Liverpool are beginning a new era after Jurgen Klopp’s glittering spell – but Arne Slot is confident he has the tools at his disposal to build on the Reds’ recent success
Arne Slot claims he has succeeded Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool because he wanted to be part of European football’s biggest rivalry.
Slot says Klopp reset the European agenda after the days of Real Madrid and Barcelona and claims he was transfixed by Liverpool ’s titanic tussles with Manchester City. He feels those battles defined, not just English football, but the European game over the nine years of Klopp’s Anfield reign.
“I’m 45 now and I’ve been watching football for a long time,” Liverpool’s new head coach told the club’s website in his first interview since taking over at the start of the month.
“This has been an era where everybody looked at the Barcelona side of Xavi, Iniesta and Messi and the rivalry there was between Real Madrid with Cristiano Ronaldo being there. When that came to an end, the new rivalry in European football came because of Jurgen. He managed Liverpool and Pep Guardiola, of course, managed Manchester City.
“For everyone who loves football it was a fantastic era to watch them getting the best out of each other. I’ve seen a lot of games of Liverpool, a lot of games of City as well, and when you live in Europe the Premier League is probably the nicest league to follow.
“Jurgen’s done a tremendous job here and I’m really happy with that as a fan, but now as his successor he left Liverpool in the best possible way.”
Slot rose to prominence at Feyenoord, winning the Dutch title in 2023 and the Dutch Cup last season. The Dutchman says he was inspired by Klopp and Guardiola and feels their intense, possession-based attacking football is the only way to play.
“We’re all inspired by Guardiola and Klopp and at a big club, which I worked in at Feyenoord as well, it’s probably the only style you can play,” he said.
“To have the ball a lot, to have a lot of energy, and now there are comparisons between the club I left and the club I’m going to work for now.”
Slot claims Klopp gave him several “good tips” when they spoke and thanked him for saying he would be his biggest fan. “He gave me more than a few good tips,” he said. “But what stood out for me was – and he said this in the media as well – he would be my biggest fan from now on because he supports Liverpool in the best possible way, and you don’t see this very often.
“That says a lot about his character.”
Slot is happy about being Liverpool’s first-ever head coach instead of manager and says this allows him to focus on working with the players. He has contacted them and joked chatting to skipper Virgil van Dijk was easy because they spoke Dutch.
Slot rejected Tottenham a year ago because he felt he had unfinished business at Feyenoord and says he could not turn Liverpool down. “It was a year ago that I was in the interest of a few Premier League clubs, but I decided to extend at Feyenoord with the idea of staying there two more seasons.
“But after a year, Liverpool came along and it wasn’t a difficult choice to make.”
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