Slot’s tweaks to Klopp’s men help Liverpool to record 20th

Kolkata: Arne Slot has done what Juergen Klopp could not: celebrate a Premier League title with Liverpool’s fans on Sunday. Exactly how big that is can be gauged by the fact that it last happened in 1989-90, a full two seasons before the Premier League came into being. It was in the light of this that Slot said “everyone is looking forward to Sunday”. Anfield did, heaving and bouncing all afternoon as Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur 5-1 to win their record-equalling 20th league title in the English top division. Only Manchester United have as many.

The fifth person to win the Premier League in his first season after Manuel Pellegrini (2013-14), Jose Mourinho (2004-05), Carlo Ancelotti (2009-10) and Antonio Conte (2016-17) – the last three with Chelsea – Slot has achieved what only Joe Fagan (1983-84) and Kenny Dalglish (1985-86) have with Liverpool. The difference is that Fagan and Dalglish were part of the Liverpool system, as staff or player, Slot was not. Which makes it a case of came-saw-conquered on way to a first Premier League title for a Dutch from Zwolle, 100km from Amsterdam.

Slot did that with just one summer signing: Federico Chiesa, who played all of 33 minutes in the league before Sunday. Transitions are difficult to manage, look no farther than Manchester United and Liverpool may have braced for a period of uncertainty, especially after the consistency under Klopp, but it looks like they have actually improved. Slot has said not much needed to be changed by way of style but deserves credit for making important tweaks.

Tweaks that meant defeats to Newcastle and PSG that ended hopes of a treble were blips and not bumps on the road. In a way those defeats in the League Cup final and the Champions League round-of-16 – and the FA Cup earlier – may have helped the league campaign. Slot has stayed true to a core group – there could be 10 players clocking over 3000 minutes this season, up from seven in 2023-24 – and elimination from Europe and FA Cup helped players recover better. Can help explain Liverpool’s 25 wins and only two defeats — they won the title after reaching 82 points with four games left as second-placed Arsenal have only 67 points. They have not been second since November 2, their position no doubt helped by Arsenal’s 13 draws.

After the title in 2019-20, Klopp’s teams faltered on the home stretch and were hit by muscle injuries. It happened in 2020-21 and last term when they won one game in five in April. Liverpool missed a total of 362 matches last term due to injury. That has not happened under Slot. And when players have been injured, their replacements, Caoimhin Kelleher and Conor Bradley to name a couple, have been more than adequate.

The tempo is not as high as it was under Klopp and defensively Liverpool look less vulnerable. “Under Klopp, the defenders could sometimes be left exposed,” Micah Richards, the former player tuned pundit, said earlier in the season. Liverpool were not “in a rush to attack”, Curtis Jones said last year, later clarifying that his comment was not an indictment of the Klopp way. A measure of how controlled Liverpool’s performances have been can be gauged by the fact that only five of their 24 wins have been by more than two goals before Sunday.

Liverpool conceded first in almost 40% of their matches in all competition last season. If that has not happened, if Liverpool look more in control of matches now, it is because Trent Alexander-Arnold has inverted less in the midfield, playing more as an orthodox right-back.

Cody Gakpo, who has nine league goals, behind only Mo Salah and Luis Diaz, mostly stays on the left side of the midfield, Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch have had a good season as has academy product Jones who at 94.3% has the best passing accuracy among midfielders in the league. The roles of Gravenberch, Mac Allister and Jones have been important because unlike under Klopp, Liverpool’s forward movements do not usually begin with the full backs but in the midfield.

There has been a greater focus on possession – Slot is said to be a massive fan of how Barcelona outplayed Manchester United in the 2011 Champions League final – but like their coach, the red card against Everton notwithstanding, Liverpool have a greater sense of calm about them. That said, Liverpool have been excellent in counter-attacks after defending corner-kicks mainly due to Alexander-Arnold’s passing range.

Early in the season, Slot rotated the squad and that meant he could see all the players and also keep the change room happy. Salah got into form, his defensive work rate improved and with excellent positional sense, Virgil van Dijk led from the back. Having worked most of the season with the possibility of van Dijk and Salah leaving, it was creditable that Slot got so much out of them. Salah’s 46 goal involvements is a Premier League record and he leads the race for the golden boot with 28 strikes.

A lot of this though circles back to Klopp. It was under him that the rebuild began in 2023 when Dominik Szoboszlai (one of the four international captains in the Liverpool line-up along with van Dijk, Salah and Andy Robertson), Mac Allister and Gravenberch came in. It was under him that Diaz became Sadio Mane’s replacement and Gakpo and Diogo Jota joined. And it was he who got the Kop to chant “Arne Slot, Na, Na, Na, Na, Na”, the message being that the fans must stand by the new manager. Like Bob Piasley after Bill Shankly, Slot after Klopp promises much. Opponents watch out, for Slot says he craves for greater control and more possession.