There are two scenes that perfectly describe how Arne Slot is slowly falling in love with Liverpool and how the Kop has come to adore this low-key but smooth operator.
The first was in August, two hours before a closed-door preseason friendly against Las Palmas. The full crowd for another match that day, against Sevilla, was long gone and Slot was simply sitting on the bench, feet outstretched, with a child.
It was his son, Joep. Slot senior pointed towards the Kop and the teenager craned his neck to inspect his father’s new pitch. Your correspondent is no body language guru, but it’s fair to say they seemed amazed when Slot took pictures of their boy.
Those snapshots will find a good home on the mantelpiece as a keepsake to treasure. It wasn’t Slot’s first time visiting Anfield, but there is something emotional about an empty stadium, especially on a match day, that makes you appreciate its character and history more.
Maybe that was the day it all seemed real. A ‘pinch me’ moment for this Dutch ‘Bible Belt’ guy from Bergentheim, who enjoyed a fair but far from brilliant playing career. He quickly rose through the coaching ranks to one of Europe’s elite clubs.
The second scene was his most recent game. Liverpool had just made another Champions League team, Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, look average to move five points clear at the top of the Premier League with their 15th win in Slot’s first 17 games.
Arne Slot is slowly falling in love with Liverpool, and the Kop have come to adore their new operator.
In his last game, his team made fellow Champions League team Aston Villa look ordinary.
But above all, Slot is a family man (pictured: his son Joep and his daughter Isa).
Slot approached the Kop at a brisk pace and gave the enthusiastic fans the strongest show of affection yet. Not quite Jurgen Klopp’s antics, but a world away from his half-wave to the visiting finish from afar after his Premier League debut at Ipswich Town.
As this weekend marks 100 days since that first competitive match at Portman Road, we know all about Slot the manager – a thirst for patience, control and tactical adjustments in the game – but not many know much about Slot the man.
First of all, as illustrated in that first sketch from August, Slot is a family man. He lives alone in England, on the outskirts of Manchester, rather than inheriting the club-owned Formby estate, which has been inhabited by the likes of Jurgen Klopp and Brendan Rodgers.
But the reason he is alone is because he did not want to move his children’s schools – in addition to his son Joep, he has a daughter, Isa – and he has recently returned to Holland, as he has done in every international break until now. away, to see them and his wife Mirjam.
“There’s no better feeling than being a father,” he said recently.
Because he lives alone, he spends his free time working on his Apple Macbook laptop, studying his opponents, and rewatching clips of his team’s matches and training sessions. A constant search for the best. When he takes a break from his soccer studies, he helps his kids study for exams via FaceTime.
This is a workaholic who believes that the brain is the best tool a footballer or coach can have. This started from his playing days and former team-mate Julian Jenner tells Mail Sport: “In terms of his football brain, I would compare him to Sergio Busquets.
‘Okay, not in skill, but in the same mobility and technique… anything he could think of, he could do it. When I was in the lineup I spoke, when I wasn’t playing I tried to help the young people.
He preferred not to move into the club property previously rented by Jurgen Klopp and his family is still based in the Netherlands.
The 2-0 win at Ipswich was Slot’s promising first game as Liverpool’s new manager.
The Dutch coach’s football brain has been compared to that of Spain and Barcelona icon Sergio Busquets
“He would always tell the coach, ‘Yeah, but what if this happens?’ The coach would say, ‘Arne, you’re the creative one, you have to fix it!'” He wrote everything down, trying to expose his flaws to determine what He needed to improve. His ambitions skyrocketed.
‘I come from the opposite side of the country, Den Haag. We are braver and we say we are the best. He’s more on the realistic side, don’t go too fast. He’s very calm, polite, if you’re not feeling well he’s always there to help you and shows his fatherly side.’
Those close to Slot say he believes his education and background have been the perfect foundation for him to make a difference in the sport. “He believes that verbal agility is a weapon,” says one source, adding: “He believes that the biggest difference is still in the way you treat people.”
He learned this trait by observing Father Arend as an amateur football director and coach. Slot also had a customer service role after his playing career when he entered into a joint venture with his brother Jakko (he was called Slotwear) selling custom captain’s armbands.
The brothers used to spend Sunday mornings hoping not to hear their parents wake up early, because that would mean they were going to church. They used to go most weeks, but not all. Slot believes this childhood ensured he did not completely abandon his faith.
Although he is not a practicing religious man, Mail Sport has been told that Slot has a rather peculiar superstition about match days. He has been known to avoid looking at the clock at exactly 1:13 p.m. (1:13 p.m.) for years because he, like many, believes the number portends bad luck.
A look at the results so far this season shows that Brighton’s Ferdi Kadioglu scored with 13 minutes on the clock at Anfield to put the Seagulls up 1-0 earlier this month. Good job then, that hard work with their planning and tactical adjustments overcame luck in this case as Liverpool came back to win 2-1.
Sources in Rotterdam also say that Slot doesn’t like the word ‘I’ and prefers ‘we’, reminding Mail Sport of a trip to the Netherlands in May when he responded to our question with: ‘Football… just There’s talk of “Head coach, but it’s not fair to the others (backroom staff) if you give me credit.”
The Reds coach has a rather peculiar superstition: he refuses to look at the clock that reads exactly 1:13 p.m. (1:13).
He is known for preferring the word “we” to “I” and previously stated that it was unfair for only the head coach to receive credit for a team effort.
Slot has insisted he simply maintained the status quo and did not change much from the Jurgen Klopp era.
In press conferences, Slot is shy and doesn’t reveal much. He declines to discuss contract issues and does not reveal injury details. While Klopp called the media directly, Slot simply annoys them by not giving as many sound bites.
This is far from an insult: his professional style is admirable and he is generating results on the field. He joked about how the 24/7 obsession with football in the UK has taken him by surprise as he constantly sees his face on big screens tuned to Sky Sports at the training ground.
Slot has insisted that he has simply maintained the status quo and hasn’t changed much from the Klopp era, hinting that is the reason for the success, but taking that at face value would be to cheapen the former Feyenoord boss’ excellent work. when jumping from the Eredivisie to the Premier League.
Aside from tactical adjustments and the emphasis on detailed analysis sessions, Slot’s main tangible modifications have had to do with routines. He has eliminated the rule that players stay in a hotel the night before games, believing stars will sleep better in the comforts of home.
The team eats breakfast together and the club’s media often publish videos of them laughing while Mohamed Salah appears to be propping up the cafeteria like a local in the pub. Salah sets the tone on the field, but is also an all-round leader and friendly face.
Slot is not in the players’ WhatsApp group and delegates responsibility for ensuring everyone is happy to captain and compatriot Virgil van Dijk. His policy changes have been far from radical but, almost 100 days into his term as prime minister, he has cultivated a party ready to prosper.