Inside Liverpool's final decision on Arne Slot future and what must come next at Anfield

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If Liverpool beat Crystal Palace at Anfield in their next Premier League game, they will have an eight-point cushion to sixth spot and, with four fixtures to fulfil, can be almost sure of playing in next season’s Champions League. But Arne Slot might well have another target.

If his team wins all five of their remaining matches, the Dutchman will have finish - points-wise - with a better title defence than Jurgen Klopp made in 2020-21. After winning his one and only Premier League in 2019-20, with an astonishing 99 points, Klopp amassed only 69 points the following season.

If Slot’s Liverpool win their last five games, they will finish on 70 points. And when Liverpool’s hierarchy have been pondering Slot’s position, that 2020-21 season will have been a factor, for sure.

Michael Edwards, now the chief executive of football at the club, was then Liverpool’s director of football. In that 2020-21 season, Liverpool were knocked out of the FA Cup in the fourth round by Manchester United and out of the Champions League quarter-finals by Real Madrid.

This season’s FA Cup loss to Manchester City came at the quarter-final stage and the Champions League exit to Paris Saint-Germain at the quarter-final stage. In the Premier League, Liverpool have more points now after 33 games (55 in fifth position) than Klopp’s side did after 33 games of the 2020-21 season (54 in fifth position).

The Liverpool hierarchy know how difficult the season following a Premier League triumph can be, even if Pep Guardiola made it look easy. The caveat to Klopp’s title defence - compared with Slot’s - is that he did not welcome an influx of summer signings that cost in excess of £400million.

But Edwards and Richard Hughes, Liverpool’s sporting director, recognise the sometimes chronic issues the expensive recruits have had in settling into life at the club. Most of those issues have been physical. Alexander Isak, now recovered from a broken leg, has missed 145 days of the season.

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Jeremie Frimpong has missed 117 days of the season with hamstring problems. Hugo Ekitike is now out long-term, probably not making his comeback from a ruptured achilles until 2027.

And while Florian Wirtz has only missed a couple of weeks with injury, he has clearly taken time to adapt to the more robust demands of the Premier League. These problems will have been taken into account by Edwards, Hughes and the Fenway Sports Group when assessing the season. And, of course, there is the unquantifiable impact of the tragic passing of Diogo Jota.

When it looked as though Liverpool would face a real fight for a Champions League place, Slot’s position was under threat, no doubt. But in the extremely unlikely event they do not finish in the top five, he could still be safe. To win the Premier League in your first season in English football gives you a lot of credit.

And Slot deserves a third season. A perfect storm of things has gone wrong in his title defence - among them, Mo Salah’s prolonged dip in form - and he will know how to go about rectifying things.

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The squad needs strengthening in the full-back areas and an alternative to Salah will be found in the transfer market. And Slot has a good squad at his disposal already. Rio Ngumoha must be given a key role next season. He can reinvigorate this Liverpool attack.

After Klopp’s tame title defence in 2020-21, the German delivered the 2021-22 FA Cup, the 2021-22 EFL Cup, a second-placed finish in the 2021-22 Premier League - with 92 points and only two defeats - and a runners-up finish in the Champions League. That was some season.

It will be a tall order for Slot to replicate that. But on the basis of recent history, it is right he is given the chance.

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