Arne Slot referred to as on Liverpool’s gamers and supporters to choose up the place they left off underneath Jurgen Klopp as he predicted a easy transition forward of his first season in cost at Anfield.
The 45-year-old, who formally started work on June 1, praised his predecessor for serving to launch a “unbelievable period” for the Premier League, with the 2019 Champions League winner having solid European soccer’s defining rivalry with Manchester Metropolis’s Pep Guardiola.
Klopp stood down on the finish of final season after 9 years within the job, paving the way in which for former Feyenoord coach Slot to step into the function.
Chatting with the membership’s web site in his first interview since taking the job, he stated in a message to supporters: “There’s a change. However the change hopefully isn’t that huge, as a result of we nonetheless have the identical gamers.
“We nonetheless have the identical followers. And if each are going to do the identical job, that may make my life much more straightforward.
“I’m anticipating them to point out up once more within the upcoming season. The identical for the gamers. I’ll do the whole lot in my curiosity and energy to guide the workforce in the very best approach.”
Underneath Klopp, Liverpool received the Premier League title in 2020, the primary time they’d been topped champions in 30 years and twice completed runners-up to Guardiola’s Metropolis.
In every of these two campaigns in 2018/19 and 2021/22 they had been concerned in a breathless race with their rivals, fishing with a file variety of factors for a aspect to not win the league.
Slot pointed to the “great job” executed by the German to revive Liverpool’s standing as common title contenders and stated Klopp’s work had meant he takes over with the squad effectively positioned to proceed to problem close to the highest of the division.
“I’m 45 now, watching soccer for a very long time and watching soccer quite a bit,” he stated.
“There’s been an period the place everyone seemed on the Barcelona aspect of Xavi, (Andres) Iniesta and (Lionel) Messi. The rivalry with Actual Madrid with Cristiano Ronaldo being there.
“I feel when that got here to an finish, the brand new rivalry in European soccer got here between Jurgen and Pep Guardiola. I feel for everybody that loves soccer, it was a unbelievable period, each of them getting one of the best out of one another.
“I’ve seen quite a lot of video games of Liverpool, quite a lot of video games of Metropolis as effectively. Once you stay in Europe, the Premier League might be the nicest league to observe.
“He’s executed an amazing job over right here and I’m actually proud of that as a fan. However now as his successor, he left Liverpool in the very best approach I feel. Excellent workforce, so trying ahead to it.”
Slot was an Eredivisie winner with Feyenoord in 2022/23, the primary time the membership had been topped champions within the Netherlands since 2017, and is taken into account the most effective coaches within the membership’s historical past.
