New Liverpool manager Arne Slot has told Sky Sports he wants his players to judge the “risk and reward” of situations better than under predecessor Jurgen Klopp.
The Dutchman has already said he wants to implement more of a possession game at Anfield than in recent years, and will get the first chance to showcase that to the home faithful when they face Brentford live on Super Sunday this weekend.
Sky Sports pundit and former Liverpool captain Jamie Carragher labelled some of their play from the opening-weekend win at Ipswich as “out of this world”, with Andy Robertson cutting inside Virgil van Dijk to play at centre-back and a silky first goal from Diogo Jota.
And asked directly by Carragher about the differences between his side and Klopp’s, in a sit-down interview to be shown ahead of Sunday’s game, he pointed to some specific improvements he would like to see under his new regime.
“Liverpool used every moment they could to play the ball in behind [before]”, he said. “That meant that the game was sometimes a bit open, especially in the last period of Jurgen. Sometimes I tell the players to get a better judgement in risk and reward.
“So if you can put some balls in front of the goalkeeper, please try and do so if not, it’s also a good idea to keep the ball but I’m sure if Jurgen was in the room now he’d say he’d want to keep the ball once in a while too. In general, I see that still some players are trying to play the difficult ball which doesn’t get the reward for the risk they take.
“I believe the one reasons why the players buy in [to my work] is that the differences are not that big. There are only small differences between Jurgen and me and the general idea of how we want to play football is quite similar.”
Contract rumours continue to circulate regarding the futures of Van Dijk, Mo Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold, and when asked Slot put the emphasis on the trio to decide their own destiny – but only if they play well enough first.
“The only thing I can do is get the best out of them,” he said. “If we bring the best out of them and they perform really well then it’s up to them if they want to sign and us if we give them a new contract.
“The main thing for all of them, if you’re out of contract or not, is to get the best performance as possible and there is where I should and will help them with my staff, to bring out the best of them. Until now it’s been nothing but positive.
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“Mo came back really strong in terms of physique, Virgil as well, Trent did the same and they brought in good performances against Ipswich which was only the first game. My main focus is on Brentford and not on contract extensions.”
Slot will get his first taste of the famous Anfield atmosphere from the home dugout against Brentford, and is already anticipating the roar of the Kop to inspire his players to keep up their perfect start to the season following last weekend’s win at Portman Road.
“That’s one of the things you want as a manager is to make the fans love to see your team play,” he added. “If the fans see that we play a style that they like to see then they will be much more positive. If they’re really positive that will really help the team as well.
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“Normally, at most clubs it starts off with the players putting in a lot of work rate with real intensity and then the fans go behind it. Sometimes you see the opposite way and it starts with the fans and then the players come.
“I’m hoping and expecting [the fans to do a job] because if you come here people talk about the fans and how special it is. We need to show up, better than we did in the first half against Ipswich.”
Watch Jamie Carragher’s full interview in conversation with Arne Slot ahead of Liverpool vs Brentford on Sky Sports Premier League from 4pm on Sunday, kick-off 4.30pm.
Source : Sky Sports
