. It’s not jumping the gun to declare it serious, powerful and rich after six of those games.
Tuesday night at Anfield presented Xabi Alonso with an opportunity to demonstrate up close why the clamour for him to succeed Jürgen Klopp as Liverpool manager was more than an emotional call. But it was Slot’s name that rang out from the Kop immediately after the final whistle after yet another victory and another reminder that, when it comes to succession planning, Michael Edwards, the chief executive of football at Fenway Sports Group and the man who appointed Richard Hughes as Liverpool sporting director, has few equals.
Slot wanted to see how Liverpool handled the dual demands of Champions League and Premier League football against higher-calibre opposition before passing comment on any title credentials. He may continue to refuse going down the hostage to fortune route, but his team have answered for him in the five wins and one draw that precede Aston Villa’s visit to Anfield on Saturday.
“Work in progress.” Virgil van Dijk said it again after Liverpool’s second-half destruction of Bayer Leverkusen. The defeat was only the German champions’ third across all competitions since the start of last season and their heaviest since Alonso was 10 days into the job in October 2022.
The Liverpool captain has a point. The first-half performance was ineffective, just as the first-half display against Brighton on Saturday was poor, but once again the response to Slot’s interval instructions was emphatic. Liverpool’s past four games have contained noticeable improvement in the second half. That mirrors Klopp’s Liverpool, as do the comebacks that secured a valuable point at Arsenal and the victory over Brighton. …
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