Arne Slot says the second half of the season will be even tougher than the first, as he seeks a record-tying 20th English Premier League title for Liverpool in his debut season at Anfield.
The Reds have been the best team in England and Europe this season, losing only two of their 31 games across all competitions.
They are four points ahead of second-placed Arsenal in the Premier League, with a game in hand, and face a difficult match against mid-table Brentford on Saturday.
The London side, who drew 2-2 with Manchester City this week, have the joint-highest number of home wins in the league this season — equal with Arsenal and Liverpool on seven.
“This season, maybe more than every other season, shows the strength of every single team that’s in the league,” Slot told his pre-match press conference on Friday.
“Even yesterday evening, I think it was quite a surprise to see Southampton going toe to toe with (Manchester) United (won 3-1 after three late goals).
“So, it shows you that in the second half of the season that it’s even harder to win your games than in the first half of the season, because teams are longer together, managers are working longer with the team, you’ve played already once against each other so maybe there’s a different game plan, some teams bring players in to strengthen the squad and teams are fighting for getting into Europe, winning the league, trying to stay in the league.”
Brentford were the opposition in Slot’s first home league game in August — a match Liverpool won 2-0.
“I already thought, ‘If this is going to be the resistance we get every week then this is a more difficult league than the Eredivisie’, which I knew before I came but it was proven that day as well,” he said.
The Dutchman said Liverpool, who have drawn their past two games, were not obsessing over the Premier League table “every second of the day”.
Diogo Jota is a doubt to face Brentford after reporting discomfort following his goalscoring cameo performance against Nottingham Forest in a 1-1 draw in midweek.
Slot played down suggestions that another forward Darwin Nunez was struggling with confidence.
The Uruguayan, who is not often a starter, has scored just four goals in 26 appearances in all competitions this season.
“For me, it’s the life of a striker -– sometimes you score, sometimes you don’t,” said Slot. “And he hasn’t started every single game.
“The most important thing for me is that we as a team were able to score every single game, except for the Tottenham one (in the League Cup) and (Nottingham Forest, earlier in the season).
“So, it tells me that we have so many goals in our team. Darwin will score his goals, like he did for this club already and he will keep doing this. But I don’t see him struggling that much.”
