Everything's the Best: Signs of Life (After Klopp)
Today at 04:12 AM
Liverpool are drawing close to the end of their second month under Arne Slot and things are looking pretty good.
It feels like a lifetime ago, now, but it was only 14 years ago when Liverpool were mired in one of the worst ever periods in club history. Hicks and Gillette had finally, honestly run the club into ground, bringing one of the world's most storied clubs to the brink of administration. The ensuing 5 years would see false starts and arrested improvements. Liverpool looked well-stuck.
The Children of the Hodgepocalypse know this period well as we weird and unlucky few who decided to embark on our love affair with the Reds during such a truly cursed time have the major points etched into our minds: the Hodge's delusional post-match comments, Raul Meireles' wild fashion and hair, the Alice Band experience. All of it makes my body want to flinch and collapse in on itself.
Which is what makes this current moment so peculiar: Liverpool, in the post-Klopp Era, are doing really, really, really well. What I mean specifically is that Jurgen Klopp's arrival at the club is seen as the monumental moment that ended those false dawns and ushered us back into a place among the league and world elite. It was, sure, what was supposed to happen. But that expectation was down mostly to the fact that while we had some talent, Klopp himself represented a singular genius. And while all of that turned out to be true and, perhaps, even more successful than most could have even dreamed given the gulf in terms of money among those at the top of the table, what it implies is that without Klopp, the club would be out in the wilderness.
Which is what the source of some anxiety within the fan base had to be: we got here because of that brilliant Bavarian, what if it was all him?
It is, of course, early days. And to even approach Klopp's rarified air, you'd need not only to be in a similar position as we're in now - 2nd in the league - but also to achieve at least that push consistently. Klopp's real magic, in my opinion, is to take a team a mere 5 years away from the administration scare, to being one where a challenge for honors in all competitions is an expectation. A standard. And one some might say is the bare minimum.
Arne Slot has, to this point, kept up to that expectation with wins in his first Champions League and League Cup matches. The team are sat right behind City in the table. They've managed to become one of the stingiest teams in the league as far as goals conceded and xG allowed. They continue to be formidable in attack. It has been terrific work from the Dutch manager so far.
Many of the players, meanwhile, are reaping the rewards of his new system. Trent Alexander-Arnold, an all-world player and arguably the best right-back alive, has seen him come back from a deep run in the Euros with England seemingly better than when he left for the tournament at the start of the summer. Part of it is that he's just continuing to improve, but the other is Slot's new tactical set-up allows the team to leverage Trent's gifts (ball progression, shot and chance creation, and one of the most beautiful and accurate strikers of the ball alive) without sacrificing structure (conceding chances).
That last part's important: we know and everyone in the world knows that in order for any Liverpool team to succeed, it must rely on an offensive scheme that would see TAA pushed high-up the pitch to create chances for the likes of Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo, and Darwin Nuñez. But it also puts the defense under stress because their defender is necessarily out of position in transition by design. Arne Slot has decided to re-structure the shape and priorities of the defense to allow Trent to be his best self while retaining their shape, which benefits Trent because he's also less of a lightning rod when the defense keeps clean sheets.
And Trent's just one example of folks who are flourishing under this news system: Ryan Gravenberch, Luis Díaz, Cody Gakpo. Even Curtis Jones looks in a better place as his cameo in that advanced midfield role midweek look incredibly bright and promising.
Ultimately, it is that promise - squad wide at present - that is perhaps most surprising for me. I wasn't around for when Shankly passed the baton to Bob Paisley. So, I don't know what it's like to expect that the changing of the manager should only bring more success on the pitch. But it feels clear, at least at this early juncture, that the foundational work behind the scenes were the right and necessary steps. Because we now have a club that has a playing identity, a development strategy for youth, and a strong recruitment team that hits much more than it misses when it comes to the quality of incoming transfers.
Liverpool's post-Klopp Era is just in its infancy. But the early returns do look prodigious.
