Liverpool’s penalty shootout loss to Paris Saint-Germain came as a bitter disappointment, having won the first leg away. There was, however, plenty for Arne Slot to glean from this season’s Champions League campaign.
Liverpool should aim to win every competition they enter.
Even during periods of relatively little silverware, the Reds have always taken pride in their ability to defy the odds in Europe.
It perhaps hurts even more, then, when Liverpool lose from a position of strength.
Liverpool are among Europe’s best
With defeat still raw, it isn’t easy to look at the bigger picture. Liverpool are, though, still among the best teams in Europe.
When looking back at the season, it shouldn’t be forgotten how the Reds beat AC Milan at San Siro, comfortably won against Real Madrid and taught Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen a footballing lesson.
While they may not be dominating Europe this season, the Premier League is still the strongest division around. To be 15 points clear is no easy achievement.
Winning seven of seven competitive games in the league phase, Liverpool firmly put themselves in the frame as favourites for the trophy overall.
To then draw arguably the competition’s most in-form side feels more unlucky than it does unjust – PSG would surely have to have been beaten at some stage.
PSG are the real deal
Ahead of the Anfield match, those familiar pre-match nerves, that reduce productivity in workplaces across Merseyside, were back.
There was a reason this felt like a semi-final. After an incredibly tough first leg, the players and team knew the quality PSG possessed.
Liverpool started the game on fire and it felt like a historic European evening could be upon us.
PSG withstood the storm, though, and were still able to produce 2.03 expected goals (xG) in the first half alone. That is more than any opposition side has managed in an entire game at Anfield all season.
They weren’t just a talented attacking outfit either. The grit and fitness shown by Luis Enrique’s team was above anything we saw from PSG’s quasi-Galactico era of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi.
Only time will tell, but PSG could be the Champions League winners this year and they won’t face a tougher game than they did at Anfield. Had Liverpool won the shootout, the same may have been true in the opposite direction.
Liverpool are not the finished article
Used to dominating games in England, it came as a shock to supporters when Liverpool went to the Parc des Princes and were put under serious pressure.
Only Alisson‘s brilliance prevented the Reds from conceding multiple times in the first half last week, but they did improve in the second period.
The same could also be said from first leg to second leg which, in some ways, is a good sign – Slot and his team are improving and learning.
However, the Reds needed more control in the tie and better impact from the substitutes in the return leg.
Slot’s midfield changes represented a clear drop-off as Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott replaced Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s striking options, whether that be Darwin Nunez or Diogo Jota, had next to no effect and struggled to affect the match.
These are both areas the club can vastly improve on in the summer transfer window. If they don’t, next season will simply follow the same pattern as last year and this, as key players tire towards the end.
Carabao Cup final conundrum
If there was a preferred manner of defeat for Liverpool, this would have been right at the bottom of the list.
The Reds now have 24 fewer hours of rest than Newcastle ahead of the cup final, and the advantage was made bigger by the 120 minutes of frantic football played by Liverpool on Tuesday.
Not only did the Reds have to seriously exert themselves, but they also suffered injury as Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ibrahima Konate both went off.
Thankfully, Slot is “expecting” the latter to be fit for the final, because his departure was down to tiredness and “cramps.”
For Alexander-Arnold, though, it seems highly unlikely that he will feature.
Due to alternate right-backs Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez also being injured, Slot faces a selection conundrum in defence.
It now seems probable that Jarell Quansah will play at full-back against Newcastle, a position he isn’t naturally suited to but did fulfil well for 47 minutes against PSG.
Route to the title mapped out
A small positive to take from the Champions League exit is that the fatigue in Liverpool’s legs should be mitigated by the extra time to recover in the final third of the season.
No more knockout football means Slot’s side can rest properly between their remaining Premier League games, and they should be in a strong position to potentially extend their healthy advantage at the top of the table.
Due to the league games now not moving, all but three of the Reds’ matches are locked in for the rest of the campaign. At least fans can plan their title-winning celebrations now, in theory!
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