Much commentary on the modern game focuses on the manager to the exclusion of the players (or the playing budget) or the backroom staff, especially medics and physios. Yet the statistical data seems to suggest that managers make little difference to a club’s performance compared with the playing budget, apart from an initial three match bounce.
There are, however, two exceptions to that. One are those poor at managing or at least
square pegs in a round hole, Wayne Rooney being a recent example. And then there are exceptional managers which
require exceptional skill and diligence in recruiting them. Whoever was going to be the new Liverpool
manager had a hard act to follow in Klopp, although also a platform to build
on.
The most important thing about Arne Slot, someone who sees the 46-year-old at
work daily told the Sunday Times, is
his “fit” to the role he holds. Liverpool helped to pioneer clubs
applying data with the same rigour to managerial hires as player recruitment.
Their former director of research, Ian Graham, was crucial to appointing Klopp,
producing analysis that told Michael Edwards, the sporting director at the
time, to look past Klopp’s final season with Borussia Dortmund.
The process of recruiting Slot began in November 2023, when
Klopp disclosed he would be stepping down. The head of the Liverpool research
department, Will Spearman, has perfected his own algorithm to evaluate coaches
and began crunching numbers.
Slot’s ability to deliver within a player-trading model
(Feyenoord made a net transfer profit during his three seasons), and with young
squads, also impressed. Liverpool have metrics to project how players might
improve under different managers and these suggested Slot would benefit many in
their squad.
A constant sound heard around the Liverpool dugout is a
Dutch voice shouting, “Clip! Clip!” This is Slot, continually seeing moments of
play he wants the analysts to capture in a video bite to show his players.
Often they are for half-time team talks, but sometimes they’re to make coaching
points during the week. Everything, to him, as the son of teachers, appears a
learning opportunity, an event to be dissected and used to improve.
Slot is also good at keeping players fit. He achieved 90 per
cent player availability in every season at Feyenoord and the bad news for
title rivals is his teams’ record of improving in the second half of campaigns.
Slot is also shrewd in using substitutes, especially
“closers” — players brought on to see out games. In the league he has made 80
substitutions in winning positions, and all 80 players introduced have finished
on the winning team.
The more you look at such details, or digest facts such as
Slot having never lost three consecutive games in his coaching
career and having most recently lost an away game in (yes, really) December
2023, the more you form the impression he is a special one. He has usurped José
Mourinho’s 20-year record for the best start by a Premier League manager, but
his schtick is the polar opposite of José’s: humility over preening, dad jokes
in press conferences rather than scowls.
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