Meeting Liverpool, Caicedo and Lavia Feel Regret

LONDON, SATURDAY — When Chelsea players greet Liverpool players with a guard of honour ahead of the 35th week of the Premier League, Sunday (4/5/2025) at 22.30 WIB, at Stamford Bridge Stadium, two midfielders, Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia, will experience turmoil in their hearts. The blessing belongs to Wataru Endo.

As is known, Caicedo and Lavia are a duo of young midfielders who turned down offers from Liverpool when they were still coached by Juergen Klopp during the 2023-2024 summer transfer window. At that time, Caicedo preferred Chelsea after deciding to move from Brighton & Hove Albion. Lavia also followed suit by rejecting "The Reds" when he was reluctant to join the Southampton squad that was relegated to the Championship League.

In exchange, Klopp brought in Endo from VfB Stuttgart to fill the vacant number six position. Liverpool made Endo an alternative after the rejections of Caicedo and Lavia in order to replace players who have departed, such as Fabinho, Jordan Henderson, and James Milner.

In less than two years, Liverpool is actually grateful to have brought in the captain of the Japanese national team. Although he has only played 17 times in the league, Endo's role as a backup is needed by the Reds' Manager Arne Slot. Endo has performed well in the roles of defensive midfielder and center-back.

Indeed, Caicedo and Lavia could become part of the 11 main players of Liverpool who will welcome Endo when he enters the field at Stamford Bridge. The players of "The Blues" are certain to pay tribute to Liverpool, who have already secured the title of the English Premier League for the 2024-2025 season.

"I think that (the honor guard) is a tradition that must be carried out, and we want to do it. First, they won the league, so they deserve the honor, and we hope to follow in their footsteps soon," said Chelsea Coach Enzo Maresca at a press conference ahead of the match, Friday (2/4/2025).

The Italian coach continued, "I do not think we need to further understand how valuable it is to win the Premier League. We know that achievement is very special. However, I am confident that when the players pay their respects, they are also thinking, 'I want to experience that one day'."

Meanwhile, Slot does not want his players to slack off in performance in the remaining four matches. Starting with the match against Chelsea, followed by Arsenal, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Crystal Palace, Slot stated that the main objective of his team is simply to win.

Liverpool under Slot can no longer match the 99 points achieved by the Reds when they were champions in the 2019-2020 season. However, they can surpass the points tally of Manchester City when they were champions for four consecutive seasons from 2020-2021 to 2023-2024.

During that championship period, the highest points were achieved by "The Citizens" with a total of 93 points. This achievement was recorded in the 2021-2022 season. Meanwhile, Liverpool still has the opportunity to reach a maximum of 95 points.

In addition, I will also field a different line-up compared to the last 10 months.

If they can accumulate 95 points, Liverpool will also record a better team than the two teams that have previously secured the championship title with four matches remaining. Before Liverpool, Manchester United achieved this record in the 2012-2013 and 1999-2000 seasons, with final point totals of 89 and 91 points, respectively.

Then, Arsenal, when recording an unbeaten season in 2003-2004, also secured the championship title in the 34th week. At that time, the final point collection was 90 points.

"I will provide an assessment of our performance based on the number of points we have obtained by comparing the champions with the four remaining games previously. Because the atmosphere of the match will be different compared to when we had not yet secured the title. In addition, I will also field a different lineup compared to the last 10 months," said Slot as reported on the club's website.

Slot will not replace all 11 of his main players. He will field players who have rarely played since the start.

Players, such as Federico Chiesa, only require one appearance to fulfill the quota of five games in order to receive a championship medal in the English League. Another player, Jayden Danns, also needs to be played in the last four games to become the 23rd player of Liverpool to have received a gold medal as champions.

"We will make rotations in the upcoming matches. We have confidence in all the players," said Slot, who is the first Dutch coach to bring the English League title to the Reds.

Meanwhile, Liverpool icon Mohamed Salah has only two goal contributions—goals or assists—remaining to set a new record in the top tier of English competition. After playing 34 games, Salah has contributed 28 goals and 18 assists, totaling 46 goal contributions.

Salah is only behind Andy Cole (Newcastle United) in the 1993-1994 season and Alan Shearer (Blackburn Rovers) in the 1994-1995 season when he produced 47 goal contributions. Although he is technically still one goal behind Cole and Shearer, Salah has already recorded a better average of goal contributions than those two English legends.

This is because Salah achieved that record in just 34 games. Meanwhile, Cole and Shearer needed to appear in 42 matches when the Premier League still had 22 teams. (REUTERS)