Arne Slot faced the press for the first time as Liverpool head coach on Friday morning.
Slot has had a couple of weeks to get used to his new surroundings since succeeding Jurgen Klopp at the end of the season.
And with some of the Liverpool squad back in action for pre-season on Friday, the new head coach was at the AXA Training Centre to take questions from reporters.
Having praised Cody Gakpo and also outlined a private conversation he’s expecting to have with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Slot also addressed how he expects his Liverpool team to play.
It’s fair to say that some of the English press have perhaps been wrong in their assumptions about the Dutchman.
Arne Slot outlines tactical plan
Liverpool fans will be intrigued to see how Slot interacts with the members of his squad who were present on Friday.
There weren’t many all in all. But with the likes of Sepp van den Berg returning after a successful loan spell, there is still plenty of interest.
Van den Berg and the other returning players have an advantage in that they now have a head start in learning about Slot’s training methods.
The former Feyenoord boss has brought his own coaching staff with him from the Netherlands and there will be new ideas to get used to.
Asked about what those could be during Friday’s press conference, Slot took issue to the fact that the reporter had suggested his old Feyenoord team played with a 4-3-2-1 system.
READ MORE: Liverpool’s key dates for 2024/25 including pre-season tour and transfer deadline
“I’m a bit sad, maybe it’s not the right word, but I was hoping that if people look at my team they would not say it’s a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3- or whatever formation you want to call it,” said the 45-year-old, smiling.
“I was hoping they would say ‘okay, there’s a lot of freedom when they have the ball to take it in different positions’. Sometimes it’s a 4-2-3-1- sometimes it’s a 4-1-4-1 sometimes we do build up with three,” Slot added.
“So, I wouldn’t put myself in a situation where I say I prefer 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3- or 4-1-4-1. There’s a lot of players taking in a lot of different positions. If you would have asked me I would have said we play 4-3-3 instead of 4-2-3-1 at Feyenoord.
“I’m curious who told you that we play 4-2-3-1, maybe that one should go to get his license! Or analyse a bit better.”
Liverpool prepare for fluid approach
This was a really interesting answer from Slot. It had been widely assumed that the new head coach did play something more like a 4-2-3-1.
For Liverpool fans, they have become used to seeing Klopp’s 4-3-3- system over the past six or seven years at least.
In that set-up, there is a very defined idea of the reference point of a defensive midfielder.
In Slot’s system, it feels like the midfield three especially will be fluid and will all have relatively similar roles, just at different times.
This could explain the reasoning behind Liverpool choosing not to sign Mats Wieffer this summer, despite him being available.
Let’s hope the Liverpool players hid the ground running and get to grips with things quickly. Don’t worry Arne, no one will be making that mistake again!
