Out with the old, in with the… well, nothing new in terms players. But that isn’t anything truly reflective of Liverpool’s reality heading into the new season.
The start of a new season is supposed to generally be a time of optimism – misplaced or warranted – and a sense of what-if and what-could-be.
With Arne Slot in the door, that should go double at Anfield. It’s not just the possibility of what Liverpool do on the pitch now, but also so many other questions around that: what development of the team we’ll see, what improvement of individuals lies ahead, what the entire new structure of the club might mean for how business is done and how trophies are won.
To an extent, supporters’ happiness or current satisfaction – season about to start, transfer window two weeks to run – will be in part defined by their expectations.
Was a serious, 92-plus-points title challenge the minimum desire for this season? That’s a hefty ask, and cups could yet again be the better route to celebrations. But even those fans craving immediate proof of progress might be able to appreciate the view if they take a brief step back and look around at the competition.
After all, this is a new era for the Reds, not just a new season.
It’s harder to undo bad signings
Transfers-wise, no mistakes have been made. No players have been ushered in who don’t, or won’t, fit the requirements.
Nobody has been lost who significantly contributed last season or beforehand and nobody has been sold at below a reasonable fee.
Yes, there are contracts to be sorted out and areas of the team which need strengthening, but when is that not true?
It’s a lot harder to undo bad signings or bad contracts than it is to extend ones you’re working on with players you already know and trust. Liverpool supporters around for the Comolli-Hodgson-Rodgers span of time should know that better than anyone.
Perhaps other clubs below the gaze of the Reds have done more deals, but they also have more ground to catch up. More pertinently, Man City have signed one and sold one in attack. Arsenal have added a defender to already swelled ranks. Nobody has increasingly gotten away from what Liverpool were already capable of, in other words.
As to what they are going to be capable of in the near future, that’s a far more interesting question. Pre-season has offered glimpses, examples, suggestions.
Pre-season offers reason for optimism
While there’s always the chance that non-competitive matches shine a Bruno Cheyrou-shaped spotlight on players, there have been a few who have really looked a good fit for the new approach and maybe one or two more who it’s not hard to envisage thriving in it, once rhythm returns.
Even away from senior stars, there’s a really intriguing line to follow on the Reds’ younger contingent: how many are genuinely very good footballers, and how many of them thrived in a familiar set-up with an established way of playing when the pathway to first-team action was lit up all night long?
In other words, which were exciting Jurgen Klopp prospects, and which are exciting Liverpool ones? They might not always align as the same thing and youth development is rarely linear anyway.
How much opportunity they get to progress might depend on how Liverpool fare in the domestic cups, or it might depend on the draws. Or, it might just depend on how well we start another exciting endeavour: a brand new Champions League format, with two extra games and a whole weird way of going through. How does coming 23rd in a league and still reaching the last 16 sound? Odd, but absolutely do-able, is the truth.
Slot may excel in that environment, or may be among the managers to essentially wing it first time around while mainly prioritising the domestic league campaign. It’s an unknown, as much as the coaching staff will be themselves.
The journey starts now
It’s impossible, and pointless, to try getting away from the fact that we’re now embarking on a new, Klopp-less direction, but to hear it (again) doesn’t have to be an annoyance or reason for sadness, anger or apprehension. It should be exciting.
The world is open to the Reds at this point and although there’s a new captain of the ship, Slot’s direction is being provided by a major, a colonel and a general above him. The cohesion and quality of that team, as much as the one on the pitch, makes the start of this adventure such an exciting one.
In that regard, 24/25 is only the first steps of a journey and although it’s one we want to see lead to silverware with regularity, if the Klopp era taught us anything, it should be that the destination should be, must be, far from the be-all and end-all.
If it isn’t, why tune in on Saturday at all? Just wait for May and save yourself the emotions.
