Arne Slot has lauded his Liverpool squad ahead of the team potentially being crowned Premier League champions on Sunday, and said the players made him feel completely at home from day one.
Few expected the transition from the Jurgen Klopp to Slot era to be so smooth, or for the Reds to improve this season under the Dutchman. But that’s exactly what has happened in Slot’s first season and he is on the verge of adding his name to the elite list of Premier League managers who have won the title.
The task is simple: avoid defeat on Sunday against Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool guarantees first place. Last summer, when the new head coach walked through the doors, that was far beyond the expectations of fans.
But the 46-year-old’s ability to slip effortlessly into the role has been key to this season’s success. Speaking ahead of the Spurs game, Slot said he has never really felt the pressure or the need to immediately impress people around the club.
“No, definitely not here in the building,” he told Sky Sports. “And the good thing, when you come to a new country, you don’t know all the programs yet. So when you’re in your car, you start to listen to a certain show. Then a few months later, you listen to another one.
“When I’m at home, I watch mainly Dutch television. So you don’t get all the opinions from everyone. That’s probably the positive thing about working abroad and working with a team of players, especially if you go to a new club, you know they’re looking at you, and the staff members are looking at you.
“That is also the situation when you go from AZ Alkmaar in Holland to Feyenoord. That doesn’t change when you go from Feyenoord to Liverpool. The good thing was that it wasn’t the first time I changed jobs. I’ve said many times, the culture at this club and in this training ground, how much they welcome you, the culture of the team, how much they want to do to become better players, helped me a lot to to settle in.”
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Slot’s calmness is in direct contrast to his predecessor, and the Liverpool boss claims that his relaxed approach comes from the set up around him,
“That calmness comes from confidence in the way we prepare the team before they go out, and if results then also go your way, that helps even more to feel confident,” he said.
“I think you can only be calm if you feel confident. The most difficult thing for a manager would be if there’s a task to do and inside you feel this is probably going to be really hard – and I’ve never had that feeling.
“But I also always knew that we had a very good team as well. Not only in terms of quality, also in terms of mentality and how well they were prepared, not only by me, but also by our performance and medical staff.”
