He had been flirted with by Jürgen Klopp, courted by Liverpool, but this Tuesday evening, it is on the visiting bench and in the costume of the opposing coach that Xabi Alonso will arrive at Anfield with Bayer Leverkusen (9 p.m.). Instead, the Reds entrusted their destiny to Arne Slot, arriving from Feyenoord surrounded by many question marks and without any prior advance or flirtation through the media. Today, however, no one has more points than him in the competitions in which he is involved, whether in the Premier League or the Champions League, and his team is comfortably at the top of these two rankings (tied with Aston Villa in C1), without taking it, quite the contrary.
Idyllic beginnings
Thirteen wins, one draw and a very small defeat against Nottingham Forest. So much for the balance sheet, to which we can for example add 33 goals scored for 10 conceded or even 7 clean sheetsall without Alisson, injured since the beginning of October and probably still absent until mid-November at least. In a perfectly integrated 4-2-3-1, which can sometimes transform into 4-3-3, Slot's Liverpool plays to its strengths. If he does not refuse possession, he knows how to adapt to the nature of the match, leaving it to his opponent if necessary, like against Chelsea or United for example. But above all, Liverpool have regained their ability to explode on the counter or in rapid transition, as well as their danger from set pieces, weapons which had made them the best team in England in 2020 and the best in Europe in 2019 .
They were announced at the heart of a hellish calendar in the middle of autumn, where the machine was going to take on water. Nay, the Reds have not experienced defeat since September and the misstep against Forest, still third in PL after 10 days. Better still, they didn't even suffer the yoke of the big Bournemouth striker, swept away by putting down the controller. This infernal pace is not over, because after Leverkusen, we will still have to deal with Aston Villa, Real or even Manchester City between now and the beginning of December, to really gauge ourselves, but the essential thing is there. Since the start of the season, Liverpool have knocked down Manchester United, Milan, Chelsea and Brighton twice and held off a raging Arsenal at the Emirates at the end of October. The Italians were still in training during the first day of the Champions League and the Bologna and Leipzig tests, passed without too many pitfalls, have not yet revealed what the men from the north of England would be made of on the European scene. So the German champions arrive at just the right time.
Oh Salah, here we go again
However, nothing was certain before the debut on the bench of the Dutch magician and one could wonder if he would manage to take over from the most notable coach of the 21st century.e century among the six-time European champions. The question had the merit of being asked: Arsenal took a long time to digest the departure of Arsène Wenger, Manchester United are still trying to forget Sir Alex Ferguson, when – on another scale – Lorient or Angers had to rebuild after the end reign of the no less eminent Christian Gourcuff and Stéphane Moulin.
But where Arne Slot did not make a mistake, it was certainly in giving Mohamed Salah back the momentum that he had perhaps lost a little, while the Egyptian has already announced that this would be his last season at Anfield. Author of 9 goals and 7 assists in 15 games so far this season, the Pharaoh is once again in charge of day-to-day affairs, while certain leaders like Trent Alexander-Arnold or Virgil van Dijk are also gradually regaining their standing. Alongside them, the trio composed of Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai is asserting itself more and more, while the offensive armada continues to complement each other in each match. A solid ensemble which is currently operating at full speed and which is still waiting to see what a player like Federico Chiesa could bring to it. On Merseyside, everyone is smiling today, and bringing down a team which, even a little less flamboyant than last year, has only lost twice in 2024 could even freeze the smile a few more weeks.
Liverpool Leverkusen prediction: Analysis, odds and prediction for the Champions League match
