As Jurgen Klopp departed Anfield last summer the big question was how could Arne Slot even try and replace such a successful figure? Now, we have our answer. With a firing Mo Salah and a prime Van Dijk - This is how Liverpool won the Premier League!
00:00Last summer, when Liverpool said goodbye to manager Jurgen Klopp, the inevitable question was always going to hang over the football club like a bad smell.
00:08Was Arna Slott the right man to replace him?
00:10Well, now, barely 10 months later, we have our answer.
00:13I'm Matt from 442 and this is how Liverpool won the Premier League.
00:20I don't think maybe scepticism, but definitely like the unknown factor.
00:24That's Matt Ladson, co-founder and editor of This Is Anfield, and stating the obvious here,
00:29a massive Liverpool fan.
00:31His in-depth knowledge of Liverpool means he's the perfect person to take us through the club's title-winning season,
00:36all the way from his first thoughts on Arna Slott.
00:40Obviously, there's that worry of Dutch managers have not particularly had a strong record in the Premier League.
00:46Slott's the first Dutch manager to win the league.
00:50There's always that fear of, are we going to struggle like United did after Ferguson, like Arsenal did after Wenger.
00:57But then on the other side, like, you heard a lot about Slott and what he was about,
01:03and there was this hope that he would be like the Paisley to Shankly.
01:08Unknown aside, Slott was bringing his tactical acumen to the table,
01:12as seen in his swashbuckling style of play that saw Feyenoord win the 2023 Eredivisie title
01:18and the 2024 Dutch Cup.
01:20It wasn't necessarily Jurgen Klopp's football, but it didn't need to be.
01:24The whole sort of basketball end-to-end approach was something that Slott was keen for him to get away from.
01:30And I think Chris Jones mentioned, like, that the midfielders were often felt as though they were just running back and forth
01:36and not too much else than being on the ball.
01:39And so the approach was even very, very clear that it was going to be different in pre-season.
01:44And one of the big things was always with, due to Jürgen's style and the intensity,
01:51not just in playing style, but in training as well, and the approach to all that side,
01:56you know, we did burn out and we did have a lot of injuries.
01:59And then, obviously, opening game, Ipswich, we learned a little bit about Slott's approach to actually getting the result
02:07and not being afraid to make the more difficult decisions.
02:11So, obviously, taking off Travelo Kwanza after 45 minutes, bringing on Konate
02:15and making some really good adaptations.
02:17And I felt like, during that first, you know, couple of months, for three months,
02:23that our record in the first half of games was really not that great.
02:27But the second half, we were absolutely superb.
02:30And it always felt as though it was almost...
02:33The first half was like a sort of rehearsal to see how the opponents were setting up.
02:37And then at halftime, you'd make the adjustments and win the game.
02:40For those sceptical early on, or believing Slott had just hit a lucky new manager bounce,
02:45the early season form laid down a marker that this was something more.
02:48Liverpool meant business.
02:50You know, winning 3-0 at Old Trafford in your third game of the season
02:54is always a nice way to sort of start your Liverpool career.
02:58Now, obviously, we know that United are pretty awful
03:01and could have been in a relegation dogfight if the other three were even worse.
03:04But, you know, it's still a 3-0 win at Old Trafford.
03:07So, that was a nice early one to get under the belt.
03:11This Liverpool machine was well-oiled for sure.
03:14But, along with this, it also helped that Mo Salah had an all-timer of a season,
03:18breaking records and finding the back of the net left, right and centre.
03:22You could argue that the Egyptian putting pen to paper on a new two-year deal
03:25was one of the biggest moments of their campaign.
03:28But what exactly was the secret sauce behind his phenomenal statistics?
03:32I think that the change in how the right side is set up,
03:37Trent had much more licence to kind of go inside or higher up the pitch under Jürgen,
03:43which left Liverpool quite open on that right-hand side.
03:46But with having a more stable right full-back, whether that's been Trent or Conor Bradley,
03:51has allowed Salah, you know, maybe to do a little bit less of that running back and forwards.
03:55And, again, the transitional nature of the whole team isn't there.
04:00But I think it's also not necessarily just down to the manager,
04:04but we need to give credit to Salah himself.
04:07You know, he's a player who absolutely dedicates himself to his profession.
04:12You know, he's got a cryotherapy chamber in his own house and he's in a sauna
04:16and he's cold pungent and, you know, eats exceptionally healthily.
04:22You know, he doesn't drink alcohol.
04:24He just is a family man, you know, and he's got a burning desire
04:28because of what happened at Chelsea the first time.
04:31That pushes him on even to this day.
04:33I still, to this day, insist that Mo Salah is the most underrated player
04:37that's ever played in the Premier League.
