Liverpool's Season of Missteps: Champions League Qualification Secured

Arne Slot walked into the press room at Anfield with Champions League qualification secured but the air of a man who knew this season will not be remembered fondly.

Fifth place. A flat 1-1 draw at home to Brentford. No grand farewell for Mohamed Salah or Andy Robertson. For a club that began the campaign as reigning champions, it felt like a long way down.

A season of missteps

Slot did not hide from that.

"Not what I would have loved us to achieve this season before we started," he admitted, before leaning on the one consolation that remained: "I'm happy that we've qualified for the Champions League."

He knew that line would not satisfy many inside Anfield. Not after the way the title defence unravelled. Not after nine defeats in 12 games ripped the heart out of their campaign across November and December.

History will circle those months in red ink. So will it circle one decision in particular: Salah on the bench.

Slot chose to sit his star forward during that catastrophic run, a call that triggered a chain reaction. Salah responded publicly, criticising the head coach. The club effectively handed him a one‑match suspension. The relationship never truly recovered. By the spring, Salah was negotiating his exit, walking away from a lucrative contract with a year still to run.

Slot did not revisit the details, but he did concede the broader point.

"We, I, haven't been perfect," he said. "As a manager you can never be perfect, a player can never be perfect."

The words were measured, but the subtext was clear. Some choices will follow him.

His continued loyalty to several under-performing players will be one. His reluctance to use gifted teenager Rio Ngumoha until injuries left him with almost no alternative will be another. These are the selection calls that get replayed in boardrooms and bars long after the season ends.

Slot’s defence was simple: every decision felt right at the time.

"All the decisions I've made throughout the whole season has been only with one idea, and that's being very well prepared," he said. "Not every decision can be the right one so it would be stupid for me to sit here and say all the decisions I've made were the right ones."

Grief, injuries and a campaign derailed

Then came the part of the story that does not show up on league tables.

Before a ball was kicked in anger, Liverpool were hit by a tragedy no squad can truly prepare for: the death of Diogo Jota in a car crash on the eve of pre-season. The emotional toll was impossible to measure, but everyone inside the camp felt it.

On top of that grief came a relentless stream of injuries that shredded Slot’s plans and, at times, his options.

"If you asked me one word to describe this season, I would describe that with the word 'injury'," he said.

It was not an exaggeration. British record signing Alexander Isak missed 28 matches and started only eight Premier League games. Alisson Becker sat out 20. First-choice right-back Conor Bradley lost 32. Jeremie Frimpong was absent for 19, Wataru Endo for 18. Nineteen-year-old centre-back Giovani Leoni saw his debut – and his season – end after just 81 minutes.

"A lot of times I didn't even have to make decisions or choices," Slot reflected. The treatment room did it for him.

Salah’s last act at Anfield

The final day should have been about celebration, about a proper goodbye for Salah and Robertson. Instead, it felt like a snapshot of the entire campaign: flashes of quality, undermined by fragility.

All eyes were on Salah. He did what he has done so often, even in a strained final chapter – he influenced the game. His neat work and vision opened the door for Curtis Jones to score, giving Liverpool the lead and a brief sense of occasion.

Six minutes later, it was gone.

Kevin Schade rose to head Brentford level, and Anfield slumped back into a familiar posture: frustration, resignation, a glance at the table rather than the pitch.

Liverpool could not find a winner. They could not find a way to give Salah the send-off his numbers and legacy deserve. Instead, they closed out the season with a draw that felt entirely on brand for this campaign – not disastrous, not disastrous enough to miss out on the Champions League, but nowhere near what they once demanded of themselves.

Brentford’s quiet stride forward

For Brentford, the stakes were very different. Victory would have delivered a first European qualification in the club’s history. A point left them short of that dream, but not short of pride.

Ninth place, back-to-back top-half finishes, and a growing sense that they belong at this level.

"It shows we are a good football club," said head coach Keith Andrews. "It never should be taken for granted finishing in the top half, you could ask a lot of clubs dotted around the Championship who possibly got ahead of themselves.

"The fact we have been able to do that two years in a row is pretty special."

They left Anfield knowing they had pushed a wounded giant and walked away with something to show for it.

What comes next

Slot will now be judged on what follows. The injuries should ease. The rawness of Jota’s loss will never fully disappear, but time will soften its edges. Salah will be gone. Robertson too. Others may follow.

The safety net of "taking everything into account" will not stretch into next season.

Liverpool have their place back at Europe’s top table. The question now is blunt and unavoidable: was this year a painful blip, or the start of a new, harsher reality at Anfield?