Liverpool cement Champions League contender status by making Bayer Leverkusen crumble at Anfield

In a battle between two rising managerial stars, Arne Slot emerged victorious on Tuesday as Liverpool cruised to a 4-0 victory over Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen, extending his near-perfect start as Reds manager and setting the rest of Europe on edge. upon notice.

At first, the game was slow. Neither team had more than one shot on goal during the first 42 minutes, and neither came close to reaching the expected goal at the halftime break. The state of play arguably favored Alonso – the defensive tone of the first half was no surprise to Slot’s defensively stable Liverpool – but Leverkusen have been porous at the back in Bundesliga play this season. Limiting Liverpool’s attack to 0.64 expected goals after nine shots would mark a significant statement, especially as Leverkusen plot their follow-up act to last season’s historic double-winning season.

In the end, however, it was Slot and Liverpool who came out of the game with a statement of their own.

The Reds traded a quiet first half for a high-intensity second half, taking command in almost every significant category after the break. Although they gave possession to Leverkusen in the first half, in the second they had a slight advantage. Most importantly, though, they managed 3.49 expected goals on 13 shots in the second half and scored four goals to back it up. Luis Diaz scored the first of his three goals in the 61st minute, while Mohamed Salah notched two assists and Curtis Jones impressed by assisting a pair of goals himself.

It was Liverpool’s most convincing victory of the season so far, although Slot showed some managerial ability throughout the 90 minutes. The first half reflected the restraint that Slot’s Liverpool are becoming known for, as well as a budding habit of letting the opponent have the ball in high-profile matches. However, the change in tone at halftime was a new look for the Reds under the Dutchman, demonstrating their ability to respond to imperfect scenarios in games and make the necessary adjustments to obtain a winning result.

Although not a job requirement at the time of his hiring, Slot’s tactical change allowed Liverpool to resemble the energetic version of Klopp’s team during his almost nine years in charge. Tuesday’s victory, however, demonstrated what the perfect follow-up act looks like despite the seemingly impossible task of succeeding a celebrated coach. While Slot’s personal preferences were on display, the fundamental tactical similarities he shares with Klopp were equally evident.

“I like the press as high as Jurgen,” Slot told CBS Sports after the win over Leverkusen. “I think that’s also one of the reasons why Liverpool, why [sporting director] richard [Hughes] It occurred to me that our style of play was quite similar… Maybe with the ball, risk-reward, sometimes [I] wait a little longer to play the ball back, but what we always want from our players is for us to press them very high.

As for Alonso, his first full season as a coach in the Champions League (and first among the European elites since winning the Bundesliga) shows some room for improvement, especially as Leverkusen now have 20 goals conceded in 15 games in all competitions this season. . However, upward trajectories are not always a straight line and there is still little reason to scratch his name from the list of the continent’s next great coaches.

Slot now has 15 wins in his first 16 games in charge of Liverpool, taking first place in both the Champions League and the Premier League in the process. He is perhaps the rare example of a manager who has barely missed a beat in his first big job, showing the Reds’ tangible transformation into a team of his creation despite inheriting Klopp’s team. On a day of lopsided Champions League victories, the fact that his Liverpool were on the right side of a big victory – and that Real Madrid and Manchester City were on the wrong side – suggests that the intangible sense of inevitable victory that Once linked to those teams he has now moved to Liverpool.