Liverpool will begin life under Arne Slot this weekend when they face newly-promoted Ipswich Town.
The Reds new coach has already shown fans what to expect from his team in six pre-season games, in which Liverpool won four.
The first signs from Slot’s team has impressed fans and there is genuine belief the Reds will do well under the Dutchman despite the absence of fresh signings so far.
And now, ahead of his first official match in charge, Slot has given a low down on how he intends his team to play.
The former Feynoord man claims that his style is similar to that of his predecessor Jurgen Klopp.
The German spent close to mine years at Anfield and won everything, playing counter attacking and front-foot football.
Part of the reason Liverpool hired Slot is because of the similarity in their style of play and the new coach has confirmed this.
What Arne Slot said
In an interview with Canal+ via the club’s official website, the new Liverpool coach was asked to explain the ideal manner of football he wants to see from his side.
“Style of play has been with my teams where I worked, I think, always the same,” he said.
“There are a lot of similarities with Jürgen Klopp, with the way they played in the past, and I’m hoping we will see these similarities in the upcoming weeks and months.
“We like to have the ball, we don’t like the other team to have the ball… but the Premier League is a league where many good clubs are and many clubs want to have the ball, so we have to fight really hard for us to have the ball.
“And if we have it, we want to score, we want to be intense in everything we do. If we have the ball, we want to score – that’s quite simple of course! We want to be intense in everything we do.
Despite his team’s similarity with Klopp’s team, Slot was quick to point out where his differ from Klopp’s team.
“Maybe the only slight difference there is, is that after we win the ball, I like to go forward just as Jürgen liked it, but I sometimes like it when players try to keep the ball and not play the difficult ball, where Jürgen or the former regime maybe liked the chaotic scenes in and around the 16 a lot as well. They were really, really, really successful with that for so many years.
“But it sometimes also depends a bit on the players you have. I think we’re trying to find the balance between trying to create chaos at certain moments and trying to keep possession of the ball a bit longer in other moments.”
Klopp’s style of football brought so much success to Liverpool so the hope is that Slot will be able to replicate same during his time at Anfield.
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