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Arne Slot braced for Chelsea title challenge as Liverpool boss opens up on new-look champions
No one expected Arne Slot to win the Premier League in his first season, but now everyone is. The Liverpool head coach joined talkSPORT ahead of the start of the Reds title defence, live on the station, where he’s looking to add title No.21 for the club with some shiny new players to do it with. Slot arrived at Liverpool as a relative unknown, but 12 months on he’s defending the titleGetty Slot surprised everyone last season with what turned out to be a relatively simple championship, holding Arsenal at arms length as he picked up where Jurgen Klopp left off with a squad full of hunger and energy. Things are different this term, though, with the Dutchman being backed to a stunning degree, spending more than any other team in the world in the transfer market. Liverpool have forked out over £250million for four new signings, with Florian Wirtz arguably the biggest in their modern history – a world class talent arriving for British record £116m. All of this certainly strengthens the case for Liverpool to retain their crown, but there have certainly been challenges. The summer began with world class vice captain Trent Alexander-Arnold joining Real Madrid for free and a car-ramming at their title celebrations left multiple injured but thankfully there were no casualties. More horrendous news came at the start of July when striker Diogo Jota died in a car accident with his brother Andre and Slot had to bring a team in mourning back together. He certainly appears to have done that, but a penalty shoot-out defeat to Crystal Palace in the Community Shield curtain raiser posed some questions, many of which Slot has now answered in conversation with our very own Danny Murphy. Jota tributes at Anfield opener “We celebrated really well, and that’s what we did a few months ago. But when there’s grief or we have to mourn, then this club is also very special. “The players have conducted themselves tremendously in this period of time, but our fans have shown their grief and support to Diogo, his brother and his family as well, in the best possible way. I’m expecting it to be impressive, but also emotional again.” The club was brought to its knees by the loss of Jota, and Slot has had to try and motivate his playersGetty Adapting to new signings “They’ve come into a team that has a proper idea of how to play football, and that always helps you to settle in. “I still have to adjust small things for the new ones coming in, compared with the ones that stayed, because they’re not one-on-one the same players as the ones that left, and in my opinion it’s forgotten a little bit that three or four starters left the club as well. “It’s normal that people expect them to adapt so fast, because they are big signings, these players are good players. But still for them everybody will tell you that this is a different league than all the others in terms of intensity. “Then we still need to wait for the moment of time when the Champions League starts and we play every three days. That is not new to Jeremie [Frimpong] or Florian, but the intensity of the league is different. “They play for Liverpool now, that’s no disrespect to Bayer Leverkusen, but history-wise, that’s different from playing for Liverpool – that’s for sure. “We’re very happy with the quality we’ve brought in, but there is no time in football, and these players already showed it against Athletic Bilbao and to a certain extent also against Palace, that we’ve got very good, intelligent players in. “But normally if you lose four or five starters and you bring four or five starters in, we will be better in one to three weeks, one to three months than we are at this moment of time. But I think we are still for sure good enough to be competitive against every team we play. Liverpool have had their busiest ever summer, with Slot pointing out there have been plenty of departures too More pressure as a winner? “Last season I also felt pressure on myself because everybody maybe didn’t expect a lot. So that also comes down with a certain pressure. Everybody was saying after Jurgen, it’s impossible, it’s impossible. “I think now we might need more time than we needed last season because the manager changed, but the players stayed the same. “I’ve said many times that the playing style between Jurgen and me is not so different that it takes ages for them to be adapted to it. Now players need to adapt to each other and we also brought different profiles in. “We cannot compare Florian Wirtz with any player we’ve got – maybe with Harvey Elliott – but he didn’t play that much last season. And Jeremie Frimpong is a completely, completely different profile to Trent Alexander-Arnold. “This is something that might need some time, but let’s be clear, that’s no excuse for our results in the beginning of the season. “I think in the beginning of the season, everybody needs a bit of time. Because we’re not
No one expected Arne Slot to win the Premier League in his first season, but now everyone is.
The Liverpool head coach joined talkSPORT ahead of the start of the Reds title defence, live on the station, where he’s looking to add title No.21 for the club with some shiny new players to do it with.
Slot surprised everyone last season with what turned out to be a relatively simple championship, holding Arsenal at arms length as he picked up where Jurgen Klopp left off with a squad full of hunger and energy.
Things are different this term, though, with the Dutchman being backed to a stunning degree, spending more than any other team in the world in the transfer market.
Liverpool have forked out over £250million for four new signings, with Florian Wirtz arguably the biggest in their modern history – a world class talent arriving for British record £116m.
All of this certainly strengthens the case for Liverpool to retain their crown, but there have certainly been challenges.
The summer began with world class vice captain Trent Alexander-Arnold joining Real Madrid for free and a car-ramming at their title celebrations left multiple injured but thankfully there were no casualties.
More horrendous news came at the start of July when striker Diogo Jota died in a car accident with his brother Andre and Slot had to bring a team in mourning back together.
He certainly appears to have done that, but a penalty shoot-out defeat to Crystal Palace in the Community Shield curtain raiser posed some questions, many of which Slot has now answered in conversation with our very own Danny Murphy.
Jota tributes at Anfield opener
“We celebrated really well, and that’s what we did a few months ago. But when there’s grief or we have to mourn, then this club is also very special.
