Replacing a great manager is never easy but Slot didn’t get that memo at Liverpool
You could say he has slotted in just fine.
Arne Slot clearly didn’t get the memo that it’s supposed to be a near-impossible job to follow a club great as manager.
Take David Moyes after replacing Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. Moyes lasted 10 months.
Or Unai Emery after replacing Arsene Wenger at Arsenal. Emery lasted an uncomfortable 18 months.
These are very early days but Slot has barely put a foot wrong since succeeding Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager following the popular German’s nearly nine years in the dugout. Klopp forged such a connection with the port city and its soccer-mad people that he was compared with Bill Shankly, the club’s most legendary manager.
Maybe it’s because, at the moment, Slot’s Liverpool doesn’t look too different to Klopp’s team.
Two Premier League matches. Two wins. Two clean sheets.
There was even a convincing win over Manchester United in a preseason game in the United States, which is never a bad thing when it comes to getting fans of the Reds onside.
There are bigger challenges to come, of course. Starting on Sunday when Liverpool plays United for real, this time in the league at Old Trafford in what is historically the biggest match in English soccer between the country’s two most successful teams.
While United opted to stick with its manager, Erik ten Hag, despite a woeful eighth-place finish last season, Liverpool’s hand was forced by Klopp’s decision to step down after a tenure that included a Premier League and a Champions League title.
Slot was regarded as a natural successor because of his style of play which, while not as intense and suffocating, is still very attacking and high-energy like Klopp’s.
Indeed, Richard Hughes, Liverpool’s new sporting director who identified Slot as Klopp’s replacement, said during the summer that the Dutchman’s coaching philosophy and approach “lend really well with the kind of squad we have, the supporters and the football club as a whole.”
Hence why, to the frustration of some Liverpool fans, the club has felt it necessary to sign only one player so far in the first transfer window of the new era — and even that was a goalkeeper, Georgia international Giorgi Mamardashvili, who has been sent back on loan to the team from which he was bought. It could be two before the transfer window closes on Friday, with Liverpool having agreed to sign Italy winger Federico Chiesa from Juventus.
In short, Slot feels it’s tough to improve on what he has and will go about making only tweaks here and there to put his own stamp on the lineup in its bid to challenge Manchester City and Arsenal, the two top teams over the last two years, for the Premier League title.
Take this stat from Sunday’s 2-0 win at Brentford: Liverpool completed 92% of its passes, which — according to Premier League statistics supplier Opta — is the team’s highest on record (since 2003-04) in a Premier League game.
That fits with a comment made in preseason by Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones, who said the aim now is to “have all the ball and completely kill a team.”
Initially, it feels like there’s less chaos, and more control, in Slot’s team.
However, look at the goals scored against Brentford and they still bore the imprints of the Klopp era. There was the rapid counterattack, launched after clearing a Brentford corner, that was finished off by Luis Diaz, and a strike by Mohamed Salah after the ball was won back high up the field by heavy pressing.
For the moment, the results are coming because the same players are doing the same things they did under Klopp.
In that sense, Slot is playing it clever and not trying to change too much too quickly, something which Moyes and Emery perhaps got wrong when they headed up new eras at other English soccer superpowers.
Indeed, 11 years after Ferguson’s retirement, United is still trying to rediscover its identity, with Ten Hag the fifth permanent manager since (plus three interim coaches).
Not that everything is rosy for Slot.
There’s still the thorny issue of perhaps his best three players — Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold — all having contracts ending after this season. Alexander-Arnold stirred up social media with his reaction to being substituted early against Brentford, while the 32-year-old Salah told Sky Sports on Thursday: “I don’t want to think about next year or about the future. Let’s enjoy the last year and we’ll see.”
Slot also has yet to find a solution to his one clear concern about the team — at the base of its midfield. An attempt to buy Spain international Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad failed this month and he has been using Ryan Gravenberch, a midfielder who might be better going forward, as the most deep lying of the central-midfield three.
Otherwise, Slot has been charming in news conferences — much like Klopp was — and, tellingly, makes it his mantra to be praiseworthy of the team in general instead of focusing on any individual.
Most importantly, his team has been winning games.
And none are bigger than against Manchester United. Being at Liverpool only a few months won’t stop Slot knowing that.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer