Ryan Gravenberch has been one of Liverpool's star players so far. — AFP
LIVERPOOL are riding the crest of the wave in the English Premier League, proudly sitting atop the standings after their best start to a season under new manager Arne Slot.
To give the Reds’ quite magnificent start some perspective, they’re also through to the fourth round of the Carabao League Cup and are perfect in the Champions League – one of those wins was the seismic victory over AC Milan in Milan.
Indeed, the Dutchman has eclipsed the starts made by legendary Anfield managers Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Kenny Dalglish and Jurgen Klopp.
That’s the sort of impact Slot-ball has made to date. His fluid, high-pressing football, borne of aggressive pressing and counter-pressing and a possession-orientated attacking approach, has led the Reds to nine wins out of his first 10 matches, and a handful of those were key victories in both the Premier League and the Champions League.
Slot, for his part, has chosen to play down the impressive start after taking over from Klopp in the off-season.
He highlighted several factors he claimed were driving this run, emphasising that it wasn’t solely about him driving them.
To some extent, Slot is spot-on. But he must take some of the credit for them winning.
If they lost badly and fell into the doldrums, he would have been castigated as being “weak and clueless” and unfit for the job.
To understand this, just look at Erik ten Hag at Manchester United.
This supposedly “biggest club in the world” currently languishes in 14th place in the Premier League.
All of Fulham, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest, Brentford, West Ham and Bournemouth are above them in the standings.
And to be sure, Manchester United are a mere five points off the relegation zone.
This has led to heated discussions about whether to sack ten Hag. There’s a good number of people who believe he should have been long gone and relieved of his post.
Slot, at the other end of the scale, is warming to the Anfield faithful. He hasn’t completely won them over yet and there is good reason for that.
Liverpool’s next one dozen matches or so should give us a more realistic picture of where the Reds are under Slot and how they fair against genuine and formidable opposition.
All seven of Liverpool’s league wins to date have been against teams in the bottom half of the table – that includes the comprehensive 3-0 thrashing of the ol’ enemy at Old Trafford at the beginning of September.
Starting tomorrow, with Chelsea’s visit to Anfield, Liverpool will next play six of the teams in the top seven.
The away fixture against struggling Southampton during that period could potentially be their only weekend of respite.
The Reds’ league fixture list through Dec 7 reads: Chelsea (fourth on the log), Arsenal (third), Brighton (sixth), Aston Villa (fifth), Southampton (19th), Man City (second), Newcastle (seventh), and after that Everton (19th).
In between all of that, in the Champions League, they will visit RB Leipzig and also welcome Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid to Liverpool.
At the end of this month, they will also play Brighton in the Carabao League Cup, the last trophy they won under Klopp.
Just how Liverpool fair in these tougher fixtures will be interesting, not only to their fan base but also the rest of the league, who will be keen to see how they manage without Klopp at the helm.
So far, Slot has done well. No one can take anything away from how they have performed.
They have looked balanced from front to back.
The preferred strike trio of Mo Salah, Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz performed admirably. And along with the bench players, they have scored 13 in the league.
The defence has conceded just two in their opening seven league matches, with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson leading the rearguard with some aplomb.
The damper at the back is the hamstring injury to goalkeeper Alisson Becker, who has been ruled out for a few weeks.
Liverpool’s midfield has played an equally important role in their outstanding start following the Klopp era.
The combination of Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch has been the envy of the Premier League.
And Slot’s Dutch compatriot Gravenberch has been nothing short of exemplary. It was this role that Liverpool sought to fill in the transfer window but could not find a suitable candidate.
This gave Gravenberch the opportunity to prove himself, and he has done so quite fantastically.
The question now is, can he and the rest of the squad continue in the same vein after the international break, as they did at the start of this season and the new era under Slot?
The game against Chelsea should give us some hints as to what we might expect further down the road.
If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say they’ll be good under Slot this season – maybe not win the league, but win a trophy or two.
And regardless of one’s perspective, that achievement would be outstanding.
