Liverpool will need laser-sharp focus to finish this season well with Premier League triumph

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot. (Photo: Getty Images)

30 Mar 2025

The Reds’ hopes of a continental treble were dashed within just one week. However, they still have a league title to wrap up.

Just a month ago, talk of Liverpool potentially becoming just the third English club to claim a continental treble (after the two Manchester sides) was not far-fetched at all. It seemed plausible to suggest that Arne Slot could create that kind of history during his first season in charge of the European soccer giants.

The Reds were cruising in the English Premier League, favourites to beat Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup final. In the European Champions League, they appeared poised to reach the final at least after a nearly flawless league phase campaign in which they suffered just one defeat in eight outings.

However, questions arose when, just a week after making it into the Carabao Cup decider, the Reds were bundled out of the FA Cup by Plymouth Argyle. The Pilgrims were heavy underdogs heading into the fixture, especially as they sit at the bottom of the Championship – England’s second-tier league.

But they managed to shock the Premier League leaders with a 1-0 win in the round of 32. The loss was played down, labelled a red herring. Liverpool could still play to a magical season despite the FA Cup upset.

It was not an anomaly, as subsequent results would prove. Before the international break, Liverpool suffered two devastating defeats in a matter of days.

First, they were bumped out of the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain, losing 4-1 on penalty kicks after a one-all stalemate over two legs. It was a bitter pill to swallow for the Merseysiders after their imperious displays in the league phase.

At least they can say they put up a solid fight against the Parisians, but it just was not to be. When Newcastle vanquished them 2-0 in the Carabao Cup final a few days later, the Reds looked like an apparition of the team they have been since Slot took over at the beginning of the 2024/25 season.

They have been dominant and easy on the eye, but against the Magpies they laboured, showing signs of lethargy. This was particularly true in the midfield, where Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister were outmuscled by Joelinton and Bruno Guimarães.

Slot’s response

“Disappointing result, disappointing performance – so completely different than I felt after the Paris Saint-Germain game. Losing twice in a row is something we have done for the first time [this season],” said Slot after the Newcastle defeat.

“It was a tough week, but it was also a week where we extended our lead [in the Premier League] to 12 points from 10, so it wasn’t all negative. But the last two games were definitely not the way we wanted it to be,” he added, reflecting on the disappointing results recorded by his team days apart.

“You know if you go far in tournaments that the opposition you face gets stronger and stronger. Even Liverpool can lose football games – that’s what can happen. We are one of the biggest clubs in the world. But it’s not for the first time in history, or in the last two seasons, that we’ve lost two games in a row.

“This is part of playing football, especially if one of [the games] is when you face the best team in Europe at the moment, and the other one is facing Newcastle, which is a very strong team in England,” the Dutchman said.

“If you face strong teams, you can lose as well. Ideally, you go through the whole season only winning, winning, winning. But it can happen that after eight months of football you lose twice in a row if you face Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle.”

Uncertain future

There is no time to mope around for the Reds, though. They still have a league title to wrap up, which will be just their second such success in the Premier League era. Victory will bring them level with Manchester United on the overall list of the English top flight, where the Red Devils are currently the benchmark with 20 league titles.

That the contract situation of three of their key players remains unclear will be another burden Liverpool will have to carry in their title run. Fewer than 10 matches remain until the end of the season, but the future of captain Virgil van Dijk, talisman Mohamed Salah and defender Trent Alexander-Arnold remains foggy. Their contracts are set to expire at the culmination of this season.

Of the three, Salah has been the most vocal about his situation. In November 2024, the Egyptian said he was “more out than in” at Liverpool. He has played with the urgency and hunger of someone with a point to prove this season, scoring 32 times and providing 22 assists for his teammates in 43 games in all competitions. Although he has expressed his desire to remain in Merseyside, he has hinted that the Liverpool hierarchy has been unwilling to meet him halfway.

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot. (Photo: Getty Images)

Meanwhile, no Premier League player has played more minutes than Van Dijk at this point in the season. The Dutch defender is tied on 2,610 minutes played, alongside Brentford centre-back Nathan Collins, as well as goalkeepers Bernd Leno (Fulham), André Onana (Man United), Everton’s Jordan Pickford and David Raya of Arsenal.

Despite his perennial involvement in Liverpool’s campaign, Van Dijk remains in the same boat as Salah, although he has been more diplomatic about it. The same is true for right-back Alexander-Arnold, who has continuously denied reports in the Spanish media that he has already signed a precontract with Real Madrid.

Go again

Despite so far not seeing eye to eye with Liverpool executives on their renewals, the trio will be vital cogs as Liverpool look to avoid more heartbreak than they have suffered already this season.

With the 12-point gap over second-placed Arsenal, a capitulation that would cost them the Premier League title is unlikely at this point. However, it is not impossible – stranger things have happened in soccer.

Nevertheless, the Reds will draw inspiration from being chased by the Gunners and not Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in their prime. Arsenal are set to finish as runners-up for the third season in a row now. Granted, they have had some injury setbacks, but they have not shown the same hunger and consistency as Liverpool.

“We have to turn this around. It’s how football works: in five days you lose twice and the world is sinking... Two weeks before, everything was sunshine and rainbows everywhere,” Van Dijk said of Liverpool’s state of mind.

If Liverpool win the league, it will be a joyous occasion for the club, especially because no one expected them to do so in Slot’s first season. No one could have predicted City’s collapse, and even if some did, Arsenal would have been favourites based on their form over the past two seasons.

But even with a Premier League triumph, the Reds will undoubtedly wonder what might have been if it hadn’t been for that nightmarish week ahead of the international break. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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Slot’s response

Uncertain future

Go again