Slot gets winning start, but Liverpool are a work in progress

IPSWICH, England — Ipswich Town fans have waited 22 years for a day like this at Portman Road but they were given a brutal reminder of the task ahead on their return to the Premier League as Arne Slot’s Liverpool won 2-0 in the first match of the post-Jurgen Klopp era.

For 60 minutes Ipswich went toe-to-toe with Liverpool, scrapping for every ball and mustering the two best chances. All of that with a starting XI that included seven players who played for them when they were promoted from League 1, the third tier of English football, just over a year ago.

Then Liverpool put their foot on the throttle and moved the ball quicker, playing at a pace Ipswich couldn’t handle. Diogo Jota‘s goal broke the deadlock, with Mohamed Salah rounding things off five minutes later. It was a one-two combination which burst the Ipswich bubble, the familiar Liverpool we’ve been accustomed to over several seasons.

Liverpool’s sole recruitment over the summer has been in the dugout, with Slot leaving Feyenoord to replace Klopp after his nine-year tenure came to an end. This was the first show of what Slot’s Liverpool will look like but, despite a wealth of goodwill about their new head coach, there were murmurings of concern among the fans heading to East Anglia about their recruitment in the off-season, or lack of it. It’s left them as the only team in Europe’s top five leagues yet to sign a player. So in effect this was Klopp’s side, Slot only having made little tweaks here and there since taking charge: evolution over revolution.

At first Liverpool looked a little confused, perhaps caught between two philosophies. Passes were ineffectual, attacks came down the flanks (with the midfield bypassed) and players defending corners looked exasperatingly at the bench for guidance. They failed to muster a shot on target in the first half, with their sole effort coming from Trent Alexander-Arnold — who was flitting between right-back and defensive midfield in possession — when he fired over on the stroke of half-time.

Instead, it was Ipswich who registered the only two shots on target of the half and looked more dangerous on the counter-attack. But for the odd misplaced pass or moment of dithering on the ball they could have troubled Alisson more.

But then Slot shifted things up. Their pre-season buzzword has been around patience, Slot wanting this team to be less harum-scarum and more measured in their play, backing possession and pressing to deliver the goods. Liverpool played with more intensity and found a higher tempo: suddenly Ipswich looked out of sorts, their scrambling efforts weren’t enough, and Liverpool could pick them apart.

Chance after chance started to materialise as Liverpool found space in behind Ipswich’s full-backs. That proved to be the area Liverpool exploited as Alexander-Arnold’s through ball found a gap between the otherwise outstanding Leif Davis and Jacob Greaves, and Salah ran on to it to square to Diogo Jota to stroke home. Salah’s goal then came thanks to a one-two with Dominik Szoboszlai. Job done.

This was always going to be an examination of how Liverpool first shaped up in the post-Klopp era and against the backdrop of their quiet summer. Slot has talked up the strength of the squad he’s inherited, and how it would take between five to eight games for the group to find their natural rhythm. But this also came just days after they missed out on their first-choice target for the midfield.

Slot thought he’d persuaded Real Sociedad‘s Martín Zubimendi to swap San Sebastian for Merseyside, only for him to have a change of heart and opt to stay at his boyhood club. That left Liverpool in a pickle, and with a hole at No. 6 in the new coach’s system. Ryan Gravenberch was handed that role in the first half, and Ipswich were comfortable enough to go man-to-man in that area, leaving options on the counter. Once Liverpool upped the tempo the midfield became more influential, but you could see why the Reds have prioritised a player in that deep midfield role. It’s essential to the way Slot wants his team to play and their transitional ability. You wonder whether they may yet hasten the search for alternative options over the next fortnight, despite being reticent to purchase for the sake of it. They still need that expert Rodri-like conductor.

These opening matches of a fresh season sometimes don’t conform to rhyme or reason. This was always going to be a test for Liverpool at a packed ground full of enthusiasm and excitement after promotion, but there were moments it bubbled over, even three hours before kick-off.

“Oh my God, we’ve reached the stage where we get half-and-half scarves,” shouted one fan leaving the train station, a reaction greeted by an outpouring of laughter nearby. The discussion on the train into Ipswich flitted between whether it was worth putting £10 on their captain Sam Morsy getting sent off now they are in a league with VAR (he didn’t), how realistic it would be for them to finish 17th in the top flight and secure survival (realistic off the back of this) and whether Ed Sheeran would be at the match (he was).

Thoughts flitted back to the last time they were in the Premier League (then called the Premiership) and how they thought after getting relegated at the end of the 2001-02 season (thanks to a 5-0 defeat by Liverpool), they’d be straight back. Instead, it took two decades, as back-to-back promotions under brilliant manager Kieran McKenna steered them back into the big time.

But as McKenna said in his programme notes, this time two years ago they’d just won a midweek match at Burton Albion in League One. “This is scale of the work and of the challenge ahead of us this season dwarfs anything that we have seen thus far,” he said.

Unlike Liverpool, Ipswich have been active in the off-season, with England midfielder Kalvin Phillips their latest signing on loan, while Omari Hutchinson — on loan from Chelsea last season — was one of the seven players they signed on permanent deals this summer for a collective outlay of around £70m. But their fans, players and management are realistic: this will be a wonderful journey, but also a tough one. They showed enough here, though, to ensure that they are going to fight the whole season, continuing to play McKenna-ball of pressing and attacking with fluidity and freedom.

“We know the group is right in at the deep end but we hope that can fast-track our development in this league,” McKenna said after the game. “We know on the flip side there’s a chance we’ll have no points from our first two games [with Manchester City away next Saturday], but then we have Fulham and Brighton & Hove Albion, so every game is difficult.

“We have two of the most dominant teams early on and after that, it’s our journey and how we can improve. We won’t spend much time talking about the league table, positions or points; it’s about full commitment to each game.”

Memories of their time away will intersperse with the experience of seeing their “Tractor Boys” back in the top flight, but that one-two punch from Liverpool in a five-minute spell was a stark reminder of what lies ahead for them this season.

For Slot, this was job done and a first successful step in his tenure at Liverpool.