Digging deeper into Arne Slot and his football philosophy.
Hello reds 👋. I will try to create a clearer picture on who Arend"Arne" Slot is and what his football philosophy is. Information is gathered from professional tactical reports, tactical videos, training videos, Feyenoord games and by talking to Dutch Feyenoord fans to get a clear picture of him.
Personality.
Everyone just seems to love Mr Slot. The Feyenoord fans i've chatted with all says the same: We all love him and you will do the same in Liverpool. His players all talk about what a great guy he is and how easy it is to talk to him.
For example Feyenoords Gimenez said - As a person as a coach he is complete, he talks really well with the players and he has helped me a lot, on the pitch he's all attack, attack, attack.
Another team member said- Arne hardly ever rises his voice to his players. He creates a good harmony in the squad.
It is in fact really hard to find negative things about Arne, not even from media since he's great talking to them too so we're definitely getting ourselves a likeable coach.
https://x.com/Feyenoord/status/1787218548575629573
Above a clip of Arne interacting with Feyenoord fans
Tactical inspiration and fittability.
Arne is definitely a better straight fit for the squad we have now than what both Alonso and Amorim would have been. They both use a back 3 and uses their attackers very different to what we do while Slots approach is pretty similar to how Klopp plays. I'm not saying he's a better manager than the two but he's a better fit right now. He is also known for having big interest in player analysis and developing talent which I'm sure is a must for any new LFC coach.
Slot is also a better fit for us than what Ten Hag was for United when they got him. Slot got a bigger possibility succeeding because he got a better squad that fits him, a better transfer committee and better bosses behind him.
In the Netherlands they call his style ,Crazy sexy football, which comes from a style unlike any other Dutch coach uses. Slot plays a very attractive football that Feyenoord fans love, full of speed, attacking and fast passes.
His football inspiration is a mix between many coaches. His possession play is largely inspired by the total football invented by Cruyff, later finetuned by Pep Guardiola. While his pressing is inspired by the style of Lobanovski, Sacchi and Frank to be finetuned by Klopp.
Some talks have been that Slot is pretty similar to LFC but I would turn that around and say that the last two years Klopps LFC have started to look more and more like Slot instead. Many stages of Klopps system is now tuned towards Slot like inverted fullbacks, narrower attacks and often one of the box to box players falling deep besides the holding midfielder for maximum security and to tighten low central spaces.
Buildup play/ possession play.
When Slot builds up from deep I'd say he's very similar to De Zerbi. He tries to outpass a high press and moves enough players low to get man advantage. That is a very risky style and demands highly technical skilled players who aren't afraid moving the ball around quickly with one touches. I personally think he might have to change that habit a little. Arteta in Arsenal tried something similar in his first season in the league but was smart enough to change that approach when he realised it was too risky.
Slot uses 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 but they are pretty similar with some minor tweaks. So when in attacking transitioning when possession is regained his fullbacks moves inside to create a midfield of three with the defensive midfielder like Trent and Robbo does in the picture. This narrow struture ensures that he got enough defensive solidity in case a counter and the narrow formation forces the opposition to play out wide.
The other midfielder moves up to create an attack consisting of 5 players but the central attacker is always highest (which is not the case in Klopps team).
The attack.
The sector just outside the box is a main sector for Slot. You will see lots of shots from that area. Too many I'd say as most coaches avoids shooting too early and too far away as it more often results in dangerous counters than leands to goals. Well he very often wants his players to go deep and give cut-back passes where the striker or any of the offensive midfielders can take a shot.
With this i see both positive and negative issues. The positive thing is that when Mac Allister was at Brighton he had most shots of all midfielders in the league and he got a great shot and then add that Szobo is well known for having one of the better shots in the business and Trent will for sure be brought up for some shots too.
The negative thing besides from it being risky is that the best xG is considered closer to goal and that's where coaches normally tries to get the ball.
By the way, he hates high crosses so i doubt you will see much of that in the future. He sees it as such that it's a low chance of a cross ending in a goal so he wants the flanks cover by only one player.
Another option to get to "Slots sector" is that they make very very fast one touch short passing sequences that leads to a shot from the sector.
I'm talking about one touches here as you notice and many of his long rondo's in training he forbids his players to use more than one touch because he thinks more touches only slows the game down. You will see loads of passing triangles like Pep G does and you will see his players doing lots of max sprints during a game. Slot is considered being very obsessed with his philosophy and he's very good explaining what he wants from his players.
Defensive philosophy.
When losing the ball it's basically the same as what Klopp does, full steam space machine! Full press and it's mostly the attackers that initiates the press when the press trigger is there. The press works different depending of opposition. For example against teams that uses 3 CB,s Slot has moved his wingers inside to man mark the CB,s and push the play out to the sides where it's easier to isolate the ball and the carrier.
If the initial press doesn't work he moves deeper and more narrow than what we are used to. I personally like that since it makes the danger zone packed and the close space between players means a reduced risk in case of a mistake.
