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Liverpool are hoping to get their hands on the Premier League title this season
Despite the disappointment of losing to Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup final and getting knocked out of the Champions League and FA Cup, Liverpool are still on course to win the Premier League title this season. Arne Slot’s men remain top of the table ahead of Arsenal after their impressive domestic campaign and have nine fixtures left to play.
The Reds have the opportunity to bring in some new signings this summer to freshen up their ranks. They also have the chance to cut ties with some players if they wish to. The Merseyside outfit are back in action next Wednesday against Everton.
John Barnes on difference between Arne Slot and Jurgen Klopp
Former Liverpool player John Barnes believes his ex-team have ‘more possession’ under Slot than they did under Jurgen Klopp. He reckons the Reds are a ‘much more technical’ side these days under the ex-Feyenoord head coach.
Speaking to LiverpoolWorld on behalf of PokerScout, Barnes has said: “Well, you don't see much difference out of possession because they still work very hard to win the ball back. They're high intensity, you can see (Mo) Salah, (Alexis) Mac Allister, they all work hard. Mo, (Luis) Diaz, they work hard off the ball when they lose the ball, and they haven't got the ball. We are not as intense when we have the ball.
“We have much more possession. We obviously are looking at the players like Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliot, and those are players who are much more technical than, say, (James) Milner, (Jordan) Henderson and Fabinho, who were hard-working midfield players that get stuck in and win the ball back and get it forward quickly. We're playing in a much more controlled and a slower way.
“Of course, if you have a counter-attack available, we will do it, but we're building up through midfield and having many more passes in midfield than we used to. I think that's the striking difference. We're a much more technical team than under Jurgen Klopp in terms of the players that Slot likes to use.”
It was hard to see Klopp head out the exit door last year but Slot has had a decent first year, despite losing cup matches. Many Liverpool fans would have snatched your hand off for a title at the start of the season and although the job isn’t done yet, they aren’t too far off now.
They need to make sure they get their recruitment right now as they look to do the same again next year. It remains to be seen at this stage whether key man Mo Salah will leave, with Virgil van Dijk not getting any younger either.
Will Liverpool win the Premier League title?
Liverpool’s destiny is in their own hands and it would take an almighty collapse for them not to finish top of the tree. They have lost only once in the league in this campaign and have been a tough team to break down. They are 12 points clear of Arsenal.
Speaking after their loss to Newcastle at Wembley last time out before the international break, Slot said: "Disappointing result, disappointing performance. Completely different than I felt after the Paris Saint-Germain game. Were we mentally or physically tired on Tuesday? No, but this game had nothing to do with running. This game had only to do with playing duels and there was no intensity in terms of running in this game at all, so you cannot even judge it if we were tired, physically, because we could not press them.
"You can judge a team if they are tired if they press, but there was nothing to press because they played over our press. The game was slow, not intense, so it's difficult to judge for me if we were physically ready.”
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