‘Football not fist pumps’: Arne Slot believes his style of play will win over Liverpool fans

As the new Liverpool boss prepares for his first Premier League game at Anfield he is determined to chart his own course as Jurgen Klopp’s successor

Arne Slot will be a more subdued figure than Jurgen Klopp but hopes to be as influential on the team (AP)

Arne Slot was hired by Liverpool as a kind of continuity candidate, capable of managing Jurgen Klopp’s squad, believing in a similar style of play. Yet should Anfield witness a home win over Brentford on Sunday, there will be a very different sight after the final whistle. The celebrations will be more subdued. Or his will be, anyway.

“Don’t expect me to go after the game and make fist pumps,” said Slot. “That is not going to be my style.” It became Klopp’s trademark: the trio to the Kop after every Anfield triumph were then followed, in his long goodbye, by the same gesture to the Centenary Stand, the Main Stand and the Kenny Dalglish Stand. It became as much a part of the Anfield experience as “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.

But Slot is a more muted figure. Arguably everyone is. Klopp had a larger-than-life personality and a rock-star charisma that he used to galvanise. He could motivate an individual, a team or a 60,000 crowd. He was a chest-beating, grinning magnet to the cameras. He was Liverpool’s biggest character since Bill Shankly. And his successor has a different approach to winning over the supporters.

“My way of doing things is to let the team play in the best possible way and [the fans] enjoy the team playing, and in that way they will hopefully admire it or I will get a bond with them,” Slot said. “So it is more, let the team play in a certain way and [the fans] like the team and because of that they will like the manager as well.”

Jurgen Klopp’s typical fist pump celebrations galvanised the Liverpool fans but Arne Slot has a different method in mind (Peter Byrne/PA)

All of which could take time but Slot forged a fine relationship with the Feyenoord public. Which, he said, came organically, without Klopp-style antics. “They liked the way we played. They liked what they saw on the pitch, they liked how we pressed on the pitch, how we played with the ball,” he explained. “It is more the style of the play the team has than me doing things before, during or after.”

Slot is less of a showman. He seems less likely to sprint along the touchline. “I might but that would be to help the team. Not to create something with the fans and I don’t think it is necessary because the fans are always behind the team. I don’t think they need me to do something different or special to sing or help the team.”

And if that was distancing himself from Klopp, the animated figure who could provide more drama than passages of play, Slot’s arrival may seem welcome news to fourth officials who have become beleaguered figures at Anfield in recent seasons, accustomed to receiving an earful. Slot seems calmer than his predecessor.

“I wouldn’t say I lost it but sometimes you have some frustrations and nine times out of 10 in the life of a manager it comes from referees’ decisions,” he said. “That sometimes happens but I’ve not lost in a way where people are saying what is he doing? No, I think it is important to keep [calm].”

The new Liverpool boss is prepared to be tough on his players as evidenced by his half-time team talk in the match against Ipswich (Reuters)

And yet there may be more to Slot than just the air of a quiet, modest man who would rather see the players praised than the manager, and who thinks the team is more important than any individual. Andy Robertson revealed Slot shouted at the side at half-time at Ipswich last week. It worked: drawing at the interval, Liverpool went on to win 2-0. “I raised my voice a bit,” Slot said. And yet it was not a loss of temper. It scarcely sounded like his version of Sir Alex Ferguson’s infamous “hairdryer” treatment.

“I’m not losing it in terms of throwing things through a dressing room but I can be hard and tough on them if I think it’s necessary,” he said. “You always look at your team and think ‘What do they need?’ And if you feel they need a bit of this,” he said, punching his palm. “You are a bit harder on them, sometimes really hard on them, but never in a way that you are losing your mind. I’ve been a player myself and they would make fun of you afterwards, at least that’s what I did with the managers who lost their mind in my playing career. You always have to be in control, let’s put it that way.”

But if no one is making fun of Slot, Klopp helped bring the fun back to Anfield. Slot aims to do it his way, with the football but without the fist pumps.