Liverpool manager Arne Slot has given fans an insight into what kind of football they can expect under his tenure ahead of the new Premier League season.
The Reds begin their campaign against Ipswich Town on Saturday, August 17 – live on TNT Sports – as they bid to dethrone Manchester City and claim another Premier League title.
After nearly nine successful years of Jurgen Klopp at the helm – who delivered a Premier League, UEFA Champions League and an FA Cup, among others – all eyes will be on Slot and his players to build on that momentum.
He has enjoyed a good start as Klopp’s successor, but pre-season counts for little now that the real action is set to commence.
On the eve of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign, the Dutchman spoke exclusively to TNT Sports about what Liverpool fans can expect to see this season.
“So many managers will give you the same answer, everybody wants to have possession, everybody wants to press high,” Slot said.
“Not everybody but most of them want to and that’s also what I want.
“It’s not what you want, it’s what you have to show, and I think you saw in the matches we’ve played in pre-season that there are a lot of similarities with the style Jurgen implemented over here.
“We both like to have the ball, we both like to be really intense without the ball. Jurgen likes to be really intense with the ball, which I like at certain moments as well, but I also don’t mind if we keep the ball, and maybe Jurgen didn’t mind as well, to keep the ball a bit longer.
“From what I’ve seen from the boys in pre-season and also in training sessions, they sometimes have to be a bit better aware of the risk-reward. And by that I mean, sometimes they take so much risk on a difficult ball that can only lead five metres up the pitch.
“And if you can put someone in front of the goalkeeper, take as much risk as you want but they sometimes tend to over-risk simple passes.”
Being more specific, he added: “I’m not sure if they’ve learned it but most of them are quite young. Young players always want to go to goal in every second of the game, which is sometimes a good thing to do.
“But if you had to run a lot to get the ball back – which we want because we don’t want to wait, we want to get the ball back as soon as we can, sometimes you have to run a lot.
“Then if you do get it back, sometimes you need a lot of time to recover from that. In those moments keeping the ball is better. I noticed already [in the club’s August 11 matches] that every time we played the ball in behind, fans were [cheering] and if we kept the ball a bit longer they were sitting there like, ‘what’s happening now?’”
The fan inside him understands, of course, and the last thing Slot wants is to deprive Reds fans of excitement, but he also believes a slight refinement could even improve what came before.
“We have to keep this because I don’t like to see a boring game. I’m a fan as well so I like to watch and see good football like the Jurgen and Pep [Guardiola] era, so everybody wants to see football where something happens.
“I’m not telling now that we only keep the ball for no use but sometimes keeping the ball a bit longer can only help us.”
Following in the footsteps of a legend
As soon as Klopp’s departure was announced, attention started to turn to his successor and the unenviable position they would find themselves in.
After all, following Klopp has the potential to be a thankless task. Not only did he bring success in the form of regular silverware back to Merseyside, but he was also adored by the red side of Liverpool, becoming something of a cult hero to many.
Liverpool came agonisingly close to giving Klopp the perfect send-off in the form of a Premier League title, only for their challenge to fade in the latter stages.
Had the German remained in post, the expectation would be to learn from those mistakes and hoist aloft that famous trophy once again, but that is not the reality.
So, walking into one of the biggest jobs in football and replacing one of the best managers of his generation, what would success look like for Slot this season?
“The most boring answer would be if the boys and the staff give everything every day, everything we’ve got to achieve the highest possible. I think last season showed how small the margins are in the Premier League,” he said.
“When Tottenham played City and Son [Heung-Min] went one-on-one with the goalkeeper, if he would have scored it, Arsenal would have probably won the league.
“We have to try go into a situation where we are either in the same game, and if Alisson [Becker] saves it we win it, or if we are not in the same game and Son scores it then we can win something.
“But that can only happen if we give every day everything we have. We also have to understand that [in the] last two seasons we were quite far off from City and Arsenal, and we are working every day really hard to close that gap again and make sure we can compete, which Liverpool did for a long time last season.”
Adjusting to life as a Premier League manager
During the interview, Slot appeared relaxed, at ease in the early phase of life as a Premier League manager.
It is little wonder, given Liverpool appeared to breeze through their pre-season fixtures.
They beat Real Betis, Arsenal, Manchester United and Sevilla, all the while conceding just two goals.
But next is the imminent step into the unknown for the Dutchman, who is about to experience the cut and thrust of England’s top-flight for the first time.
He is confident he and his squad are ready for what is to come as the new season roars into view.
“I’m very happy with the results we had [in pre-season]. I don’t think it always reflected the way we played,” he continued.
“We played quite good but I think the 3-0 win against United, I don’t think that reflected the way the game went completely, and yesterday after the first half hour – OK, we were better than Sevilla – if you’d have told me we’d be 3-0 up at half-time I don’t think I’d have believed you.
“But from a set-piece we were 1-0 up and then the boys were flying.
“So we’ve seen good things but there are also many, many things we have and can improve, which is normal because some of them are only back for a week now.
“We didn’t change playing style completely but certain things are different and they have to adjust to that but they also have to adjust to each other in this new style of play.
“We are ready but the only thing I haven’t experienced is the Premier League yet and people from England, they always talk about intensity, intensity, intensity. So I’m curious to see if that intensity is going to be so different than the Sevilla game or the friendlies we’ve played against Arsenal and United,
“Hopefully it is not going to be too much of a shock because I like the results we’ve had at the moment.”
Watch Ipswich Town v Liverpool live on TNT Sports and discovery+
Author :
Publish date : 2024-08-16 01:11:04
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
Author : pksportsnews
Publish date : 2024-08-16 02:01:16
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.