As Liverpool boss Arne Slot reflects on his team’s impressive start to the season, he insists he didn’t have any expectations of them in terms of results. Despite the Reds’ incredible form, Slot’s approach has always been focused on the process, not the outcome.
The former Feyenoord manager says he didn’t come into the job with a specific target for points after 10 or 20 games. Instead, he was focused on bringing the best out of his team, just as predecessor Jurgen Klopp had done. “The only thing I was thinking was how am I going to try to bring the best from this team… how can we continue that?” he said.
And it’s clear that his approach is yielding results. The team has won 11 of their first 12 matches in all competitions, including a dominant 3-1 win over Wolves last weekend. That’s left them top of the Premier League, but Slot is keen to play down the importance of individual statistics. “The way I think about it is about the process we’re doing, what we do on a daily basis, and that, from my experience, leads to points,” he explained.
One area in which the team has notably improved is in defence, where they’ve conceded just three goals in their eight Premier League outings. Slot attributes this to a combination of dominating games and maintaining a high work rate, particularly in key moments. “If you have the ball, you can rest the defence and not then concede, but I also like it when we have difficult parts of the game and the work rate is incredible,” he said.
With the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, and their two goalkeepers, Slot believes the team’s solid backline is a key factor in their success. “That is probably why we haven’t conceded that much,” he said. As Liverpool prepare to face a tough test against Arsenal on Sunday, Slot’s focus on the process, rather than the outcome, gives him confidence that his team will continue to thrive.
