Has Arne Slot COST Liverpool two trophies this month?

Arne Slot is having a hell of a season in charge of Liverpool. Let’s acknowledge that fact. Liverpool are very close to confirming their first Premier League title since 2020 in the Dutchman’s very first season as head coach.

If he achieves it first time of asking, he will go down as an instant Liverpool legend. His points total after 29 games is six points UP on Jurgen Klopp’s in his final season in charge.

READ MORE: Liverpool Transfer News: Alvarez one step CLOSER as star's head is turned

There may well be some mitigating circumstances behind that - Manchester City’s implosion, Arsenal not following through on a title race, the paucity of the promoted sides.

EXCLUSIVE: Chelsea's INSANE offer beats Liverpool to €22m transfer

Nonetheless, Slot has guided Liverpool to the top and kept them there - all the while improving several of the club’s top stars.

Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch, Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo are just some of the names who have grown in stature under the former Feyenoord head coach this term.

Oh, and did we mention Liverpool bosses BARELY even tried to improve the squad in the last two transfer windows? Only Federico Chiesa was signed and he’s hardly set the stage alight.

For Liverpool fans who have seen Manchester United overhaul their league trophy total, winning the top flight is the No1 priority. So credit to Slot for being VERY close to delivering that the first time of asking.

But there are some question marks over his performances in the other competitions - especially since the start of March.

Slot doesn't take his chance to rotate

Having managed the schedule brilliantly to begin with, Liverpool slipped out of the FA Cup in February, and, more recently, the Champions League and the Carabao Cup in disappointing fashion.

A much-changed team couldn’t get by lowly Plymouth in the FA Cup fourth round.

Then Slot went completely the other way, failing to make any significant rotations around the last-16 Champions League ties against Paris Saint-Germain and the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle.

No one was asking for wholescale changes - with academy kids and untested fringe players - but a certain degree of freshening up over the last few weeks could have kept Liverpool in business in Europe and won them the Carabao Cup.

But Slot evidently doesn’t trust the deputies in his squad - Jarell Quansah, Wataru Endo, Curtis Jones, Chiesa, Harvey Elliott and Darwin Nunez in particular.

Because when push came to shove, he stuck with his tried-and-tested formula despite the evidence stacking up that his favourites needed a rest.

In the Premier League game against Southampton in between the PSG games, Slot once again asked MOST of his preferred XI to suit up. Remember there was less than a week between all three of those games; Wednesday - Saturday - Tuesday.

Andy Robertson and Alexis Mac Allister only got 45 minutes rest against the Saints before they were asked to help rescue the game for Second Half FC once again.

Diogo Jota was rotated out of the lineup for Nunez, who actually performed decently. That wasn’t enough to move the dial in Slot’s eyes though as Jota was STRAIGHT back in when PSG came to Anfield despite an ineffectual display in the first leg.

Liverpool went through 120 minutes - plus penalties - in the second leg so what was Slot’s decision with Newcastle lying in store at Wembley only a few days later?

Slot doesn't prioritise games

Practically the SAME line-up as the two PSG games - save for Quansah coming in for Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was injured, and Alisson giving way to Caoimhin Kelleher - the cup goalkeeper.

Really strange.

First it appeared that Slot was content to ignore the evidence in front of his eyes for players like Jota. What exactly has he done recently to merit a first-team place?

Moreover, there’s the exhaustion issue; no one is asking for Gravenberch or Mohamed Salah to be dropped for big games but Slot has denied himself the chance to rest those big players in less important games.

In fact, he doesn’t see any game as a priority, other than the one in front of him.

“For me, the one against Southampton is by far the most important. Not only because it is the first one we play, but it is also a very important one for us,” he said ahead of Southampton - the bottom-placed Premier League table. It’s hard to imagine Pep Guardiola for example taking the same decision.

Slot’s asked an AWFUL lot from his core over the last few weeks and unsurprisingly they haven’t been able to deliver.

Liverpool's BIG summer in store

Surely Quansah could have played against Southampton? That would have spared either Trent or Konate - who were both injured in the PSG second leg.

Wouldn’t Gravenberch have benefitted from having a weekend off? Endo could have played instead. Jones is also good enough to have started in either of the PSG legs. Nunez deserved to start AT LEAST one of the PSG games or else the Carabao Cup final.

Elliott and Chiesa? Most probably, between the pair of them, they could have taken care of Southampton and given Salah or Diaz the day off.

It’s too late for any lasting damage to be done in the Premier League as the Reds are in touching distance.

But his team selection versus Southampton - not to mention his predilection for using the same core time and again - may well have cost his team two or three more trophies this season.

READ MORE: Liverpool nearing move to replace Trent Alexander-Arnold with Arne Slot favourite

It’s a big summer for the club - especially if they lose Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent. Liverpool need to add enough quality players so that Slot feels like he can rotate without sacrificing quality.

Because asking the same 10/11 guys to go the distance time and again is not going to work.

Exclusive: PSG make €100million proposal to Virgil Van Dijk