End of an era or start of a glorious run? Arne Slot's biggest job begins now as Liverpool look to build on Premier League title procession

Liverpool have been the best team in the Premier League this season - and by some distance too. The Reds have scored more goals than anyone else (80), while only Arsenal conceded fewer (29 to 32). It may seem strange, then, that so many supporters and pundits believe that Slot's squad needs to be significantly strengthened during the summer - but it's actually impossible to disagree.

After all, Liverpool made just two signings last summer. One of those barely played this season (Federico Chiesa), while the other won't arrive until this pre-season (Giorgio Mamardashvili), meaning Slot was effectively forced to work with the exact same group of players as his predecessor.

It could have been worse, of course. It wasn't as if Slot was taking over a struggling side bereft of top talent. Klopp's Liverpool had finished third the season before and also lifted the Carabao Cup, while Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah spent the majority of the current campaign showing why they deserved lucrative new contracts with one inspirational display after another.

Tying the two best players in the Premier League down to new deals also means this summer won't be as traumatic as it could have been. However, a significant amount of money will still have to be spent.

For starters, a new right-back is required. Salah and Van Dijk have penned new contracts at Anfield, but Trent Alexander-Arnold has not, meaning Liverpool are set to lose one of their most valuable assets - and a potential future captain - for absolutely nothing this summer.

The England international is also utterly irreplaceable. There is not a single right-back in the world with the same set of skills as Alexander-Arnold, who is so good on the ball that he was often used as an auxiliary midfielder by Klopp - and to excellent effect.

However, Liverpool are undeniably lucky in a certain sense. In Conor Bradley, they have a potential in-house solution to a major problem. The Northern Irishman may not have Alexander-Arnold's wondrous range of passing, but he is a real threat going forward, and while he still has much to work on from a positional perspective, he is tenacious in the tackle (as Kylian Mbappe knows!) and possesses an eagerness to improve his understanding of his defensive duties that his Real Madrid-bound team-mate sorely lacks.

However, even if Slot wants Bradley as his starting right-back next season, he's still going to need a top-quality understudy, which will mean dipping into the transfer market.

Of course, signing a left-back is of even more pressing concern, with this season having proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Andy Robertson's best days are behind him. The Scot has been a tremendous servant to the club, easily one of the Reds' best-ever buys, but he's become a liability defensively and no longer carries anything like the same threat going forward.

His two outings against Fulham this season were actually tough to watch, as the contrast in quality between Robertson and his Cottagers counterpart Antonee Robinson was shockingly stark, and it's no surprise that Liverpool have been linked with the United States international.

However, it presently seems far more likely that Hughes will return to former club Bournemouth to sign Milos Kerkez, the exciting young Hungarian that is not only well-known to Hughes and Dominik Szoboszlai, but also Slot, from his time in the Eredivisie.

The fans are also praying that Liverpool can pick up another Cherries defender in Dean Huijsen. Hughes may not have been responsible for bringing the Spain international to the Vitality Stadium, but his Bournemouth connections are actually irrelevant in this case, as Huijsen has a buy-out clause that comes into effect this summer, meaning the way is pretty much clear for him to move to Merseyside - provided Liverpool can actually convince him to do so.

As has already been established, Huijsen is not short of suitors, and Real Madrid rather ominously rank among them. But no matter what happens, Liverpool will need a new centre-back.

The nightmare scenario of having to somehow find a worthy Van Dijk replacement has been narrowly avoided, but Slot could still do with another option to play alongside the giant Dutchman - particularly as Ibrahima Konate only has just over a year left on his contract now and continues to flatter to deceive, while Jarell Quansah could even be sold given he's regressed badly this season.

When one also factors Joe Gomez's fitness issues into the equation, Liverpool's lack of depth in the centre of defence becomes worryingly obvious.

It also became clear the longer the season wore on that there was a lack of viable alternatives in midfield, which led to a level of fatigue that contributed enormously to Liverpool's Champions League last-16 loss to Paris Saint-Germain, as well as the dreadfully flat performance in the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle five days later.

Ryan Gravenberch may have solved the longstanding problem at No.6, but Liverpool became utterly dependent upon the Dutchman, as Slot clearly had no faith in Wataru Endo.

The Japan international may have done a fine job helping his team see out games, but he hasn't been trusted to start a single Premier League match. Gravenberch, by contrast, has started all 34 to date, so it was hardly surprising that he looked utterly exhausted when the matches were coming thick and fast during the spring, when Liverpool were still competing on three fronts.

Szoboszlai was also allowed to run himself into the ground (quite literally in the case of the win over Manchester City at the Etihad), which was arguably even more surprising, as Harvey Elliott looked like a serious rival for the No.10 role during pre-season. However, the latter has featured just 14 times in the Premier League and, just like Endo, not once as a starter.

Slot essentially only ever considered four players for the three midfield berths and, even then, Szoboszlai nearly always got the nod over Curtis Jones for the right to play alongside Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister. It is imperative, then, that Slot is put in a position where he feels capable of rotating his favourites with far greater regularity next season - particularly if they have serious designs on winning a seventh European Cup.

Slot also needs a striker he can count on, both to score goals and to stay fit, because Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez are not up to the task, for one reason or another. Had it not been for Salah producing one of the most sensational individual campaigns in Premier League history, Liverpool would not have got anywhere near the title, with the Egyptian breaking the 38-game season record for direct goal involvements.

In that sense, his renewal was absolutely vital to Liverpool's hopes of retaining their title because, even at 32, he is showing very few signs of slowing down. The same pretty much goes for Van Dijk, and it's clear that the prospect of winning even more trophies played a key role in both men deciding to extend their respective stays at Anfield.

Indeed, the captain admitted that he is anticipating "a big summer" of transfer activity, and it would be a major surprise if that does not involve the acquisition of a young striker of world-class potential, which will hopefully be covered - at least partially - by the money raised from belatedly selling Nunez.

Slot, for his part, is giving very little away, saying they're look at players in "every single position", but he is quite open about the fact that there will be a lot more incomings this year.

"Last summer, we didn’t do a lot because we - Richard, me and all the other people involved - just wanted to know how these players would work with me," the manager explained. "Now we have a very good idea about that. I'm not going to tell you which positions we prefer, but it is clear that we've assessed the squad, we've assessed what we think where we can improve, and that's where we try to go for in the summer."

Slot, then, is acutely aware that his second season may be even tougher than this first. There was certainly nothing lucky about their title triumph - it was hard-earned and fully deserved - but they were undoubtedly aided by the fact that their expected title rivals, City and Arsenal, shockingly underestimated the strength of their respective squads. Neither club will not make the same mistake again.

As it transpired, Liverpool were right to stick with what they had, but another window of restraint is simply not an option. Slot may have made putting Liverpool back on their perch look easy - but staying there will be even more difficult.