Pundit believes the European trophy is now Liverpool’s best chance at major silverware this season
Jamie Carragher has said Arne Slot “desperately” wants to win the Champions League, and the pundit believes Liverpool’s hopes of lifting a major trophy this season now lie in Europe, after falling eight points behind first place in the Premier League with 11 games played.
Liverpool have lost more matches in those opening 11 league games than they did in the whole of last season. Carragher said it was probably best to shift attention toward Europe, where he feels Slot has particular interest in.
Despite their poor form in the league, Liverpool have won three of their four games so far in the Champions League this season, including a 1-0 victory over Real Madrid at Anfield earlier this month.
“I think Slot has a little obsession with the Champions League,” Carragher said. “He spoke about PSG a lot last season, on the back of losing to them.
“He speaks so well of them. He almost admired losing to that team and the fact that they went on to win the tournament, and the way they played in the final.
Paris Saint-Germain defeated Liverpool in a penalty shootout in the last 16 to progress to last season’s quarter-finals. Luis Enrique’s side ultimately went all the way to claim the club’s first Champions League trophy in their history. They were widely acknowledged as playing the best football in Europe, which was well illustrated with a 5-0 smashing of Inter Milan in the final.
“I think he loves managers whose teams play that type of football,” Carragher said about Slot. “That’s how he envisages his team playing at their absolute best.
“That’s why on the back of last season, talking about Liverpool having control, he wanted more flair. But when you spend that much money, you have to be one of the favourites for the Champions League.”
Carragher, who won the competition with Liverpool in 2005 and reached the final again in 2007, said Slot sees the Champions League as the next step for his side.
“I actually bumped into Arne Slot when he was away, we were both on holiday,” said Carragher. “He introduced me as a Champions League winner to his wife and his kids.
“And I’d almost feel like he thinks ‘that’s our next step’. I could feel it the way he said it – ‘We’ve won the league, but we want to win the Champions League’. You can feel he desperately wants it.”