04:38You know, maybe this season will go somewhat of a way to, you know,
04:44actually people realising just how good he is.
04:47Now, you'd think like a club with Liverpool, millions of fans around the world,
04:50media coverage on every kick of the ball and more content online
04:53than you could ever watch, that nobody would really go unsung
04:57or unnoticed in the squad.
04:59Well, it turns out there are one or two that may just have missed the radar.
05:02You know, the unsung hero for me, in terms of, like,
05:06who's your player of the year beyond Salah, Van Dijk,
05:09and Alexis McAllister has been the one that has just been
05:12absolute figure of consistency.
05:15And he's probably helped out Gravenberg.
05:19So everybody has sort of noticed, oh, Gravenberg's done absolutely superbly
05:22as a six, but I think by having McAllister alongside him
05:26has made Gravenberg as good as he's been in terms of exceeding
05:30those expectations.
05:32McAllister played as the holder quite a lot last year on the clock.
05:36So he knows the role.
05:38His role now has been a little bit more fluid.
05:42And he's been the one that's held the midfield together.
05:45McAllister's quality on the ball and, you know,
05:49a future probable vice-captain for Liverpool.
05:52I think a lot of supporters would see that.
05:53This season, though, hasn't exactly been happy times
05:56and good vibes throughout.
05:57In fact, on paper, you could argue that Liverpool should have had more.
06:01An early FA Cup exit to Plymouth was the definite low point
06:04with a Carabao Cup final defeat to Newcastle
06:06and a European exit at the hands of PSG.
06:09Not exactly a shock to the footballing world,
06:11but still occasions in which Liverpool are used to being involved in
06:14and ones where they'd expect more.
06:16Bouncing back is what good teams do.
06:17And within that tough period of crashing out of the cup competitions,
06:20there was light at the end of the Premier League tunnel,
06:23a tunnel that led to the hallowed turf of the Brentford Community Stadium.
06:27The big one where it was like, OK, we are 100% winning this now
06:32was the Brentford away game.
06:35Obviously, nil-nil going into literally the 90th minute
06:38and then Darwin Nunes scores two goals in stoppage time,
06:42which is hard to believe now.
06:44But that was the one where it's like, OK, we've got that.
06:48You know, there was a moment in the last title winning season
06:52where Sadio Mane scores an injury time winner away to Aston Villa.
06:58I think that was the equivalent moment this season.
07:01And, you know, Nunes scoring those two goals at Brentford
07:04and pretty wild celebrations.
07:06And that was the moment where I think we knew this is happening.
07:09So now having won the title at Anfield
07:11and with their second Premier League title in the bag,
07:14all thoughts turn to the future.
07:15A future that will, from next season, likely be without Trent Alexander-Arnold.
07:20After nine years in the first team
07:21and having won everything there is to win,
07:23it looks like he'll follow Klopp out of the Anfield doors
07:25and down a fairly well-known path from Liverpool to Real Madrid,
07:29following in the footsteps of Steve McManaman, Xavi Alonso
07:32and Michael Owen, among others.
07:34Look, I get it from Trent's personal perspective.
07:36He's won it all at Liverpool.
07:38He's got an opportunity to go and experience something new
07:41and different in life.
07:42And you only get one life, you've got to live it.
07:44However, the idea that fans should be thanking him
07:48and saying, off you go and have a nice time
07:51is just, that's not how football works, is it?
07:53We all know that.
07:54He knows that.
07:55He's not daft enough to think it should be any other way.
07:58And we appreciate everything he's done for the football club,
08:00but I'm not going to be blessing him for leaving, that's for sure.
08:06And there's no bitterness there, per se.
08:09But once you make that decision to leave Liverpool football club,
08:12then that's your decision.
08:13You know, it's not like the club have sold you.
08:16And so, it is what it is.
08:17So, if last summer's question was, can Arne Slott replace Klopp,
08:21this summer is surely, can Slott do it again?
08:23And are Liverpool on the cusp of another successful era?
08:27Hopefully, it goes on in a better vein than Klopp's did,
08:30because, you know, Klopp's era was fantastic,
08:32but he started from a pretty difficult situation.
08:37Arne Slott has come in and inherited a very strong squad,
08:39a very strong football club off the pitch,
08:43and won with basically no new signings, the title.
08:47And it goes back to that whole hope that he is the Paisley to the Shankly.
08:53So, yeah, this could and hopefully is the start of a very strong era
08:58for Liverpool football club.
09:00So, that is the Premier League title set up for this season.
09:02Can Slott do it again next year, or is there going to be another competitor?
09:05Leave your comments down below, like and subscribe,
09:08and I'll see you in the next one.
09:09God help the rest of the league when we get a proper real number nine.
