Echo

Virgil van Dijk is right about Arne Slot's 'bad' Liverpool champions - but Jurgen Klopp got another go

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The German did not find defending the Premier League title easy after winning it with a remarkable 99 points in the 2019-20 season but he was never under pressure at AnfieldDuring his post-match press conference at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday, Arne Slot was made aware of Virgil van Dijk’s comment about his team’s season not being ‘Liverpool-worthy’. He pointed out that his team had been knocked out of the Champions League and FA Cup by Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City respectively, which is disappointing but not exactly embarrassing.But Slot did admit that they had made an unacceptable fist of defending the Premier League title.



But at this very moment, Slot is doing a slightly better job than Jurgen Klopp did in the 2020-21 season.Klopp won his one and only Premier League in the 2019-20 season, amassing a staggering 99 points, don’t forget. But after 33 matches of the following Premier League season, Klopp’s Liverpool had 54 points and sat in fifth position.After 33 matches of this Premier League season, Slot’s Liverpool has 55 points and sits in fifth position.

Not only had he won the Premier League in 2019-20, he had won the Champions League in 2018-19 after losing in the 2017-18 final to Real Madrid.But even so, his defence of the Premier League title in 2020-21 was poor. In the Premier League, Klopp’s class of 2020-21 went on a five-game winning run to end the Premier League season, giving them a total of 69 points.If Slot’s team does the same, they will finish on 70 points.