If the close victory of Liverpool's Derby over Everton last week had some followers to reach the champagne, Sunday's shock 3-2 defeat Fulham in the Premier League said that, for now, it follows firmly on the ice.
Although on Saturday on Saturday of the season of the second league of the Liverpool season, the second loss of the season of the Liga League League Liga Liga While fugitive leaders have a hand in the trophy, there is still work to be done.
The Arne Slot team has 11 clear points at the summit and, with only seven games to play, an unprecedented collapse would be needed to deliver the title from here. But while it is a testimony of the general labor force of Liverpool that they have such an dominant advantage, their infallibility aura has been undeniable in recent weeks. The loss of Sunday in the capital marked a third defeat in four games in all competitions.
The fact that one of those defeats came through a penalty shooting against an impressive team by Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and another against a Newcastle United team that competes to end the 70-year trophy drought of its club in the Cábao Cup final offers some mitigations.
Liverpool had bad luck against the PSG and, after a 120 -minute energy taking, fought to match Newcastle's hunger and tenacity a few days later. However, against Fulham, Liverpool were the architects of their own fall. They granted three goals in the 14 -minute space in the first half, after taking an early advantage through Alexis Mac Allister Wonder Strike, before Luis Díaz recovered one in the second half.
“I think there is no reason for us to be complacent,” after his press conference. “We are not the number 1 at this time because we won each game with a margin of three or four goals … so it is not for us, so we are fully aware of the fact that we have to compete for seven more games.”
Slot and his players can be just a handful of games to consolidate their place in the annals of the history of Liverpool, but the coming weeks promise to be instructive, both in terms of shaping the widest narrative around its campaign and dictating whose position could be threatened in Anfield next season.
What went wrong?
Liverpool has had an exceptional season, but recent results have given credit to opinion in some sectors that the team is far from the finished article. After losing only one game in 27 in all competitions before January, the Slot team has been defeated six times in 22 since the change of year, although two of those defeats (far from the PSV Eindhoven in the phase of the League of the Champions League and the Tottenham Hotspur in the first section of the semifinals of the Carabao Cup) finally tested little consequence.
Fatigue has been discussed as a potential reason for the fall of Liverpool, although Slot ruled out this suggestion after the loss in Craven Cottage. According to Opta, only 10 field players in the Premier League have started the 31 games this season, three of which play for Liverpool: Mohamed Salah, Virgil Van Dijk and Ryan Gravenberch.
For Gravenberch, in particular, there is some weight on the argument that a greater workload has affected in recent weeks. The 22-year-old has played 2,657 minutes in the League, more than double the 1,120 he registered in 2023-24. That his midfielder, Wataru Endo, has not yet started a league game reflects Slot's trend to trust a relatively small harvest of players.
While it can be too simplistic to blame the legs tired of the recession of Liverpool in form, a degree of mental fatigue seems to have increased for some. After all, except for Federico Chiesa less than less, this is the same group of players who saw their season spectacularly under Jurgen Klopp a year ago. Perhaps some of the calamitous individual mistakes against Fulham were born from an end of the end of the season. If so, this is something slot and its players must mits quickly, since they cannot afford the ghosts of last season to return to chase them in the coming weeks.
Nor is it a coincidence that Liverpool sauce has coincided with a rare sterile spell in front of the goal for Salah. The International of Egypt has enjoyed one of the great individual seasons of the Premier League, registering 27 goals and 17 very impressive assists and 17 assists, and has contributed to a huge 61% of the 72 goals of the Liverpool League. But he has gone without scoring in his last four games in all competitions and his last goals in the League were an orthopedic device against fighters Southampton in early March.
While Diogo Jota obtained a good winner in the Derby of Merseyside and Díaz was shocking as a substitute against Fulham, the Liverpool attack game is much less convincing when Salah's influence decreases. The slot must expect that your talisman can return to your best between now and the end of the campaign.
What should Liverpool do in the summer?
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Although Liverpool has dominated in the Premier League, this summer promises to be one of the most active in years in Anfield.
The first, and perhaps the most important business, has been carried out with Salah signing a new contract, ending a saga of months over its future. Next, Liverpool must establish the future of his other stars out of contract: Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold. While a source has told ESPN that Real Madrid is confident in landing Alexander-Arnold in a free transfer, there is optimism in Merseyside that Van Dijk will commit.
Assuming that the situation develops, Liverpool must dive into the market for a right side to provide competition to Conor Bradley, 21. The Northern Ireland International has proven to be an agent capable of Alexander-Arnold since its progress last season and has the quality of establishing itself as Slot's first option. But his injury history, along with a lack of experience at the elite level, means that it would be a risk not to reinforce that position.
On the opposite flank, the need to cool off on the left side is dazzling. Andrew Robertson has been a tremendous servant for the club since he joined £ 8 million Hull City in 2017, but has had problems forming this term. The error catalog of the Captain of Scotland in the accumulation of Fulham's second goal was emblematic of his difficult campaign, while Kostas Tsimikas of support is not considered a long -term solution and can be tempted to leave in search of regular minutes.
The left side of AFC Bournemouth, Milos Kerkez, has been strongly linked to a transfer of £ 40 million to Anfield and, at 21, aligns well with the traditional Liverpool recruitment policy to sign young players who already have a large amount of high -level experience. The Ajax Ombudsman Jorrel Hato, 19, also conforms to that profile and is able to play as a central and central defender, while his transfer is valued at around 30 million.
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At the other end of the field, the Liverpool advance line also needs surgery. Darwin Núñez has suffered another turbulent campaign and, after three seasons in Anfield, does not seem closer to becoming the prolific No. 9 that the club expected it would become when they spent £ 64 million initial to sign it from Benfica in the summer of 2022.
Jota is a more natural goals, but he has also looked for something better this season and his continuous struggles for injuries often leave Liverpool that needs someone to take the mantle as a first choice striker. Of course, Slot's team will not be the only team in the market for a striker, and Alexander Isak of Newcastle, Victor Osimhen de Napoli (borrowed in Galatasaray) and Benjamin Sesko of RB Leipzig will come to a premium of among £ 70 million to £ 150 million. But they could recover some money from Núñez's possible exit to Saudi Arabia or elsewhere.
While it is unlikely that the club firm more than three or four new players, it would be cunning that Liverpool recruits a midfielder to help lighten the load in Gravenberch. And the Reds have not signed a center-peak from Ibrahima Konaté in 2021, so they could also benefit from a reorganization there, even if Van Dijk remains on.
Taking into account that this team is crowned champion of England in the not too distant future, it is clear that there is still a lot of space to improve. For now, however, the Liverpool approach must be to win forms again, starting with this weekend from West Ham United to Anfield. Anything but three points against the side of Graham Potter and there will be concerns that the slight discomfort of the reds is descending to a mini crisis that could leave scars that even a summer of good transfer can not solve.
