The festive season is in full flight and the fine form Arne Slot has Liverpool in managed to continue last night with a win over Girona.
It meant that the Reds made it six wins out of six in the Champions League, successfully securing a spot in the last 16 - becoming the first team to do so this season in the reformatted competition.
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But while this is good news for the club, the Reds might not be able to take their foot off the gas in the competition as they might have originally thought, as Liverpool will earn more money if they finish first in the table and it could be beneficial later in the tournament to continue their good form for the remaining two games.
In and amongst their success in Europe, the Reds have also sparked a title charge in the Premier League, currently sitting four points above Chelsea with a game in hand, the team has an EFL Cup quarter-final before Christmas and the FA Cup will start in the new year, so the schedule is jam-packed.
Navigating this will require clever man-management from Slot, who is already working with an injury crisis, and dealing with the constant media speculation surrounding the contract crisis of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
In order to solve the latter issue, in light of FSG's damning financial statement, Liverpool need all the money they can get.
We took a look at the UEFA prize money numbers and broke them down to understand what exactly the club has to gain by remaining strong in the Champions League 'league phase'.
£48m windfall available to Liverpool
As a European organisation, UEFA operates in Euros (€) however, we have decided to proceed in Pound sterling (£) - amounts converted at 0.82 conversion rate on December 11.
Just for qualifying for the Champions League 'play-off stage' - the main tournament - Liverpool will have received £15.34m (€18.62m).
In addition, there are a number of bonuses attached to the 'league phase' of the competition - the 32-team league table, where each team plays eight games that have been decided by a computer.
Per win, Liverpool stand to receive £1.73m (€2.1m), and after last night's win over Girona - making it six wins from six - the team currently has £10.38m (€12.6m), with the additional prospect of £3.46m (€4.2m), should the Reds win their remaining two games against Lille and PSV.
That would make the total amount of win bonuses stand at £13.84m (€16.8m).
Then your final position in the 'league phase' is taken into account. Last place (36th) will receive £226.6k (€275k), and additional £226.6k is received for each position in the table you climb, so a first-place finish for Liverpool would result in 36 payments of £226.6k - which would amount to £8.16m (€9.9m).
Then we have an added £1.65m (€2m) for any team finishing in the top eight of the 'league phase', which Liverpool have already done by beating Girona last night.
And finally, in reaching the Last 16 round of the tournament, which Liverpool have successfully booked their place in, for finishing in the top eight and by-passing knockout round play-offs (Last 32), Liverpool receives £9m (€11m).
In total, that would leave Liverpool with a windfall of £48million, should they go on to win the last two games 'league phase'.
A loss receives no prize money and a draw receives £577k (€700k). Were either of those things to happen, then the currently projected £13.84m (€16.8m) would decrease, but at this point £44.53m is guaranteed, if Liverpool remain top of the table in two Champions League games time.
FSG Liverpool Virgil van Dijk Trent Alexander-Arnold Mohamed Salah
© IMAGO - FSG Liverpool Virgil van Dijk Trent Alexander-Arnold Mohamed Salah
What does this all mean in context?
In FSG's most recent financial statement, Liverpool reportedly had an operating loss of £110m, largely due to a lack of Champions League football last season, because the team missed out on a place in the top four of the Premier League in the 2022/23 season.
Now that the club is back in the elite European competition, the money will be flowing and Liverpool's long-term prospects look positive.
However, the contract saga of Salah, Trent and Van Dijk remains looming, and the price to keep them at the club will likely be steep.
As such, Liverpool need all the money they can get.
Currently, Salah is earning around £350,000 a week (£18.2m annually), meanwhile, Van Dijk is on £220,000 a week (£11.4m annually) and Trent is on £180,000 a week (£9.36m annually).
If Liverpool want to keep hold of the trio, which most fans have been desperately calling for, then that £48m windfall is essential, and doing anything to risk lowering the amount of prize money that the club receives from UEFA would be detrimental.
Add in Liverpool's ideal transfer market replacements for Andy Robertson and Luis Diaz, alongside bringing in Martin Zubimendi or an alternative defensive midfielder, and the club's success in the Champions League becomes paramount.
Arne Slot is working as hard as he can right now, pushing this Liverpool side to levels we've only previously seen under Jurgen Klopp, and he will want the team's form to continue.
But while some fans may lackadaisically think that rotating the team more often is going to be beneficial, it could actually be having the opposite effect.
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