Arne Slot was speaking ahead of Liverpool’s clash with Brighton at Anfield on Saturday
A second showdown inside 72 hours suggests Arne Slot has a good idea of the danger posed by Brighton this afternoon. But the Liverpool boss has another reason for knowing what to expect as his team look to continue their impressive start to the Premier League season.
During his time in charge at Feyenoord, Slot, always a keen student of the game, would take advantage of any free Saturday afternoons by flicking on the television to catch the latest Premier League action.
And, more often that not, that involved tuning in to the latest Brighton fixture. “I like to watch football in general and then I always prefer to watch some teams or some managers,” says Slot. “Not only because of tactics but because I like certain teams and managers more than others.
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“Seventeen or 18 years ago it was like ‘Oh, Barcelona are playing’ and you were just waiting for Sunday evening hoping they would be playing at home.
“That is also what I had with Brighton when Roberto De Zerbi was there. It’s not like I was watching their games back, just on a Saturday afternoon if I could watch every game then I would (often) choose Brighton.
“I chose them out of interest. If I’m sitting there and want to watch nice football then I’d pick the nicest fixture. So on a Champions League night you have all the options available and you pick the one you feel is going to be the nicest one.”
De Zerbi left in the summer to join Marseille, prompting Brighton to appoint Fabian Hurzeler from St Pauli as the youngest-ever permanent Premier League boss at the age of 31.
With incoming Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim 39 years old, it means almost half of top-flight managers are now younger than the 46-year-old Slot. But are Premier League bosses becoming younger because of the pressures of the job?
“No, I don’t think that is true,” says the Liverpool head coach. “The one that has won the Premier League for the last few times – do you want to see Pep (Guardiola, who is now 53) as a bit older or is he also still young? He’s very experienced and the one that won (the Premier League) in between was Jurgen (Klopp, now 57) of course. He is a bit older.
“Yes, they both started younger (Guardiola was 36 on becoming Barcelona boss, while Klopp was 33 at Mainz). But the one that won the Champions League for 15 years in a row now (Carlo Ancelotti, age 65) is probably one of the oldest managers still working!
“But it is normal that young managers get the chance. Pep did (at Barcelona) and Jurgen came here when he was a bit younger also. I think it has been like this for along time. But to have a 30-31 year old, that is quite exceptional.”
Both Slot and his Brighton counterpart Hurzeler will name vastly different teams to the ones that played out the Reds’ 3-2 League Cup win on the South Coast on Wednesday.
Having gone without a recognised number nine in midweek, Liverpool are poised to recall Darwin Nunez to lead the attack. The Uruguayan has scored just once in the Premier League this season, but impressed in his last two showings against Chelsea and Arsenal including an assist in the latter for Mohamed Salah.
While his work-rate has been lauded, Nunez has had fewer shots and touches in the opposing penalty on average this season compared to last term. But Slot says: “There is definitely a reason for that and that is the fixture list – Chelsea at home and Arsenal away. If you have to play those two – and I don’t know if you are including Leipzig as well – then you probably have the answer.
“Those are the games that are much more equal so when you pick the strikers of Chelsea or Arsenal probably won’t have had that many touches in the box either.
“So strikers usually touch the ball in the opposition penalty area if you are stronger than the other team. But in these games were equal with Chelsea and Arsenal but we were not dominating both games.”
Slot adds: “With his work-rate definitely, he has done well. He also came back quite late (to pre-season) and had to adapt a bit because we press a bit differently. The idea is still the same, to press high, but we’re using the press a bit more with the wingers inside and the number nine has to defend a little more and he is now more involved in that pressing part. So that’s what he does quite well. I still see a lot of room for improvement.
“But the first thing, and the most important thing, is that his attitude is right and he wants to work. Now maybe he doesn’t have to run that much if he does it even better but that is normal if you have only played a few games that it is not perfect yet. But the attitude he has is very positive like the others.”
