The Specialness of Arne Slot's Liverpool Squad This Season...

[Webster]

BBC Sport: 'Something special brewing at Slot's remarkable Liverpool'

Arne Slot can now add banishing memories of some of the most painful episodes in Liverpool's recent history to his list of achievements in the stunning start to his Anfield tenure.

Real Madrid were predecessor Jurgen Klopp's nemesis among his many successes, agonisingly losing Champions League finals to the Spanish giants in 2018 and 2022, as well as falling to them on two other occasions in the past seven seasons.

Slot shifted the previously immovable Real Madrid object in superb fashion, ending a sequence of six losses and two draws against the 15-time winners in what was the biggest statement of intent since this understated Dutch coach succeeded Klopp.

Real Madrid's superstar fan Rafael Nadal, deciding to spend some time following retirement from tennis watching his heroes at Anfield, knows a formidable opponent when he sees one. Even he will have appreciated the quality of Liverpool's performance through his pain at such a comprehensive defeat.

Klopp left Slot an outstanding squad to work with but, with his more measured but still thrillingly potent approach, a remarkable record of 17 wins, one defeat and one draw is a remarkable testimony to the way he has gone about his work. With every game, every win, the sense that something special is brewing at Liverpool under Slot - the antithesis of his animated, fist-pumping, iconic predecessor - grows. Slot’s style may be more low-key but that statistic alone illustrates how Liverpool's fans have hardly been able to see the join since he replaced Klopp.

What was billed as an impossible task to replace the beloved, not to mention very successful Klopp, is being made to look like a walk in the park. The Kop serenaded Slot and his players with "Liverpool, Liverpool top of the league" as the seconds ticked down to the final whistle. You can take your pick of which league they were singing about.

Liverpool's 2-0 win, not a scoreline that flatters them, made it five wins from five in the Champions League to put them top of the new format’s table. And, as an addition, Liverpool are eight points clear at the Premier League summit, with the chance to go 11 points ahead of struggling champions Manchester City with victory at Anfield on Sunday.

-Read more: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c4g71ndzr7wo