Is this year the end of an era for Liverpool? Salah, Van Dijk, and Alexander-Arnold face season defining week

Eras never quite tie themselves in as neat a bow as those with an eye on the history books might like. Even a storybook ending like Michael Jordan and a documentary production team wrote for themselves in The Last Dance has to brush over those extra two years with the Washington Wizards.

For a time, at the start of 2024, you could convince yourself that Liverpool were approaching their natural end point too. Jurgen Klopp was going, and he was going in style. His side were top of the Premier League, set fair in a Europa League that was taking them to their adoring masses in Dublin, a meeting with the heir apparent in Xabi Alonso, leading an undefeated Bayer Leverkusen side, seemingly inevitable.

But football rarely allows itself to be hammered into such straightforward stories. Liverpool stumbled down the stretch, falling out of the title race, and losing in the quarterfinals of the Europa League to eventual winners Atalanta. Xabi Alonso opted to stay in Germany, leaving Arne Slot as Klopp’s successor. The end of an era started to look more like just any other Liverpool year. 

Now, however, as Liverpool face the biggest week of their season, with matches at Anfield against Real Madrid (you can catch the action only on Paramount+) and Manchester City looming, another question emerges.

What if it’s this season that closes the book on Liverpool’s last era?

Doesn’t this season feel much more like the natural end point for this great Liverpool side? After all the end of it may bring the departure of anywhere up to three times as many decisive figures as Klopp in Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah. All three are out of contract at the end of the season. It is hard to imagine Liverpool would have enjoyed quite the success they did under Klopp without even one of them.

Meanwhile, it is eminently plausible that they could do something special indeed this season. They’re eight points clear at the top of the Premier League table and the last team with a 100 percent record in the Champions League. Liverpool supporters have surely grown tired of hearing that every week is the one where Slot’s chops are really tested. Frankly, they’ve aced enough examinations from Bayer Leverkusen, Chelsea and Aston Villa.

A different opportunity confronts them now. Beat Real Madrid and Manchester City and Liverpool have as compelling a case as anyone to be the best team in Europe. Keep that up and, well, talk about some Liverpool legends potentially going out on top.

Could winning keep Alexander-Arnold in England

Of the triumvirate perhaps the one over whom there is the most doubt, and whose exit would be felt most profoundly on an emotional level, is Alexander-Arnold. When he addresses the imminent expiry of his contract he speaks of “the most important thing” as being “trophies.” 

“I’m a player who is highly motivated by winning things and being elite,” he told reporters in September. It rather makes you ask why his pen is not already over the dotted line. 

Slot’s arrival has not quelled Liverpool’s ability to compete for trophies. If anything this season now looks like it will end with at least the Premier League crown. Most prediction models have their chances at over 50 percent, the bookmakers too. Beat Manchester City on Sunday — it remains to be seen whether he will be fit either for that game or the earlier meeting with Madrid — and it would be only somewhat premature for Alexander-Arnold to start rearranging his trophy cabinet.

The 26-year-old might be true to his word and Liverpool might one day wake up to the news that their homegrown superstar has committed the remainder of his prime years to Anfield. “I have been at the club 20 years now,” he said in his last public utterance on his future, “I have signed four or five contract extensions and none of those have been played out in public. This one won’t be either.”

Or will Real Madrid tempt Liverpool’s right back?

He might surprise many in the football world. That, however, is the point. It would now feel like a surprise if Alexander-Arnold began 2025-26 in Liverpool red rather than Real Madrid white. There is the lure of playing with his close friend Jude Bellingham, of course, but the appeal would be no less profound if he were to be the lone Englishman. Win the Premier League this season and Alexander-Arnold might reasonably question what worlds there are left to conquer with his boyhood club. He has more than done his fair share: bringing the English championship back to Anfield, adding a sixth European Cup, shattering expectations for what a player can contribute to attack from full back.

A player of Alexander-Arnold’s excellence will want more. Why shouldn’t a player of his quality aspire to not just win different team prizes but also the biggest individual honors? No elite footballer will need telling which club affords its players the greatest opportunity to compete for the Ballon d’Or.

How long will Van Dijk and Salah’s primes last?

Alexander-Arnold has his best years ahead of him. Do the other two? Van Dijk seems to play like a man who has grasped that his physical abilities are fading. He is all the more impressive for it. No longer can the 33-year-old simply apply the afterburners to catch a forward that might be sprinting away. He reads the situation so that the pass through to the opponent never reaches its target. Van Dijk is averaging half as many tackles as last season and more than 50 percent more interceptions. 

Salah summed up Van Dijk to a tee in what were rather more underreported comments than the ones about his own future at St. Mary’s on Sunday evening. The two of them will, he vowed, “play at the highest level for as long as possible.” Watch him in action and he is as imperious as ever. Age will slow him, but it will only heighten his understanding of the game. It is no wonder that Liverpool appear to be the most advanced in securing Van Dijk’s services for the long term, with confirmation last month that talks had been opened between the club and his representatives.

No such public progress has been made with Salah, though in saying “I have not received any offers yet to stay in the club” the Egyptian did leave the door open for the possibility that his agent Ramy Abbas Issa has been in touch Liverpool. Salah has not been afraid of negotiating in the open previously and hints at possible moves to Spain in the past have been followed by fresh terms being agreed at Anfield. The 32-year-old is not a mixed zone regular by any stretch of the imagination, he will surely have understood the impact that came with saying he was “probably more out than in.”

Salah will know he is not going to be short of takers when he is free to negotiate terms with clubs outside England from January 1. CBS Sports understands that PIF, who own four leading Saudi Pro League clubs, have reaffirmed their interest in the Egypt international. Were he to make the move to Saudi Arabia, he would be one of the highest paid players in the league. It has, however, been suggested that he is reluctant to leave the top level of the club game while he still feels he can excel as he has this season.

Is Salah’s production about to decline with age?

Every indication is that Liverpool want to keep their star forward. He evidently wants to stay too. But any new deal ought to bet on his future production, not just his current form. For now he is playing like a £350,000-a-week superstar, ten goals and six assists in 12 Premier League games. Will that output hold into 2026? He is scoring and assisting more frequently than he has in years, but tinker under the hood and the key attacking metrics — expected goals (xG), expected assists (xA), chances created, shots taken — are down even while he’s getting more touches in the penalty box.

It might be as simply explained as a little bit of variance or even Salah adjusting to his first new coach in seven years. Certainly he is making a sizeable impact to a winning team. Still, it might be that over the next two years, this season’s 10% drop in non-penalty xG, and 30% lower xA becomes the first sign of a gradual decline in production.

Liverpool’s greatness over the last decade was defined as much by their ability to pick talent on the rise. Wouldn’t it be appropriate if this era ended with Michael Edwards spotting that his superstar was on the downslope just as everyone else was heralding his enduring brilliance? Certainly there will be a price at which it is just too expensive to gamble that Salah can defy the age curve. Salah himself seems to understand that that could come sooner rather than later. 

And that’s really the story of this season for Liverpool. Even in a year where they look ready to win the biggest prizes, an ending to a glorious era appears to be approaching. However many trophies they might collect this season with Alexander-Arnold, Salah and Van Dijk, its possible they will be the last ones, truly marking the end of Liverpool’s latest era.