Arne Slot: My Season In My Words

Arne Slot has enjoyed a stunning first season in charge at Liverpool.

The transition from the Jurgen Klopp era proved to be smoother than anyone anticipated as the Dutchman led the club to their 20th top-flight league title, blowing away his rivals with a 26-game unbeaten league run.

The celebrations have been in full swing since they were confirmed as champions last month and they will reach a crescendo with Sunday’s trophy lift after the final game at home to Crystal Palace followed by Monday’s parade around the city.

To mark the achievement, Slot sat down with The Athletic at the club’s Kirkby training base to discuss pictures from eight defining matches or moments from his first year in charge — the stories behind them, what they reveal about his methods and how they helped deliver such success.

---

Pre-season in Philadelphia

James Pearce: Arne, let’s take you back to the pre-season tour of the U.S. last July. It wasn’t an easy start with so many senior players away following the Euros and the Copa America. What was your focus in those early weeks?

Arne Slot: To be honest, I was a little bit stressed about so many players only coming in two weeks before the season started. It was a constant debate from when I knew I had got the job until the moment I had to call certain players to tell them how much holiday they had. It was like, ‘Oh, but if I do that then I’ll only have them for two weeks’.

Now having worked in this league for a year I definitely made the right choice to give most of them three weeks off. Before I started you think, ‘Maybe only two weeks so I get them for an extra week’. But looking back at it now, after a season in this country, you can’t give a player only two weeks of holiday.

The good thing was that I mostly had younger players in America. I could already implement my ideas and I think what might have happened is that they enjoyed the sessions and ideas because results were good.

Pearce: It was noticeable in those friendlies how quickly the players seemed to adapt to the changes in playing style with a more patient, controlled approach.

Slot: Yes, but I think the reason why this club hired me was that there’s not so much difference between me and Jurgen. There are a lot of similarities in terms of our playing styles. So then it’s not so difficult to adjust certain things. If you go from one playing style to another it’s much harder. A lot of things could stay the same and that meant being able to really focus on what needed to be implemented. That’s why I think it was quite fast that you could see certain things being different.

But still now, even after a season with me, this team are so fast on the counter-attack. I’ve never trained that, by the way! So not everything changed but the few things we had to change we could adjust pretty quickly because a lot of things didn’t need much attention.

---

That first win at Ipswich

Pearce: This was your first competitive game in charge. Were there any nerves?

Slot: Yeah always, but not because it was my first game in charge of Liverpool, more that it was the first game of the season. That always comes with a bit of nerves because you never know exactly where you are. It was the same when I was at Feyenoord and it will be the same again in August.

We had to go to Ipswich, which was probably like an FA Cup final for them being back in the Premier League after so many years. There were fireworks, everyone was ready for it. Hot day, early kick-off. I had the normal amount of nerves for a first game of the season, plus not knowing what to expect because it was a different league for me.

Pearce: You won 2-0 but there was a lot of talk about you going straight down the tunnel rather than over to the away end to celebrate. Was that about wanting that relationship and bond with the fans to grow naturally over time?

Slot: The funny thing is that if the players have done something special I want them to get the credit for it. In Holland it’s not common that a manager would always go to the away end. I walked in that day feeling like the boys deserved the credit for the win. Then afterwards I heard for the first time: ‘This isn’t normal in this country’. So after that I started doing it.

But even if you see me now, I don’t want to take the shine away from the players. They are the ones who have worked so hard for 90 minutes to get a result. My style at my former clubs was to say: ‘This is for you’.

---

Storming Old Trafford

Pearce: Old Trafford in September. An emphatic 3-0 victory meant you became the first Liverpool manager to win his first away league game against Manchester United since George Kay, 88 years earlier. Did that feel like lift-off?

Slot: Just recently some Dutch media asked me: ‘What was the game where you probably won the players over?’ I think it was this game because we changed some small details in the way we did our build up.

I said to them that United would be expecting Dominik Szoboszlai to play on the right. That they will have prepared all week for it, but he’s going to play on the left and we’re going to do this, this and this a bit different. Indeed exactly what I said happened.

