Liverpool and Arne Slot are boring. That was the argument posed on the radio on the drive home from Anfield on Tuesday night. Really?
Top of the Champions League group phase with a perfect record of seven wins from seven. Six points clear with a game in hand atop the Premier League. One win away from a Carabao Cup final and still in the FA Cup. Boring. Really?
Try telling the fans that witnessed a 2-0 win over 15-time European kings Real Madrid, a convincing victory over reigning English champions Manchester City, embarrassing Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford, that their team is boring.
What part of scoring a 91st-minute winner at Brentford last Saturday, which prompted Bees boss Thomas Frank to label them the ‘best team in the world’, is boring? What part of beating Tottenham 6-3 or watching Mohamed Salah rip up goalscoring records every week is boring?
If any of those things are dull, then maybe football is not the sport for you.
OK, Slot’s style is more patient and controlled than Jurgen Klopp’s ‘heavy-metal’ gegenpressing. That was evident from the Dutchman’s first training session and is not up for debate. But it is also more sustainable, and if it brings results, it is entertaining for Reds fans.
Slot’s side have won 26 of their 33 games this season and have a shot at the Quadruple
Darwin Nunez’s late double to earn a crucial win over Brentford last week was far from boring
Slot’s Liverpool are less exciting than under Jurgen Klopp – but it’s a winning formula
Slot was asked about choosing patience over a breakneck style on Friday and said: ‘That is difficult for fans and my father as a fan as well. When I call him after a game he says, “Ah, it wasn’t as exciting as other Liverpool games” when he watched the game against Lille.
‘I had to try to explain to him: these games you can easily lose if you are starting to force all kinds of difficult balls — but he’s not always agreeing with me. As a manager I was quite happy with our performance against Lille.
‘I can remember Curtis Jones tried to play, from the halfway line, a ball that had a bit of risk and we lost that ball and they counter-attacked us. So that is the risk you have if you play against a low-block team.
‘Nottingham Forest are probably the best in the league if you play these “stupid balls” — I call them stupid balls — which my father would love to see us play a bit more. That is the risk of them creating many more chances.
‘And it is a difficult balance of taking the risk and conceding a lot or having control and not creating as much. It is a balance we have to find and I understand it is difficult for fans who come to the stadium to see us winning. Hopefully also scoring a lot of goals in an exciting match is good, but you need two teams for that.’
The statistics back this up. Opta data suggests that the general trend at Liverpool is a slower movement of the ball (measured in direct speed of attacking moves down the pitch, which is on average 1.75 metres per second (3.9mph) under Slot compared to 1.93 (4.3mph) in Klopp’s finale last year.
There has been a dip in ‘high turnovers’ which were a characteristic of Klopp’s style, which suggests they are more methodical on and off the ball. And the average attack under Slot lasts for 11.7seconds — slightly higher than under Klopp across his tenure.
Fair play, though, to Slot — your son being an elite coach clearly does not make him immune to criticism, even after a historic start at Anfield that has brought 26 wins in his first 33 games and a genuine shot at a Quadruple.
Liverpool blew away 15-time European champions Real Madrid and are top of the league
Liverpool comfortably beat reigning champions Manchester City last month at Anfield
The Reds boss knows his measured approach is bringing results — and he will not be changing just to please late-night radio hosts trying to force debates… or his dad!
Football in the 2020s has become much more robotic. Let us use Pep Guardiola and Manchester City as the next example. At their pulsating, blistering best, City have been the best team on the planet of the last decade in terms of relentless winning and entertainment value.
If punters have had a chance to go and watch Guardiola, the best manager of his generation, they should have snapped it up. But what many may not notice is that the Catalan made City more boring — or perhaps more sensible and pragmatic — in his pursuit of perfection.
In his first seasons, such as the 100-point 2017-18 campaign, City were attack, attack, attack. There were fast wingers who would stay wide with two No 10s in midfield — David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne.
Now, although Savinho seems to be the first choice on the left, Guardiola often seems to prefer inverted wingers, which slows the play down slightly.
Back in the day, it looked good — but their style left them open, in Europe especially. Painful Champions League defeats, all pockmarked by being undone on the counter-attack, followed at the hands of Monaco, Liverpool, Tottenham, Lyon and Chelsea.
So Guardiola changed. In came technically gifted wingers who, with space to exploit, would check back and keep possession. Think Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez, Jack Grealish.
At the other end, full backs were stripped of their licence to attack and asked to tuck in. The back four that won the 2023 Champions League final 1-0 against Inter Milan was Manuel Akanji, John Stones, Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake — four central defenders by trade.
Pep Guardiola has changed his philosophy and now favours wingers who drift inside
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal found success by employing four centre backs across the back line
Do the tens of thousands of City fans in Istanbul that night remember the fact it was a cagey, dull match overall? Absolutely not. Do they care for the fact their tactics made them less likely to hammer teams by five or six goals? Absolutely not.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal followed suit and often, when injuries allow, the Spaniard plays with four centre halves, converting Ben White and Riccardo Calafiori to play wide.
Football in general is becoming less exciting for fans. Several factors such as the introduction of VAR have played their part, and the fact you would struggle to go to an elite-level fixture these days for less than £60 also makes the bang for your buck much weaker.
Nearly every Saturday, the lunchtime Championship match on Sky Sports will be a better watch, for goals and drama, than the Premier League offering on TNT Sports. Lower-league football is less like a chess match and has more uncertainty.
Yet in the social media age, negativity about just about everything is commonplace with fans. That extends to even the very best teams. Liverpool, to stick with them, are the form side in England and Europe — according to the tables — but some supporters still moan.
Every Friday, replies to my social media posts are flooded with fans grumbling about the questions Slot is asked. ‘Why did no one ask him about why our set-pieces are so awful?,’ said one yesterday. ‘Why are you not calling out the owners for a lack of signings?’
Arne Slot is more than happy facing up to the criticism – even from his own dad!
Fenway Sports Group, the owners, are no saints — and fans are partially correct to think a new face or two this month could strengthen their pursuit of four trophies.
But some of them make you want to reply: ‘Liverpool are top of the league, mate, not in a relegation battle. Stop whining and just enjoy it.’
To sum up, look at Ange Postecoglou. He favours his bang-bang-bang attacking style and Tottenham are 15th in the table. Slot is more measured but his team are slowly becoming a winning machine.
Nothing boring about that.
