Arne Slot ‘Knew How To Talk You Round’ – Star Hails Management Skills
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Former Feyenoord midfielder Thomas van den Belt has revealed how Liverpool manager Arne Slot impacted players at De Kuip and was able to talk them round easily if they went to him unhappy.
At Feyenoord between March 2023 and May 2024, Van den Belt came in contact with the current Liverpool boss, Slot.
He played eleven games under the 47-year-old before Slot’s departure for Liverpool.
Slot proved to be a crucial influence on the young midfielder, who was impressed with the man-management skills of the Dutchman.
According to the 24-year-old, even when players approached Slot and told him that they deserved regular game time, Slot would talk them through it and convince them to arrive at a different conclusion.
“Arne could get through to anyone”, Van den Belt, now playing for FC Twente, told Dutch magazine Voetbal International.
“Lots of players at Feyenoord felt they had to play and went to him to tell him so.
“After speaking to Arne, you’d think: ‘He’s right, I really shouldn’t be playing at all.’
“He always knew how to talk you round and motivate you.”
Van den Belt admits he was astonished at how good Slot was at reading the way games would develop and conceded that the manager could tell the team what would happen throughout the 90 minutes of a match.
“He often explained beforehand exactly how everything would unfold.
“Lazio at home, in the Champions League. It was bizarre.
“We had a tactical training session, during which he stated precisely: this and this is going to happen.
“From minute one to ninety, everything turned out exactly as he had said. What he had predicted happened.”
Slot’s first season in England turned out to be a perfect one as his Liverpool side dominated proceedings to win the Premier League title, but they have struggled this season.
He is now under major pressure after taking Liverpool backwards despite a summer of record-breaking spending, with one former Netherlands star feeling sorry for him.
With Liverpool struggling to even finish in a Champions League spot, the microscope is on Slot, along with Richard Hughes and Michael Edwards, who have overseen the rapid dismantling of Jurgen Klopp’s style of play.
Slot will need all the man-management skills Van den Belt credits him with in order to turn things around at Anfield.
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