Liverpool's Season Ends in Regret After Draw Against Brentford
Arne Slot walked into the press room at Anfield with Champions League football secured but a season’s worth of regret hanging in the air.
Liverpool’s title defence ended not with defiance or drama, but with a flat 1-1 draw against Brentford, a result that felt entirely in tune with a campaign that never truly caught fire. Fifth place, a farewell that never quite became a send-off, and a manager willing to admit he did not always get it right.
Slot’s honest reckoning
“Not what I would have loved us to achieve this season,” Slot admitted, the league trophy long since out of reach, “but taking everything into account, what has happened to us this season, I'm happy that we've qualified for the Champions League.”
He did not hide behind the table or the injury list. He put himself in the frame.
“We, I, haven't been perfect,” he said. “As a manager you can never be perfect, a player can never be perfect.”
It was more than a stock end-of-season line. This was a manager whose biggest calls have been pulled apart for months, none more so than his handling of Mohamed Salah.
The Egyptian, benched in November and December during a catastrophic run of nine defeats in 12 matches, became the flashpoint of Liverpool’s unraveling. Salah’s public criticism of Slot led to what was effectively a one-match suspension and, in time, to negotiations over an early exit from a lucrative contract that still had a year to run.
History will circle those weeks in red ink.
Slot’s unwavering faith in several under-performing regulars, and his reluctance to turn to 19-year-old Rio Ngumoha until injuries and form left him with almost no alternative, will face similar scrutiny. The manager insists every call came from preparation, not stubbornness.
“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. But before I made them, it felt every time they were the right ones to make.”
A season scarred by loss and injury
Then came the caveat that has followed Liverpool all year.
“A lot of times I didn't even have to make decisions or choices,” Slot added, pointing straight at the one thing that has defined his first campaign: absence.
“If you asked me one word to describe this season, I would describe that with the word ‘injury’.”
The list is brutal. British record signing Alexander Isak missed 28 matches and started only eight league games. Alisson Becker sat out 20. First-choice right-back Conor Bradley was gone for 32. Jeremie Frimpong lost 19, Wataru Endo 18. New teenage centre-back Giovani Leoni saw his debut, and his season, end after just 81 minutes.
And overshadowing everything, something no tactical tweak could touch: the death of Diogo Jota in a car crash on the eve of pre-season. The emotional toll on a dressing room built around his energy and personality cannot be measured on any chart.
The physical damage could. It left Liverpool patched up, stretched thin, and constantly improvising.
Salah’s subdued farewell
So to Anfield, and a day that was supposed to belong to Salah and Andy Robertson. It never quite did.
Salah, playing his final game for the club, did at least leave one more mark. He slipped the pass that allowed Curtis Jones to open the scoring, a neat reminder of the understanding and incision that once terrified defences.
For six minutes, Liverpool led and the Kop dared to enjoy the script.
Then Kevin Schade rose, met a cross, and headed Brentford level. One lapse, one goal, and a season summed up in a single moment: promise, then the familiar sting of dropped points.
Liverpool could not find another gear. The urgency never truly matched the occasion. A farewell without fireworks.
Brentford’s step forward
For Brentford, the equation was simpler. Victory would have delivered a first European qualification in the club’s history. They fell short of that, but a ninth-place finish still marks another stride forward.
“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.”
There was pride in his voice, the kind that comes from knowing a project is moving in the right direction, even without the glitter of European nights.
An uneasy platform for what comes next
Liverpool, by contrast, step into the summer with more questions than celebrations. Champions League football offers a safety net and a platform, but not a verdict.
Slot has owned his mistakes. He has pointed to the injuries. He has lived through a tragedy that no manager expects to face. Yet the hard reality remains: a title defence fizzled out, key relationships fractured, and some of his biggest decisions left scars.
Now comes the reset. Salah is gone. Robertson is gone. The spine of the side is changing, the expectations are not.
Slot has his Champions League place. What he does with this bruised, talented, and increasingly restless squad will decide whether this season becomes a one-off stumble or the first chapter in a more worrying trend.
