Arne Slot training technique will ruffle Liverpool feathers as new boss set to get tough

Liverpool’s new manager, Arne Slot, is known for his no-nonsense approach, often encouraging his players to be tough with each other during training.

The Dutchman has earned a reputation for promoting attractive football throughout his eight-year coaching career, which has seen him progress from SC Cambuur in the lower leagues to Anfield, via AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord.

Much like his predecessor Jurgen Klopp, Slot learned from his own unremarkable playing days that sometimes a tougher approach is necessary.

If he feels his players’ standards are slipping during training, he isn’t afraid to instruct one of them to give the others a wake-up call.

During his tenure at Feyenoord, he even managed to ruffle the feathers of both Jose Mourinho and Diego Simeone by questioning their tactics.

Bram van Polen, a tough player from PEC Zwolle, recalls how Slot would encourage him to go hard into tackles during training when Slot was an assistant coach at the club, following his last four seasons there as a player.

Van Polen shared: “Slot puts a lot of energy in all his training sessions. He is very demanding and wants things practiced in perfection.

“But oh dear, if he thought at the end of the week that the players had not given everything in training.. If the squad had been lacking sharpness, he would come up to me a day before the game and say ‘can you drive everyone over the edge in our last training session?

“And do you know what? I loved that. Oh yes, I was triggered. He wanted me to put the boot in – and I would give it all.”

But Van Pollen reckons his former coach has all the tools to be a success.

He said: “I would clatter them in training full on – and it was fantastic how Slot would get everyone in the right sharp and aggressive attitude for the match the next day.

“I knew then, that he was becoming a really fabulous coach.”

Slot flew into Merseyside on Friday to finalise his contract and to meet with new chief executive Michael Edwards and sporting director Julian Edwards.

Liverpool are paying Feyenoord £11million in compensation – and have also been forced to pay the final month of the Dutchman’s wages from his contact in Rotterdam, around £320,000.

Slot famously enjoyed winding up Mourinho several times when their teams met five times in Europe in the space of three years.

He told the former Chelsea and Manchester United boss that he preferred to watch Pep Guardiola’s teams. He said: “If I watch Pep’s teams, I know I may learn a thing or two. There are always great details in his attacking and attractive style.”

Mourinho responded by suggesting studying his team might help Slot win a trophy.

Another European game against Simeone’s Atletico ended with the Argentine squaring up to Slot at the final whistle after another exchange of verbals.

Simeone flipped again when he spotted the Dutchman laughing at him in the tunnel.

“Slot had the guts to tell me that I was a frustrated character and that I get wound up over all sorts of things,” revealed Simeone. “I would never say stuff like that about a fellow manager.”

But Van Pollen is confident that his old mentor has what it takes to triumph.

He added: “Slot has a lot of good qualities as a coach. I knew even when he was still a player that he would be good.

“He knew how to get the best out of players and that turned out to be so true once he got the chance to build his own team.”