Liverpool’s Arne Slot doubles down on controversial take about playing ‘nicest football’ over winning trophies
Liverpool has been a disappointing team this season considering the transfers Arne Slot asked for. Having spent more than any other Premier League club, they were expected to be a club contending for the title, but are now sixth in the standings.
With all the tools Slot has at his disposal, his comments earlier this week were controversial. The Dutch manager said in The Reds Roundtable podcast: “As a manager, you can win the league, Champions League, the FA Cup or the League Cup but the biggest thing you can win is that you can play the nicest football to watch.”
In an interview with Sky Sports, he expanded on his views. Slot was talking about the future, not just the moment, in the conversation ahead of the match with Manchester City: “If you don’t play good football, it’s impossible to win something or to achieve something sustainable.”
Slot on the Premier League style
Last season it was a cruise for Liverpool to win the Premier League by a long margin. This one was expected to have them at the top after making expensive signings like Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, and Hugo Ekitike among others. The first five matches were victories, but then the problems began.
The manager said the team was surprised by the style change: “We never waste time. We always want to press high. We always want to bring the ball out from the back. But unfortunately, we face teams that have a different approach, which is completely fair for them.”
“Every team should play their style, which is best equipped for playing against us, and it’s shown that we are sometimes struggling with that style,” Slot added.“It’s not always possible for a team to get pace in the game or to get things going if the other team tries to do everything to get that pace out of the game.”
Slot likes his team’s improvement
Slot also mentioned the plans for the remaining season. “When we play more open games this season, we’ve shown that we always want to be part of a game like that, and we’ve done really well. But games where we’ve dropped points had a different look and feel, but that’s not what we wanted it to be, but what was forced on us.”
The manager said: “Now, the next step is making sure that if that playing style is forced on us, we are good enough that we can change that toward the game we want.”