The most impressive achievement of Arne Slot’s first season as Liverpool’s manager is that he has improved the club’s players and performances so noticeably and so promptly into his tenure.
After Liverpool lifted every possible piece of silverware under Jurgen Klopp in the club’s most successful era in decades, few could have foreseen just how seamlessly it would transition into the Slot reign.
Having taken over a Liverpool side that finished its last campaign in third without a single minute of Premier League experience as either a player or a manager, Slot has steered it to the brink of the league title.
On Sunday, he could secure the first trophy of his Liverpool career should his side triumph over Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final as they are heavy favorites to.
Still work to be done
And yet, the first serious, indisputable signal that this Liverpool is not yet the finished article arrived on Tuesday when it exited the Champions League against Paris Saint Germain.
Defeat in a penalty shootout is always a cruel manner of elimination, but no one can really argue that PSG was ultimately the deserved victor over the course of the two legs.
By all indicators, numerical or otherwise, Liverpool was second best. While the Reds squeezed out a 1-0 win in Paris, the tie would have been likely out of their reach ahead of the return fixture were it not for Allison’s heroics to deny numerous clear cut chances from the home side.
That the Premier League leaders ended the first leg with less than 30% possession and two shots in total while France’s leading club enjoyed the lion's share of the ball and 27 shots offers a the most insightful read into how badly Liverpool struggled over the first 90 minutes of the tie.
After the match, Arne Slot admitted “if we had a draw, we would have already been the lucky one,” and lauded his goalkeeper as “the best in the world.” Allison himself claimed he had delivered “probably the best performance of my life.”
Given how easily PSG tore through Liverpool’s back line, it was no surprise when it took the lead just 12 minutes into the second leg at Anfield to level the aggregate score.
It was always a matter of when and not if the Ligue 1 leaders would eventually force their way onto the score sheet, even if Liverpool had actually looked the more dangerous of the two sides in the moments leading up to Ousmane Demebele’s goal.
As was widely anticipated though, Liverpool raised its game considerably at Anfield. Throughout the first 20 minutes and for much of the second half, Slot’s men forced PSG back and into several last-ditch blocks to keep them off the scoresheet.
However, only in those two periods over the course of the entire 210 minutes did Liverpool assert their superiority.
Even then, PSG constantly created nervy moments on the counter and carved out several decent chances to snatch the crucial second goal.
The exhaustion of Liverpool’s players was visible throughout extra time, particularly among the midfielders who could no longer match the energy of their youthful subs off the PSG bench. As such, the Reds’ momentum from the second-half dissipated over the following 30 minutes.
A second half lull
The drop off in Liverpool’s performance from the second half to extra time aptly symbolizes its season as a whole.
Throughout the first half of the campaign, the Reds’ command of the midfield, flair going forward and organization at the back empowered them to blow opponents away and race to the top of both the Premier League and the league phase of the Champions League.
Since the turn of the year, however, Liverpool has struggled to project those strengths as potently. Slot’s side has been sluggish and uncharacteristically sloppy for long periods of recent matches.
It was well below its best in 2-2 draws at Everton and Aston Villa and even its victories against the likes of Wolves and Southampton at Anfield proved far more complicated than they would have seemed on paper.
While they have the quality to overcome opponents in the middle or at the lower end of the table even when not at their best, the Red’s failure to snap back into first gear was bound to cost them against a stronger side. That’s exactly what happened against PSG.
A run of exceptional performances back in November and December saw Liverpool emerge as the favorite for both the Premier League and the Champions League.
It has all but wrapped up the former, but its inability to cope with PSG’s quality highlights the need to improve in several areas of the pitch if it aims to add a seventh European Cup to its cabinet.
Areas that need improving
Slot must address why his side failed to control the midfield against PSG.
Liverpool’s routine dominance in the middle of the park has played a significant role in what has still been a largely successful season, but Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai were all overrun for lengthy spells over the two legs against the Parisians.
One possible explanation for this is that both Gravenberch and Szoboszlai suffered from fatigue having started against Southampton days before the second leg.
By contrast, PSG manager Luis Enrique rested eight of his first XI at Anfield for his side’s clash with Rennes over the weekend.
Slot, however, did not feel he could enjoy the same luxury to rest his key players for a far more difficult and defining fixture.
His decision not to rest most of his first XI at home to Southampton, arguably the most winnable fixture in Liverpool’s Premier League campaign, raises questions about whether the squad has enough midfield depth to balance its domestic and continental ambitions.
Gravenberch in particular has started every single Premier League match of the season and all but one of Liverpool’s Champions League fixtures.
A lack of rest for the Dutchman has understandably taken a toll on his impact in recent weeks and subsequently limited the extent of Liverpool’s authority over the middle third.
Liverpool’s elimination from Europe also underscores the club’s need for reinforcements going forward. Only Mohamed Salah has proven a consistently reliable goal scorer, but with PSG effectively containing him, the Reds could not count on anyone else to step up.
Goals have dried up completely for Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz, who have managed an alarming three combined since January, while injuries have sidelined Cody Gakpo for the past several weeks.
Darwin Nunez’s future at Anfield beyond this season is in grave doubt as he continues to err in critical moments. A serious push for Champions League success next season will require at least one additional regular source of goals and that’s if Salah remains after the end of this season when his contract expires.
Should Salah depart Liverpool after eight spectacular, historic years, Liverpool will realistically require a complete overhaul of its front line if it’s to remain one of the leading contenders even just in England, let alone Europe.
Notably, many of the same flaws were evident towards the end of last season when Liverpool crashed out of the Europa League to Atalanta and tumbled from the top of the Premier League after 30 matches to an anticlimactic third place finish.
As was the case in their clash with PSG, the Reds’ down to lack of cohesion in the midfield and wastefulness in the final third ultimately triggered their downfall.
Yet, despite falling short in both Europe’s second-tier tournament and in the Premier League, Liverpool’s only signing last summer was Federico Chiesa, whose appearances have been seldom.
It’s now clear that Liverpool failed to address the weaknesses in its squad last summer. As superbly as the Reds have performed for the majority of the campaign, it was inevitable that their imperfections would catch up to them. On Tuesday, they finally did.