After nine defeats in 12 matches, we look at what Reds’ head coach Arne Slot must do to get their season back on track
Liverpool visit West Ham United on Sunday experiencing their worst run of form since 1953/54. Here, Football writer Sam Cunningham looks at how head coach Arne Slot can stop the rot after a sequence of nine defeats in 12 matches across all competitions.
There is one moment early in Arne Slot’s managerial career that has long haunted him.
In his first job in charge, at Dutch second division side Cambuur, he had led a remarkable turnaround of the club’s fortunes and was fighting for promotion in the playoffs.
Cambuur were a goal ahead against MVV Maastricht with 10 minutes remaining when Slot switched to a back five to see out the game, only for Steven Pereira to equalise and Thomas Verheydt to score the winner in the third minute of stoppage time.
Afterwards, Jan Bruin, Slot’s assistant, told him he was often too defensive, and it stung.
“He’s still thinking about that,” Mikos Gouka, author of the biography Arne Slot: The New Era and a Dutch journalist close to the Liverpool head coach, says.
“He says every match when he’s trying to substitute a player, he always wants to take risks.”
It is a philosophy that has until recently worked wonders for Slot during a nine-year climb from the Dutch Eerste Divisie, the second tier, to champions of the Premier League.
Slot has never experienced a run of results as desperate as he does now – a crushing defeat to PSV Eindhoven in the UEFA Champions League a ninth loss in 12 games, Liverpool’s worst run in 71 years and the first time since 1953 they have lost by three goals in three successive matches.
Liverpool’s last 12 matches*
Opp.
Score
Opp.
Score
PSV (H) UCL
1-4 (L)
Brentford (A)
3-2 (L)
Nott’m Forest (H)
0-3 (L)
Eintracht Frankfurt (A) UCL
1-5 (W)
Man City (A)
3-0 (L)
Man Utd (H)
1-2 (L)
Real Madrid (H) UCL
1-0 (W)
Chelsea (A)
2-1 (L)
Aston Villa (H)
2-0 (W)
Galatasaray (A) UCL
1-0 (L)
Crystal Palace (H) EFLC
0-3 (L)
Crystal Palace (A)
2-1 (L)
*All Premier League matches unless otherwise stated. Scroll across to see the full table on mobile
UCL=UEFA Champions League, EFLC=EFL Cup.
Slot admitted afterwards he did not sleep well that night.
But how does he respond now? Answers can be found in the times he has faced adversity during his career and the experiences shaping how he will attempt to arrest Liverpool’s plummet from the top.
He had been assistant coach at Cambuur – his first senior coaching role – when they were relegated from the Eredivisie, the Dutch top flight, and took over after manager Rob Maas was sacked, with the club 14th in the table.
Cambuur were used to long balls and playing with aggression and Slot immediately arranged a meeting with the fans to explain his new philosophy of playing out from the back. “He’s always so convincing in explaining things,” Gouka says.
Keeping it simple
Clarity is one of Slot’s superpowers. At Cambuur, he would frequently wake at 5am and go on a walk to think about football and crystallise ideas in his mind.
He made everything as simple as possible and, drawing inspiration from Thomas Tuchel and Pep Lijnders, training drills were practised on small pitches often shaped in an octagon, to encourage players to look for diagonal balls.
Players were not allowed to pass back to the player they received the ball from or have more than one touch.
“Ultimately, it’s the art of making your vision trainable on the pitch,” Slot says in A New Era. “It’s never complete, always evolving, and it’s about making complex things very simple for the players.”
That season Cambuur reached the KNVB Cup semi-finals, knocking out Ajax on the way. And though it ended in that painful playoff exit, the Cambuur turnaround launched Slot’s managerial career.
From player to coach
Slot’s playing days were not as straightforward as his coaching career has, until recently, been, and tough times developed a high level of resilience.
