There have been doubts about the future of Liverpool after Jurgen Klopp offered Anfield an emotional farewell last summer, after helping the emblematic club to win its first Premier League title in addition to winning only their second title in the UEFA Champions League in the past four decades.
Arne Slot, on the other hand, had not resulted outside the Netherlands in her management career, which led to doubts about her place in the English game and if Liverpool would continue to challenge Manchester City and other teams for the title after the departure of Klopp.
One season in charge, a title of the Premier League – is quite the start of his mandate in Anfield for Arne Slot. And it is quite the response for those who estimated that Liverpool regress in the post-Klopp era.
Slot played a smart game. It has always been respectful of the work done by Klopp by transforming the reds into the type of European giant that it was in the 1980s – indeed, Liverpool can be considered unlucky to meet the giant who is Manchester City of Pep Guardiola in recent years.
Slot did not scam the Klopp game book. He knew that he did not need it, since Richard Hughes – the new sports director of Liverpool who identified Slot as the replacement of Klopp – had declared that the philosophy of coaches of the Dutchman and approach “lend very well with the kind of team we have, the supporters and the football club as a whole”.
Instead, Slot supervised a single outdoor scope signature – Federico Chiesa, who disappointed and barely played – and only made a minor adjustment to a programming roughly modeled by Klopp, by installing Ryan Gravenberch as a first choice defensive midfielder and playing Alexis Mac Allister in a slightly deeper role next to him. He quickly beat in his team that he wanted more control and fewer Klopp style chaos in the style of play.
Essentially, Liverpool would not lose the intensity and attack the verve that it had under Klopp but would do it more disciplined.
“Have the whole ball and completely kill a team,” was the way Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones has described it.
Just look at the results.
The title was won with the loss of only two games and with four laps to do in a campaign that saw Manchester City – the winner of the last four titles – finally falling from his unprecedented summits and arsenal too incoherent to be a challenger.
Liverpool is comfortably the top scorer in the league so far – with 80 goals, 14 more than anyone – and has the second best defensive record behind Arsenal.
And Slot is the man who put Liverpool back on his perch in English football, with a record of 20 league titles alongside Manchester United.
Here is an overview of how Slot became the fifth manager to win the Premier League in his first season in English football:
Make big calls
Let us salute some of the slot calls.
Gravenberch was a revelation as a midorer of midfielder, maturity with his positioning skills, awareness and presence. For a 22 -year -old player, he showed remarkable coherence in a role that was not natural for a more attacker player.
Likewise, the deployment of Dominik Szoboszlai as No. 10 ahead of Gravenberch and Mac Allister was a success, the pressing and work ethics of the Hungary captain presenting more opportunities in Salah.
Speaking of Salah, the star player of Liverpool seems to have prospered in the slot system, enjoying being the creative spark like a large part of the team’s score totem. He delivered his best league campaign of all time in terms of attack, with 28 goals and 18 assists. No wonder he has just signed a new agreement.
Facing the sagas of the contract
Barely a week has passed without slot having to face a dam of questions on the future of Salah, Virgil Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold, who entered this season during the last year of their contracts.
He manipulated them well, still congratulating them, but sticking to his mantra to focus more on the team than on any individual. Outdraft uncertainty on the trio has never rolled out on the ground – they have played as well as ever, with Salah and Van Dijk have now registered for two more years.
Slot maintained his authority throughout, impressive by his responses in press conferences and his presence in the technical field. Only once, he lost his cool – after the last Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, soon demolished, when Everton marked an equalizer of downtime and a slit confronted the managers of the match, making insulting comments.
“The emotions were right for me and if I look back, I would like to do it differently,” he said.
Areas to be improved
Slot will have learning after his first season in English football.
Liverpool is short of steam in the last part of a season which founded in the space of a week when Liverpool lost in the final of the English League Cup in Newcastle and was then eliminated from the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain. His premier League performances also made a slowdown, but the gap that the Reds accumulated on Arsenal, second, meant that it made no difference.
Slot will have to learn to rotate his team further and trust his backups like Harvey Elliott, Wataro Endo and Jarell Quansah to start more matches. Was there a need to be fully forced against Southampton’s last place a few days before the last match against PSG?
Slot also admitted having made a mistake by underestimating the FA Cup when setting up a weakened team against second -level Plymouth in the fourth round – and losing. Expect that it is harder in this competition next season.
What will come
Slot is likely to put more of his own imprint on the team now that he has a title of Premier League in the bag and his feet under the table.
Liverpool should be more active on the transfer market, with Van Dijk saying this month: “I think they plan to make a big summer, so we must all trust the board of directors as a fan of Liverpool to do the right job.”
The replacement of the long-standing files of the team could be the biggest slot problem, Alexander-Arnold largely expected to leave for Real Madrid and Andy Robertson, 31, regressive.
Slot may want to sign a new attacker, with Darwin Nunez continuing to frustrate in advance.
With the AP entries
