Arne Slot has issued a reality check on Liverpool title hopes ahead of Premier League trip to Aston Villa
If the old adage suggests league titles can only be lost rather than won before Christmas, the season is now approaching the period where the destiny of the championship is being determined. And as Anfield witnessed at the weekend witnessed, increased expectancy isn’t always the easiest to handle.
A nervy, narrow victory over Wolves signified a new chapter in the battle for the Premier League crown with it now a straight fight between Liverpool and second-placed Arsenal. Even with the Reds holding a healthy advantage of seven points, an onerous schedule over the next week – starting at Aston Villa this evening – means nothing is being taken for granted.
But for Reds boss Arne Slot, the pressure has been on from within since the very first ball was kicked at Ipswich Town on the opening weekend way back in mid-August.
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“The outside world didn’t expect a lot from us at the start of the season but we expected a lot from ourselves,” says Slot, who is free to remain on the touchline as he awaits the outcome of his Football Association charge following his red card at Everton last week. “The players ended up third last season, not 12th, so they knew they could compete with the likes of Arsenal and Man City.
“The good thing is that we are in an even better place than we were last season but it’s not a massive difference – this club has always competed with one exception two years ago.
“We knew we had challenges to face but we’ve always put the pressure on ourselves that we wanted to compete in every single cup and league we are playing in. That’s what we’ve tried to do from the start and now people are maybe trying to put pressure on us, I don’t know, but we’ve put this pressure on ourselves since the first day we were in.”
Not that Slot anticipated Liverpool being in such a commanding position at present. “You never think like that as a manager,” he says. “You only think about winning as many games as we can and implementing a certain playing style to get as many wins as you can. I think until now that has been more than okay and now we have to make sure we can keep doing this.
“The fixture list also decides how things will work out. So these two games we are going to play now have already been played by Arsenal – Villa away and City away. Then we can make a difference in the upcoming two games.
“If not, then we are on equal terms because we have played a lot of similar games and there are still 11 games to go. The positive thing is that, after these two games, we’ve got seven home games and four away. And we all know how much Anfield can help us.”
After 23 wins in Slot’s first 27 games in charge in all competitions, Liverpool have found it tougher since the turn of the year with seven wins from 13 and three defeats, one of which saw them bounced out of the FA Cup at Plymouth Argyle.
They were second-best for large periods in the 2-2 draw at Everton last midweek and didn’t manage a single shot after the break against Wolves, the first time since such records began that had happened to Liverpool in any half at Anfield in the Premier League.
Slot, though, is not surprised by the drop in performances. “Was it two weeks ago that we completely outplayed Spurs (in the League Cup)?” he says. “But I always take the team we face into account. I said – and it sounded maybe ridiculous – but playing Plymouth away was more difficult for us than some other games because of the playing style.
“The playing styles of Plymouth and Everton and to a certain extent Wolves are quite similar. I agree the last two performances were not the same level we had at West Ham away or Tottenham at home but are we the Tottenham at home 4-0 win or are we the Everton team? I think we are somewhere in between.”
The Liverpool boss won the Dutch league with Feyenoord two years ago on the back of a run of 13 straight victories that started in February with a brace of narrow triumphs. And he adds: “If there’s any experience I’ve learned from winning a league title, it is in general in a season if there are 38 games to be played, don’t expect you have 38 times fantastic football.
“If you are a very good team and a very special team you play 20-25 very good games then you play a few mediocre ones and you play a few very bad ones. But it is more about the results in the mediocre or bad ones than the 20-25 because they are ones you will probably win.
“It is normal in a season that it is not 38 times the best football that is ever played. Not in the history of Liverpool, not in the four years City won the league and not this time with us or Arsenal or City or Chelsea.
“What I still see (from the players) and what I ask from them, you can play 25 games well, some mediocre and some bad but the work-rate in every single game should be the same. This is what I saw against Wolves, what I saw maybe even more at Everton because it wasn’t our game, it was their game. The game went to their pattern and their pattern is long balls, second balls, fight, get free-kicks and us not getting free-kicks and going on and on and on.
“It was their pattern and we stood up, because we were 2-1 up, and let’s not say anything about the last goal.”
That late leveller at Goodison clearly continues to rankle with Slot. Victory at Villa Park would go a long way to banishing that memory.