When Arne Slot's Red-Affected Red Machine Was in Full Effect

How do Premier League managers respond when their team receives a red card? Few can match up to Arne Slot's handling of Liverpool's against Fulham.

The first season for a new head coach is always fascinating for supporters of their club. How do they compare to their predecessor? How do they use their substitutes bench? Can they deal positively with adversity?

By winning the Premier League in his first season in charge of Liverpool, Arne Slot has emphatically proved any doubters wrong. Few Kopites will have known much about the former Feyenoord boss before he was appointed, yet even without winning a trophy he would’ve given very few reasons to be criticised.

The previous edition of this newsletter asked ‘when did you know?’, in reference to when you first believed the Reds were going to win the 2024/25 Premier League. Whichever match tipped you over the edge of doubter into believer is one thing, but Slot had to impress his players and the fans long before number 20 became close to a certainty.

Liverpool are Premier League Champions. When did you know?

In the space of four weeks as November turned to December, Liverpool beat four Champions League teams without conceding a goal. Three of them were defending title holders in a big five league too, we’re not talking Slovan Bratislava or Sturm Graz here. Proper darts.

A team must be able to solve problems, not just impress when the going is smooth and good. Leaving aside the post-match skirmish at Goodison Park, the one red card Liverpool have collected in the league this season occurred against Fulham at Anfield in the final month of 2024. They were superb for the 73 minutes they played with 10 men.

Stat of the Match: Liverpool 2-2 Fulham

It’s worth reiterating three pertinent points from the match review here:

• Fulham were fourth in the expected points table at the time.

• All 16 shots the Reds took were hit from inside the penalty area

• The 2.1 expected goals Liverpool generated remains the third most Fulham have conceded this season

The final fact is particularly startling. How does a team produce that level of offence against one of the best teams in the Premier League (at the time) when at a disadvantage? Liverpool’s expected goal difference of +0.9 in this match is the best by any team that endured a sending off this season.

Bear in mind too that Andy Robertson’s red card was the earliest received by any club in 2024/25. Five of the other six sides who had at least 0.4 xG more than their opponents suffered a dismissal in the 83rd minute or later. Everton’s was after full time, while Brighton’s example is blurred by Crystal Palace receiving two reds of their own.

And then there’s Arsenal. Certain title winners if it hadn’t have been for injuries and red cards. Oh, and Liverpool leaving the strongest ever iteration of the Premier League in their dust. But still, the sendings off, eh? No top flight team has had more this season, with the Gunners taking five points from the five matches in which they went down to 10.

Considering how well Slot dealt with Robertson’s red against Fulham, it feels worth taking a deeper dive into how managers have responded to this brand of setback in 2024/25.