Arne Slot has turned Liverpool into a more possession-oriented, risk-averse team than they were under Jürgen Klopp. His fresh approach is working as Liverpool top the Premier League.
Liverpool have turned into the most defensively solid outfit in the Premier League. Their newfound strength at the back has been influenced by the philosophy of new head coach Arne Slot.
Slot explained the difference between his philosophy and that of Klopp in an interview with Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher, a former Liverpool defender.
Klopp vs. Slot: Risk and Reward
“I would prefer not to come up with it myself because now, people are going to emphasise it, but I think – although it’s difficult because I saw many Liverpool games. I didn’t see all of them – the way I looked at it was that they used every moment they could to play the ball in behind or deep,” Slot said.
“That meant that the game was also sometimes a bit open, especially in the last period of Jürgen, and sometimes, I’d tell them: ‘Ok. Get a better judgment in risk and reward. If you can put someone in front of the goalkeeper, please try to do so.
“If not, it’s also a good idea to sometimes keep the ball. I think if Jürgen was in the room now, he would have told us: ‘I want to keep the ball once in a while as well.’ But in general, I see that players too many times, in my opinion, try to play the difficult ball that doesn’t get the reward for the risk they take in that moment.”
This could give some clue as to why Liverpool has become so much more defensively solid. In his first 10 Premier League games, the Reds have conceded only six goals – the best defensive record in the league.
Last season, they conceded 41 goals in 38 games. In the previous campaign, they conceded 47.
It is no coincidence that the odds of Liverpool winning the Premier League have shortened to around 2.74 on Easybet.
Similarities Between Slot and Klopp
Perhaps the key reason for Liverpool’s success, however, is not the difference between Slot and Klopp but the similarity, allowing for continuity.
Competitors such as Manchester United have come undone due to a lack of managerial and coaching continuity. When David Moyes took over from Sir Alex Ferguson, he tried to change the systems rapidly and ultimately hastened United’s demise.
In Liverpool’s case, they picked a manager who had more similarities to Klopp than differences and that is why the small tweaks to the system have been effective rather than overwhelming.
TNT Sports quoted Slot as saying: “So many managers will give you the same answer, everybody wants to have possession, everybody wants to press high.
“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 Jürgen implemented over here.
“We both like to have the ball, we both like to be intense without the ball. Jurgen likes to be 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 Jürgen didn’t mind as well, to keep the ball a bit longer.”
As long as he can keep getting wins on the board, Slot will have the buy-in of Liverpool fans as Klopp did before.
