Arne Slot has already taken Liverpool to the top of the Premier League in his first few months in charge at Anfield, but the Reds now face a tricky run of fixtures in three different competitions that could very well define the Dutchman’s maiden campaign on Merseyside.
Slot has rightly earned great praise for the seamless way in which he has taken over from previous Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp following the German’s departure last summer after nine trophy-laden years at the helm.
It was meant to be the impossible job replacing Klopp at Anfield, but the former Feyenoord head coach has already made history by becoming the first Liverpool manager to win as many as nine of his first 10 games in all competitions with the Reds top of the table, through to the Carabao Cup fourth round and having taken maximum points from the early phase of the new Champions League format.
And yet it seems not everyone is convinced Liverpool are genuine challengers for this season’s Premier League, including Slot himself, given the standard of opposition they have faced so far.
“I looked at the league table and ‘OK, which teams did we face until now and which position are they? Are they in the top half or the bottom?'” he said of Liverpool’s favourable fixture list to begin the season, which has included top-flight games against newly-promoted Ipswich Town, Brentford, Man Utd, Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
“I think all of them apart from United are in the bottom half of the table, so you have to take that into account as well.
“There are a lot of difficult teams we still have to face and if we are able after playing those teams as well, let’s see where we are then when it comes to conceding goals because maybe the fixture schedule has been ‘nice’ to us when you see the league table.”
Slot and the sceptics are right, although you can also only beat the teams that are in front of you – but that all changes as the Reds prepare for a challenging run of games in the Premier League, Champions League and League Cup between now and Christmas that will tell us a lot more about how seriously we should be taking Slot’s Liverpool.
No more ‘nice’ fixtures for Slot and Co
It is hard not to argue that Slot was handed an extremely favourable set of Premier League fixtures to kick off his Reds reign, with Liverpool having so far taken on opponents with an average position this season of 13th.
However, that is all about to change with matches coming up against high-flying Chelsea, Arsenal, Brighton & Hove Albion and Aston Villa before the November international break, although only the Gunners clash is away from home.
According to Opta’s fixture difficulty, which bases opponent strength on their rating in the Opta Power Rankings, Liverpool have the fourth toughest run of games in that period.
Expand that run to the Reds’ next 10 league games, which include matches against champions Man City, Newcastle United, city rivals Everton and Tottenham Hotspur – the latter three all away from home – and Slot’s side have the toughest run of any top-flight side, facing teams with an average position this season of eighth.
Not only that, but Liverpool also have a challenging fixture in November in the League Cup, with a fourth-round trip to Brighton, as well as Champions League games against the champions of Germany and Spain, Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid.
It is safe to say then that by the conclusion of that testing run, we will all know a lot more about the validity of Liverpool’s title credentials and just how far they can go in cup competitions this season.
Was Forest loss an outlier or sign of things to come?
Liverpool fans are rightly still cautious though when it comes to their team’s start given the Reds did follow up their impressive 3-0 win at Man Utd by then surprisingly losing at home to Nottingham Forest for the first time in 55 years.
Despite enjoying a whopping 70 per cent possession in that game, Liverpool record their lowest expected goals total of the season (0.87), while they only fell below 1.00 in this metric once at Anfield last season – in December 2023 against Arsenal.
That lethargic display came immediately after an international break, so it will be interesting to see whether Slot – who was boosted this week by key duo Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk’s returns to the AXA after being released early by their countries – has learned any lessons from that surprise setback, especially in terms of team selection as Liverpool’s South American players appeared leggy against Forest after lengthy trips around the world with their countries.
Was it just a one off? Sunday’s clash with in-form Chelsea should tell us more.
Will increased workload & injuries start to take their toll?
Liverpool only began their Champions League campaign in mid-September, while being in Europe also meant they did not enter the Carabao Cup until the third round later that month, and so Slot has not had to contend with playing two games a week until recently.
The Dutchman acknowledged this after Liverpool’s win at Old Trafford last month, saying: “Three games played – only games from Saturday to Sunday or Sunday to Sunday, so there is still a lot for us to prove if we are going to play Champions League.
“I don’t want to be the one that spoils everything, but two years ago was the last season that we played Champions League and we all know how that season ended. There is a lot to prove for us, if we play the difficult games in Champions League and still be good at the weekend.”
In fairness, the Reds have passed that test so far, winning both their league matches after being in Champions League action, while they also had a great record last season, winning seven and drawing three of their 11 games after a European encounter.
However, Slot has definitely been helped by being able to choose from a mainly fully-fit squad so far this season, allowing him to select pretty much what he views as his strongest line-up in the opening two months of the campaign without overworking his first-choice XI.
That will change between now and Christmas, though, given the increased demands across three competitions, as well as the higher standard of opposition they will come up against, meaning the Reds boss will have to rotate and make full use of his squad.
And for that to happen, Liverpool must avoid picking up untimely injuries, a factor that eventually caught up with them in the second half of last season as they attempted an unprecedented quadruple.
So far Ruben Peeters, who Slot insisted on bringing with him from Feyenoord as Liverpool’s new head of physical performance, has lived up to his reputation from his time in Rotterdam for ensuring high percentages of player availability levels at the club.
But that has just started to change of late as the Reds’ schedule intensifies, with the likes of Harvey Elliott [foot], Federico Chiesa [unspecified knock], Alisson Becker [hamstring] and Alexis MacAllister [groin] all now sidelined for varying lengths of time.
Can Kelleher step up again in Alisson’s absence?
Of Liverpool’s current quartet of injured players, it is Alisson who faces the longest spell out after injuring his hamstring in the win at Crystal Palace before the international break.
The Brazil international now faces being out of action until after the November internationals, meaning another extended run in the side for back-up goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher.
The Republic of Ireland international, who has already had to fill in for Alisson after he missed the Bournemouth game with another hamstring tweak, again caught the eye while making 26 appearances in all competitions for the Reds last season, many of them high-profile contests such as his player-of-the-match display to help beat Chelsea in February’s Carabao Cup final at Wembley.
And the 25-year-old now faces being in goal for a similar run of crucial games, not that Slot is concerned by the prospect.
“Alisson is our clear No 1, he is the best goalkeeper in the world,” he said after Liverpool’s win at Selhurst Park.
“So, it’s always a blow when he gets injured, for himself but also for us as a team. But the positive thing for the team is – and it’s not only in the goalkeeper position but almost in every position – that we have a second option that is also really good.
“And Caoimhin has already shown that so it is quite clear then that he is the No 2. Otherwise, the last time Alisson was injured I would have played Vit [Jaros], but I played Caoimhin. So Caoimhin is the No 2 and did really well.”
How the young Irish ‘keeper now fares in these upcoming games could go a long way in deciding just how successful Liverpool are in this potentially season-defining run of games.