For Danny Murphy, two stats stood out when pouring through the record of Arne Slot, the man who looks increasingly likely to end up taking over from Jurgen Klopp in the Liverpool dugout.
One good and one, well, not bad by any means but maybe a little more subject to debate.
Anyone tasked with stepping into the shoes of Liverpool’s most iconic head coach of the modern era would, obviously, need to share the same underlying principles that Klopp brought to Anfield back in 2015. The attacking, front-foot football his Liverpool side have become famous for, of course, but also the fervent ferocity with and without the ball.
And there is one metric, provided via The Telegraph, which has one-time Reds playmaker Murphy feeling that Arne Slot might just be the right man to continue Klopp’s legacy.
Liverpool pursuing Feyenoord manager Arne Slot
“(The Liverpool bosses) get a lot right, so you have to put a lot of trust in them,” Murphy begins, speaking to talkSPORT (24 April, 11am).
“(Slot) supposed to be quite a bubbly, funny guy. He’s not a subdued-type of guy, which is more similar to Klopp than some of the other guys.”
Feyenoord, Eredivisie champions in 2023 under Slot and for only the second time in the 21st century, have made the most ‘high turnovers’ in Europe this season. Liverpool are in second, managing 705 compared to Feyenoord’s 722.
“I have been looking at how his team plays,” Murphy adds. “It’s front-foot stuff. Good, attacking football. He won the league within two years at Feyenoord.
“The most interesting bit was the turnovers. the highest in all seven leagues over the last season. Liverpool were second! So maybe they’re looking at some similarities around energy, attacking football.
“The other thing is they’ve got a great stat about coming back from losing positions. I don’t know if that’s a good thing! But it shows resilience.”
The ideal Jurgen Klopp replacement at Anfield?
Feyenoord, it goes without saying, come up against far weaker opposition in the Netherlands than Liverpool do in England.
Like with Eredivisie players, Eredivisie managers have a rather mixed record in English football. Frank de Boer was sacked, as you’ll recall, after just four goalless and winless games at Crystal Palace. Erik ten Hag’s impressive first season at Manchester United, meanwhile, has given way to a dismal second.
Slot, however, ticks more boxes than most.
He’s a proven league winner, boasts a formidable record when turning good players into great ones, loves to develop hungry, young talent, and instills a high-pressing, high-octane style that will feel very familiar to Liverpool supporters who have spent the best part of a decade rocking out to Klopp’s self-professed ‘heavy-metal football’
HITC, meanwhile, understands that although Slot’s name has emerged relatively recently, he has been on Liverpool’s radar from the very beginning of the process. Michael Edwards, their former director turned CEO of Football, is a big fan of a man who was on Tottenham, Chelsea and Leeds’ radar as recently as 2023.