Manager warns that last season’s success guarantees nothing as club push for Champions League qualification
Arne Slot says Liverpool still have “something to prove” over the final weeks of the season as he’s aware that last season’s title win does not carry unlimited credit.
Liverpool have revived their campaign with three straight Premier League wins and are pushing for Champions League qualification. A victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday would move them above their rivals into third place.
But Slot admitted that qualification for Europe’s top competition would not remove scrutiny after a difficult season.
“We as a team still have something to prove and I am part of the team, so that means I have something to prove as well,” Slot said. “It is up to others to judge if a quarter-final place in the Champions League has been good or bad. We lost to Paris Saint-Germain twice in a row. They are the best team in Europe at the moment in my opinion.
“Is it a reality to go through the league and the cups with the amount of players we have [injured]? I have a certain opinion about that and the way I say it gives you an impression of how I feel about it, but I haven’t said it.
“Do I have to prove myself as Virgil [van Dijk] does? Yes. Virgil has proved himself as one of the best, and Mo. We’ve already shown in the past what we’re able to do. It doesn’t mean that is enough to keep playing every three days or stay in your job.
“If a player won the Premier League for the last five years he still needs to show up every week to stay in the team. That is how this industry works, so we – and I am part of ‘we’ – have to prove ourselves week after week.”
Liverpool will be without Mohamed Salah for the trip to United, denying him a final appearance in a fixture where he has scored 16 goals in 18 games.
Slot also indicated that any replacement for Salah in the summer will need to complement Alexander Isak, who will be hoping for a better campaign next term after an injury-ridden season.
“That is definitely part of thinking about the replacement [for Salah] because since I have been here, and it is the same at a lot of clubs, it is mainly a left-footer on the right and a right-footer on the left,” Slot said.
“I have seen Alex scoring a lot from crosses which were played right-footed from the right – Trent Alexander-Arnold crosses if you want to call them that – so that is definitely part of how we are looking at things. But we try to sign the best possible available player who we can afford.”
Slot added that both Isak and Florian Wirtz could play key roles in improving Liverpool’s attacking output next season.
Liverpool’s coach said: “Converting chances into goals is something we haven’t done very well throughout this whole season but one of the players [Isak] we always thought could score goals for us was hardly available.”
