HERE WE GO: Liverpool can leave permanent mark on Everton history if Arne Slot solves Jurgen Klopp puzzle

Liverpool can leave permanent mark on Everton history if Arne Slot solves Jurgen Klopp puzzle
Liverpool has the chance to write a piece of satisfying Everton history tonight, taking a step toward the title in the process. But Arne Slot will need to be at his best.
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ByJames MartinLiverpool Writer
16:50, 12 FEB 2025
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Head coach Arne Slot of Liverpool during a training session at AXA Training Centre on February 11, 2025 in Kirkby, England.
Arne Slot of Liverpool. (Image: Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Liverpool does not need any extra motivation for the Merseyside Derby, especially with Arne Slot well on course to win the Premier League in his debut season. Quite apart from bragging rights, a victory would move the Reds nine points clear of Arsenal, making the most of that long-held game in hand — but it turns out there’s yet another reason why three points would be particularly special.

As we all know by now, this is the last ever derby at Goodison Park, with Everton set to move into its new ground next season. Liverpool will obviously want to mark the occasion with a win, although Slot will have to overcome a problem that Jurgen Klopp often encountered.

The gulf between the two teams has rarely been bigger than it was throughout much of Klopp’s tenure. Yet the German found that there was something unique about Goodison, where he remarkabkly only managed to win twice.

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Incidentally, that’s yet another reason to be glad that FSG chose to keep Liverpool at Anfield, expanding and modernizing the club’s historic home rather than upping sticks. Everton has not exactly had any glory days to cherish at Goodison Park recently, but its home ground has undeniably got a kind of aura about it, one the Toffees can only hope moves with them to Bramley-Moore Dock.

But whatever the future holds, the past contains a pretty respectable home record for Everton against Liverpool. In fact, going into the last ever game at the stadium, the two teams are dead level when it comes to derby wins at Goodison: 41 apiece.

How satisfying it would be for Liverpool if Slot could mastermind a win in his first and only Goodison Park derby, condemning Everton to the losing side forever when it comes to the head-to-head at its historic home. But he could do with studying Klopp’s record to steel himself for the challenge that awaits him this evening.

Jurgen Klopp’s final trip to Goodison Park ended in a 2-0 defeat. (Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
The form book holds little relevance when this fixture rolls around. And for what little it is worth, Everton is in far better shape than it was when the game was originally meant to be played in December, with David Moyes returning and engineering three straight Premier League wins.

Hopefully, that might convince Everton to come out and play a bit, which would give Liverpool the best chance of dismantling the Blues like it has done to so many other opponents under Slot. But the more likely direction of the game is a bitty, attritional affair where the Reds are made to work for absolutely everything.

Much like Klopp before him, Slot has occasionally bemoaned the dreaded low block, the puzzle that more or less any top team ultimately has to solve. The Dutchman appears to have found ways through it on a slightly more reliable basis than his predecessor, but Liverpool still thrives on space in behind, something which will be at a premium at Goodison.

More than anything, Slot will need to prepare his side for a battle. In an ideal world, Liverpool will be able to rise above it — but it also needs to be ready to beat Everton at its own game if it gets dragged into the trenches.

Do that, and the rewards are huge. The biggest boon by far will be the effect it has on the Premier League table, but a permanent red mark on Everton history sounds pretty good too.

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