Liverpool’s Premier League campaign drew to a close at Anfield with a somewhat flat 1-1 draw against Brentford. While the stalemate wasn’t the explosive finale the home crowd had hoped for, the solitary point was mathematically enough to guarantee the Reds a top-five finish, officially locking in Champions League football for next season.
It provides a massive silver lining for Arne Slot to build upon after a grueling, transitional campaign that saw the club fall well short of their previous lofty standards.
The Reds head coach, Arne Slot, will be pleased as reports suggested his position at the club would be under serious threat if they failed to miss out on the top five places, though with that now wrapped up, it seems he will remain in the dugout on Merseyside.
There are still plenty of question marks regarding his future from the Kopites point of view, as their meeting with the Bees was a summary of the season. An uneventful match that took a moment of individual quality to put them ahead, before weak defending took points out of their hands.
This is something that concerned Slot, as it has been a far too common sight through the course of the season, and needs stamping out ahead of the new horizon. In his post match Brentford press conference, the Dutchman said he wants to see that change.
He said, “Far too many times this season, when we are the better team, people fail to notice this because we don’t create many chances. Many times this season, we have been counter-attacked and conceded.”
However, if they had fallen to a defeat, they would have been safe knowing that Bournemouth didn’t pull off the miraculous result they needed to leapfrog the Reds. European football has also been a stumbling block for Liverpool in recent years, with no momentous matches or results taking place at Anfield.
Despite that, the result today gives them a chance to change that next season, especially with all the factors that have gone against the club this season. The head coach admits it’s perhaps not what they had in mind last August, though you can’t underestimate how important this is, especially when other top sides miss out.
“As you see when you take a look at the league table, big clubs are not able to qualify for Champions League or Europe. Big clubs have not been able to qualify for Europe in the last few seasons in this league, so we can never take it for granted, but it’s clear and obvious that we wanted more. But I’m really proud of the players, what they’ve done this season, because it’s been a very, very, very tough season for us, with all the things we had to experience, with all the injuries, and I can come up with all these things we have had to go through.”
As they look to battle the best from Europe next year, they will have to do it without two of the very best over the last decade at the club, in Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson, as the pair waved their goodbyes to Anfield.
They both moved to Merseyside in 2017 and set the club on the course of success, winning an impressive number of trophies along the way. The duo were key players under Slot during his first season at the club, as they went on to win the Premier League.
Despite a recent statement from the Egyptian that many believe is criticising the 47-year-old’s tactics, he was happy to see the support they got from all four stands, and how the fans showcased once again why they are so special.
“They completely got what they deserved. Two legends that in the last nine years won nine trophies over here. So, yeah, for them, it must have been a special day, a difficult day probably as well, but definitely also a special day and the fans made it special for them as well.”
The Dutchman reflected on this past season, where things have gone right, and the majority of the time, when things have gone wrong for Liverpool. It seems much more than 12 months ago that a party was taking place on the Strand, as the parade of the league title travelled through the city streets.
He claims that he would have the same perspective if they had gone on to grab the glory at the end of the campaign, as it’s impossible to achieve the greatness that everyone pursues.
“We, I, haven’t been perfect, but I would have answered this question exactly the same in the year we won the league because as a manager you can never be perfect [and] a player can never be perfect. But all the decisions I’ve made throughout the whole season has been only with one idea, and that’s being very well prepared. So, all the decisions I made were never made from, ‘Oh, I have no time, let’s make a decision like this.’”
With everything being said and done, now it’s time for the club to set its focus on the future and how they get back on track. While Slot was happy they reached the Champions League, it is far below the standards of one of the biggest clubs in the world.
He’s been given the confidence from the board, by the looks of it, and another huge transfer window is set to follow. The next few months will be imperative to the future of Liverpool on whether they will continue to hang with the big boys, or slip further down the table.
