Arne Slot Manager
The Liverpool boss is keenly aware of what to anticipate as his team strives to maintain their impressive start to the Premier League season. His insight is partly due to his familiarity with Arne Slot’s approach during his time at Feyenoord. Slot has been an avid observer of Premier League games, often tuning into Brighton fixtures.
Arne Slot said “I like to watch football in general and then I always prefer to watch some teams or some managers. Not only because of tactics but because I like certain teams and managers more than others. That is also what I had with Brighton when Roberto De Zerbi was there. It’s not like I was watching their games back, just on a Saturday afternoon if I could watch every game then I would often choose Brighton. I chose them out of interest. No, I don’t think that is true. The one that has won the Premier League for the last few times – do you want to see Pep (Guardiola, who is now 53) as a bit older or is he also still young? He’s very experienced and the one that won in between was Jurgen (Klopp, now 57) of course. He is a bit older. But the one that won the Champions League for 15 years in a row now (Carlo Ancelotti, age 65) is probably one of the oldest managers still working! But it is normal that young managers get the chance. Pep did at Barcelona and Jurgen came here when he was a bit younger also. I think it has been like this for a long time. But to have a 30-31 year old, that is quite exceptional.”
Anticipation surrounds the team’s composition for the upcoming fixtures. Slot and his Brighton counterpart, Hurzeler, are expected to announce significantly altered line-ups from their recent 3-2 League Cup encounter on the South Coast. Liverpool is set to reinstate Darwin Nunez as the leading striker. Nunez’s performance has been noteworthy, despite having scored only once in the Premier League this season.
Arne Slot said “There is definitely a reason for that and that is the fixture list – Chelsea at home and Arsenal away. If you have to play those two – and I don’t know if you are including Leipzig as well – then you probably have the answer. So strikers usually touch the ball in the opposition penalty area if you are stronger than the other team. But in these games, we were equal with Chelsea and Arsenal but we were not dominating both games. With his work-rate definitely, he has done well. He also came back quite late to pre-season and had to adapt a bit because we press a bit differently. The idea is still the same, to press high, but we’re using the press a bit more with the wingers inside and the number nine has to defend a little more and he is now more involved in that pressing part. So that’s what he does quite well. I still see a lot of room for improvement. But the first thing, and the most important thing, is that his attitude is right and he wants to work. Now maybe he doesn’t have to run that much if he does it even better but that is normal if you have only played a few games that it is not perfect yet. But the attitude he has is very positive like the others.”
