Despite talk of a downturn or at least a period of transition after Jürgen Klopp, Arne Slot is proving he’s the real deal as Liverpool manager…
LIVERPOOL managers are often the literal embodiment of the club.
The bespectacled, firebrand Jürgen Klopp became our beacon of energy. Our guiding light until it flickered and burnt out in 2023.
Rafa Benitez bore the burden of inner subterfuge across the ownership and it showed heavily.
Brendan Rodgers looked jaded and ghostly when Aston Villa beat his hopeless Liverpool at Wembley.
Earlier this season, I met someone who wanted to collaborate on an Arne Slot book charting his first season in Liverpool.
When he asked me about content that could already be explored, I told him there’s at least a chapter on the angst felt when Slot was announced as new Head Coach to great underwhelm, then continued to be absent from timelines for weeks after.
“Where is Arne Slot?” certainly had its town cryers. Why he was absent was in large parts due to Klopp. The club had just seen its most successful manager in recent times cite burnout for his departure and were determined not to set Slot on the same path.
This has generally been avoided. In the depths of March – pre-international break – Slot was starting to personify Liverpool’s weariness.
He was a pale imitation of the energy we’d previously seen. He looked tired. He’d put everything into a gruelling run of fixtures.
Fast forward, he’s back with his usual yet underrated wit. There’s a clenched fist to The Kop, a wink. A dayglow which signifies rest and recuperation. Eyes on the prize.
A win needed to dispel any lingering worries. Full time in the derby provided the perfect tonic. A juxtaposition to the possessed Slot making a beeline for Michael Oliver with sinister intentions.
Slot’s journey is one we’re all living. He gets more apathetic towards officiating by the week. He sees a lack of interest in football from opposition as regressive as we do.
He is witnessing, for the first time, how much Everton hate you. What it means for PSG to win at Anfield. What happens when a piece of transfer speculation grips the entire fanbase.
Our lived experience is versed in such areas. We don’t always get to do it as the best team in the division.
Becoming Premier League champions and being able to fully peacock those achievements remains the ultimate objective. To have the full accolade of course and distance for the 20th time is something nobody wants to tempt fate of, even at this stage.
Slot’s achievements to date are simply astounding. He has delivered 22 league wins, seven draws and one defeat which still keeps him up nights.
His Liverpool are on track for a 97-point season, up there with the finest of his predecessors. He hasn’t been lucky. He isn’t playing in a substandard competition.
He has spoken with simplicity in language and message, but Arne Slot has played Chelsea, Newcastle, and both Manchester clubs and won at the first time of asking. When he didn’t win, he made sure his Liverpool didn’t lose.
He has made mistakes which had to be made in real time and on the watch of everyone. But his Liverpool have been more perfect than we could realistically ask for, or expect, first time around.
As spring enters summer and Slot remains radiant, resistant to the weather-beaten overtures managing this club brings, we’re still waiting for some almighty twist of fate to bring us back to some semblance of a more sobering, perhaps realistic reality.
This isn’t what the manager who followed Klopp was supposed to do. This was going to be a struggle. That’s what we were told.
Eight games and 13 points is your reality, mine and ours. It isn’t deflated by Champions League or Carabao Cup defeats or player futures. These will make this all the more sweeter, more melancholic and lived when it happens.
The manager was back to his certain best this week. We should back that certainty of his. He is the real thing.
For almost a full season, Slot has lived in our world. It’s about time we lived in his for a bit.
Buy Dan Morgan’s book ‘Jürgen Said To Me’ on Klopp, Liverpool and the remaking of a city…
