Liverpool Head Coach Arne Slot Aims to Extend Jurgen Klopp’s Legacy
New Delhi: Liverpool’s new head coach, Arne Slot, is aiming to lead the club to success by combining the style that exists within the club and implementing his own touch on it. Klopp left Liverpool at the end of the last season and brought the curtain down on his illustrious nine years with the Reds. Slot, who achieved success with Feyenoord, was brought in as his replacement ahead of the new season.
While speaking for the first time since his appointment, Slot stated his intention to take the club forward by adding his own touch to the team and the legacy that Klopp left behind.
“I think we have a lot of quality and the way they played last season was already impressive, so we are going to build from there. Of course, you want to take some people with you as well because they know who you are, they know your playing style and they can translate this to the other people in the staff as well,” Slot said as quoted from Liverpool’s official website.
“But if you go to a club like Liverpool, you can assume – and I already noticed that – that there are a lot of good people working here as well. So, we are going to use hopefully the best of both worlds to implement a few things from us and to use the knowledge that is inside this club already because of the nine years Jurgen and his staff worked here,” he added.
Last season, Liverpool went toe-to-toe with Manchester City and Arsenal for the Premier League title. Towards the end of the season, a couple of results went against their favour, which derailed their hopes of lifting a second Premier League trophy under Klopp.
Liverpool finished the season in the third spot with 82 points, nine away from title-winning Manchester City.
“I think 82 points is a result of [the] playing style. Always the points you get is always a result of the way you play. I’ve seen many games already, I’ve seen many training sessions as well. Of course the fans can see the games, so they know we have some very good players. But I’ve also seen a lot of training sessions already and I think this is where you bring the culture, and they are always working hard – like the fans see during the game,” Slot said.
“[A] real good team, real good players, managed to be on top for a very long time, but I think in the end we would all love to see Liverpool a bit higher than third place and this is the challenge we are facing now – to build on from what we have. I have all the confidence in this because of the players, that we can add a few things where we hopefully can get a bit more points than 82, which is necessary with the likes of Arsenal and City, to end up hopefully a bit higher than we did this season,” he added.
Liverpool will begin their campaign with a trip to Portman Road to face the newly promoted side, Ipswich Town. Slot’s big first test will be against Manchester United at Old Trafford.