Part 1: Back On Our Perch
When Jürgen Klopp announced he was leaving Liverpool Football Club and Arne Slot arrived as his successor, there was hope and optimism but for most the expectations were measured. The new manager, the thinking went, would surely need some time to adjust, while the squad was strong but most thought a few pieces from being title challengers.
For most heading into the 2024-25 season, the goal and expectation was top four. Instead, the Reds only went and won the Premier League. With the season now over, we put our heads together at TLO towers to try to put an unexpectedly outstanding, title-winning season into perspective.
Zach
There were quite a few seasons over the years when clubs like Chelsea or Manchester City would bring in a new manager then proceed to absolutely piss the league. As a Liverpool supporter, it was hard not to be jealous. You mean you can just bring in a new manager, not as some radical rebuilding process but rather just to implement a style of play that fits the talents of a group already maybe capable of winning the league?
Of course, those examples have been the exception rather than the rule, and Chelsea’s approach to replaceable managers hasn’t been as successful of late, but it’s been incredible to watch a new manager add himself to the short list of managers to win the league in their first attempt for Liverpool. And if we now do as expected add the likes of Jeremie Frimpong, Florian Wirtz, and Milos Kerkez this summer then you really have to like our odds of winning more Premier and Champions Leagues in the years to come.
The most impressive thing after Slot’s first season for me, though, is the fact that it means it’s still an exciting time to be a Red. We’ll be celebrating our title win with the future looking bright, not having our manager publicly apologize to the crowd after the final match.
Liverpool FC v Crystal Palace FC - Premier League Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images/Getty Images For The Premier League
Jordan
I’ll gladly put my hand up and say I never expected us to become champions this season. After the fatigue of the last couple years seemed to make itself at home, I told myself I’d happy if we just got fourth place. And then we just kept winning, despite injuries and slow starts and the odd decision-making slip (though any time there was one of those it seemed to get corrected at the half) and maybe a little less rotation than would have been ideal.
It bears keeping in mind that winning the title this season, based on all the pre-season expectations, really was an against all odds situation (and we didn’t even wind up with a global pandemic conspiring to spoil the party!). And then we secured the title with an entire month to go. How, exactly, did we manage to actually pull this one off? I’m still gobsmacked by it.
Do I think we got a little lucky at times? Maybe, but unless you’re City and targeting 100 points with a limitless budget you probably always need a little of that. So sure, it doesn’t hurt our biggest title rivals of recent years stumbled massively this season (no, not you, Arsenal), allowing us a little more breathing room with results. It also doesn’t hurt Mohamed Salah somehow got Samson’s hair in that transplant (are we allowed to talk about that?) and had one of the best seasons an attacker has ever had in the league. Unlike some, perhaps, I still have a few minor reservations about Arne Slot’s coaching that I’ll hope get answered in year two, but to win the most competitive league in the world in his first year is nothing to sniff at.
Mari
I honestly expected silverware of some sort this season, though at the start I wasn’t sure if the manager would work long-term or if it would be sustainable as a project.
Look, I know everyone is celebrating now, but I think people forget what the season last year was before we get to the one part of spring: absolutely everything was possible. The team looked so strong. I cannot overstate how much I was enjoying it, and I can prove it because a couple Manchester United mates messaged to ask me “if it didn’t all feel so disappointing for Klopp’s last year.”
It didn’t—it was so much fun. In retrospect it’s a wild comparison, but it’s also a bit of a treatise on what silverware means. This season, Manchester United lost in Bilbao to make their season meaningless and financially worrying. Last season, Liverpool won very little, but did a lot to convince me they were a serious football team for maybe two-thirds of the season. And there were injuries. And also a manager who did very much seem tired. If the silverware (uneven as it is) swapped hands inexplicably, would it feel different? I’m saying that watching a strong team matters. The surprises are more fun.
