Luis Enrique described Liverpool’s front three as “fighter jets” before their visit to Paris Saint‑Germain on Wednesday. He may have succeeded in grounding them but Arne Slot’s side still found a way to soar.
The exhilarating, aggressive football of Jürgen Klopp has given way to quality control under his successor, but Liverpool are no less effective for that shift. The league leaders, who can go 16 points clear with victory over Southampton on Saturday, have scored more goals after 28 games of this Premier League campaign (66) than at the same stage of their last title-winning season, under Klopp in 2019-20 (64). Plymouth, Tottenham (in a Carabao Cup semi-final Spurs ultimately lost 4-1 on aggregate) and Nottingham Forest are the only teams to prevent Slot’s team scoring in 44 matches this season.
Liverpool have scored two or more goals in their last 18 games at Anfield in all competitions. Another two at home to Southampton and it will be the longest such sequence in the English top flight since Sunderland scored two or more in 19 consecutive games in 1935. And some people call them lucky. Not that equalling a 90-year-old feat is Slot’s priority, as he called on Liverpool’s players and fans to treat the visit of the league’s bottom club as “the first of three finals in the next week”, before Tuesday’s Champions League second leg against PSG and Sunday’s Carabao Cup showpiece against Newcastle.
“It’s always nice but it is not the record I came to England for,” said the Dutchman on the opportunity to equal Sunderland’s run. “We are not focused on those records, we focus on Southampton and then the Champions League and then the cup final.
“But it’s a sign that we are balanced and a sign that we have a lot of quality with players who can score goals in our squad. It’s also a sign of consistency and that is what you need, not only scoring goals but also not conceding in a season where you are fighting for the things we are.”
Mohamed Salah’s phenomenal output includes a goal or an assist in each of the last 11 league games at Anfield. He requires one goal to become the third-highest scorer in Liverpool’s history outright with 242 and two more league goals to go joint-fifth on the all-time Premier League goalscorer’s chart, alongside Sergio Agüero with 184.
No one can touch the 32-year‑old’s contribution of 30 goals and 22 assists in all competitions this season but the load is being shared. Cody Gakpo and Luis Díaz are both in double figures, with 16 and 13 goals respectively, Diogo Jota has eight despite another injury-hit campaign and the midfielders Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Curtis Jones have a combined total of 15.
Slot envisages a day when Liverpool are even more prolific. The head coach explained: “Wolves was difficult, Southampton away was difficult, the League Cup there was difficult and against Paris Saint-Germain it was really, really difficult. Yes, we are a really good team but we are not a team that every week wins 4- or 5-0 and after half an hour it is already 3-0. We have seen a team doing that a few times in recent years and I think, longer ago, Liverpool also had that where, after half an hour, it was already 3-0. We are not that team yet.
“It is somewhere we are trying to go to and therefore it is something we need to improve a lot. But what this team does have is fighting spirit and until now they have always found a way to win a game and not always in the same manner, not always dominating ball possession, sometimes also by defending really hard and being good in transition. We know we have to be on top of our game because even if we are on top of our game we mostly win by one-goal margins.”
The latest example, in Paris on Wednesday, was forged on an astonishing goalkeeping display by Alisson. It would be remiss to focus entirely on Liverpool’s striking prowess after that performance. With Giorgi Mamardashvili arriving from Valencia this summer for an initial £25m and the Brazilian showing why, in Slot’s eyes, he is the best goalkeeper in the world against PSG, the Georgia international has a major fight on his hands to claim the first-choice role he craves next season.
“He is in just as important a phase of the season with Valencia as we are in so it wouldn’t be smart for me to talk about him,” said Slot of Mamardashvili. “But in general I can say that if you want to play for Liverpool, you have to accept there is competition. If you don’t want to face competition then Liverpool is not the best place to go to.”
Source: theguardian.com
