After celebrating a Premier League title in Ibiza, now hardly seems the time for Arne Slot to harbour regret. Indeed, his debut season at Liverpool was nothing short of remarkable, something the Dutchman surely dreamt of when he arrived on Merseyside.
Yet, it’s the Champions League hiccup against Paris Saint-Germain that will undoubtedly inform Slot’s strategy moving forward. Despite topping the league phase of the tournament, Liverpool were dealt an early blow facing PSG, a match-up Slot labels as unfortunate timing: “We were in the wrong place in the wrong time, facing Paris Saint-Germain,” he reflected ahead of Monday’s trip to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Slot also wonders if he might have kept his team sharper for their early March clash by rotating his squad more diligently in the run-up. His reflection leads to an admission: “I think at that moment of time, that wasn’t our best part of the season, although the home game we played really well. So you could argue if I needed to have rotated a bit more between November and March to be even fresher in that game.”
However, the challenge for Slot was managing the high performance levels, which made him hesitant to shift his line-up too much.
He observes a past reluctance to tweak the team composition: “All the times I’ve rotated a bit too much, that didn’t lead to us being successful.
“As we all know, we went out of the [FA] Cup in Plymouth, and against PSV [in the final Champions League league phase game] we lost, which wasn’t an important game anymore.
“And I think I made six substitutions against Paris Saint-Germain, where the extra time wasn’t our best period of the game.”
(Image: Getty Images)
Between the lines, it could be implied that Slot harbours doubts over whether a squad that has dominated domestically can replicate such success on both fronts.
He acknowledges this, stating: “If I look at the way we think about next season and our squad, these are things that are on my mind. I think we can find one or two extra weapons that this team doesn’t have.”
Slot admitted in the first part of Friday’s press conference that transfers are very much at the forefront of his mind, and he is already contemplating which players can strengthen the squad ahead of next season: “Maybe by using the transfer market. That is what we are trying to achieve. That will make us only stronger.”
But it’s not just Liverpool who will be making upgrades this summer. Slot feels immense spending by rivals is inevitable. “That is what we need because we saw [Manchester] City spending £200m in the transfer window. All of them will.”
Liverpool’s anticipated €30million ($39M) signing of Jeremie Frimpong and interest in Florian Wirtz signal ambition, but when probed about these targets, Slot remains diplomatically tight-lipped.
Despite this prospect, Slot has made clear his contentment with his current player group. Yet, he seems set on ensuring that slight regret from the Champions League campaign translates into a more robust challenge for European honours in his second campaign on Merseyside.
