Arne Slot became the first Liverpool manager to win eight of their first nine games in charge after his in-form side beat Bologna 2-0 in the Champions League at Anfield
Arne Slot played down his record-breaking start as Liverpool boss and wants to be remembered for more than just a good beginning to his reign. The Dutchman became the first person to win eight of his opening nine games in charge of the Reds when his side earned a 2-0 Champions League triumph at home to Bologna on Wednesday evening.
Goals in each half from Alexis Mac Allister and Mohamed Salah were sufficient as Liverpool maintained their 100% record in the competition having opened with a 3-1 win at AC Milan a fortnight ago.
And when asked about his landmark achievement, Arne Slot said: “I don’t draw many conclusions from that but it is nice. So, so many incredible managers have worked here, doing so many special things.
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“The only thing is I don’t hope that the only thing people remember me for in one, two or three years, you never know how long I’ll be here, they only say, ‘that is the manager who only won eight of his nine games’.
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“I’m hoping to do more special things than winning eight out of nine games. It says a lot about many things. It also says a lot about how Jurgen left this club, the squad I inherited, how much workrate the players put in and how much my staff members are helping me to get these results.
“But I am hoping to do more special things than only being remembered for eight wins out of the first nine.”
Wednesday was Liverpool’s first home game in the Champions League in more than 18 months after missing out on the competition last season, and was Slot’s debut home European night at Anfield.
“It was a good first experience because it was a win,” he said. “It wasn’t an easy one but that’s normal if you play Champions League. There is always a lot of resistance, a lot of good teams play in the Champions League and Bologna is one of them.
“You can also see the results tonight where we saw maybe some surprising results. It was good to win. Clean sheet, some good individual performances. Positive overall.”
Slot added: “You will probably never reach perfection. You are always aiming for perfection but you will never reach this. We can improve, we have to improve. That is clear. But there are also a lot of positives to take from tonight and from the other games.
“But there was a spell in the game where we didn’t control. They were threatening us more than I would like to see. But again, this is normal.
“I saw a lot of games yesterday, I saw some games before we played in the Champions League. It’s never only one team playing, it’s always two teams playing. For most parts of the game we controlled, we had more ball possession but they threatened us.”
