Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson has warned Reds head coach Arne Slot that next season will prove “tougher” in the Premier League – as the Anfield boss closes in on a historic title triumph.
The Merseysiders currently sit 12 points clear at the summit, with nine games left of the campaign in the Dutchman’s first term in the hotseat. Despite recent wounding losses against PSG and Newcastle in the Champions League and League Cup, respectively, Slot stands on the brink of a landmark achievement.
Amid the prospect of landing what would be the club’s second league crown in 35 years, the Dutchman is well-placed to secure legend status on the Kop – less than a year after succeeding Jurgen Klopp. However, ex-Match of the Day pundit Lawrenson has predicted that next season could prove to be significantly more tasking for the former Feyenoord boss.
With uncertainty still surrounding the futures of key men Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold, it remains to be seen how Liverpool may line-up heading into the 2025-26 campaign. Moreover, Lawrenson – who won five championships at Anfield – has asserted that the Reds will become the team to beat next year if they do lift the title this campaign.
He exclusively told Liverpool.com: “It’s tougher, the next year’s tougher because team’s want to beat you straight away. The way the league is at the moment, if you take away the bottom three and think about the remaining 17, all these teams from 16th to 8th all get a great big load of money again [in summer]. They get better players and it’s more difficult for the teams at the top to roll them over.
“But if you win it once, and we’ve not won it by default, we’ve won it because we’ve got the best team, it all depends on what team we have next season. City will come back, there’s no doubt about that, obviously Arsenal,” he warned. “If we’re still messing around trying to get players in by the end of first transfer deadline, we might end up a few points behind.
(Image: Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)
The European Cup winner added: “I would say this is the biggest season for Liverpool in a long time. We will win the league, there’s no doubt whatsoever – but then it’s like ‘wow’. Everyone uses the phrase ‘we’ve got to go again’ in terms of the players but the whole club has got to go again.”
Regardless of the situation regarding whether Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold will be at Anfield in August, Lawrenson also contends that the Reds will require fresh reinforcements in the summer. He asserted: “We need another center-back and obviously we’ll need another right back, I would have thought. We probably need another left back. Apart from that, obviously the strikers.
“So you’re probably talking – in an ideal world – five new players. I mean, that can be offset by sales but I think that the last couple of months we’ve been looking at it saying ‘do you think his legs have gone? Do you think this guy’s good enough to come in and play semi-regularly? Are we strong enough at the back?’ All of those things.”
The pundit added: “So it’s gone from it looking like a fantastic job to have for Arne Slot to ‘show us what you’re made of this summer’. I mean, I don’t think he’ll be going on a summer holiday will he?”
