Meet the real Arne Slot: LEWIS STEELE reveals how flying Dutchman fell in love with Liverpool, what’s changed from Jurgen Klopp era and his surprising matchday superstition

There are two scenes that perfectly paint the picture of how Arne Slot slowly falls in love with Liverpool and how the Kop has come to appreciate this quiet but smooth operator.

The first was in August, two hours before a closed-door practice match against Las Palmas. The sold-out crowd for another match that day, against Sevilla, was long gone and Slot sat alone in the dugout, his feet outstretched, with a young boy.

It was his son Joep. Slot Snr pointed to the Kop and the teenager craned his neck to survey his father’s new territory. Your correspondent is no body language guru, but it’s fair to say that they looked in awe as Slot took pictures of his boy.

Those snapshots find a good place on the mantelpiece as a memory to cherish. It wasn’t Slot’s first time at Anfield, but there’s something emotional about an empty stadium, especially on a match day, that makes you appreciate its character and history more.

Maybe that was the day it all felt real. A ‘pinch me’ moment for this guy from the Dutch ‘Bible Belt’ of Bergentheim, who enjoyed a nice but not at all brilliant playing career. He has quickly risen up the coaching ladder to one of Europe’s elite clubs.

The second scene was a more recent game. Liverpool had just made fellow Champions League team, Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, look well average and moved five points clear of the Premier League with their fifteenth win in Slot’s first seventeen games.

Slot walked with a spring in his step to the Kop and gave the jubilant fans the strongest show of affection yet. Not quite the chest-thumping antics of Jurgen Klopp, but a world away from his half-wave to the far end after his Premier League debut at Ipswich Town.

We know all about Slot the manager – a hunger for patience, control and tactical adjustments in the game – but not many people know much about Slot the man.

Slot is first and foremost a family man, as evidenced by that first sketch from August. He lives alone in England – on the outskirts of Manchester, rather than inheriting the club’s Formby property, which was occupied by the likes of Jurgen Klopp and Brendan Rodgers.

But the reason he is alone is because he did not want to move his children’s schools – in addition to son Joep, he also has a daughter, Isa – and he recently returned to the Netherlands, as he has done on every international break. far, to see them and wife Mirjam.

“There’s no better feeling than being a father,” he said recently.

Living alone, he spends his free time working on his Apple Macbook laptop, studying opponents and rewatching clips of his team’s matches and practices. A constant search for better. When he has a break from his football studies, he helps his children study for exams via FaceTime.

This is a workaholic who believes that the brain is the best tool a football player or coach can have. This started during his playing days and a former team-mate, Julian Jenner, tells Mail Sport: ‘In terms of his football brain, I would compare him to Sergio Busquets.

“Okay, not in terms of skill, but same mobility and technique… whatever came to his mind, he could do it. When he was in the lineup he would say something, when he wasn’t playing he was trying to help the young guys.

“He always said to the coach, ‘Yes, but what if this happens?’ The coach would then say: ‘Arne, you are the creative one, you have to solve it!’. He wrote everything down and tried to expose his shortcomings to find out what he needed to improve. His ambitions skyrocketed.

‘I come from the other side of the country, The Hague. We are more chest-oriented and say we are the best. He’s more on the realistic side, don’t go too fast. He is very easy to get along with, polite, if you are not feeling well he is always there for you and shows his fatherly side.’

People close to Slot say he believes his upbringing and background have provided a perfect foundation to make a difference in the sport. “He believes verbal dexterity is a weapon,” says a source, adding: “He thinks the biggest difference is still made in the way you interact with people.”

He learned this trait when he observed father Arend as a school director and amateur football coach. Slot also took on a customer-facing role after his playing career when he entered into a joint venture with brother Jakko – it was called Slotwear – selling personalized captain armbands.

The brothers spent Sunday mornings hoping their parents wouldn’t wake up early because that would mean going to church. They usually lasted most – but not all – weeks. Slot thinks that this youth prevented him from completely abandoning his faith.

Although not a practicing religious man, Mail Sport has been told that Slot harbors some rather quirky superstitions on match days. He is known to avoid looking at the clock at exactly 1:13 p.m. (1:13 p.m. or o’clock) for years because he, like many, believes the number means bad luck.

A look at the results so far this season shows that Brighton’s Ferdi Kadioglu scored with 13 minutes on the clock at Anfield to put the Seagulls 1-0 ahead in November. Well done, because in this case his hard work with his planning and tactical adjustments outweighed luck as Liverpool came back to win 2-1.

Sources in Rotterdam also say that Slot is not a fan of the word ‘I’ and prefers ‘we’, which reminds Mail Sport of a trip to the Netherlands in May when he replied to our question with: ‘Football… you only talk about the head coach, but it’s not fair to the others (backroom staff) if I get the credit.’

Slot is reserved at press conferences and gives little away. He refuses to discuss contract issues and does not disclose injury details. While Klopp calls out the media directly, Slot simply irritates them by not providing as many sound bites.

This is far from an insult; his business style is admirable and gets results on the field. He joked about how Britain’s 24/7 obsession with football has baffled him, as he constantly sees his face on big screens tuned to Sky Sports on the training ground.

Slot has insisted he has simply maintained the status quo and not changed much from the Klopp era, suggesting this is the reason for success. Premier League.

Aside from tactical tweaks and an emphasis on detailed analysis sessions, Slot’s main tangible changes concern routines. He has scrapped the norm of players staying in a hotel the night before the match, believing stars can sleep better in the comfort of home.

The squad have breakfast together and the club media often post videos of them laughing as Mohamed Salah appears to support the coffee bar like a local in the pub. Salah sets the standards on the pitch, but is also an integral leader and a friendly face.

Slot is not in the players’ WhatsApp group and delegates responsibility to captain and compatriot Virgil van Dijk to ensure everyone is happy. His policy changes have been far from radical, but so far during his premiership, Slot has built a party that is ready to flourish.