The Liverpool coach has been looking ahead to the huge game at Anfield on Wednesday
European champions Real Madrid coming to town and a first chance to pit his wits against managerial great Carlo Ancelotti. For Arne Slot, though, there were more pressing matters to hand as he addressed the assembled media at Anfield on Tuesday afternoon ahead of this evening’s glamour showdown.
“Now my family is coming over so if I hurry up a bit I have to get the groceries for them as well and then go home!” laughs the Reds boss.
It was a reflection of the mood among Liverpool supporters at present. Rather than tense trepidation, the visit of the Spanish champions is instead being welcomed with a sense of relaxed anticipation.
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If, under Jurgen Klopp, all roads in the Champions League ended with Madrid, Slot will hope this latest brush with the Spanish capital instead underlines the bright new start of his tenure that sees him team eight points clear at the Premier League summit and leading the way in Europe.
Having lost seven of their last eight games against the Bernabeu outfit – including the 2018 and 2022 finals and the humiliation in the round of 16 of 2022/23 – there will be a sense of a score perhaps being settled by some in the Liverpool squad, with the bonus it would further complicate Real’s underwhelming start to their Champions League defence.
For Slot, though, there is none of that baggage. “I wasn’t aware of the fact we played them so many times.,” he says. “I was aware of the fact that two years ago they – I say ‘they’ because I was not part of it – were 2-0 up.
“I used that game to my team at Feyenoord at the time to show that Real Madrid always find a way of winning a game. When Liverpool were 2-0 up, no-one would have expected that game to end up being 5-2 for Real Madrid but that is what makes them so special, that they can turn games around like that.
“They can win it in different ways and if it is difficult for them they can still win a game and that is probably one of the reasons – apart from them having so much quality – that they won this tournament a lot.
“If we are fortunate enough to be a goal up or even more up (on Wednesday) we still are aware of the fact, especially because of what we experienced two years ago, that the game will never be done until the referee blows his whistle. In general it is like this but I think we all feel it against Real Madrid a bit more than to some other clubs we face. Do they have different aura in Europe? I think they might do.”
That said, the visit of the European Super League advocates is arguably not even the biggest game at Anfield this week, given Manchester City are welcomed on Sunday with the chance to go 11 points ahead of the Premier League champions after only 13 games.
But Slot knows the importance of the occasion. “It is a big game,” he says. “I think Real Madrid, Manchester City dominated Europe and the league for a few years now combined with Liverpool, so it is a special week for us especially because we play two times at home. But when this week is done another big week is coming with Newcastle away and the Merseyside derby.
“If you are at Liverpool you always play big games but, yes, these next two are special because these three clubs have dominated the league and Europe recently.”
Not that Slot has any fears his team might have one eye on their weekend assignment. “I think we gave the answer on Sunday at Southampton where you could argue, if the next games are Real Madrid and City, are the players really ready to perform or are they looking at the next game?” he says.
“They didn’t look at the next game. We are not distracted by next opponents.”
While Liverpool have won all four games in the Champions League this season, Real have struggled for consistent form having lost in Lille and, last time out, at home to AC Milan.
They will be without a number of players through injury, with Vinicius Junior – who scored the winner in the 2022 final – the latest to be sidelined. And Slot admits the absence of the Brazil international has meant a change to the Liverpool gameplan.
“We approach it differently as a new player is going to play for them with different qualities,” says the Reds head coach. “We knew when Vinicius would have started, I had to prepare them for him and Mbappe, they are probably the main attacking threat for Real.
“Now with Vinicius not playing, we have to expect something else. I think he played almost every game for Madrid so it’s quite difficult for us now to understand what we can expect. What we do know what to expect is 11 players with great quality and we try to prepare our players in the best possible way.
“Will Bellingham play as a 10? Will he play from the left? Will he play from the right? Will Endrick come in? They have so many options. Now it’s a bit more difficult for us to see what they are going to do. If Vinicius was fit I could probably have come up with their line-up, now it’s a surprise for us maybe. The thing we do know is we play against 11 great players and a very good team.”
Finding a way to overcome that will be Slot’s next task. After the shopping, of course.
