Arne Slot is confident that Liverpool can reduce the gap to Manchester City by improving their away results from last season.
The key for the Kop boss is to quieten the home fans during away matches.
In Jurgen Klopp’s final campaign, Liverpool finished nine points behind the champions, Manchester City.
Interestingly, the Reds earned one more point than Pep Guardiola’s side at home.
However, the crucial difference was in their away form.
Both clubs lost three away games, but Man City secured five more wins on the road.
Liverpool suffered a loss at Goodison Park and managed only a draw against Manchester United at Old Trafford during a critical phase of the season.
This 10-point gap ultimately allowed City to finish well ahead of Liverpool on their way to a fourth consecutive title.
Now, Arne Slot is determined to find an edge.
After expressing frustration over his team’s performance against Wolves last week – despite securing a victory that put them at the top of the table – he has emphasized the importance of their form away from home to his players.
He said: “If you are purely looking at it from a data point of view then it was a 10 point difference to City [on away points collected].
“If you look at the home form of both teams then the £10m question is why is this?
“I think there are areas we have to improve and that is why it is so important to take control over every game, not only the home games but the away ones too.
“Just to be very dominant in away games that is why I wasn’t very happy with the first 20 minutes at Wolves.”
Arne Slot acknowledges that the crowd significantly impacts the difficulty of away games.
He urges his players to silence the opposing fans by controlling the match and avoiding easy scoring opportunities for the opposition.
This strategy will be put to the test today as they travel to Selhurst Park to face a Crystal Palace team still searching for their first Premier League win of the season.
“I think the home and away games of Liverpool are quite similar but in general it is tougher to play away because the home fans cheer very hard if their team gets a chance, they get more confidence from that,” said the Dutchman.
“You play against the same players (as you do at home) but they get more confidence from the fans which make it a bit more difficult to win an away game.
“But there were also many home games that were quite tight and maybe then our fans made the difference.
“The thing is if you are Liverpool – and also they are one or two other [top] clubs – if we go to say Wolves or Palace and they get a corner kick the fans cheer.
“So this is what you face when you are a top club.
“Everyone is looking forward to it [Liverpool coming to town] the whole week, the Palace fans, everybody is talking about, ‘Liverpool are coming,’ the players are all up for it and that is why it is tough.”
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