He wants control over central areas and overload to have man advantage when in possession and to push play outside and to have closer distance to cover when out of possession.
Which player could thrive under Slot and which might not fit as well?
I think the player who could have problems with Arne is Mo Salah. Arne demands very much running of his wingers, up and down the flank. They must be brave in one Vs one and they will get subbed every game.
None of this fits Mo. Mo doesn't run much to defend, he doesn't take on many one Vs one anymore and he gets furious if he gets subbed. I wonder if Mo really would be alright with Slot.
Robertson isn't a good fit either. He's not such a great passer. Robbo runs all day line to line and hits crosses.....Slots fullbacks doesn't. Where does that leave Robbo 🤷♂️.
Trent is already moulded into some weird kind of inverted fullback by Klopp and would do the same with Arne but he wouldn't move planlessly around the pitch. Slot got strikt plans and Trent would need to work on a more tight space. Slot doesn't want the fullbacks all over ,even if they are allowed to follow attacks occasionally too, because he wants the defensive structure to remain also during attacking sequences.
A big question mark will also be made over Endo. What i've seen Slot wants the defensive midfielder to be a powerful play breaker and Endo isn't that.D
arwin is a question mark mostly because he isn't great in the hold up / passing game. Darwin will definitely run less under Slot. Slot wants his central attacker where he should be, in the danger zone and this could be for Darwin.
For the offensive midfielder role we got many players who should be perfect for Slot. Szobo is like made for that and Elliott, Curtis, Mac and Carvalho can all play there. Szobo might also be considered for the right winger role since he's amazing putting pressure and tracking back for interceptions and cutting passing lanes.
The other attackers should most likely fit Slot well and our CB,s are good on the ball which Slots CB,s must be.
Now it is important to remember that all what I say about players here is that it's only correct if Slot plays exactly like he normally plays but Slot isn't stupid so he most likely will tweak system so it fits the players as well as possible.
Injuries.
Slots team isn't hit with many injuries and that can be due to different circumstances like less games than us, no injury prone players but i also know Slot got strict rules for training the day after a game to reduce injuries. He only allows training in small areas to avoid sprints since muscles are tired after a game and can't take high sprints. Let's hope that works and he can bring our injury numbers down a bit.
Conclusion.
Nobody can say how a manager will do at a new club but we can limit the disturbing (unfittability) factors that can have a negative impact. Slot is coming to a club that should fit him pretty well. Edwards and the gang is making sure of that .
He like every manager for any top club will need some time to make the squad fit his needs. Time will tell if he's good enough to fight for gold with more limited financial backup than the managers for a few other teams. I didn't have Slot on my radar but now that i know more about him i got a positive feeling so good luck Mr Slot, Let's ROCK 🤘
Thanks for reading. Unfortunately this was too short to properly explain who Slot is and how he plays but i hope you got something out of it 😄
Comments
Christan great blog I was waiting for you to do your homework and give us (lazy guys) updates on our new manager. Btw what do you do for a living and where do you find the time to do all this? from everything you said about slot he seems to be a good fit for us but as you said only time will tell 🤜🤛👍
👍. fair question 😄. Work as an electrician on turbine and hydropowerplants, sometimes abroad and then i got lots of spare time to do research in the evenings.
you need to consider getting a job at lfc doing research or something like that or maybe finding young players 😅
😂 thanks 👍
Your approach fits your profile. Thanks for all this. This is miles beyond fanhood. This is football, as a craft
👍💪
Thanks Christian for doing a good homework. I agree with you that Slot will tweak the team a bit depending on the players’ ability. As for the designation that FSG gives him I think in England Slot would still be called a manager irrespective of his limited roles.
Hey, mate. I'm just wondering about your thoughts on FSG insisting on Slot being a 'coach' rather than the manager. I know it might well be a cultural thing with the preference on 'head coach' on the continent (and in America), but with FSG constantly highlighting the distinction, the emphasis seems different to me this time. So, for instance, we know Klopp would let them know what kind of player he wants and FSG look to bring in the best from that type, but with all the chatter about Edwards having a greater say on how things are done now, this feels a bit like Slot maybe having absolutely 💯 zero say on the players we bring in. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is defo the case but there must be some reason why FSG are going out of their way to make the distinction.
Hi. I don't have knowledge about that but i think they realized that Klopp had too much power the last years and maybe it's a way to try to make it not happening again. Don't think the title is too important in the end thought. I'm very sure they will go through with Slot what he needs , on what position and which type of players and work from that. That's the way they did early with Klopp and it worked well so maybe we're just going back to what worked well.
Let's hope so. It did cross my mind with Klopp looking a bit more tired and definitely more easily aggravated in interviews over the last couple of seasons, so perhaps a sign there of a bit of a power thing going on there. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the transfer thing, tbh. At first, it sounds horrendous but if he's happy with it and frees Slot up to concentrate on the coaching. 🤷 Thanks for the response, anyways. 👍