After saying goodbye to Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool fans are now patiently waiting for the Arne Slot era to begin.
Having been confirmed as Klopp’s successor on Monday, Slot is set to officially start work with the Reds on June 1st.
In the meantime, we’ve been hearing all sorts of good things about the new head coach. From his communication skills being labelled as ‘off the scale,’ to reports that he has brought pre-season forward, Slot seems ready to hit the ground running.
It will likely also have been important to the Dutchman that he has been given Klopp’s blessing. The outgoing manager couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about Slot during his Anfield farewell on Sunday.
And, as it turns out, former assistant manager Pep Lijnders is also a big fan of the new boss.
Pep Lijnders raves about Arne Slot appointment
Over recent years, Liverpool’s Dutch contingent has started to grow. Along with Lijnders and Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and then Ryan Gravenberch arrived from the Netherlands.
Now, with Slot and assistant Sipke Hulshoff coming in, the group is getting larger.
Being a countrymen of Liverpool’s new head coach, Lijnders will be more familiar with Slot than most. And speaking to The Athletic about the 45-year-old, Pep has claimed that he’s exactly what FSG have been looking for.
“I know Arne really well,” gushed Lijnders. “He came to my house in Holland about nine years ago. He came to speak to me about football. He drove for a long time to see me and he had a thousand questions. I tried to answer them all!
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“Since then, we’ve stayed in close contact. He’s an unbelievable coach, who knows exactly what he wants and has the experience to be at a club like Liverpool,” he added.
“You need a coach like Arne who is close to what we tried to do over the years, in terms of having the ball in the opposition half, pressing, counter-pressing — he’s very strategical in that point of view. He’s made good steps and now it’s the chance for him to make another big step.
“When I spoke with Mike (Gordon) and Jurgen, I said you need a young coach who can grow with this new team. Arne has everything in him to be a success here.”
Arne Slot is exactly what Liverpool need
Up until now, everything we’ve heard about Slot has been wholly positive.
Obviously, there are the usual question marks about a coach coming in from a lesser league, but those aside, all the ingredients are there.
As Lijnders says, he’s a young coach who has plenty of potential to work with in the Liverpool squad. They can grow and build together.
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In terms of Lijnders, he has also admitted that he himself was asked to take over at Liverpool by Klopp.
But we think the 41-year-old made the right call in saying no. It’s time for Lijnders to try his hand elsewhere, while the Liverpool group needs a completely fresh start.
There will be challenges ahead, but Slot seems like the perfect man to kick off the Reds’ new era.