Liverpools 2024-25 Premier League Title: The Power of Player-Driven Success in Modern Soccer
As Jürgen Klopp left Liverpool last spring, the Premier League was poised to enter a new era. With the departure of a revered coach who had helped define the league, a fresh face, Mikel Arteta, was on the rise. It seemed as if Arsenal and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City were poised to dominate the Prem for the foreseeable future, having finished first and second in each of the previous two seasons. Entering 2024-25 as joint favorites, their rivals were led by unproven managers, adding to the anticipation.
However, over the past eight months, Liverpool has emphatically refuted that logic. The Reds have romped to the top of the table and, on Sunday with a 5-1 thrashing of Tottenham, clinched their second Premier League title. From August through April, they had the best and healthiest squad, thanks in part to Arne Slot’s management.
Slot, a first-year coach with a career spent entirely in the Netherlands, instantly adapted to England. He empowered Mohamed Salah, maximized Ryan Gravenberch, and trusted Trent Alexander-Arnold, flaws and all. But he did not reinvent Liverpool; instead, he recognized that soccer can still be a player-driven sport and allowed his players to drive him to a trophy.
The lesson of Liverpool's 2024-25 triumph is that success is not solely dependent on a manager imposing their beliefs and personality on their new club. When Erik Ten Hag arrived at Manchester United and Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham, both seemed to follow the Guardiola-Arteta-Klopp playbook, bringing semi-revolutionary ideas and trying to establish their authority. This is what their clubs were paying them (handsomely) to do, but it is not the only route to success.
Slot's team was different from Klopp's in a subtle, yet significant way. It was the best because it rolled out the best players, and Slot's brilliance was in simply allowing that to be the story. He is intelligent and detail-oriented, with tactics that helped Liverpool win games on the margins. His lineup rotation and substitutions kept key players fit and fresh. To be very clear: He had an active hand in this title. But it was his passive approach that paved the way for Liverpool's statement: Players (still) win soccer games.
Liverpool's success was not built on signing a wish list of expensive stars. Instead, the club signed just one player—Federico Chiesa, who has not started a Premier League game all season. The 19 players who have started at least once were all at Liverpool last year. Slot simply worked with them, and they delivered. Salah put together perhaps his best season with less defensive responsibility and more attacking freedom than he had under Klopp. Virgil van Dijk cemented himself as the league's best defender. As City aged (and Rodri tore his ACL) and as Arsenal starved for creativity, Liverpool’s Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, and Dominik Szoboszlai grew into the most complete and balanced midfield trio in the league.
