How Arne Slot built Liverpool's new Fab Three: A bromance, a tactical shift and better numbers than the 2020 frontline

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Pep Guardiola once said: ‘Those three for Liverpool are good… they scare me, they are so dangerous.’

The Manchester City manager, on the way to a record-breaking 100-point Premier League season in 2018, was pacing up and down a near-empty dressing room chatting to his analyst Carles Planchart and right-hand man Domenec Torrent. It felt like a therapy session.

We have become accustomed to Guardiola’s nervous tics in the last few months and — albeit he has never been a calm soul — the best coach of his generation was shown quaking in his boots ahead of a meeting with Liverpool in that season.

He had reason to scratch his head and lose sleep. City were torn apart by Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane as Liverpool thrashed them 5-1 on aggregate in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Good things come in threes and, for many Liverpool fans, no trio will ever topple the attacking triumvirate that conquered all for several years to fire the Reds to a sixth European Cup and the club’s first English league title for 30 years.

There was the relentless scoring, the spellbinding link-up play, the choreographed dance routines to celebrate goals in front of the Kop. The good old days for many younger fans. If one had a bad afternoon, the others would step up and push Jurgen Klopp’s side to victory.

Liverpool's front three of Mo Salah, Cody Gakpo, and Luis Diaz are propelling them towards a second Premier League title 

The trio are heading for vastly better numbers than the famous Fab Three achieved in 2019-20

They cannot be considered as good as Salah, Roberto Firmino, and Sadio Mane yet, but they are on course to emulate them

Now Arne Slot has curated another group of attacking superstars who are propelling Liverpool towards a second Premier League title.

Salah, 32 and ageing like a fine wine, remains the kingpin of the group and he is now joined by Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo.

They have made a total of 77 appearances in all competitions this season and scored 43 goals. That’s a goal every 119 minutes. In the title-winning campaign of 2019-20, Salah, Firmino and Mane notched 57 in 147 games, a goal every 206 minutes.

At the current, blistering rate, that tally will be surpassed by Salah, Diaz and Gakpo in the first weeks of 2025 — it may be too big an ask to score all 14 of the goals required to catch up in Sunday’s clash with Manchester United at Anfield, even against Ruben Amorim’s shaky defence.

No one is saying the current trio are better than that famed front three, but they are combining perfectly, playing in tandem and prompting the travelling Kop to break into the old terrace chant Poetry in Motion. Judging by their post-match selfies, they are establishing quite the bromance, too. That could not always be said about Salah’s relationship with Mane.

‘I saw first-hand the looks, the grimaces, the body language, the dissatisfaction when one was mad at the other,’ wrote Firmino of the pair in his recent autobiography. ‘I could feel it. I was the link between them in our attacking play and the firefighter in those moments.

‘For many, that disagreement between Sadio and Mo was the first — for some, the first and last. But it had been brewing since the previous season. My instinct and my duty was to defuse the situation. Pour water on the fire — never petrol.’

The Brazilian was discussing an incident at Burnley in August 2019 when the wingers clashed over perceived greediness. He wrote: ‘Sadio wasn’t only angry about being subbed off — Mo had attempted a shot on goal when he had a clear pass on to Mane, who was free inside the box.

Arne Slot is getting more out of Diaz and Gakpo - and switching their places has worked a treat

Liverpool have scored more than any side and are eight points clear at the top of the table

Firmino details tensions between Salah and Mane in his autobiography, despite their greatness

‘My English isn’t wonderful, so I can’t tell you exactly what Mane shouted when he came off. But it wasn’t anything nice! James Milner tried to calm him down, but Sadio remained furious, sitting fuming on the bench, gesturing repeatedly.’

One of the things top of Slot’s in-tray when he arrived in the summer was to make Liverpool less reliant on Salah — his dip in form towards the end of last season was a key reason their title bid crumbled.

The Anfield hierarchy had noted Slot’s tendency to improve forwards at Feyenoord and AZ Alkmaar, with Santiago Gimenez transformed from goal-shy to prolific under the Dutchman and Luis Sinisterra going from castaway to £20million asset. 

Gakpo and Diaz were hardly poor last season but their wasteful finishing was frustrating. Diaz is just one goal behind last season’s tally of 13 in all competitions already, and Gakpo is on a hot streak that has left him just five behind his 2023-24 return of 16.

They have scored 23 goals between them to supplement Salah’s 20 — as well as 24 assists. Salah has been directly involved in 54 per cent of Liverpool’s goals this season (37 of 68), though that percentage was higher before the festive period.

Diaz and Gakpo’s goals-per-minute ratios are almost identical under Slot. Sorry, Cody, your pal is outdoing you by a nose — the Colombian leads the Dutchman 128 minutes to 129. Both have improved exponentially; Diaz was scoring every 278 minutes last term, Gakpo every 188.

An interesting facet of their improvement is that Diaz is leading the line as a No 9 and Gakpo is out on the left. Since Gakpo signed from PSV two years ago, he has played regularly as a central striker with Diaz, who joined three years ago, on the wing. But Diaz started his first match as a No 9 against Bayer Leverkusen on Bonfire Night and has produced fireworks ever since, with Slot saying recently: ‘I played Lucho there for a reason. I expected him to do good, but that he played so well was even a surprise for me.’

As well as a fine attacking trio, all good teams have stars waiting in the wings. Liverpool’s depth in that area is certainly better now than in 2019-20, with Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez the obvious replacements.

A supporting cast of Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez is a big help for freshness and variety

Jota is seen by many fans as the best finisher but Diaz is making the No 9 spot his own

If Salah signs a new deal, Liverpool could build a historic front three over a longer period

Jota is seen by many fans as the best finisher at the club and Nunez, for all the criticism, is a handy player to have and causes defenders problems. There is 2020 Euros winner Federico Chiesa as well, though the Italian has struggled for fitness since joining from Juventus for £10m in the summer.

Liverpool’s 18-year-old striker Jayden Danns is often on the bench now after missing the first half of the season with a back injury. He is highly regarded and could chip in if needed, though he may go out on loan in January if the right offer arrives. Championship side Derby are keen.

Salah, Diaz and Gakpo cannot be considered as good as the formidable three of Salah, Firmino and Mane yet — it’s too small a sample size — but this trio are combining perfectly to form what Slot must hope is a title-winning recipe.