ARNE SLOT’S Liverpool may have passed their first great test, then the next one, and then the next one, but the Dutch manager is always the first to say that being here now, top of the Premier League and the Champions League in December, isn’t what counts. It’s where you are at the end of the season that does.
This weekend, Liverpool face their latest “first big test” of the Slot era when they face perennial title winners and regular competitive rivals Manchester City at Anfield.
While Slot is right to be pragmatic, his start at Liverpool has been better than anyone could have hoped, and it sometimes feels like it is being taken for granted somewhat.
Though a Liverpool title challenge of some sort is not entirely unexpected, few would have predicted them setting the pace at such high speed in the immediate post-Jurgen Klopp era.
Most pre-season predictions had Liverpool third in the Premier League behind title challengers Manchester City and Arsenal, while some thought they may even struggle to make the top four without Klopp.
It’s good to have a reminder of these pre-season expectations of Liverpool from outside the club which reflect their third-place finish, seven points behind Arsenal and nine behind City, last season.
When new managers come in there is supposed to be a period of transition, especially when following someone like Klopp who defined so much of what modern Liverpool FC is about.
Klopp is up there with such luminaries as Bill Shankly in a Liverpool sense, and with Pep Guardiola in a wider football sense.
This was the task facing Slot, who would need to make his own mark on the club while also retaining the best of what Klopp had built.
Most new managers will also request players they are familiar with from their previous clubs, whether that be players they have scouted or coached.
With this in mind, Liverpool’s early season success is unusual, and in some ways encouraging for the game in general, in that it has come without the introduction of any new players.
So much of the hype around modern football is built up around transfers and new signings, often overshadowing the football itself, but Slot has guided Liverpool to the top of the Premier League and the Champions League tables with the group of players left to him by Klopp.
The club did sign Federico Chiesa in the summer, but the Italian has barely featured so far, playing just 18 minutes in the Premier League and one minute in the Champions League due to injury and fitness issues.
Throughout Slot’s impressive start, it has always been said that the first big test is just around the corner.
The first one was supposed to be in October against a Chelsea team who had looked dangerous under a new manager of their own, Enzo Maresca. Liverpool ran out 2-1 winners at Anfield.
After the win, Slot said: “Don’t judge us on this week, you have to judge us after the next six, seven, or eight games. There is Leipzig, Arsenal, Brighton twice, and then Leverkusen and Aston Villa.”
Liverpool drew away at Arsenal and won all the others. More tests passed.
Games against Southampton and Real Madrid followed Villa and, strangely, due to Liverpool’s comfortable position in the Champions League, Southampton was arguably the bigger game of the two.
The eventual 3-2 win against Southampton wasn’t easy and Liverpool’s run of wins has not been as simple as league tables make it look, but they go into another “first great test” against Manchester City on Sunday having won 17 of 19 games across all competitions this season with their only defeat coming in September at home to Nottingham Forest.
If Liverpool can be judged at the end of November after the run of games as Slot mentioned, plus Southampton and Real Madrid, then they have passed the tests.
But as Slot keeps saying, they have won nothing yet.
“It’s always good to win a game, and especially a big game like this because you know you face so many quality players, but for me, it would mean even more if we go [on to do the same] in the later stages tournament,” Slot said after Wednesday’s win.
“Because this is such a strange and different setup in the Champions League, it’s difficult to judge how important these wins are.
“If we arrive in the last 16 or quarter-finals, or wherever we can arrive to and face [Real Madrid] again, and then we are able to beat them, that would be a bigger statement than this.
“But we are definitely happy with the win, let that be clear.”
This reflects Slot’s comments earlier in the season when he was being praised for being the first Liverpool manager in history to win eight of his first nine games.
“I am hoping to do more special things than winning eight out of nine games! But it says a lot about many things,” he said.
“It also says a lot about how Jurgen [Klopp] left this club, the squad I inherited, how much work the players put in and how much my staff helped me get these results.”
If Liverpool drop off in the second half of the season, as they likely will to some extent, there could be a renewed focus on the lack of signings made by the club in the summer, but their progress so far, and the unexpected nature of their clear lead at the top of the Premier League and Champions League post-Klopp, has shown that football is not all about new signings.
It will be interesting to see if Liverpool do move in the transfer market in January or whether they trust the strength of the squad as it is. There are obvious areas for improvement, but identifying these and actually adding players to the team to make such an improvement is not always easy in January, and can sometimes upset an existing dressing room dynamic.
The running theme alongside this blistering start is Slot’s acknowledgment of the strong base the team have given themselves from which to build, alongside a realism that it doesn’t really matter if they don’t produce results in March, April, and May to win trophies.
As they go into this weekend’s big game against a struggling Manchester City, Liverpool have a chance to make that base even stronger.
