For any manager at any club, first impressions matter. Arne Slot’s Liverpool may have shown encouraging signs throughout this pre-season but the club’s new head coach will know that counts for little if he gets a poor result away to promoted Ipswich Town in the two sides’ Premier League opener tomorrow (Saturday). But just how important is it for a new manager to hit the ground running, and what can we learn from how his Premier League predecessors at Anfield began? Changing the style Whenever a manager starts a new job, usually it is because things have been going wrong at the club — the pressure is on, there are fires to fight and problems to solve.
Slot does not have that problem at Liverpool. Yes, there is lingering disappointment over how last season ended, with dreams of a quadruple to end the Jurgen Klopp era fizzling out with a run of five wins in 12 matches during March and April, but he’s inherited a young and talented squad sprinkled with world-class players. Advertisement The Dutchman’s style has many similarities to Klopp’s in its intensity, although his is more possession-based.
Slot’s appointment will necessitate far less of an overhaul than Klopp, Brendan Rodgers and — further back — Roy Evans implemented when they got the Liverpool job. Evans (1994) created an attacking team who played some of the most eye-catching football in the country. Rodgers (2012) brought his tiki-taka style that had won Swansea City promotion to the Premier League .