No football team can ever be considered the finished article. We could all list the greatest club sides of all time, from Premier League to Champions League winners, and in each instance you will discover that within weeks of their success they were proactive in the transfer market.
The pursuit of perfection is unrelenting and it is human nature to analyse the flaws that need correcting as much as the strengths which propelled a side towards the biggest honours.
That is exactly how it feels for me watching Liverpool edge closer to the Premier League title. I am as excited about what they are going to become over the coming years as the potential celebrations in May.
We are watching a very good Liverpool team on the brink of greatness. My suspicion is that during the course of his reign, Arne Slot and the recruitment team above him will have constructed a better squad, regardless of whether they match or eclipse this year’s likely success.
When a team win the league, you anticipate one or two big signings to keep the juggernaut moving. In all honesty, when looking at Slot’s squad, it feels like he may need as many as six before next summer. That is a statement you would expect to make about an underperforming team, or one requiring an overhaul. Reinforcements are required independent of whether the big three out-of-contract stars stay.
Liverpool need a left-back to compete with Andy Robertson, extending the Scottish captain’s Anfield career by reducing the necessity for him to play every game. They need a centre-back to ensure there is no crisis if Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté are unavailable. Also a deep central midfielder so that Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister are not as overburdened next season as they have been in this one. Add to that an attacking midfielder who will score and create more than Dominik Szoboszlai. And finally a left winger and centre-forward who can win games as often as Mohamed Salah.
Such additions would enhance rather than replace those who have inspired Liverpool to the top. What makes Slot’s achievement to this point more remarkable is that he has taken the side so far without making a major first-team signing other than the rarely used Federico Chiesa. Slot’s broader vision and idea of what Liverpool can become has yet to fully form.
Plenty has been said and written this season about how the champions-in-waiting rank against previous title winners, and the Liverpool team who won it in 2020. Some of the observations have merit and ought not to be received as an insult.
It is OK to admit some of the football this season has not stirred the blood as much as Jürgen Klopp’s red arrows of 2018–2020, when Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino were at their peak as a trio. Slot’s Liverpool have been more efficient than consistently brilliant.
Liverpool have scored more ...
