'As soon as he came': Liverpool insiders noticed something 'clear' about Arne Slot straight away - journalist
11/12/2024 09:00 AM
Liverpool are sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League heading into the final international break of 2024.
The Reds have navigated an exceedingly difficult October and November fixture list to move five points clear of Manchester City.
Obviously, there is still a long, long way to go in the season and few Liverpool supporters will be getting carried away.
But having perhaps expected a dip off after so long under Jurgen Klopp’s stellar management, the way Arne Slot has hit the ground running has been a magnificent surprise.
Slot has recorded 15 wins out of 17 games to put Liverpool top of not just the Premier League, but the Champions League as well.
For those looking from the outside in, the success of the new Liverpool head coach may have come as a shock. But according to insiders at Anfield, there was something brilliant about Slot that stood out as soon as he walked through the door.
Anfield insiders impressed by Arne Slot
Slot’s results at Liverpool would have been impressive no matter the character of the Dutchman.
Football is a results business and if you win 15 out of 17 games at any point at any club, then you’re going to be revered.
But what has arguably been even more astounding than the wins Slot has put on the board has been the calmness with which he has done it.
The 46-year-old has been completely unruffled about following a Liverpool legend such as Klopp. Slot has paid reverence to his predecessor while also showing that he is very much his own man.
READ MORE: ‘Wonderful’ Liverpool player is really not happy under Arne Slot and could push to leave
And speaking on BBC 5 Live’s Monday Night Club, journalist Rory Smith says it is this calmness that has so impressed staff working at Liverpool.
“He is obviously naturally quite a calm character,” says Smith.
“The people that I know at Liverpool have said that the first thing that kind of became clear to them, as soon as he came through the door, was that he is a great communicator, like he is a naturally very gifted sort of egregious, garrulous, just kind of a nice person to be around.”
Liverpool’s Slot machine rumbles on
After such a good start, some have started to suggest that Slot’s terrific beginning to life at Liverpool was somewhat inevitable.
It’s true that Klopp left the Liverpool squad is such a good place that the Dutchman could take it over seamlessley.
But it still required the steady hand of someone who was self aware enough not to rip things up and try and do everything differently.
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Had he been a different kind of personality, Slot could easily have actively tried to move as far away from Klopp as possible. That surely would not have worked.
It still remains to be seen how Arne and the Liverpool coaching staff respond to a setback of two or three poor results on the spin.
For now, though, everything is rosy. Whatever the success, however, it’s clear that Slot will not be getting carried away.