RevSportz Comment
Arne Slot isn’t the first Liverpool manager to enjoy a perfect day at the home of his club’s biggest rivals. Bill Shankly, the architect of modern-day Liverpool Football Club, managed a 3-0 win against Manchester United in 1972, a time when the side managed for nearly a quarter-century by his fellow Scot, Sir Matt Busby, was in inexorable decline.
One of Rafael Benitez’s finest hours was the 4-1 thumping of Sir Alex Ferguson’s champion side in April 2009. Even Brendon Rodgers won 3-0 at Old Trafford during a surprise title tilt in the spring of 2014. As for Jurgen Klopp, he will always have the afternoon when a Mohamed Salah hat-trick underpinned a 5-0 demolition job in the autumn of 2021.
Sunday’s 3-0 was arguably a bigger surprise. For the first time in years, United had enjoyed an excellent transfer window, drafting in a clutch of players who are clearly an upgrade on what they presently have. After the shambolic 2023-24 season, when they finished eighth in the league with a negative goal difference, the powers that be had unstintingly backed Erik ten Hag.
On the flip side, Slot had brought in just Federico Chiesa, who wasn’t even fit enough to make Sunday’s squad. Georgi Mamardashvili, perhaps the next great European goalkeeper, was signed from Valencia and sent straight back to play out the season in La Liga. In essence, Slot was working with the very squad that Klopp had taken to third place last season.
For the Latest Sports News: Click Here
One of the quirky stats to emerge from Sunday’s comfortable win was that Slot was the first Liverpool manager since Bob Paisley to win his opening match against United. Paisley succeeded Shankly in July 1974, but had to wait till November 1975 for that chance since Denis Law, once part of United’s star-studded forward line, had helped relegate them in May 1974.
By the time United were beaten 3-1 at Anfield 18 months into his tenure, it was very much Paisley’s team. Stalwarts remained from the Shankly era, but they knew who was boss. Paisley, a self-effacing man from the industrial northeast, knew better than to try and copy the inimitable Shankly, whose personality was as big as the town. He went about things his way, saying barely a word but ruthlessly making changes that made Liverpool even more successful.
It’s been a constant refrain since Slot took over that he has impossibly large boots to fill. Well, maybe like Paisley, he doesn’t want to. Maybe he wants to walk in an entirely different direction in brogues. Paisley ended up winning the league six times in nine seasons, and added three European Cups – the Holy Grail that had always eluded his predecessor.
Paisley would have been the first to admit that he built on the foundations Shankly put in place, but by the time he left Anfield in 1983, no one was foolish enough to make comparisons. And there was no journalist who summed up the differences between the two better than Paisley himself — “Bill Shankly put steel tips on his shoes, so people knew he was coming, whereas I’d be happy in my slippers.”
Slot’s touchline demeanour is enough to tell you that he has no interest in being the ‘next Klopp’. He did allow himself a fist pump when Luis Diaz added a second goal at Old Trafford, but by and large, his is a serene but firm presence on the bench. His personality is not that of a Pied Piper, and his football too is based more on control than the beautiful chaos that characterised the best Klopp years.
Liverpool are still lethal on the counter — Diaz’s goal from a Brentford corner took just 11.44 seconds from clearance to back of the net — but they now exercise much more control in the middle of the park. As good as they were, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Gini Wijnaldum and James Milner were often used just to carousel the ball along to the forwards. Under Slot, the build-up is more patient, though the real test will come in the revamped Champions League against opponents like Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen.
Already though, Slot seems someone comfortable in his skin — grateful for what the previous manager left him, but determined to chart his own course with a minimum of fuss. A lot like Paisley really, and history tells you he didn’t do too badly after succeeding a legend.
Also Read: Sumit on Fire at Stade de France and all drama of last evening’s athletics amphitheatre