Did we win the game because of that reason? No. We scored two counter-attacks, maybe even three! But I think it was a day when the players thought: ‘Oh, what he’s trying to tell us works’. And to win 3-0 at Old Trafford gave us the confidence that there was maybe something special ahead of us.

Pearce: Mohamed Salah created two goals for Luis Diaz at Old Trafford and scored the third himself. What a season Salah has had — 33 goals and 23 assists in all competitions, setting crazy high standards…

Slot: Yeah and standards he’s probably not going to live up to in the upcoming two seasons. I hope he can, but it’s not even necessary. Even if he scores and assists a few less, it will still be a great season. But I know Mo, he’s going to try to achieve even more. He’s going to work so hard every single day to do even more special things for this club.

---

The Brighton comeback

Pearce: November 2 feels like a big day in the context of this season. Arsenal lost at Newcastle, Manchester City were beaten by Bournemouth and Liverpool came back from 1-0 down at the break to beat Brighton 2-1 . You went top and have remained there ever since…

Slot: It was great from Brighton in that first half. They made it really difficult for us. They worked the whole week to do something with their tactics which we could only adjust to at half-time. It wasn’t like after winning that game I felt: ‘Oh now we’re going to go top of the league’. I always felt it would be a competition with City and Arsenal right until the end of the season. But it was a big win because we played a Brighton team who were on top of their game. They were three important points. Brighton had drawn at Arsenal not long before then.

Pearce: A number of players said they had expected you to be angry at half-time that day given how Brighton had dominated the opening 45 minutes, but you were calm and composed in terms of explaining what needed to change tactically to turn it around.

Slot: I don’t think it helps to be 15 to 20 times angry at half-time over a season. You have to save these moments for when it really matters. Nine out of 10 times I am only angry if I feel that there is no work rate. Like when we played at home to Southampton (in March). That day I was angry! Against Ipswich at half-time I was maybe a little bit angry.

There was no need to be (against Brighton) because the players had worked hard but the other team just did things differently to how we expected. That’s why we were a little bit too late (in terms of our pressing). It was smarter to adjust things rather than be angry. This team in general always works very hard. I have the same approach with my children. If they don’t work hard I can be hard on them. But if they work hard and things don’t go great at school or something else goes wrong I will never be hard on them.

---

Nunez’s flash of inspiration

Pearce: There were some wild celebrations with the late drama at Brentford in January when Darwin Nunez scored twice in stoppage time.

Slot: That was 90 minutes of frustration. We were so close to a goal. We just kept on going and going, although Brentford were a threat on the counter-attack. We brought on Darwin and don’t forget who provided the assist for that first goal — Trent Alexander-Arnold. Darwin scored a few important goals, but that first one at Brentford was maybe for him and us the most important.

Another thing about that game, and you saw it on more occasions this season, towards the end of a match which could still go wrong, we bring on attacker after attacker after attacker. Harvey Elliott and Federico Chiesa also came on after Darwin. Harvey gave the ball to Trent in the build-up to the first goal. We always try to force a win.

Pearce: Darwin was the hero that day but you’ve alternated that No 9 role a lot this season between him, Diogo Jota and Diaz. What was the thinking behind playing Diaz centrally rather than off the left?

Slot: Diogo was out for a long, long time. It happened against Chelsea (in October). Then it took him quite a long time to get back to his old level so there was only one (striker) available with Darwin. With the amount of games we had to play between November and March, we had to adjust as you can’t play Darwin every game. We had to try different players there. We tried it with Lucho (Diaz) and he did really well. Partly due to Diogo’s injury I had to come up with another option for the No 9 position.

---

A furious Merseyside derby

Pearce: You must have known this one was coming! Goodison in February. Until that night, you had largely kept a lid on your emotions on the touchline. What was it about that night?

