Despite having to replace one of the most iconic characters in the club's history, the Dutchman has immediately achieved legendary status himself
Sunday's win over Tottenham confirmed what we've long known: Liverpool are the best team in England. They've been champions-elect for months now, turning what was expected to be a titanic three-way title race into a Premier League procession.
Consequently, some have attempted to rain on Liverpool's parade before it's even got under way, much to the annoyance of Virgil van Dijk, who even took Michael Owen to task for implying that his team's 2024-25 campaign hasn't been as "special" as it could have been because of their Champions League last-16 exit and Carabao Cup final loss to Newcastle. Rather remarkably, it's taken a couple of legends from Liverpool's traditional rivals to put the scale of Arne Slot's achievement into perspective.
"We have to praise the manager because he's done an amazing job," former Manchester United captain Roy Keane said on . "It was a decent group when he took over, but if someone had said at the start of the season that Liverpool would be where they are now, you wouldn't have believed them, you'd have thought they needed locking up!"
Gary Neville certainly didn't think Liverpool would be anywhere near the top of the table. In fact, he tipped them to finish fifth – below Manchester United and Tottenham
"I'm stunned by Liverpool" the ex-Red Devils right-back admitted on . "For Slot to take over from Jurgen Klopp, a massive personality and character who was loved beyond words by Liverpool fans, you just thought there was going to be a drop-off, everyone thought there would be a drop-off, I certainly did. But Slot's been perfect in terms of what Liverpool needed this season."
Neville's not wrong either, not now at least. Klopp may have left Liverpool in rude health, but transitions are not meant to be this smooth, especially not for a manager succeeding a living legend. So how did Slot do it? How did he make a seemingly impossible task look quite so easy?
Getty Images'Impact of Klopp leaving will take its toll'
It has to be said, Klopp couldn't have done much more to pave the way for Slot. For starters, the German had played a pivotal role in the long-overdue midfield overhaul of 2023. Klopp also had Anfield singing his successor's name before Slot had even arrived on Merseyside, while he also joked that he'd made the incoming coach's life a little easier by failing to win either the league or the Champions League in his final season in charge. Nobody, though, expected Slot to sustain a title challenge in his first season in English football.
"My view would be that the impact of Klopp leaving will take its toll," Neville argued. "That's going off evidence based on the history of losing a manager like that. I think there’ll be some pain this season for Liverpool, and it could cost them… Liverpool are well below the level of Arsenal and City, and I don't think that's shocking to anybody."
The statisticians certainly agreed with Neville's appraisal, with giving the Reds only a 5.1 percent chance of winning the title. Slot, though, was never in any doubt that Klopp had left him with a squad capable of challenging for major honours – and he immediately made that clear to his new players.
"I remember his first team meeting in America," left-back Andy Robertson recalled, "and he basically said, 'We finished third last season and the season before, but we now want to finish above the other two.' So, in his mind, it was clear that he had come to Liverpool to win trophies. It wasn't like he'd be happy with the top four. The players could get on board with that attitude."
AdvertisementGetty Images SportPlaying style that attracted Liverpool
It also helped that Slot's footballing philosophy wasn't radically different to his predecessor, which was one of the main reasons why he had been prised away from Feyenoord in the first place.
After Xabi Alonso elected to stay at Bayer Leverkusen, Ruben Amorim and Roberto De Zerbi emerged as serious contenders to take over from Klopp, but it was Slot who was considered the ideal candidate because he ticked all the boxes. Liverpool's recruitment team knew that there wasn't another Klopp out there on the market – but they were convinced that they had found the next best thing.
Slot wasn't just the right kind of coach; he was the right kind of character too. The Dutchman was direct but diplomatic, renowned for his man-management skills and an impressive ability to improve the players already at his disposal. Despite not having anything like the same budget as his counterparts at Ajax and PSV, Slot had still been able to win an Eredivisie title with Feyenoord – and with an exciting and dynamic style of play that sporting director Richard Hughes admitted "attracted us to Arne".
"In all the metrics," Hughes told reporters last July, "Arne's Feyenoord team came out really well: the way they played with real front-foot, attacking football, played with intelligence, played with passion, and I think those are all attributes that we welcome here at Liverpool. I think they lend really well with the current squad that we have, our supporters and the football club as a whole." Hughes wasn't wrong.
Getty Images SportSubtle shift in approach
One is always reluctant to read too much into pre-season programmes, but Liverpool undeniably looked the part on their summer tour of the United States, where they defeated Real Betis, Arsenal and Manchester United.
This was still Klopp's squad, of course, meaning there were still elements of his famed full-throttle football in their play. Intensive pressing and rapid transitions were clearly going to remain key elements of Slot's Liverpool. However, there was also a noticeable shift towards a more patient and prudent approach. Slot wanted less chaos and more control, with the idea being that Liverpool could contain and control opponents with sustained possession.
"We are now trying to control the ball all the time," Mohamed Salah told the club's official website in August. "Before, it wasn't really the number one thing, because with Jurgen most of the time we tried to counter-attack or counter-press and try to win the ball as high as possible. We're still doing that, but also when you have the ball, you have more time to keep it and just try to move it around."
The change in strategy worked wonderfully well, as Liverpool made a sensational start to the season, winning 11 of their first 13 league games – which made for a relatively straightforward settling-in period.
As Slot pointed out himself, the Reds didn't overhaul their squad during the summer transfer window. There was only one new arrival, Federico Chiesa, and even he arrived at the end of August, by which time Liverpool had already kicked off their campaign with a couple of encouraging 2-0 wins over Ipswich and Brentford. Slot, then, was working with several players who had never known anyone but Klopp calling the shots at Anfield. "And they didn't just have nine years with the former manager," Slot said, "they had nine successful years!
"Then, you always wonder, 'Are things going to change?' We didn’t bring in many new players, so then it is quite normal if you look at the teams we are competing with who did bring in players, and you think, 'What is going to happen this season?' Especially because nearly all of our players were still on holiday two weeks before the season started [because of Euro 2024 and the Copa America]. So, that is why it was really helpful we got results from the start and they saw from the start the playing style wasn't going to change that much."
Slot did make some small but significant positional switches, though.
Getty Images SportSolving the No.6 problem
Hughes' failure to complete the signing of Martin Zubimendi did not go over well with Liverpool fans. The Basque may have been to blame for going back on his word to move to Merseyside, but the fact of the matter was that the Reds once again went into a season without a world-class defensive midfielder.
Wataru Endo had done an excellent job in front of the back four during the second half of the 2023-24 campaign, but it was obvious during pre-season that Slot didn't feel that the Japan international had the attributes he wanted in a No.6. Ryan Gravenberch did, though.
Klopp had never had any doubts over the 22-year-old's potential, which is why he was so excited by his 2023 arrival from Bayern Munich. However, the manager could never quite figure out how to get the best out of Gravenberch. Slot knew straight away, though, that his compatriot could thrive as No.6 – or, at least, his kind of No.6.
"It's a bit of a choice," the 46-year-old explained. "You can bring a No.6 in that's only really good without the ball – hard tackles and sliding tackles, which every fan loves, and a lot of pundits love as well. Or you look more at what Ryan can offer us when we have the ball, and I think he can help us a lot in that regard."
Slot was spot on, as Gravenberch became a key cog in a winning machine, with his ability to glide past opponents helping Liverpool to repeatedly break the opposition press, while at the same time doing an excellent job of protecting the defence thanks to his keen sense of anticipation.
Indeed, at the time of writing, only two Premier League players have made more interceptions than Gravenberch this season (54), while only four have regained possession on more occasions (171).
