Arne Slot Thanks Liverpool Fans for First Half-Season and Looks Ahead to 2025
Yesterday at 09:14 AM
To call the first half-season under Arne Slot a success would be an understatement, but what matters most now is what they do with the foundation they've built.
When Liverpool kicked off the 2024-25 season with five wins from six in the Premier League, a win in their first Champions League league phase game, and advancement in the League Cup across the first two months of the season, manager Arne Slot had a standard refrain.
Liverpool were playing well but it was still far too early. A few bad results could so easily change everything. It was too soon to draw any real conclusions. Then the Reds' hot start in August and September carried over into October. Then November. And now December.
In the ten league games since, they've won seven and drawn three. They've won five more and have the only perfect record in the Champions League. They're in the League Cup semi. We're very, very close to the Premier League half-way mark and Slot's Reds are still flying.
"We are getting close to the point where everyone will have played half of their fixtures and that is a moment when we will have a clearer idea of where we are at," Slot acknowledged in his matchday notes for Leicester City, who Liverpool welcome to Anfield on Boxing Day.
I have consistently said that judgements before this stage are not a true representation. It is only when each team has played one another and the fluctuations of form and fortune have evened out that we will start to have a better understanding of how we are all performing."
After Leicester, the only side Liverpool won't yet have played in the league are Everton, with that game having been scheduled for earlier in the month but postponed due to severe weather. Not that a half-season of success means the Reds will have won anything. Not yet.
Still, given their success across all fronts, a positive result against Leicester would serve as confirmation of just how good this Liverpool side are. It won't win a trophy, but it will help set the foundations they've built over the autumn as they head into another calendar year.
"I want to finish this first half of the campaign as strongly as we possibly can," Slot added. "No prizes will be given out during this period but as with the Champions League group, the longer you can be in and around the top, the stronger a platform you can give yourself."
Given the timing of the match, coming the day after Christmas at the half way point of the season for the Premier League and with the new year now less than a week away, Slot also wanted to acknowledge that and thank the fans for the support he has received so far:
"I have still only been at Liverpool for six months but in that short time I have learned very quickly why our fans are regarded all around the word as being very special. The support that you have given me, my staff, and the players is a big part of what we are trying to do.
"So it is very important for me that you know how much this is appreciated. I hope that you have enjoyed the football the team has played and you have my word we will keep working as hard as we possibly can to keep improving. There is a lot of football still to be played.
"Hopefully the second half of the season can be as good—if not even better—than the first. On a personal note, I would also like to wish you and your loved ones what I wish for myself and my loved ones as we approach every New Year, that is good health and good times."
