Jurgen Klopp had a capacity to make people feel good about themselves. One of the more unheralded ways came in difficult seasons. Klopp finished them well.
In 2020-21, Liverpool won their final five league matches, and eight of the last 10, to secure qualification for the Champions League. In 2022-23, Liverpool won seven of their last nine league games. They nevertheless ended up in the Europa League. In each case, however, Liverpool’s spring surge offered optimism the following campaign would be better. In each case, it was.
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Now Arne Slot has a habit of saying next year will be superior to this. Perhaps he lacks Klopp’s powers of persuasion or maybe the evidence is less compelling but many are not convinced.
Some of that can stem from feel. Liverpool had won three consecutive Premier League matches before Sunday’s defeat to Manchester United. But Slot, conscious they were separated by the Champions League exit to Paris Saint-Germain, knew it did not feel that way.
And whereas Klopp got a heartening win at Old Trafford in the run-in in 2021, there was no repeat this weekend. Rather, Liverpool replayed some of the errors that have pockmarked their campaign. Matheus Cunha’s opener was the 17th league goal they have conceded from a set-piece, a club record in the Premier League era. Kobbie Mainoo’s winner was the 16th they have let in during the final 15 minutes; only Burnley and Newcastle have been more porous at the end of games.
That can reflect the way Liverpool have often felt stretched, their starters exhausted because injuries have removed others from contention. Two of the reasons why Slot argues next year will be preferable to this is that Liverpool’s new signings will improve after more time together and that they will have fewer injuries. There are days when Alexander Isak appears a one-man rebuttal to that. He was absent on Sunday, due to a minor groin problem which further calls into question Liverpool’s decision to spend £125m on a player with a dubious fitness record.
Liverpool made a poor start and fell apart late on against Manchester United, continuing two worrying trends (Getty)
But if Liverpool require more robustness, that is both physical and mental. “It’s unacceptable that we have lost too many times as defending champions of the Premier League,” said captain Virgil van Dijk. There have been 11 reverses in the top flight, 18 in all competitions. That five have been inflicted in injury time highlights issues about resolve and fitness. But Sunday was the 10th loss in which they have conceded in the first 16 minutes: there have been too many slow starts.
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United battered Liverpool at the beginning, supporting the theory that there is too little physicality in this side. Some of their set-piece problems can be traced to the reality that, Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate apart, there are too few tall players with real aerial ability. But Slot also lamented the way Liverpool were caught on the counter-attack for United’s second goal, scored by Benjamin Sesko.
Yet Michael Carrick noted that Liverpool’s team, unlike his, was packed with midfielders; if they ought to have players who could halt counter-attacks, the absence of a specialist defensive midfielder has been costly. It is one cause of a poor defensive record, with 47 league goals conceded already.
If Liverpool need to rebalance the squad, that is true of the midfield. Sunday underlined that Liverpool desperately need Dominik Szoboszlai to sign a new deal. Ryan Gravenberch has, though his season has been decidedly mixed. But Alexis Mac Allister’s has been poor, a few fine displays apart, and only partly mitigated by the fact he was not fully fit at the start.
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Slot has carried on picking him; sometimes at the expense of Curtis Jones, whose contract expires in 2027 and who can wonder what his future holds. Mac Allister played an inadvertent part in two United goals on Sunday and contrived to look the slowest man in a midfield that included United’s Casemiro.
While Szoboszlai has taken a step forward this season, Mac Allister has taken one backwards. After Isak and Mohamed Salah, he may have been Liverpool’s most disappointing player. There is a case to sell him and reinvest the funds in more of a defensive midfielder. Perhaps Slot should prioritise Jones more, too: the Merseysider has made 46 appearances this season, but has too few starts in midfield. He is currently installed in defence because Slot does not trust the right-back Jeremie Frimpong to play right-back.
Liverpool still have work to do to make sure of their own Champions League place (Getty)
So Liverpool probably need to add a right-back to the shopping list headed by the quest for Salah’s replacement. If the arrival of Jeremy Jacquet and the return to fitness of Giovanni Leoni would at least add physicality in defence, there is a question of how much character they lose when Andy Robertson and Salah leave; potentially Alisson, too.
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A team who have suffered too many setbacks this season fought back from 2-0 on Sunday, but there are times when they have put up too little resistance, with the admirable exception of Szoboszlai. It leaves a long to-do list to ensure next year is better.
“There will be a lot of work that has to be done going into next season,” said Van Dijk. Some of it has to be conducted in private. But so far, there are too few reasons to see this Liverpool emulating Klopp’s teams and bouncing back into excellent years.