He’ll leave us breathless
1 Like
Make us breathe
2 Likes
The sentimentality monsters
3 Likes
I’m not convinced turning Liverpool into a Slot machine will work out. Seems like a sacrificial lamb for Alonso 2025.
So what are those ideas?
“They’re very attacking, very aggressive, with a lot of pressing,” says Martijn Krabbendam, a journalist for Voetbal International who has covered Slot’s Feyenoord. “High intensity, a lot of energy, and they can only do that if they’re very fit.
“He always wants to play attacking football, he always wants possession, he always wants a good set-up from the goalkeeper to find free space and free players in the midfield. It’s no secret he is crazy about Guardiola — he’s an example.”
Van den Brom adds: “We used a lot of videos of Manchester City and Bayern — he was crazy about Pep. How his teams create space, how they attack.”
Guardiola is the name that keeps coming up, but Slot also takes inspiration from a variety of other coaches: Marcelo Bielsa, Jorge Sampaoli, Jurgen Klopp, Luciano Spaletti, Mikel Arteta. All have their own ideas, so does he, but one thing they all have in common is their intensity.
Before he became Breda coach, De Graaf spent a week with Slot at Feyenoord, observing how he works. “Every session is with high intensity,” he says. “Every workout, passing drill, or five vs five — everything is with high intention and everything is with an idea. Every player knows exactly what he wants from them. He’s good at making clear why he’s doing certain exercises.
“He’s as honest as possible, so the players really like him.”
Slot believes his teams have to be intense because it essentially gives them two ways to win: if the quality of their play is lower than that of their opponents or they are having an off day, they can win by outrunning and outworking whoever they are playing.
There is also a recognition of, and mitigation against, the fitness concerns that come with such an intense style of not just playing, but training. He works closely with his data and fitness teams: when they tell him a player’s numbers are dropping or they are in the ‘red zone’, he will ease off.
Slot has not gained the backing of these players just by being straightforward, though. The players like him because they win under him. But, perhaps more than that, they follow him because most of the things he tells them come true.
“Before playing Marseille (in the Europa Conference League semi-finals in 2022), during training he told his midfielders to play long balls out to the wingers, over the top,” explains Krabbendam. “(Orkun) Kokcu, the midfielder, was so tired of it — he asked: ‘Why do we have to keep playing these long balls?’. Slot said he would explain later.
“In 20 minutes, Feyenoord were up 2-0 and both goals came from long balls behind the Marseille defence. He knew that was a weakness of Marseille. If you speak to the Feyenoord players — and it doesn’t matter which players — they will tell you that whatever this coach says, it happens. It’s remarkable. They have blind confidence in him because what he says comes true.”
He is no hardliner or a particular disciplinarian. He emphasises positivity. When his video analysts put selections of clips together for players to watch, allowing them to scrutinise their own performances, he asks that most of them are positive. In particular, the last one is always positive so the players leave their session feeling good about themselves.
If you want to quantify Feyenoord’s improvement under Slot, consider FiveThirtyEight’s Soccer Power Index, which uses underlying metrics to calculate a team’s attacking and defensive strength. Slot’s arrival at the club coincided with a steady rise up the rankings, peaking on a score of 76.6, the 21st-highest in world football. Not bad for an Eredivisie club.
Tell us Netherlands
2 Likes
Arne Sloth from the goonies. Someone Photoshop a photo quick.
Arne is the best bald Dutch coach in football right now
6 Likes
Coach Klopp last Merseyside derby 
Dychie not in a suit 
Hellooooooooo!
Off. Surely off.
Off side
Allison very lucky to not get a red card
Liverpool have the luck/look of champions
Yep. I think if it was onside, the yellow would have had to been reviewed
Seems odd the Liverpool keeper can just injure an Everton player and it to be overlooked because he was offside.
Imagine if he was an important player who missed the bulk of a season.
1 Like
A perfect offside trap.
Mad auld start to this game.