Arne Slot is ready to begin his reign in charge of Liverpool after taking over from Jurgen Klopp.
Reds fans had been waiting patiently to hear from Slot after he was announced as Klopp’s replacement last month.
When they finally did it was worth the wait. The new head coach came across excellently during his opening interview with Liverpool at the AXA Training Centre on Wednesday.
Now that Slot is in situ, attention will turn towards pre-season for the Reds. A tour to the USA beckons in July.
After that, the new Premier League season will not be too far away. With Liverpool facing a tricky visit to Ipswich Town on opening weekend, Slot has offered his reaction to that prospect.
Arne Slot addresses 12.30 kick-off issue
Klopp will no doubt have been laughing his head off when Liverpool’s new fixture list was released.
The former manager had a long-standing hatred of having to play at 12.30 on a Saturday lunchtime. Klopp even called broadcaster TNT Sports out over it towards the end of his tenure.
Luckily for Jurgen, he’ll be able to watch his old team live on the channel on Saturday, August 17th safe in the knowledge that it is no longer his problem.
For Slot, it will be his first taste of the Premier League. Unburdened though he is by previous feuds over kick-off times, the Dutchman did still give a nod to the fact that Liverpool get these early starts more than anyone.
“And they’ve told me it’s going to be 12.30,” Slot told Liverpoolfc.com. “From what I know, Jurgen complained a lot about this so probably they thought, with Jurgen being out let’s put them at 12.30 again!”
Despite the long-running joke over the lunchtime slot, the new boss admitted that he was really looking forward to visiting Portman Road.
“No, it’s different to a normal 12.30 because it’s not after a game in Europe,” says the 45-year-old. “Looking forward to it. A promoted team so it’s going to be special for them as well.
“I think every team might prefer a home game to start with, but we’re going to face Ipswich and we are looking forward to that.”
Liverpool prepare for Ipswich test
It seems far away right now but the start of the Premier League season will soon be upon us once again.
In between now and then there is plenty of work to do for Liverpool. They’ve taken a while to get going in the transfer market and will have to step things up in coming weeks.
There are also contract situations to sort out, with Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold in particular needing to be tied down.
On top of all of that, Slot will also be watching the Copa America and Euro 2024 and hoping that his Liverpool squad stays injury-free.
There won’t be all that long for the new head coach to work with his full group before the Ipswich game comes around.
It’s important that Slot and his coaching team are working as hard as they can from now until lunchtime on Saturday, August 17th to make sure Liverpool are ready.