How Liverpool won the Premier League
Slot did just enough to keep the team fresh
Stats are from FBRef unless stated otherwise
[laughing] “Now I don’t have to defend much, so, yeah”
— Mohamed Salah, on whether Arne Slot made him a better player
This was not supposed to be Liverpool’s year.
The big story at Anfield last summer was, obviously, Jürgen Klopp leaving the club after the most successful run in three decades to spend more time on his Peloton bike. Klopp gave his farewell speech on the Anfield pitch asking the fans to chant replacement Arne Slot’s name in a way that just made me flash back to Alex Ferguson telling the Old Trafford support that “your job now is to stand by our new manager”. That one, you might have heard, did not work out so well.
Like Manchester United in 2013, Liverpool were not a young side, relying heavily on a core of players who had been at the club for a number of years. And like United, they were widely seen to have botched the first transfer window after the manager left. Number one target Martín Zubimendi turned them down and Liverpool didn’t seem like they had any alternate course of action. Federico Chiesa came in on a pretty cheap deal no one was all that excited about, but otherwise Liverpool did nothing. Fans could be forgiven for feeling nervous at the start of the season.
But after that, it all just kind of worked out. Liverpool kind of cruised through this season. They weren’t quite at 100% in the early stretch of the season, but they got the points on the board as the players adjusted to what Slot wanted. Man City started stumbling not long after Rodri’s injury, while Arsenal’s autumn issues just put them too far behind. The last title felt like a 30 year struggle to rewrite history. This one just felt easy.
So how did they do it? Let’s break it down.