“The players have conducted themselves tremendously in this period of time, but our fans have shown their grief and support to Diogo, his brother and his family as well, in the best possible way. I’m expecting it to be impressive, but also emotional again.”
Adapting to new signings
“They’ve come into a team that has a proper idea of how to play football, and that always helps you to settle in.
“I still have to adjust small things for the new ones coming in, compared with the ones that stayed, because they’re not one-on-one the same players as the ones that left, and in my opinion it’s forgotten a little bit that three or four starters left the club as well.
“It’s normal that people expect them to adapt so fast, because they are big signings, these players are good players. But still for them everybody will tell you that this is a different league than all the others in terms of intensity.
“Then we still need to wait for the moment of time when the Champions League starts and we play every three days. That is not new to Jeremie [Frimpong] or Florian, but the intensity of the league is different.
“They play for Liverpool now, that’s no disrespect to Bayer Leverkusen, but history-wise, that’s different from playing for Liverpool – that’s for sure.
“We’re very happy with the quality we’ve brought in, but there is no time in football, and these players already showed it against Athletic Bilbao and to a certain extent also against Palace, that we’ve got very good, intelligent players in.
“But normally if you lose four or five starters and you bring four or five starters in, we will be better in one to three weeks, one to three months than we are at this moment of time. But I think we are still for sure good enough to be competitive against every team we play.
More pressure as a winner?
“Last season I also felt pressure on myself because everybody maybe didn’t expect a lot. So that also comes down with a certain pressure. Everybody was saying after Jurgen, it’s impossible, it’s impossible.
“I think now we might need more time than we needed last season because the manager changed, but the players stayed the same.
“I’ve said many times that the playing style between Jurgen and me is not so different that it takes ages for them to be adapted to it. Now players need to adapt to each other and we also brought different profiles in.
“We cannot compare Florian Wirtz with any player we’ve got – maybe with Harvey Elliott – but he didn’t play that much last season. And Jeremie Frimpong is a completely, completely different profile to Trent Alexander-Arnold.
“This is something that might need some time, but let’s be clear, that’s no excuse for our results in the beginning of the season.
“I think in the beginning of the season, everybody needs a bit of time. Because we’re not the only team that brought in new players. The only difference is that we also sold starters.
“If I’m correct, our main competitors only brought players in and none of their players left. With us, it’s a replacement. Very good replacements, by the way, but very good additions from the other teams as well.”
Are Chelsea title rivals?
“I expected them to win last season already. The amount of quality they have and they were there at the start of the season. They were in [the title race] after ten games. They were still there [in December].
“Squad depth, quality, they have a very good manager as well, and I think they’ve shown this by winning the trophies they won last season.
“It was good for us that they also had a period last season where they struggled and that’s why they couldn’t compete till the end for the league title.
“But now they’re strengthening the team again, so a team that’s, in my opinion, one of the ones that are going to challenge for a league title.”
Why he doesn’t complain about fixture congestion
“Maybe it helped that we weren’t at the Club World Cup because that tournament was a lot for the players. I think the good thing is it’s only once every four years.
“I was actually looking forward to going to the Premier League and the FA Cup and having the League Cup, and of course, we all want to be in the Champions League.
“I was annoyed and frustrated that we went out of the FA Cup so soon. This is one of the nicest things about England that we have these two cups, which are very special in this country, here it really means something.
“If you’re talking about this, I don’t think there are too many fixtures. But the Club World Cup was a lot to ask, especially if you look at Paris Saint-Germain, for example, they maybe only had one week to prepare now for the Super Cup
“I think players like to play a lot of games, we like to play a lot of games, but they definitely deserve a minimum of three weeks of holiday if you have to play so many fixtures. And if that is not possible, then it gets too much, in my opinion.”
Where will Curtis Jones end up?
“I think if you ask him and if you ask me, we both have the same idea – that’s as a number eight. That would be his best position. So with a number six next to him or behind him and then he has a bit of freedom.
“He played in every single position and if you’re able to do that, you feel comfortable everywhere on the pitch. So if you feel comfortable everywhere on the pitch, you like to go to different positions.
“For me, a number six should be much more about keeping your position. So he can do this, but he prefers to have a little bit more freedom.
“As a No.10, he’s also able to play that role, but I think he’s better if the ball is in front of him or he’s behind the ball. Let’s put it that way.
“When he has to wait for the ball to come to him because he’s quite impatient, which is also his quality. He likes to have the ball a lot. So for me, his best position would be the number eight. And that’s also probably the position where we have most competition with.”
Would he celebrate another title with Wayne Rooney?
“I don’t know yet, probably… I’m again in Ibiza. I don’t want to say I celebrated the league title over there, what I did was enjoy my holidays.
“But the moment I met him, that was in Ushuaia, so we were both having a good time over there and he celebrated our league title with Liverpool. (laughs) No, he didn’t!”
Does he still listen to talkSPORT?
“In the morning mostly when I drive in. I’d listen, especially with my former car, because that was in the playlist. I have to get it again.
“It helps me with my vocabulary and there are one or two good pundits as well. It’s nice to listen to them, [Alan Brazil and Ally McCoist] by the way. Their humour is quite nice.”
Slot listens to the Breakfast Show, so you should too. You can hear the full interview on talkSPORT at 8am on Friday morning.
