Liverpool and January.
In the past five seasons, it’s been around this time that the fan-base of one of the most storied football clubs on planet start to check the football apps on their phones an inordinate amount of times a day.
Liverpool have been league leaders at Christmas some six times previously to this season, of course saluting only once – the runaway drought-breaking title win in 2019-20 where they led the league by 25 points before the three-month hiatus for COVID.
However, there has been a growing optimism that this season has been different to those proceeding it. Liverpool sit six points clear at the summit, with a game in hand on second-placed Arsenal. They sit three points clear atop of the newly formatted Champions League ‘league phase’ with automatic qualification to the round of 16 secured already with two games to play.
Arne Slot’s first season in charge has so far been a runway success, which has been somewhat of a surprise after a quiet summer in the transfer market and the spectre of taking over from such a gargantuan figure in the club’s history in Jurgen Klopp.
Slot has found a great balance. He has combined some of the best parts of the Klopp philosophy in the blistering go-forward-at-all-costs from counter attacking situations, particularly opposition set pieces, with a more considered build up in general play that relies on keeping control of the ball – and then upping the tempo when the opportunity presents.
Arne Slot. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
This has improved Liverpool both with and without the ball. They have been a far more reliable defensive unit with this reliance on picking the moment to play the difficult ball rather than the ‘heavy metal’ football approach of his predecessor, which whilst producing some captivating football – did leave them vulnerable at the back.
In addition, Manchester City’s unprecedented collapse in November and December see them currently 12 points behind the Reds in sixth, having played one more game. Surely they are too far back to play their usual grim reaper role in tearing the hearts out of Liverpool fans worldwide again?
The form of the other Big Six clubs has been patchy at best, with only Chelsea and Arsenal putting up serious challenges. Tottenham have been destroyed by injury and Manchester United have imploded.
Ahead of a critical trip to the City Ground to face third placed surprise-packet Nottingham Forest on Wednesday morning (AEDT), the only team to defeat Liverpool in the league so far this season, the biggest threat to lifting their 20th league title in May could be coming from within.
The stand-off between the club and several of their stars who are out of contract at the end of the current campaign in Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk has been bubbling away all season, largely in the background to the Reds’ success – both domestically and in Europe. However, as the season has progressed, the ever-growing elephant in the room is becoming somewhat impossible to ignore.
Salah is clearly annoyed. He has made no secret of his desire at Anfield and wants a contract taking him to 2028. At age 32, an age when most would expect a winger beginning to show signs of decline, Salah is having a phenomenal season.
With an astonishing 18 goals and 13 assists in 19 league games, he is almost nailed on to win the Player of the Season award at current pace.
He first expressed his ire at Liverpool’s reluctance to offer him a contract in November after the 3-2 win at Southampton, and followed that up after the 5-0 win at West Ham in late December by saying to Sky Sports an agreement between the two parties is ‘some distance away’.
He followed this up with a telling social media post of himself, Alexander-Arnold and Van Djik standing over a free kick after the disappointing 2-2 draw with United on January 5th.
Salah, despite his form and undoubted iconic status in the club’s history, is an interesting case for Liverpool. A three-year contract takes him to age 36 by the end of the 2027-28 season.
Fenway Sports Group, the club’s owners, have famously prioritised youth over their 15-year tenure.
Alexander-Arnold’s situation, whilst a different circumstance, also has the potential to become a road-block for Slot’s men. A local academy graduate, who has been at the club since the age of six, has quite possibly had his head turned by the glamour of Real Madrid and the prospect of donning the famous white shirt with his close friend Jude Bellingham.
He hasn’t given a quote to the English media regarding his contract situation since September when he expressed, “I want to be a Liverpool player this season is what I will say. I have been at the club 20 years now, signed four or five contract extensions, none of those have been played out in public and this one won’t be either.”
A cheeky bid of £20 million from Los Blancos to secure his services in January (he would leave on a free transfer at the end of the year with an expired contract) was swiftly rejected by Liverpool. Speculation was rife post this news that Alexander-Arnold would sign a pre-contract agreement with the Spanish giants before the end of the season.
Given Alexander-Arnold’s age of 26 and world-class ability Liverpool have shown far more desperation to keep him – offering a reported £300,000 a week according to The Mirror.
Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool celebrates scoring. (Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Issues like this, as much as anyone inside the club want to deny it can be a cancer through a dressing room.
Liverpool’s aforementioned draw with a previously hapless United was characterised by a poor Alexander-Arnold performance where he was at fault for both goals, only heightening media speculation that his head ‘had gone’.
Signs in the Kop such as ‘He fires a bow, now give Mo his dough’ and the relentless questioning of the manager in his media conferences wouldn’t be going unnoticed by the players. The longer this saga drags on without a resolution, the bigger the elephant gets.
If, as expected, Alexander-Arnold comes out and says he is off to Madrid at the end of the season – but is hellbent on sending his boyhood club off with it’s record equalling 20th league title and a deep Champions League run, it will be somewhat of a relief for everyone involved. He has given the club magnificent service and cost nothing, and attention can turn to the title run-in.
By the same token, if Salah leaves at the end of the season with a league title it will be a perfect bow on a career that sees him in the top five players the club has ever had – but Liverpool have to sort this issue sooner rather than later.
As anyone with even a passing interest in Liverpool Football Club in the past 30 years will attest, league titles are hard to win. The club cannot afford a situation within its own control to be one of the reasons that this is another season squandered.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
Arsenal have slipped up in the Premier League title race, squandering a two-goal lead to draw with Aston Villa after Liverpool beat Brentford thanks…
Tottenham scored a controversial 1-0 win over Liverpool in the first leg of their League Cup semifinal with Lucas Bergvall scoring moments after he…
Manchester United have displayed some of the backbone manager Ruben Amorim had been demanding as they scored their first goals at Anfield since 2018…
Tottenham failed to ease pressure on their Australian manager Ange Postecoglou after Jorgen Strand Larsen struck in the 87th minute to snatch Wolves a…
Liverpool head into Christmas with a four-point lead, a game in hand and looking every inch overwhelming title favourites in the Premier League on…
