Liverpool set the standards last season. The Premier League table provides some proof those standards have slipped on the pitch; so, too, the total of 18 defeats in all competitions. Yet the attention has been diverted to the standards off the pitch. Mohamed Salah said he felt the bond in the dressing room is changing; he spoke of his concerns about the mentality in the dressing room. A man whose chiselled physique is testament to his work ethic said players need to get in early to go the gym, which in turn will encourage others to.
For Arne Slot, the culture is not a problem; nor does he think it will be next season when Andy Robertson and Salah, two of the stalwarts of Jurgen Klopp’s great side, depart. Slot argued that there are enough cultural architects already in his side to weather the loss of two influential figures.
“What Mo is saying is that standards are really important for a football club,” said Slot. “I cannot agree more with him. I did not hear him say that the standards are not okay now. I’m not worried that the standards will be lower next season than they were this season, last season or the season before.”
That mention of those three campaigns may have been a coincidence. But if the accusation was flying around that Liverpool were afforded too many days off, they have had fewer this year than in their title-winning campaign under Slot, or their final year under Klopp. One interpretation of their slide this year is that the culture Klopp and his senior players imbued is being dissipated and diluted with time. Slot does not concur.
“I think they [standards] are in a good place right now,” he said. “I think it also makes sense that younger players – it doesn’t have to be the new players, it can be the seven-year-old that comes from the academy – usually get the example of players like Mo and others for them to understand and to know what it takes to play every three days at this level. I see – and I think – that our younger players have improved in this already. I am completely convinced that we have enough players next season – and, add to that, the ones that we will sign – to put the standards exactly into the place they are needed. The standards are not only important in the gym.”
That may be pertinent, too. The declining standard of Salah’s performance, from scoring 29 league goals last season to seven this, is a reason for Liverpool’s decline. Age has caught up with some, injury with others. There are others who have underperformed. But, Slot thinks, he has the right characters in the camp.
In interviews last week, Salah sounded nostalgic, reflecting on joining a club where the culture was set by men like Jordan Henderson and James Milner. Then Liverpool may not have just had the best team; they seemed to have the best dressing room, too. Now there is the chance that three of the four elder statesmen will go, with Slot saying that Virgil van Dijk will be at Anfield next season but, significantly or otherwise, not mentioning Alisson. There are questions about the future of Joe Gomez, the longest-serving player, and Curtis Jones, the local in the dressing room.
It may mean Dominik Szoboszlai, a leader in troubled times, becomes vice-captain. Others will also have to step up. Slot does not believe he needs to import players to set the standards in the summer; in any case, Robertson’s replacement is likely to be Kostas Tsimikas, returning from loan at Roma.
Nor, though, does he feel he needs to buy senior players. He sees culture setters in his current group. “I’m not saying that we need to sign them,” he said. “I am saying that we have them already. Senior players are not the only ones who set the standards at a club. If I look at Paris Saint-Germain: Desire Doue is 20, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is 25. Can they set standards for another generation or for a team? I don’t know what time they are in the gym, by the way. And this is what Mo did when he was 26. I don’t think it comes down to ages that only 32 or 33-year-old players can set standards.
“They have lived experiences and know what it takes to play at this level. But come on, we are not talking about Florian Wirtz or Hugo Ekitike or Alexander Isak and all these players we signed. They are not children, they are serious professionals that know what it takes to play at this level as well. They now know what it takes to play in the Premier League and Champions League at this level. It can only be better but it is not only down to 34-year-olds. They can definitely be a big help which they have been in the last two seasons and Virgil will still be next season as well. But standards are not only set by 34-year-olds. Standards can also be set by a 20-year-old, like Doue, or Salah who played for Liverpool when he was 26. That did not only start when he is what age he is now. It is not age related.”
Part of it has to come from Slot, too, as he readily agreed. “Players can help but it is definitely also that the manager sets standards as well,” he said. But his view is that the culture club, to borrow John Motson’s famous phrase in his commentary of the 1988 FA Cup final, will still have the right culture.