Arne Slot has a different path to follow in England than Erik ten Hag

HIt went about the same on Saturday. A new load of criticism on Erik ten Hag, whining about not being given penalties after Manchester United’s 1-1 against the almost relegated Burnley. At home. Plus the news about Liverpool paying a buyout fee of around 13 million euros to release 45-year-old Arne Slot from Feyenoord, where his contract runs until 2026. Official confirmation will follow soon.

With the arrival of Slot, it is tempting to also point out the decline of the previous Dutch success coach, Ten Hag, but the situation is completely different. Ten Hag ended up at the potentially largest club in England, which has lost its way for years. He too got lost in the swampy forest of interests, reluctant stars and takeover troubles. The fact that Ten Hag allowed Ajax to play the football that his old employer desperately longs for has long been forgotten in England.

Slot’s assignment is different: he also likes high-pressure football, with quick possession of the ball in the opponent’s half, carried out by super fit players. Only: they have been playing that at Liverpool for years, football with a lot of pressure. Intensity is even the title of the book that assistant coach Pepijn Lijnders wrote about his time at Anfield.

Slot will soon live quite close to Pep Guardiola, his role model as a trainer, so who knows, maybe a great friendship will develop. He is the man who created value on the field at Feyenoord, by making relatively unknown players much better and selling them for millions. Only: at Liverpool many players already represent a value of tens of millions. And Liverpool don’t need to sell.

Trainers’ Graveyard United

He doesn’t have to pull Liverpool out of the doldrums. At Liverpool, only the trainer wanted to leave after nine years, the immensely popular Jürgen Klopp, while at United the cemetery of trainers is littered with reputations, from Louis van Gaal to José Mourinho, and the grave for Ten Hag has already been dug. He’s teetering on the edge and can only hope the new football department bosses give him another chance.

The opportunities for improvement at Liverpool lie, for example, in winning more national titles, because Klopp only managed that once in nine years, although that was the first title in thirty years. Klopp has often just not succeeded, including this season. From just not to just right, that will be the challenge for Slot. The doubts about him, as the successor to the paterfamilias Klopp who controls everything, are quite understandable. TV analyst Jamie Carragher wasn’t the only one wondering: who is that? Especially because a while ago it was about former player Xabi Alonso as the new trainer.

A year ago, Slot was almost finalized with another Premier League club, Tottenham Hotspur. Tottenham almost never wins a prize. In that sense he could have made more of a name for himself in London. It has been noted that Dutch trainers are not very successful in England. Even Van Gaal was fired after two seasons.

New Crown Prince

Ten Hag is dangling, Slot is the new crown prince. At a meeting with the press, Klopp called him a ‘good guy and a good trainer’ who makes his team play attractive football. Klopp described the job as coach at Liverpool as ‘the most beautiful job in the world, at the most beautiful club’. Moreover, the German sees an opportunity for improvement, because Liverpool is missing out on important prizes this season. That’s where the challenge lies: winning prizes and continuing to play good football. Then the affectionate, fanatical crowd in the Anfield temple is satisfied.

Liverpool has worked accurately, being economical with trainers as the club is. The environment now wants to know everything about the former midfielder Slot, from Bergentheim in Overijssel. How he transformed Feyenoord in three years from a somewhat fearful, unsuccessful club, both on and around the field, to the outgoing champion of May 2024, which is on course to exceed the number of points from the 2022-2023 championship year. Only: PSV was even better this season. Slot also won the cup with Feyenoord, last week against NEC, and qualified for the final of the then new Conference League in his first season. Feyenoord will soon be participating in the Champions League for the second season in a row and has made great strides not only sportingly, but also financially.

A name as a top coach in international football can mainly be built on performances in the Champions League. Feyenoord was somewhat disappointing in this regard, mainly due to unnecessary defeats at Lazio Roma and Atlético Madrid. In the subsequent intermediate round, in order to continue in the Europa League, Feyenoord lost on penalties to AS Roma, which, to Slot’s frustration, proved to be just too strong in Europe for three years in a row. Klopp was actually good in Europe, on average, with the win in the 2019 Champions League and two final places.

High intensity

Slot is tactically strong, likes to attack and is very gifted verbally, in several languages. He has that ahead of Ten Hag. He usually seems cheerful. Slot fits into a generation of coaches who want to play football with high intensity and courage, of whom Jürgen Klopp was a forerunner. Klopp transformed Liverpool in nine years in a way that Slot did on a small scale at Feyenoord.

Liverpool has an excellent, high-quality selection, although the restoration of the successful team of a few seasons ago has not yet been completed. Mo Salah, the best attacker of recent years, will probably leave.

The club had granted Klopp a grander farewell. Only the League Cup has been won. In the Europa League they lost to Atalanta Bergamo, in the competition Arsenal and Manchester City have distanced themselves in recent weeks. Slot wants to take other Feyenoord staff members with him, including assistant Sipke Hulshoff, although he will probably be careful with that. It has already proven to be a pitfall for many trainers to rely too much on players or other colleagues with whom they have had success elsewhere. See Ten Hag.