Liverpool are one point away from the club’s first Premier League title in five years.
And, well, nobody could really say they expected it at the start of the season.
A new and untested manager, a first season without Jurgen Klopp and barely any spending in the summer transfer window had all the hallmarks of a difficult, finding-your-feet season.
Instead, Liverpool were virtually uncatchable by February.
Here, The i Paper explains how they did it:
Arne Slot has a strong relationship with sporting director Richard Hughes (Photo: Getty)
The way Klopp left Liverpool will probably be studied one day by MBA candidates.
Losing a figure who had been at the club for nine years and completely transformed the club’s fortunes was always going to be tough to navigate.
At first, however, the timing of the announcement seemed odd – it being revealed in a club-filmed interview halfway through last season. Why then? Wouldn’t it affect the players’ motivation? Could it put players off signing for them?
Instead, it played out perfectly. It allowed Liverpool’s owners to carefully plan and build the post-Klopp future, giving them four months to find the ideal replacement and install an elite team around them.
Losing such a big presence is massive for any club, but Liverpool turned to another heavyweight, albeit one who operates behind the scenes, bringing back former sporting director Michael Edwards – one of the finest recruiters in the game and integral to much of Klopp’s success, this time with an overarching role as chief executive of football for owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG).
Edwards turned to Richard Hughes to take his old role. Hughes and Edwards know each other well – Edwards was head of analysis at Portsmouth while Hughes was a player there –and Hughes was making great strides at Bournemouth as technical director. Hughes is even thought to have recommended Edwards sign Mohamed Salah, having tracked the forward extensively but without the means to sign him at Bournemouth.
Hughes led the process to sign the next manager, and they landed on Arne Slot.
Slot-ing in perfectly
Slot took everything that Klopp handed over to him and ran with it (often without the ball).
The team’s off-the-ball work, runs from deeper and later, defending fractionally further back, their NFL-style orchestrated attacks and clever pressing, as previously recorded by The i Paper, took rivals by surprise.
Nobody could work Slot’s team out in the first half of the season, and by the time they did, it was basically too late.
There has, however, been an unexpected byproduct of the nature of the wins. Earlier in the season, Anfield regulars revealed that it can be a bit of a grind to watch, affecting the atmosphere.
The stadium had been used to responding to years of Klopp’s high-intensity, fast-paced “heavy-metal” football, the fans and the players feeding off one another symbiotically.
Slot’s style is more patient and probing, and not necessarily going to get pulses racing (six games have been won by a 1-0 scoreline). The big European nights are fine (having been at Anfield for the Champions League second leg against Paris Saint-Germain this correspondent can attest to that) but visits from lesser-profile sides, in equally important games to win, has taken more work.
First-team training starts an hour later per the manager’s request (Photo: Getty)
Klopp always had the players stay at a hotel the night before matches. It has long been the received wisdom in football that it is beneficial for players. A little togetherness with team-mates, ensuring they are in bed at a decent time. But Slot changed that.
Sports scientists told him that while a hotel environment can be more controlled, a night in a hotel bed would, in fact, likely result in a worse night’s sleep than in one at home that players are more comfortable in.
The players now spend the night at home when they are playing at Anfield or in stadiums that aren’t too far away, The i Paper understands, arriving at a hotel on the day of the match instead for all the usual pre-match preparation.
It is becoming widely accepted that sleep is the most important factor in recovery – better than ice baths and massages – and that optimising that can produce those golden marginal gains.
With that in mind, Slot has also scheduled training sessions an hour or so later, to reduce the pressure on players needing to get up.
Injur-frees
It is perhaps no surprise, then, that Liverpool have suffered fewer injuries this season than any of the teams in the top seven, except for Nottingham Forest. Their 14 injuries this season is almost half that of Arsenal, their closest rivals in the title race. And it has undoubtedly influenced their success.
Two key players – Salah and Virgil van Dijk – have had a clear run this term with no issues. Trent Alexander-Arnold has missed less than a handful of games.
Their only key absence for any sustained period was goalkeeper Alisson, who missed seven weeks towards the start of the campaign.
The wisdom of allowing Alexander-Arnold, Van Djik and Salah lapse into the final year of their contracts was widely questioned at the start of the season.
How could a club as well run as Liverpool entertain the prospect of losing three of their stars via free agency?
But there has been a flip side. Each player has had to perform as though their future depends on it. Either to attract a buyer, or to convince executives to add an extra year, and maybe an extra few quid, onto a contract offer.
And each player has responded with Premier League-winning form.
So what if they are expected to lose Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid? Players will be queueing up to replace him.
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Not signing Bellingham
This may sound strange, but not signing Jude Bellingham, one of the best midfielders in the world, in summer 2023 may have paid off.
Liverpool had been seriously weighing up the idea, encouraged by suggestions that Bellingham was interested. But the club decided to go in a different direction, and he decided on a move to Real Madrid.
Having finished fifth the previous season, Klopp and Liverpool’s recruitment team felt the squad needed a wider rebuild and that one megastar signing using up the budget would not be the required fix. The thinking was that they may take time to settle, but that in the long-term it would be for the better.
Instead, in came Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch. Together with Wataru Endo, the trio now form one of the strongest central midfields in the game. All under 27, all with three years to run on their contracts and all Premier League title winners, they are likely to only improve, at Liverpool, in the years ahead.
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