Ahead of Liverpool’s match against Bologna, Arne Slot has been speaking about how Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona side ‘helped created his own philosophy on football’.
Slot has only had eight matches as head coach but we have already seen his influence on how Liverpool play football.
There has been more patience in Liverpool’s build-up play and the defenders are looking to find the central midfielders more often than under Jurgen Klopp.
Speaking to UEFA, Slot spoke about his philosophy and explained how Guardiola’s legendary Barcelona side impacted his view of football.
Liverpool’s head coach said: “If you asked my father now, he would say, ‘He does everything different as a manager to how he was as a player’.
“I always make the same joke. I always say I was not so fast, some people called me slow, and that helped me maybe a bit with game insight.
“I needed the team to get to a certain level because, individually, I couldn’t go around three players. I always needed my teammates where I could play them my passes.”
As a player, Slot featured in some good Eredivisie sides that played in Europe, but more of his talents lay in his head than his feet.
Towards the end of the Dutchman’s playing career, Guardiola started winning as Barcelona manager and played beautiful football while doing so.
Slot continued: “I had to think a lot about the game; maybe that’s what helps me now.
“At a certain age, I felt like, ‘OK, if a teammate of mine plays this ball, it normally leads to losing the ball, and if we play a different ball, it leads to success’.
“At the end of my career, that became more and more clear to me.
“I was lucky enough that then the Barcelona team started playing, and I saw similar patterns, not in terms of how we play it, but more, ‘OK, this ball which we sometimes play – and Barcelona constantly plays – leads to success’.
“And that’s helped me create my own philosophy about football.”
Slot making his mark
As well as learning from Guardiola’s style of play, Slot has implemented a change at Liverpool that the Man City boss has also made.
One routine Klopp‘s Liverpool followed was to stay at a hotel in Liverpool the night before home matches. At first, this was at the Hope Street Hotel before latterly moving to the Titanic Hotel.
Slot has elected not to follow this routine, though, and Liverpool’s players have been sleeping at home the night before Anfield fixtures this campaign.
The squad then gather on the morning of the match for their team meeting before taking the team bus to Anfield.
Guardiola once said: “I’m in bed at 10 o’clock and I’ve got no urge to go and check up on my players. That’s why I’d rather have them at home and not cooped up in a hotel with nothing to do. We’re just trying to use common sense.”
It is a routine that was appreciated by Xavi Hernandez and so far, there have been no issues with Liverpool adopting the new matchday process.
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