New Delhi, Feb 21 (IANS) With Liverpool holding a comfortable lead over Arsenal in the Premier League in Arne Slot’s first season as head coach of the club, the Dutch coach revealed the pressure of being a player has nothing to do with the title race rather it comes from wearing the shirt.
Liverpool face a stern test as they travel to Manchester City to face the defending champions on Sunday. The Reds hold an eight-point lead over Arsenal but have played a game more than the Gunners. Any points dropped on Sunday could further add to the intensity of the title race.
“You assume that we feel pressure, which we do every single day we are working at this club because we know what this shirt means, what the club has done in the past. So, we always feel the pressure of doing the best possible job we can. But we are not so much focused on what other people constantly talk about, and that is the league table. We are feeling the pressure of playing a difficult away game at Aston Villa.
“We are feeling the pressure of playing a difficult away game against City. But for us, every game is difficult because you saw last Sunday when we played the Wolves. That was a difficult game for us as well. So, yes, we feel the pressure because we wear this shirt, but that has nothing to do with the league table at the moment,” said Slot to JioHostar.
Slot joined Liverpool ahead of the 2024-25 PL season after a successful spell with Feyenoord, with whom he won the Eredivisie in 2022/23 and the KNVB Cup in 2023/24. He played the role of successor to Jurgen Klopp who had a nine-year run in England’s top flight and also saw the end to the Merseyside team’s 30-year-long PL title drought in 2020.
He went on to reveal he draws inspiration from Dutch legends Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels whilst transitioning from a player to a head coach.
”I would have loved to tell you that I was inspired a lot by Johan Cruyff and by Rinus Michels. I have some memories of them because I was 10 years old when Rinus Michels won the Euros. And though I know how happy I was, when I was quite young, at the age of 10, I already thought a lot about football but didn’t look at it in a tactical way. And I think it was a similar period where maybe until ’94, I didn’t know exactly why Johan Cruyff was doing so well at Barcelona.
“But I think when I started to watch football from a tactical point of view, these two managers were not in the game anymore. This generation probably doesn’t understand what I’m telling them now, there’s not a lot about Rinus Michels or Johan Cruyff to be found on YouTube or different social media channels. So, I think the inspiration for me, as much as I would love to tell you what came from them, comes more from a more recent era than back then,” he added.
Catch all the Premier League action from Manchester City vs Liverpool on Sunday ( February 23, Live on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports 2, Star Sports 2 HD, Star Sports 3 and JioHotstar
–IANS
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