The Hunt for Klopp’s Successor

question becomes, were does amorim end up

I thought that was a jibe at Ljinders loving himself :joy:

Rafaela Pimenta, “oh we surely won’t be doing any business with one of her (ex-Raiola) clients”. Or what was the fuss about in the past.

:joy:

Everton

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https://twitter.com/DominicKing_DM/status/1782818429113712681

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Who gives a flying fuck?

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and they wonder why you are the most loved on this forum!!

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Nice flying Dutchman joke :grin::+1:

Edit: Oh, it was about Amorim…

Ok, then “could have been a nice flying Dutchman joke if you were replying to pretty much anyone else…”

west ham fans unzipped last night, had to put their little member away

https://twitter.com/AnfieldSector/status/1782874897338810647

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Chelsea is going hard for amorim after tonights shit show

PAUL JOYCE

Liverpool target Arne Slot to replace Jürgen Klopp

Feyenoord head coach is thought to want to take the next step in his career, with the Eredivisie champions cancelling a press conference scheduled for Wednesday

Paul Joyce

Northern Football Correspondent

Tuesday April 23 2024, 3.30pm BST, The Times


Liverpool Football Club


Premier League


Football


Jürgen Klopp

Slot won the Dutch Cup with Feyenoord last weekend

Slot won the Dutch Cup with Feyenoord last weekend

Liverpool have pinpointed the Feyenoord head coach Arne Slot as the man they want to replace Jürgen Klopp.

The 45-year-old led Feyenoord to success in the KNVB Cup final last weekend and has compiled a strong body of work in the Netherlands, having led the club to their first Eredivisie title in six years in the 2022-23 season.

In addition, Slot’s ability to improve players and his aggressive, high-octane playing style are attributes that would appeal to Liverpool’s kingmakers.

Slot favours a 4-2-3-1 tactical system and his aggressive playing style would be popular with the Liverpool hierarchy

Slot favours a 4-2-3-1 tactical system and his aggressive playing style would be popular with the Liverpool hierarchy

His Anfield ascension is far from a done deal and Liverpool are continuing to discuss other contenders as well, while managerial vacancies at Bayern Munich, Barcelona and AC Milan this summer complicate matters.

Feyenoord, of course, want to retain his services and the technical director Dennis te Kloese said after the cup final success over NEC Nijmegen that “we assume that he will also be our trainer next year”.

However, it is understood that Slot is minded to take the next step in his coaching career even if his contract does not expire until 2026. There is no release clause in that deal but it is thought a fee of less than €10 million euros (about £8.6 million) could be enough to prise him away.

On Tuesday Feyenoord refused to confirm or deny Liverpool’s interest in Slot, who is a disciple of Pep Guardiola but also knows the Liverpool assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders.

The former Liverpool midfielder Alonso’s decision to stay at Leverkusen ended speculation over a return to Anfield

The former Liverpool midfielder Alonso’s decision to stay at Leverkusen ended speculation over a return to Anfield

Interestingly, a press conference with Slot scheduled for Wednesday to preview Thursday’s Eredivisie game away to Go Ahead Eagles has been cancelled.

Liverpool have been working on replacements for Klopp, who informed the club’s hierarchy last November and went public in January that he would be standing down at the end of the campaign to re-energise after almost nine years in charge.

Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso had opted to remain at the German club having just led them to the Bundesliga title, while Sporting Lisbon’s Rúben Amorim has also come under scrutiny although the trail has since grown colder.

Slot’s CV has a lot of the qualities wanted by Michael Edwards, the chief executive of football at Liverpool’s owner Fenway Sports Group, as well as the soon-to-be sporting director Richard Hughes.

Slot’s Feyenoord have defied their relatively small budget to compete with PSV and Ajax

Slot’s Feyenoord have defied their relatively small budget to compete with PSV and Ajax

Hughes remains in situ at Bournemouth as technical director and will move to Merseyside at the end of the season. He has followed Feyenoord’s progress, having signed Marcos Senesi from them for £12million in August 2022. Hughes also signed Luis Sinisterra on loan from Leeds United last summer, with the winger previously coming to prominence at Feyenoord.

It is not the first time that there has been Premier League interest in a coach who has transformed Feyenoord’s playing style, favouring a 4-2-3-1 formation, and challenged PSV Eindhoven and Ajax in recent seasons despite operating on a fraction of their budget.

Leeds had targeted Slot last February after the dismissal of Jesse Marsch but he opted to stay in the Netherlands.

Similarly, Tottenham Hotspur had wanted him before appointing Ange Postecoglou and Chelsea are understood to have also held talks with Slot prior to Mauricio Pochettino’s arrival at Stamford Bridge.