Liverpool v Crystal Palace - Premier League - Anfield Photo by Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images
I did not expect Ryan Gravenberch. And honestly I expected this new manager to be a little naïve, to really misunderstand what it means to play in the Premier League and Champions League at once (and never mind it was a new and expanded, one that basically makes the old complaints about the festive schedule look like a joke).
I did not expect Alexis Mac Allister. I did not expect 32-year-old Mohamed Salah to play like he was 25-year-old Salah. I did not expect a manager who was this serious. I did not expect the team to get how serious he is so immediately and to react to that so positively.
I’m not sure just yet if I like or love Arne Slot on the same spectrum as I did the last manager. This, I think, is the one Bill-Shankly-to-Bob-Paisley comparison that sticks: the charismatic and politically outspoken manager makes everyone buy-in, and remakes the club from top to bottom, and that moves into a man making everything better almost without you noticing—then you think about what he’d said, and realize in retrospect how he expressed a sentiment that resonates and which you’ll be saying in your head in his voice for years.
Gabe
I think most, including myself, felt it would be a thankless task to follow Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool. Arne Slot seemed to at least have good vibes about him, but how do you replace a charismatic legend who built the Reds into a consistent challenger for major trophies? My big hope was that Slot would be able to implement his style that meant Liverpool would be competitive across the board, challenging for a trophy or two and qualifying for Champions League.
Slot never tried to match Klopp for the cult of personality, but rather brought a calm to the club that paired with an ability to assess the tactical situation and seemingly make just the right decisions as he learned more about his players and the competition. A settled club with a very strong leadership core certainly helped the situation as Liverpool adjusted and adapted quickly to become a juggernaut through the fall and early winter. It was almost shocking how Slot’s side separated from the rest of the league, leading to a dream run in free from almost all drama.
Liverpool FC v Crystal Palace FC - Premier League Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Dexian
It’s going to sound mightily cliché but this team under this manager, well, it just kept figuring things out. Slow first halves, the unbeatable Nottingham Forest, no defensive midfielder, goalkeeper injuries, contract situations. Didn’t matter. This team just refused to get derailed by most of the speed bumps they faced while everyone else stumbled over them, and that is why they’re the Premier League Champions for 2024-25.
Noel
I know everyone likes to make fun of the pundits since none of them picked us to win the league but I’m not going to lie, I thought third was the ceiling for this season. I honestly don’t think I saw a Liverpool fan thinking especially differently before it started. And for as well as we started, even well into the autumn a part of me expected us to fade. Which we probably did a little, only by the time we did it didn’t matter as City never recovered and Arsenal faded just as much—but from a worse starting position. Realistically, though, I can be honest and say that I was thinking third and hoping it would come along with silverware from somewhere.
I didn’t honestly expect us to be this good this soon. A lot of that has to do with the squad Jürgen left behind. Unlike other long-serving departing managers, it’s clear just how much it mattered to Klopp that he left a team that could compete. And the club along with Richard Hughes and the returning Michael Edwards then deserve all the praise in the world for picking the right guy to help that squad take its next step seamlessly.
Any praise for Arne Slot now is well deserved, but more than anything this is a title win for Liverpool’s broader system and approach under Fenway Sports Group. One made all the more impressive while we watch the continuing, decade-long, slow-motion implosion that is Manchester United Football Club or Todd Boehly confusing his wealth for intelligence and throwing out nine-year contracts like Halloween candy at Chelsea.
Liverpool are the best run club in England. Maybe in all of Europe. And this is a title that speaks to that, to Liverpool’s good health as a club, from top to bottom. I still have a few question marks for this squad and the players heading into next year. Questions about a press that maybe looks like it wasn’t effective as in past seasons, or about a lack of rotation and some very good fringe players not getting minutes.
But if this title win speaks to the just how well run the club is, as I believe it very much does, then I’m inclined to just sit back, let them get back to work, and enjoy just how bloody good Liverpool Football Club as a whole are at the moment when it comes to doing football.
Liverpool FC v Crystal Palace FC - Premier League Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images