Liverpool -manager suggests that he could try to rotate more after suggesting the Champions League exit by Paris St. Germain was a rare disappointment in a fantastic season
If someone who spent the best part last week with parties in Ibiza and a Premier League title celebrated winnings who was sealed before the beginning of May, Arne Slot does not seem like a manager of much regret. And of course he's not.
Slot could not have hoped for a more impressive first season in one of the biggest jobs of football. The Dutchman would have signed for this when he landed on Merseyside.
But when he thinks, one bump came in the way that forms his plans for next season through the exit of the Champions League in the hands of Paris St Germain.
Firstly, he believes that Liverpool had bad luck to meet PSG at that stage, given that they ended up at the top of the qualifying table.
But Slot also admits that his side may not have been at their peak for the draw at the beginning of March because he had not played his players enough in previous months. He says: “We were in the wrong place at the wrong time, opposite Paris Saint-Germain.
“I think at that time that was not our best part of the season, although the home game that we played very well. So you could claim that between November and March I had to have played a little more to be even fresher in that game.”
The problem of lock, however, is that his first-choice team played so consistently well that he hates to make frequent changes. He continues: “All those times that I have played a little too much, that did not lead to us being successful.
“As we all know, we went out of the cup in Plymouth, and we lost to PSV (in Champions League qualification), which was no longer an important game. And I think I made six replacements against Paris Saint-Germain, where the extra time was not our best period of the game.”
Between the lines of the latter observation, there is perhaps a suggestion that Slot is not convinced of a team that left with the Premier League is deep enough to overcome everything at home and abroad. And that is why he now admits that he is looking for serious additions for his players' schedule.
“If I look at the way we think about next season and our team, these are things I think of,” he says. “I think we can find one or two extra weapons that this team does not have.
“Maybe by using the transfer market. That is what we are trying to achieve. That will only make us stronger.
“That is what we need because we (Manchester) city city saw £ 200 million in the transfer window. They will all do that.”
Liverpool is about to complete the £ 35 million deal for Jeremie Frimpong and would also be one of the clubs that chases the Dutch wing-backs much sought-after Bayer Leverkusen Team-Mate Florian Wirtz. At the request for those possible transfer goals, Slot is predictable without obligation.
And he wants to say how happy he is with his current team. But it is clear that the little Champions League -Speed means that the lock will ensure that he has more 'weapons' to fight with next season.
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