Slot moved to Feyenoord in 2021 after impressing at AZ Alkmaar and led them to the inaugural Europa Conference League final at the end of his first season, in which they narrowly lost to José Mourinho’s Roma.

Meanwhile, Diogo Jota has suffered a fresh injury setback and will be missing for about two weeks with a hip problem. The Portugal striker, who scored in the 3-1 win over Fulham last Sunday, was absent for two months between February and April after suffering knee ligament damage.

ANALYSIS

Arne Slot: Attacking, high-pressing – and inspired by Guardiola

Hamzah Khalique-Loonat

After a playing career as a midfielder for FC Zwolle, NAC Breda, Sparta Rotterdam and PEC Zwolle, Arne Slot took his first job in management with AZ Alkmaar in 2019.

In his maiden season in top-flight management, 2019-20, AZ were second to the leaders, Ajax, on goal difference when the league was curtailed by the Covid pandemic and the title was awarded to the men from Amsterdam.

In his first season at Feyenoord, 2021-22, the club finished third in the Eredivisie but reached the first ever Europa Conference League final, where they were beaten by José Mourinho’s Roma.

The following season, they stormed to the league title, losing only two matches as they finished seven points clear of PSV Eindhoven. In this campaign, they have been second best to PSV but continued to impress, hammering Ajax 6-0 earlier this month.

What’s his style?

Slot’s teams play attacking, possession-dominant, high-pressing football, yet Feyenoord also boast arguably the best defence in the division: they have conceded the second-fewest goals in the league and have given up the fewest shots — and those shots, on average, are the furthest distance away from their own goal of any team in the league.

Like many Dutch coaches, Slot’s style is based upon the Cruyffian principles of positional play. He likes his teams to create overloads out wide and use forwards that run in behind the opponents’ defensive line. His team plays in a 4-2-3-1 or, occasionally, a 4-3-3 shape.

Slot has said, like many coaches of his generation, that he is inspired by the football of Pep Guardiola. However, he shares a number of similarities with the man he could be succeeding at Liverpool, Jürgen Klopp.

Despite being a Dutch manager in the Eredivisie, Slot conducts his meetings in English.

How his teams play without the ball

Pressing and counterpressing are important components of Slot’s style. The two terms are often conflated with each other but counterpressing is the specific action to win the ball back immediately after losing it, whereas pressing is the attempt to win possession by moving out or within a particular formation.

Slot’s Feyenoord use a high press — they seek to break out of their shape and close down their opponents high up the field. This bears some similarities with Klopp’s Liverpool in their first few seasons. However, they have since moved away from this tactic — they now sit off their opponents and set pressing traps in the middle third, but the principle of winning the ball and immediately passing forward to get early shots away remains the same.

Feyenoord have the second-most intensive press in the Eredivisie (they allow 10.2 opposition passes per defensive action), and they also have the second-highest share of possession (61.5 per cent) in the division.

How they play with the ball

Like most possession-dominant teams, Slot’s Feyenoord tend to build out from the back, using short passes. He usually keeps his full backs wide when the ball is in the defensive third, and uses his two deep midfielders to drop and help progress the ball forward. But once the ball is moved upfield, the full backs advance and provide width — much like how Klopp used Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson in the first half of his Liverpool tenure.

Rather than steadily building in the defensive third, Slot likes his team to get the ball into the middle third and dominate from the centre of the pitch.

Where Slot differs from Klopp is how indirect his team are, in comparison. Feyenoord have the lowest number of long passes in the Eredivisie this season, which contrasts with Liverpool, who often use long, direct passes to launch attacks, gain territory or force counterpressing opportunities upfield.

Like Liverpool, Feyenoord use a high line, and their goalkeeper is expected to sweep, and take an active role in possession, when building out from the back.

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https://twitter.com/JacobsBen/status/1782879598683799705

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Klopp never had premier League experience when he took us on.

In fairness to the ten Haag comparisons - I actually think there is a good coach in ten Haag but he is asked to do too much. He’s Head Coach, DoF, Chief Scout… probably books the hotels himself at this rate.

Rather than the worry being that Liverpool aren’t going to appoint a “manager”, I think ten Haag could be an example of how out-of-date that model is.

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They’re two completely different people.

Arne Slot was not my first choice but, if he gets the job, he deserves our full backing.

Hair or no hair.

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So Klopp’s heir apparent, apparently is hairless

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Heir today, gone tomorrow

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I was all in on the Alonso bus.
Then I was all in on the Amorim bus.
Now I’m all in on the Slot bus.

What a time to be alive!

Come on Slotty lad.

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I can see headline already:
‘The Slot machine wins the jackpot!’

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