Liverpool FC closes the gap to their arch-rivals with their 20th league title – also because the Reds are not guided by emotions

Due to the long period of slump, many Liverpool Football Club fans doubted whether their club would ever catch up with record title holders Manchester United. But since Sunday evening, it's been clear: LFC has mastered the challenge.

With a stunning 5-1 home victory against struggling Tottenham Hotspur, the Reds secured the 20th league title in their club's history at Anfield, drawing level with arch-rivals Manchester United, who overtook them in 2011. With four matches remaining in the season, Liverpool are unassailable in the Premier League, 15 points ahead of their closest rivals, Arsenal. The Reds will receive the championship trophy in just under a month at their final home game against Crystal Palace.

The triumph brings with it a welcome side effect for their supporters – the return of former successful coach Jürgen Klopp to Anfield. Since his departure, the coach had deliberately avoided visiting his former stomping ground because he "didn't want to jinx it," as he recently put it at a club charity event in South Korea. He suspected that if he had been there and Liverpool had lost, they would have been greeted with, "Oh, damn it!" However, he also promised to attend the championship celebrations once the title was secured.

Klopp coached Liverpool for nine years, from 2015 to 2024, and his merits and popularity made him a major figure on the River Mersey. Filling his shoes was considered impossible; the English football community joked that Liverpool should, above all, choose a cheap coach to replace Klopp—since they would soon have to sack him anyway.

A similar situation once happened at Manchester United and Arsenal after the departure of long-serving managers Alex Ferguson (27 years) and Arsène Wenger (22 years). Both clubs fell into a serious crisis. However, LFC has been even more successful under Klopp's successor, Arne Slot , than under Klopp.

The reasons can be divided into technical, sporting, and human aspects. Unlike Ferguson and Wenger, Klopp never seemed omnipotent at Liverpool. While he was involved in all the club's operations, his focus was on the team. Steering the club was the responsibility of management.

The Fenway Group, a Boston-based sports investment firm owned by stock trader John W. Henry, is behind the deal. It specializes in modernizing struggling sports clubs. Its portfolio also includes the Boston Red Sox baseball team.

Henry described Fenway's approach in a rare interview with the Financial Times a year ago. He wrote that he "always doubts everything, especially his own thinking, because there's far too much self-confidence everywhere these days." Therefore, his credo is to pay more attention to the market than to what people think about the market.

Based on this fundamental belief, LFC has developed one of the most impressive database departments in football since acquiring Fenway in 2010, which saved the club from bankruptcy. This ensures that the often subjective decisions in this business become more objective. Officials at Liverpool's long-standing passion club are thus not guided by emotions.

After Klopp's retirement announcement, the computer-assisted insights brought Slot, then coach of Feyenoord Rotterdam, to Liverpool's attention. They signed the Dutchman, even though he had never managed a top club before.

Slot benefited from the consistent structures within LFC's management team during his start. Before this season, head of football Michael Edwards also returned to the organization after taking a break. Slot confirmed that there are "clear hierarchies" within the club.

Slot's method and style of play share several similarities with Klopp's. The starting eleven has remained almost the same as last season. Slot has only adjusted one position: in midfield, he replaced Japanese tackler Wataru Endo with pacesetter and fellow countryman Ryan Gravenberch. This way, the team didn't have to adjust, and it also didn't become too monotonous.

Because Klopp's team was in excellent shape, fundamental changes were unnecessary. This was another striking feature of the coaching change, which differed from the previous replacements of Ferguson and Wenger, whose teams had already passed their peak.

None of this would have been possible without the mutual respect between Klopp and Slot. They exchange views regularly, free of resentment and vanity. Slot acknowledges his predecessor's achievements. And to this day, Klopp has never once interfered in Slot's affairs. The German saw his Liverpool era over when he composed a chant for Slot at his farewell party, essentially passing him the baton. Klopp has long politely declined Slot's invitations to Anfield. But now, a reunion will soon take place.