Liverpool Arne Slot
© IMAGO - Arne Slot Liverpool
Liverpool have started their campaign under Arne Slot in relentless fashion.
The forwards are rattling off goals galore, the defence has been stable throughout and the midfield engine room is back to its very best of yesteryear.
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As a result, Liverpool find themselves top of both the Champions League and the Premier League, while safely progressing through their opening two EFL Cup games in aid of defending their trophy success last season.
The only looming negative is the Liverpool contract saga of Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil Van Dijk, although Anfield Watch exclusively revealed last month that the Dutchman is expected to remain at the club next season, with a new contract waiting in the wings.
A breakdown of Liverpool's early success
Across the opening 21 games of the season, Liverpool are unbeaten in 20 of them, scoring 49 goals and conceding 15 in that time.
The impact of Jurgen Klopp's absence has been significantly lower than expectations, as, despite the club's extraordinarily limited transfer window, Arne Slot has been able to get a different tune out of last season's Liverpool squad that has remained mostly unchanged.
Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate have formed a defensive partnership that is substantially stronger than last year's; Trent has been able to focus more on his defending while maintaining his attacking output; Dominik Szoboszlai has been given a more defined No10 role; Cody Gakpo has been given the freedom to express himself on the left-wing - a position he feels he's best suited to play that he has desired since he joined the club; Luis Diaz's electric dribbling has returned to his game; the style of play is more controlled allowing Salah to bring his greatness more to the fore; and Alexis Mac Allister has been freed from the confines of defensive midfield, replaced by Liverpool's standout breakthrough player Ryan Gravenberch, who now feels he finally belongs in this team.
All of that has happened in the last four months. The team that many touted might be 'finished' is playing as well as it ever has done, and it's all been masterminded by the Dutch genius that is Arne Slot.
It's remarkable how dominant Liverpool have been, and while rival fans have long considered Liverpool's early efforts to be reflective of a false dawn, because we've played easy teams, or because rivals have been defeated with under-manned squads, the Reds have just powered on.
Recent weeks have seen the team increasingly impacted by injuries themselves, the inevitable result of such a jam-packed football calendar, and still the form has yet to dip.
However, some of Liverpool's contracted players who are playing away from Merseyside are finding life slightly less straightforward this season.
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Stefan Bajcetic's Salzburg nightmare
When placed on loan at RB Salzburg, under the management of Klopp's former assistant coach Pepijn Lijnders, Liverpool fans were confident that Stefan Bajcetic's career was going to skyrocket.
He had been a player that Liverpool were incredibly excited about given his Thiago Alcantara-esque ability on the ball.
The last time he was seen on Merseyside was last season when he spent most of his time on the bench, in the stands and on the physio table, recovering from a calf injury that meant he missed 47 games for club and country.
In addition, he had experienced 15 games out with an abductor in the season prior (2023/24), and 18 games out in the season before that (2022/23) with a back injury.
But in a limited space of time, Liverpool knew the 20-year-old was special and that he had a future on Merseyside as part of his inevitable meteoric rise to the top of world football.
However, while on loan at Salzburg, a club known for its youth development, things have quickly turned sour.
Lijnders has been slammed by the Austrian fans for the team's poor form in the Bundesliga and the side's Champions League campaign could not have started much worse, losing four of their five group games so far.
The young Spanish midfielder has featured in 15 games this season, starting seven of them despite managing to remain fit and available for selection, and his average minutes per game are floating around a measly 50 minutes.
The environment that he finds himself in is proving to be one of more toxicity and negativity, rather than positivity and support.
Initially, the loan was agreed to be for the entire season, but speculation is rising as to whether the experience is proving to be more detrimental to his development than beneficial.
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Liverpool's growing problem
At the start of the season, Liverpool had been focusing their recruitment efforts on Martin Zubimendi to finally fill the hole in Liverpool's defensive part of midfield, who left the club reeling when he eventually declined the move.
Wataru Endo almost automatically fell out of favour with Arne Slot, Mac Allister was favoured as the Reds' typical No8 rather than a part-time No6, and so Gravenberch was selected to be the solution to the problem.
And, to his credit, Liverpool looked good in preseason with him taking up the role, so Slot and the Liverpool executives decided that it was best for Bajcetic's career to work on his fitness at a team where he would get regular minutes and we could grow as a footballer after such a significant amount of time away from the game.
Gravenberch's form at the heart of Liverpool's engine room has been impeccable and it looked as though Liverpool could begin to end their search for a long-term DM, because they already had one on their payroll, they just hadn't noticed it.
However, now that the team is heading into the busiest part of the season so far, the festive period - where nine fixtures were scheduled for the Reds - and concerns are cropping up surrounding Gravenberch's fitness, given he has featured in all 19 of Liverpool's Premier League and Champions League matches.
Should Liverpool need to rest the 22-year-old Dutchman, Endo could slot it, but that is not a move that Slot is likely to make proactively.
As such, there is reason to suggest that Bajcetic - who isn't receiving enough game time at Salzburg, in an underperforming team - could have been utilised differently by the club back on Merseyside, rather than away in Austria.
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Arne Slot's catastrophic decision
Speaking earlier this week in his pre-match press conference for the Merseyside Derby - that was subsequently postponed because of safety concerns caused by Storm Darragh - Arne Slot explained his dilemma with Gravenberch.
He said: "Every single game it was almost impossible for me to take [Gravenberch] off because he played so well.
"I was like, ‘If I take him off now, what’s going to happen to the team?'".
The over-reliance on Gravenberch in the team is a problem waiting to happen. Eventually, he will need to be rested and he may well suffer an injury or a fitness doubt if we aren't careful.
By his own admission, Slot would be at a loss if his star midfielder were to be out of action for any reason, never mind the possibility of a one-game suspension for receiving too many yellow cards.
So, while Bajcetic is stuck in Austria, he could have been the perfect understudy for Gravenberch, learning his way as the season progressed, gradually improving his fitness and getting back into the form that we all know he's capable of, and taking care of some of the workload.
And this problem is in part down to Slot himself, deciding at the start of the season, to leave himself undermanned in an important position.
Currently, it is rumoured that Liverpool may go back in for Zubimendi, on the basis that the Spaniard is yet to receive the contract extension that Real Sociedad promised him for his loyalty during the summer, and the release clause that Liverpool were willing to pay still remains.
Now, this may well be the decision that the club chooses to make in order to solve Slot's self-made crisis that is waiting to happen, but they are currently wasting a perfect opportunity to embed one of their own into the team, potentially causing further long-term problems.
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