Liverpool Head Coach Arne Slot talks during the Liverpool UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Round of 16 Press Conference at Parc des Princes
Liverpool Head Coach Arne Slot talks during the Liverpool UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Round of 16 Press Conference at Parc des Princes
Arne Slot virtually ignored one question ahead of facing Paris Saint-Germain. But the deeper the Dutchman gets into his maiden Liverpool campaign, it is likely to be one that arises again.
“Has anyone spoken to you about or have you read much about Joe Fagan?” he was asked at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday evening. “In his first season at Liverpool, he won a treble of league, League Cup, and Champions League?”
Liverpool’s third generation boot room manager, Fagan took over lead duties after the legendary Bob Paisley followed Bill Shankly into retirement, and led the Reds to an historic treble in 1983/84 in his maiden campaign.
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Slot is on track to emulate such an achievement, with Liverpool currently 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League, leading PSG 1-0 on aggregate in the Champions League round-of-16, and preparing for a League Cup final clash with Newcastle United later this month.
But the Reds head coach, inevitably, did not play up to the ‘history repeating itself’ narrative. Not for the first time, his message was the same. Rather than look back to the past or too far ahead into the future, for Liverpool, it is only ever a case of preparing one game at a time.
“My thoughts are not so much on these things because my thoughts are on Paris Saint-Germain,” Slot replied. “And after we finish this game, it will be about Southampton, and when we finish that one, it’s again on Paris Saint-Germain.
“The good thing this week was, it was the first time that we had a bit more time than all the other games we’ve played, because normally there are only two or three days in between.
“That’s definitely a good thing because Paris Saint-Germain needs all, all, all our attention and two days would probably not be enough to prepare the team well enough for this team because I'm really impressed with what I saw. They are a very good team.”
Yet should Liverpool progress past PSG and beat Newcastle at Wembley, Slot will surely hear more about Fagan’s side in the weeks and months ahead.
It is perhaps somewhat ironic then that the Reds’ smash-and-grab victory over the Ligue 1 giants could be seen as something of a throwback to some of their great European displays of yesteryear.
Liverpool had to rely on Alisson Becker to beat PSG on Wednesday, with the Brazilian called upon to make a record nine saves to preserve his clean sheet.
But as Luis Enrique’s side remained unable to find a way past Alisson, it soon became clear in Paris that a shaky Reds defensive display was teetering on transforming into a great European away result. Throw in Harvey Elliotts 87th-minute winner, converting Liverpool’s only shot on target with his first touch, and it was mission accomplished.
Admittedly, such a strike does not have the same importance as it once would have when away goals were still part of European football - and a decisive aspect too.
But the Reds’ rich continental history is actually built on these types of displays away from home. As famous as Anfield European nights are, so too are the nitty gritty results on the road. And the deeper you got into a continental campaign, the more common such games proved to be.
In front of their own fans, Liverpool can beat anyone. But that is why tight showings on the road were so decisive. Score an away goal and it was often one foot in the next round, such was the all-conquering Reds’ confidence. But even when failing to do so, avoiding defeat could still call upon home comforts to ensure the job was done.
Such an approach stems from Liverpool’s very first European Cup campaign in 1964/65. The Reds beat Inter Milan 3-1 at home in the semi-final first leg in the first great Anfield European night. But the Serie A outfit’s away goal proved costly when Shankly’s side then fell to a controversial 3-0 defeat in Italy. Going forward, consider the lesson learned.
The most famous example arguably comes back in April 1981 when Liverpool faced Bayern Munich in the European Cup semi-finals. Held 0-0 at Anfield, a Howard Gayle-inspired 1-1 draw was enough to set up a final showdown with Real Madrid as the Reds went on to be crowned Champions of Europe for the third time.
Meanwhile, in the historic Fagan-led 1983/84 campaign alone, Athletic Bilbao and Dinamo Bucharest were downed in such a manner before Liverpool beat AS Roma on penalties in their own backyard after a 1-1 draw in the final.
When the Reds first conquered all of Europe, results came before free-flowing, dominant performances.
Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez would provide throwbacks to such efforts themselves, with the former overcoming Roma 2-1 on aggregate in the UEFA Cup fourth round courtesy of a 2-0 win at Stadio Olimpico on his way to winning the treble.
Benitez’s own back-catalogue is more vast with Juventus and Chelsea in 2005 and Barcelona and Chelsea in 2007 as his side famously won the Champions League in Istanbul before reaching the final again two years later. But unlike the Liverpool of yesteryear, their sides were only ever plucky underdogs.
But under Slot, the Reds could genuinely establish themselves as Europe’s finest once more, as Paisley and Fagan’s own sides did in the seventies and eighties. Again unsurprisingly, such a prospect was another one that Slot swiftly sidestepped when on pre-match duties in Paris.
But now his team have provided the greatest smash-and-grab of them all. If Liverpool go on to enjoy European success this season, this 1-0 victory over PSG will be surely remembered as one of their most iconic triumphs.
Slot might necessarily not be interested in talking at length about Fagan and Co but at the Parc des Princes, he produced a victory that the Reds’ famous Boot Room would certainly have been proud of.