Arne Slot has warned Liverpool’s Premier League rivals that he expects the champions-elect to improve next season as they strive to fulfil his vision of the perfect team.
Liverpool require one point at home to Tottenham on Sunday to secure a record-equalling 20th league title and for Slot to become the first Dutch coach to win the Premier League. The head coach admits his team have “a big responsibility” to deliver at Anfield given the club’s last Premier League triumph, in 2020, came behind closed doors during the Covid pandemic. Slot’s family will be in attendance, although he says their visit was planned months ago to coincide with a public holiday in the Netherlands.
Liverpool have dominated the Premier League season, never relinquishing first place after returning to the top on 2 November and embarking on a 26-game unbeaten run that rendered a title race obsolete. Yet Slot insists they have resembled his ideal team only occasionally, and that they must and will improve next season.
“Every manager around the world wants to achieve perfection and that will probably never work out,” Slot said. “But even in the last few weeks we are still trying to get better in certain things and keeping the standards as high as we had them for the whole season. Maybe in some parts of the season or in phases of some games we were quite close [to his vision of what a Slot team should be] but in other moments we have to do much better. We can definitely improve.
“In general every manager that works at a top club wants to have control of a game, every single minute of the game, but that is hardly possible in this league. There were phases also during the season or during games where we didn’t have that control, so I think we have to become even better … The positive thing from us this season is that we never went down a lot, even if we didn’t have the control I would like. We were still difficult to score against but a bit more ball possession and threatening the opponent even more would be good.”
Slot, grounded as ever, insists he has not contemplated what it would mean to win the title in his first season at Liverpool, his place in Anfield folklore or what the celebrations could be like on Sunday. Asked whether he was aware that he was an inch from becoming a Liverpool legend, the 46-year-old replied: “Yes, but I prefer to get my mind on that inch and not on what happens afterwards because there is still an inch to be done.”
He said: “We have to do the job. But of course it gives us a lot of confidence the way we have played all the way through the season in sometimes difficult circumstances as well. We’ve always shown up, not only us but the fans as well. I have all the confidence we will show up again, but I also know how unpredictable a game of football can be. That’s why we have to be so well prepared.”
Slot is acutely aware of what it will mean to the supporters to win the league, even though opportunities to interact are rare. “Sometimes when I’m driving on the motorway they come up right next to you for 500m or a kilometre and [punches the air],” he said.
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“There aren’t many interactions to be made because I go from the training ground to my house, I open the gate and drive into my house. Yesterday when I wanted to have lunch I thought: ‘Shit, I don’t have anything in my fridge.’ So I went to the supermarket. I was in and out but there was someone who wanted to take photos of me. I don’t go outside that much, so there aren’t many options to talk to me.”