He was a technically gifted attacking midfielder, but not fast or strong enough and always left the field “with a clean shirt”, as Gouka puts it. “He was a little bit of the Glenn Hoddle in Holland, but in Holland we have a lot of Glenn Hoddles.”
Slot (left) in action for NAC Breda v Ajax
At PEC Zwolle, NAC Breda and Sparta Rotterdam he was often left out by managers. At times, he was booed by his own fans.
It will prepare him well for digging Liverpool out of this hole. The PSV defeat has intensified a crucial run of Premier League fixtures against West Ham United, Sunderland and Leeds United in the space of seven days.
Liverpool’s next PL fixtures
Calm under pressure
There have been challenges during his coaching, too, that will help.
At AZ Alkmaar the stadium roof collapsed, forcing the team to play away from home. “We had to deal with so many things that season,” Pascal Jansen, on Slot’s coaching staff, told Sky Sports.
But Slot kept them in an unexpected title race with Ajax, and they were level on points at the top of the Eredivisie when the league was cancelled due to COVID-19.
There was also a shaky pre-season at Feyenoord in summer 2022, when they lost seven first-team players and suffered heavy defeats in friendlies, including a 7-0 loss to FC Copenhagen.
“It was worrying,” Marino Pusic, Slot’s assistant at Feyenoord, told The Guardian. “But once you recognise the cause, you know how to act and turn it around. Throughout the process we stayed cool, no unnecessary emotions. Arne is brilliant at that: he keeps a clear head, analyses things deeply and turns conclusions into action.”
They went on to win the title the following season.
It will take the clearest of heads to navigate through this unrelenting storm.
Attention to detail
Everyone who has worked with Slot says he is heavy on video analysis and data, that he places more emphasis on the opposition preparation than coaching.
At Cambuur, for example, they knew everything about the upcoming opponents three or four days in advance.
He uses one subtle psychological trick to maintain balance. If he believes a player is low on confidence, in a video analysis session he will show them what they did well but cut the clip before it shows them missing a shot. Conversely, if he is convinced a player is overconfident, he will include more video clips of them making mistakes.
Sometimes, he will let his substitutes and fringe players have a more prominent role in training sessions, to improve morale.
His attention to the details many miss is extraordinary. When AZ beat Antwerp in a playoff to qualify for the UEFA Europa League, in 2019, Slot noticed the two players he substituted did not celebrate the achievement like the rest of the players.
“He told me when everyone was celebrating, I was already thinking how can I get these two players back on track,” Gouka says. “Why were they not celebrating? What was wrong with them?
“He needed them for the next match so he started talking. He always talks to the players one-on-one. He talks about the future, the changes, the next weeks, why he needs them. He will do that now.”
Many who know Slot well are convinced he will turn it around. Slot invited Marco van Basten to Anfield to watch the 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest and the legendary former Holland striker later went on Dutch television and said he believes Slot, who he has referred to as a “genius”, will recover.
For now, at least, Slot remains as level and measured as he has always been, solving problems with a methodical, considered approach.
At his press conference, ahead of Sunday’s match against West Ham, he faced tough questions. Slot said he’d spoken to the owners and “had the same conversations that we’ve had since I got here. We fight on.”
He insisted he was not angry with the players. But added: “I do agree that our standards have not been of the standards we are used to.
“In the end, it’s about doing what this club is about. Keep fighting no matter how difficult it is.”
Yet again, Slot kept a cool head familiar to anyone who has followed his career closely.
“He’s always a calm person, he’s never shouting,” Gouka says. “Never angry. Always wants to take the players with him in his plan. All the players who worked with him in Holland said he’s so clear about his thoughts and what the game plan is for the next matches.
“He will try it in that way. He will never be like [former Chelsea manager] Jose Mourinho, never trying to make conflict with his players, always wants to work with them in one group.
“If he keeps on losing, it will be more difficult. Maybe then he will have to be a little bit angry. He’s never been in this position before.”
