Slot shows everyone who’s boss at Liverpool – fans and players alike
If this is still the getting-to-know-you phase for Liverpool fans and Arne Slot, the early signs are that they are getting along just fine. Two games, two wins, two clean sheets — no Liverpool manager has done that since Graeme Souness in April 1991 and, to show how long ago it was, that was before the Premier League even existed.
Yes, there are still imperfections and yes, the next few days will be important for Liverpool if they are to avoid ending the summer transfer window as the only club in England’s top flight not to have made a single new signing. For a club of their ambitions, the need for reinforcements cannot be glossed over in the warm aftertaste of a back-to-back win to the season. On the pitch, too, there will be greater challenges than their first two opponents, newly promoted Ipswich Town and Brentford, who finished 16th last season and were without star striker Ivan Toney, who open against Manchester United at Old Trafford next Sunday, where Slot will receive a very different reception.
Still, the mood at Anfield could probably be gauged by the soundtrack at the end of Sunday’s 2-0 win over Brentford. By that point, it was clear to everyone that Slot’s first competitive game at Liverpool’s home ground would go down in history as a joyous occasion.
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Jurgen Klopp had coined the apt song — “Arne Slot, la la la la la” — when he took the microphone after his final game as manager last season and, as a parting wish, asked the crowd to make his successor feel welcome. Ninety-eight days later, the Kop heeded.
Slot had spent three quarters of the game with his hands in his pockets, and exuded a very different kind of energy. He has made it clear since taking the job that there will be no chest-thumping or fist-pumping that the previous manager went for.
Perhaps too much attention has been paid to the different body language. Yes, the fans loved Klopp’s passion. More than anything, they just want to see a winning Liverpool team that plays fast, sharp, entertaining football and has a sense of togetherness at its core. And that was all delivered here.
“All (former) Liverpool managers would tell you the same thing,” Slot said in the post-match press conference of the crowd reception. “Every manager who comes here feels the warmth of this club and the appreciation of the fans. The most important thing for me is to make sure we play in the style the fans want to see. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Slot prepares for kick-off of his first Premier League match at Anfield as Liverpool manager (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
It felt like a significant statement, as Liverpool fans might have wondered whether the man who won the Dutch title with Feyenoord in 2022-23 would attempt to impose a slower, more possession-oriented style of play on his new team.
Based on the evidence so far, that will not be the case.
Liverpool’s latest victory was rooted in the kind of football their fans love to see: chasing down their opponents, playing with the speed, touch and directness that led to Luis Diaz’s opening goal, from a Brentford corner and a breakaway that began in the home side’s penalty area. It was in many ways a classic of its kind for modern Liverpool.
Not much seems to have changed, except the identity of the man in the dugout.
Arne Slot, Liverpool’s new head coach
It didn’t matter much that, as the crowd serenaded the new head coach, Trent Alexander-Arnold sat on the bench with the expression on his face of a man in no mood to join in the love-in.
Yesterday was the second game in a row that Alexander-Arnold was replaced early by Conor Bradley at right-back. This time, England’s interim manager Lee Carsley was in the crowd, looking ahead to their international matches against the Republic of Ireland and Finland next month. Alexander-Arnold’s body language was such that Slot appeared briefly next to him to offer a few words of explanation.
“He didn’t look that happy,” the Dutchman told reporters. “I get it. Every player wants to play 90 minutes, but I don’t think the players who were on the bench at the beginning were really happy with the choice I made.
“Trent came back from the national team (after reaching the final of Euro 2024 with England on July 14). He had a few weeks off, then came back and this was only his third game. We have to take good care of him because we need him all season, not just the first few games. The good thing for me is that I have a very good backup in Conor.”
Alexander-Arnold was replaced by Slot (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
At some point, it will no longer be a “He’s not Klopp” story. But for now, Slot is quickly showing his new audience how he operates and, most importantly, that he really is The Boss. He has made Liverpool’s managerial transition as smooth as anyone could realistically have hoped, right down to signing his programme notes for his official home debut with “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
In the process, he achieved something that the four Liverpool managers immediately before him could not: win that first Premier League game at Anfield. Klopp drew 1-1 with Southampton. Brendan Rodgers drew 2-2 with Manchester City. Kenny Dalglish’s second appearance in the dugout also started with a 2-2 draw, against Everton. Roy Hodgson? That was 1-1 against Arsenal in the first game of the 2010-11 season, with newcomer Joe Cole showing a red card and the underlying feeling of a crowd deeply uncertain about their new manager.
It feels different with this latest appointment and not just because fans behind his dugout held up a banner welcoming Slot to Anfield with the words: “We’ve got your back, Arne.”
Perhaps he also saw the banner unfurled in front of the Kop before kick-off, featuring the five managers – Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Dalglish and Klopp – who are regarded in these parts as Anfield royalty. It’s not easy to get a place on one of those banners (Gerard Houllier was left out despite winning five trophies in a six-month period in 2001), but he can worry about that later.
First things first. The Slot era at Anfield has started exactly as he would have liked.
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(Top photos: Sky Sports; Getty Images)
