Too much time off? Arne Slot’s management slammed given Liverpool’s away record vs top 10

Last Updated on 4 May 2026

Despite coming back from 2-0 down against Manchester United at Old Trafford, Liverpool conceded a winner to Kobbie Mainoo in the 77th minute on Sunday.

For Arne Slot’s Liverpool, it was a familiar story, as they are yet to win away to any of the top 10 teams in the Premier League.

While some blame tactical and mental side of things, others believe that the players having ‘too much time off’ might be playing into the late-game fatigue.

Liverpool’s winless away record against the top 10 is starting to cost them

Arne Slot is giving his players too much time off, and it’s beginning to show where it matters most. With Mohamed Salah having recently voiced concerns over a deteriorating dressing room culture, the two narratives are becoming increasingly difficult to separate.

A team that lacks sharpness on the road and a squad reportedly disengaged from its own standards, it all points in the same direction. Nowhere is that more evident than Liverpool’s woeful away record against the Premier League’s top 10 sides this season. Not a single win.

And with their top-five finish far from secured, that run could yet prove fatal. Slot’s side still have a trip to Aston Villa to navigate. A ground where they will need exactly the kind of focused, well-drilled performance that has eluded them all season on the road.

Their remaining fixtures, Chelsea at home and Brentford away, offer little comfort either. Both sides are chasing European football themselves. They will be desperate for the points, making them awkward opponents for a team that has looked anything but battle-ready when it counts.

Van Dijk pushes back but his defence raises more questions than it answers

As per The Guardian, Virgil van Dijk was quick to challenge the “too much time off” narrative, insisting the reality is far less glamorous than it has been made out to be. “A few days off? You mean one day off?”

He said, “I’m not sure it’s a holiday. It’s a city trip. If you have one day off, and you don’t have many days off, they can decide what they want to do with their families. We are not kids. Everyone is an adult.”

He even pointed to Pep Guardiola giving Manchester City three days off in recent weeks as evidence that rest, done right, can work. “It is finding the right balance,” he added. But there’s something telling in the fact that van Dijk felt the need to make that argument at all.

If results were where they should be for a team of Liverpool’s stature, no one would be asking the question. Excuses, however valid, only become necessary when things are going wrong.

And the suggestion that the squad could do with more time off, not less, speaks to a broader cultural concern at the club; one that Salah has already flagged, and one that Slot has yet to convincingly address.