As Ten Hag has shown, it’ll be a massive step up from the Dutch league for Slot
MY greatest concern now Arne Slot is the man to replace Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool is not his relative inexperience, but more the Dutch league he is coming from.
We only have to look at how Erik ten Hag has fared up the road at Manchester United to learn the pitfalls of a manager who puts his trust in players who were very good in the Eredivisie.
Ten Hag thought so much of his Ajax winger Antony that United paid £82million for him, and he has been a major disappointment. There are others at Old Trafford and beyond — Donny van de Beek, Andre Onana, Lisandro Martinez, Memphis Depay, Hakim Ziyech and Davy Klaassen, all players with big reputations who have not cut it in our league after starring in the Netherlands.
For years and years, the Dutch travelled well. As players, the likes of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard went to Italy. Dennis Bergkamp, Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben
were hugely successful in the Premier League. As managers, Louis van Gaal, Guus Hiddink and, further back, Johan Cruyff, were pioneers.
In the past 10 years or so, that has changed. Frank de Boer lasted just four league games at Crystal Palace after winning four titles with Ajax. Ronald Koeman was sacked after taking Everton into the bottom three, and Ten Hag has not been the success United envisaged.
Slot has to look at all of the above and not make the same mistakes. There is enough evidence now to show what a huge leap it is from the Eredivisie to the Premier League.
It’s a brave move by the decision-makers at Liverpool, but they have obviously done their homework and feel he’s the right man, even if their options were limited.
Xabi Alonso was the only obvious candidate before he committed to Bayer Leverkusen.
Slot doesn’t come with a big reputation, but that does not mean he can’t be successful. It’s a different era, but Arsene Wenger is the greatest example of someone with a relatively low profile who excelled.
Slot won the title with Feyenoord last season with the weakest Ajax I can remember, a team who normally dominate their league, finishing third. That is not to take away from the achievement; winning any league is not easy and it was only Feyenoord’s second title since the turn of the century.
But this is a completely different challenge at Liverpool. You’re up against the very best and the pressure to win trophies is enormous. He will be taking on Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta and others now.
Slot is also coming into a situation I had thought was extremely healthy, and I said so when Klopp announced in January that he was leaving. But, of late, Liverpool have shown a vulnerability and weakness I did not think existed. The season has
gone flat and the title has gone now. I did not see this coming.
They have gone from the team I believed were going to win it, who did not have to play well to win because they had so much firepower, to a team struggling to score a goal. That’s two defeats without scoring against Crystal Palace and Everton this month.
At the final push, they have come up short. That is not what champions do. As champions, you put your foot to the floor and get over the line in the latter stages of a championship race. Liverpool have not been able to do that, and that leaves a big question mark at their door.
Slot will also inherit, if it is not sorted sooner, the issue of Mo Salah. He has dropped way below the levels we know of him and has lost his focus in the second half of the season.
Do Liverpool sell him this summer? I would not be surprised if there was an agreement last summer for him to stay another year and then go off to Saudi Arabia. If he has had his head turned, it’s better off him going, and I’m sure a new manager would agree. Slot will have enough on his plate without a transfer saga over Salah.
He has big shoes to fill and I know from experience what it is like replacing managers who are so highly regarded at their club. I followed Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool and Sir Bobby Robson at Newcastle.
At the time, I didn’t think twice about it and was confident in my own ability. It didn’t keep me awake at night. But looking back, they were two jobs I shouldn’t have taken. I should have stayed at Rangers and enjoyed the fruits of the hard work I’d put in during my five years at the club, instead of going to Liverpool when I did.
Newcastle was the same — I’d done the hard work at Blackburn and got promoted, finished sixth,
won a trophy and played in Europe twice. I should have stayed and built on that.
I walked into a club that was very difficult. The first person who spoke to me when I got there was chairman Freddy Shepherd’s wife, and she said, ‘Ah, so you’re the lion tamer?’. I thought, ‘What have I come to here?’.
Not that Slot could say no to Liverpool. That is impossible. The point I make is that managing these big football clubs has never been easy, and it’s even harder now. He must learn from the failings of others who have made the same journey.