Liverpool cement Champions League contenders status by making Bayer Leverkusen crumble at Anfield

In a battle of two rising managerial stars, Arne Slot came out on top on Tuesday as Liverpool cruised to a 4-0 victory over Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen, extending his near-perfect start to life as the Reds’ manager and putting the rest of Europe on notice. 

At first, the game was a slow burn. Neither side had more than one shot on target through the first 42 minutes, and neither side was close to reaching one expected goal by the halftime break. The game state arguably favored Alonso – the defensive tone of the first half was not a surprise for Slot’s defensively steady Liverpool, but Leverkusen have been porous at the back in Bundesliga play this season. Limiting Liverpool’s attack to 0.64 expected goals after nine shots would mark a major statement, especially as Leverkusen map out their follow-up act to last season’s historic double-winning season.

In the end, though, it was Slot and Liverpool who came out of the game with a statement of their own.

The Reds swapped a tame first half for a high-intensity second half, taking charge in nearly every meaningful category after the break. While they ceded possession to Leverkusen in the first half, they had a slight advantage in the second. Most importantly, though, they mustered 3.49 expected goals out of 13 second-half shots – and scored four goals to back it up. Luis Diaz scored the first of his three goals in the 61st minute, while Mohamed Salah notched two assists and Curtis Jones impressed by setting up a pair of goals himself.

It was the most emphatic win of Liverpool’s season so far, though Slot demonstrated some managerial range over the course of the 90 minutes. The first half reflected the restraint Slot’s Liverpool are becoming known for, as well as a budding habit of letting the opponent have the ball in high-profile games. The tone shift at halftime, though, was a new look for the Reds under the Dutchman, demonstrating an ability to respond to imperfect scenarios in games and make the necessary adjustments to come out with a winning result.

Though it was hardly a job requirement at the time of his hire, Slot’s tactical shift allowed Liverpool to resemble Klopp’s high-energy version of the team during his nearly nine-year spell in charge. Tuesday’s win, though, showed what the perfect follow-up act looks like despite the seemingly impossible task of succeeding a celebrated manager. While Slot’s personal preferences were on display, the foundational tactical similarities he shares with Klopp were equally apparent.

“I like the high press just as much as Jurgen liked it,” Slot told CBS Sports after the win over Leverkusen. “I think that’s also one of the reasons why Liverpool, why [sporting director] Richard [Hughes] came to me, that our playing style was quite similar … Maybe with the ball, risk-reward, sometimes [I] wait a bit longer to play the ball in behind but what we always want from our players is that we press them really high.”

As for Alonso, his first full season as a manager in the Champions League – and his first amongst Europe’s elites since winning the Bundesliga – shows some room for improvement, especially as Leverkusen now stand at 20 goals against in 15 games across all competitions this season. Upward trajectories are not always a straight line, though, and there’s still little reason to strike his name from the list of the continent’s next big managers.

Slot now has 15 wins in his first 16 games in charge of Liverpool, occupying top spot in both the Champions League and Premier League tables in the process. He is perhaps the rare example of a manager who has barely missed a beat in his first big job, showcasing the Reds’ tangible transformation into a team of his making despite inheriting Klopp’s squad. On a day of lopsided victories in the Champions League, the fact that his Liverpool were on the right side of a big win – and that Real Madrid and Manchester City were on the wrong side – suggests that the intangible feeling of inevitable victory that was once attached to those sides has now shifted to Liverpool.