Arne Slot believes that Liverpool were occasionally too exposed under Jurgen Klopp, and he aims to instill a greater sense of solidity into the team he inherited.
While Klopp’s dynamic and attacking style earned Liverpool global acclaim during his successful nine-year tenure, it often left the team vulnerable, particularly to counter-attacks.
Slot acknowledges that his style of play shares similarities with Klopp’s but emphasizes a more cautious approach.
He wants his players to take greater responsibility with the ball and adopt a more measured build-up play to maintain defensive stability.
These adjustments were evident in Liverpool’s opening Premier League match of the season against Ipswich.
Notably, full-back Andy Robertson was seen positioning himself behind centre-back Virgil van Dijk to receive a pass.
This tactic, which Reds legend Jamie Carragher remarked he had never seen before while analyzing the game for Sky Sports, reflects Slot’s strategy to improve ball retention and avoid hasty attacks.
“Liverpool used every moment they could to play the ball in behind [before]”, said Slot in a Sky Sports interview with Carragher.
“That meant that the game was sometimes a bit open, especially in the last period of Jurgen.
“Sometimes I tell the players to get a better judgement in risk and reward.
“So if you can put some balls in front of the goalkeeper, please try and do so.
“If not, it’s also a good idea to keep the ball, but I’m sure if Jurgen was in the room now he’d say he’d want to keep the ball once in a while too.
“In general, I see that still some players are trying to play the difficult ball which doesn’t get the reward for the risk they take.
“I believe the one reasons why the players buy in [to my work] is that the differences are not that big.
“There are only small differences between Jurgen and me and the general idea of how we want to play football is quite similar.”
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