Slot: There were a lot of things that were hard to take in that extra time. I am usually quite calm. But the whole situation meant it was not a place to be calm in. Their fans were very loud with it being the last derby at their stadium. In extra time, too, many things happened that were not OK. But we’re all human beings, we all make mistakes.

We’re talking about the foul on Mo, we’re talking about the foul on Ibou (Konate), we’re talking about the fourth official who tells me there are only 60 seconds to play after there was an injury for them where he then gave the ball to them when we had the ball. That meant they could put another long ball in. They scored after 80 seconds. I could feel that the referee was waiting for the moment when we would kick the ball away. But after 60 seconds he should have blown the whistle. That was a bit too much, even for me!

It felt at that moment in time like we had dropped two very important points. Looking back at it now, we have to thank Michael Oliver because that late goal meant we could win the title in our stadium (against Tottenham).

---

Szoboszlai’s exhaustion at City

Pearce: This image perfectly summed up your team’s performance against Manchester City. They absolutely ran themselves into the ground to protect the 2-0 lead they established in the first half. It was Liverpool’s first league win at the Etihad for nearly a decade and you only had 34 per cent possession.

Slot: That tells you how hard we had to work and it also tell you how good City still are. If you can play against us and still have so much ball possession then you are a very good team. Everybody felt in that game that if we could bring that win over the line then we would be getting very, very close (to winning the title). The boys fought so hard to get that done. Mo was almost playing as a full-back in the second half!

It was a moment the boys should get a lot of credit for. Yeah, they have a lot of quality but to work so hard to get a win like that is something I like to see and something our fans like to see. Looking at that photo of Dominik and how tired he was at the end — that tells you everything. Partly from running but also mentally because if you are under so much pressure with attack after attack, it drains you mentally as well.

Pearce: You surprised everyone by starting that game without a No 9 and playing Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones as two No 10s. It seemed to catch City out. If you were picking a game where you felt a tactical plan was carried out perfectly would that be it?

Slot: No, I wouldn’t pick that one because we had to defend so much. I prefer the game plans that worked where we had the ball a lot. So for me one of the nicest games was Paris Saint-Germain at home (in the last 16 of the Champions League in March). The week before we were completely outplayed by them in the first leg. At Anfield, I wouldn’t say it was a 180 degrees change but it was a lot different. That made it special, to be able to do certain things to turn a game around so much.

That wasn’t just down to me, it was down to our fans as well, that incredible atmosphere. We were constantly on the front foot and should have won that game but lost on penalties. Maybe we didn’t get it because we were so lucky in the first leg in Paris. Tactically, that would be the one I look back on and think: ‘We did a really good job’.

---

A special Anfield moment

Pearce: It was either this one or one of you dancing!

Slot: Yeah, I definitely prefer this one!

Pearce: When you think back to that day when the Premier League title was wrapped up, what comes to mind? There was such emotion. Many have described it as the greatest day they’ve ever had at Anfield.

Slot: That’s what probably makes me the most proud. To hear people who have worked at the club for so long or been a fan for so many years, and with all the success this club has had, to still be able to do something that is more special to them than anything else, that’s probably the highest you can achieve. That brings emotions, even for a calm and collected guy like me.

Pearce: If you had to pick one favourite moment from that day, what would it be?

Slot: It would be when we arrived at the stadium on the bus with all the fans singing, ‘Now you’re gonna believe us, we’re gonna win the league’. Every time I think about it, it makes me feel a bit emotional. Another moment would be when they started playing the song ‘Freed From Desire’ after the game. I looked around and everyone was loving it. So much joy. I don’t know who the DJ was but he should get credit for that song. That was special, too.

Pearce: It’s been such a remarkable first year in charge, does it whet your appetite for what’s to come?

Slot: Yeah because these are the moments why we all work so hard every single day to try to become better and better. And once you have experienced one, you think: ‘It would be really nice to have another one because I forgot to enjoy this moment or that moment’.

The trophy lift and the parade are going to be really special. Then we go on holiday and probably all of us will feel: ‘I want to experience that one, two or three more times’.

(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)

This post was originally published on this site