Liverpool manager Arne Slot has expressed doubts about the real benefits of finishing top of the Champions League table.
If his team manages to make it a flawless seven wins from seven at home to Lille tomorrow, and Barcelona fail to beat Benfica, the Reds will find themselves in an unassailable position with one match remaining.
The obvious advantage lies in avoiding the play-off round, which they can accomplish with a point from their last two meetings, allowing them to progress directly to the knockout stages.
However, with the new format complicating predictions, Slot pointed out that there may be few tangible rewards beyond financial incentives. Top place in the group earns 8.5 million pounds, on top of 1.6 million for reaching the knockout stages, as well as performance bonuses for each group match won, while clubs like Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid are struggling to overcome the daunting 24-team play-off threshold.
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“With this new system, you would think that finishing first is the best position, but considering how strange this league system is, for example, when I watch PSG every week, I believe they have the best team. harder to face, yet they are quite low in the table, which does not reflect their quality,” commented Slot.
“So, finishing first could mean playing them. That could be a disadvantage, so I don’t look at the league table in a way to suggest that ‘if we’re first, we’ve probably got the easiest team to play’. It’s impossible to determine because of this weird format; I don’t want to sound negative.
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“Being top doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the best team, and being 24th doesn’t mean you’re ranked that way in terms of quality. It depends a lot on the teams you’ve played against.”
-Slot goes into the next match (and several subsequent fixtures) without striker Diogo Jota, who aggravated a muscle problem against Nottingham Forest last week after scoring the equalizer and will be out for a few weeks.
In a timely performance, Darwin Núñez came on at Brentford on Saturday to seal victory with two goals in injury time, scoring his first league goals in over two months.
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Slot challenged the Uruguay international to find a level of consistency that would elevate him among the world’s elite.
“I believe consistency is one of the most difficult aspects of football, both for a team and an individual,” he said. “Only a few players in the world can maintain a high level of performance every three days, while many can perform often but not always.
“I think he’s one of the players who is good repeatedly, but the next step for him would be to join the ranks of the elite—five, six, seven or eight players in the world who stand out consistently every three days we also have a few players who reach this high level every three days, which is a good challenge for him to join this group.
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