Liverpool are approaching the busiest period of their campaign and Arne Slot will know some players have been more called upon than others
The first full season under a new boss, standing top of the Premier League table going into the November international break with Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal in close pursuit, and a trip to Southampton next up. Liverpool are proving a well-oiled machine present.
However, this isn’t the first time the Reds have found themselves in exactly the same position. And it was with a previous visit to the South Coast that the first cracks in the foundations began to show.
It was eight years ago when, under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool were clear at the top as they travelled to the St Mary’s Stadium. But a succession of missed chances saw them held to a frustrating goalless draw before the following day being knocked off top spot by Chelsea. They didn’t end another weekend as Premier League leaders for the rest of the season.
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Of course, context is important. Klopp was still in the early stages of the lengthy process to transform the team he took over from Brendan Rodgers from underachievers to conquerors of England, Europe and the world.
Arne Slot, by comparison, began on a much strong footing with the squad he inherited this summer from his predecessor. And Liverpool’s five-point lead at the summit means they’ll remain top after next weekend regardless of the outcome at Southampton.
However, a win would send out a positive message and maintain the momentum going into the rest of the calendar year. Indeed, when leaders going into the weekend, Liverpool haven’t lost to the bottom-placed team since they were defeated 2-1 at Tottenham Hotspur in November 2008, one of only two Premier League reverses that season as they finished runners-up behind Manchester United.
With four wins out of four in the Champions League and reaching the last eight of the League Cup – where they will travel back to Southampton next month – the Reds are responding to Slot’s challenge earlier in the season to cope with competing on several different fronts, winning six and drawing one of the seven games following the October international break.
“I said at the start of this spell that the biggest test would be playing games in the Premier League and the Champions League in the space of a few days,” said Slot. “This is not an easy thing to do and it is also something that the team had not done last season because they were in the Europa League, but they have shown that they are ready for the challenge.”
Given Liverpool, once they resume at Southampton next weekend, have no free midweeks until the New Year, the intensity is set to be ramped up. And while Slot has increasingly looked to rotate his players, that is almost certain to be elevated further over the next six weeks.
The statistics say as much. Of the 10 players who have featured in the most minutes for Liverpool this season, only one – Dominik Szoboszlai – has played fewer that at this stage last term when the Reds had played one game more in the Premier League.
While some of last season’s shortfall can be attributed to injuries (Andy Robertson), suspension (Virgil van Dijk) and having to acclimatise to a new league (Ryan Gravenberch), much was down to a shadow team often operating in the Europa League.
That hasn’t been possible in the Champions League yet this campaign. Van Dijk is joint top in terms of having played the most minutes (1,350 compared to 838 last season) alongside Gravenberch (who had 575 by this point 12 months ago), with the pair one minute ahead of Mohamed Salah (who had 1,083 last campaign up to the November international break).
Ibrahima Konate, Alexis Mac Allister, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Szoboszlai have also had more than 1,000 minutes this season, with Robertson, Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo making up the remainder of the top 10. None of this takes into account international commitments, although most of those players have been regulars for their respective countries.
If the change in style away from occasional chaos and regular high intensity towards a more controlled approach has lessened the load in terms of physicality and allowed for more consecutive minutes, the mental and psychological strain is no different, albeit helped considerably by Liverpool’s strong start.
Therefore, as the figures show, Reds supporters should expect more heavy rotation on the horizon. The strength in depth of this Liverpool squad is about to be given its more serious examination yet.
