not only is Slot rueing not having Murphy to feed Isak, but Mo Salah is taking it personally. He can't get in the team, and his manager is coveting Murph.
Most people would look at having Salah and Isak on the bench as a sign of strength, but once you scratch the surface and see what's going on, it's anything but.
We're trying not to revel too much as things can change so quickly in football, but honestly, this is just beautiful.
