Liverpool's 'complete' team earns praise from Xabi Alonso following Bayer Leverkusen victory

When Jurgen Klopp stepped down as manager at the end of last season, the Spaniard was considered one of the top candidates to make a return to his former club.

But his decision to remain in Germany opened the door for Arne Slot to take charge and the Dutchman is off to a flying start with 14 wins and one draw in his first 16 matches in charge in all competitions.

Liverpool are sitting pretty at the top of both the English Premier League and Champions League and have advanced to the quarter-finals of the League Cup.

Leverkusen matched the Reds for the opening hour but collapsed after Luis Diaz latched onto Curtis Jones’ through ball to open the scoring. Cody Gakpo quickly headed in a second before Diaz struck twice more in the final 10 minutes for his first Liverpool hat-trick.

“They are a complete team,” said Alonso, whose name was chanted by the home fans in the closing stages.

“They are able to defend, to score, to have power in the boxes, keep clean sheets, with not many chances to score goals – that is a great strength in the Champions League.

“They are in a good moment, everything has good balance, the coach is doing great work, so it looks like a great season but we are still in November.”

Liverpool were inspired by the atmosphere to come from behind to beat Brighton & Hove Albion to go top of the Premier League over the weekend and relied upon a similar boost from the crowd after a flat first half.

Alonso won the Champions League during his five years as a Liverpool player between 2004 and 2009 and said he was powerless to stop that momentum despite his personal experience of the Anfield crowd.

“I know the feeling the Liverpool players feel. It is an extra boost,” he added. “To defend in those moments is not easy. Like what happened to Brighton on Saturday.”

Slot, meanwhile, said he could not have imagined when he arrived that barely four months later his team would be sitting atop both the Champions League and Premier League tables.

But he is keeping his feet on the ground.

“You don’t look ahead as a manager... you don’t look ahead two or three months in advance. You only look at the next opponent,” he insisted.

“And now it’s Aston Villa on Saturday (in the Premier League), which is, again, a team that does really well in Europe and in the league, another tough game.” AFP,