Arne Slot: Champions League Master

Arne Slot's one Champions League campaign prior to joining Liverpool ended in failure with Feyenoord. His record in the competition is deceptively strong.

When Liverpool appointed Arne Slot, there were no doubts regarding his record in the Eredivisie. In 2019/20 his AZ Alkmaar side were second in the table by goal difference alone when the pandemic brought the campaign to a premature conclusion, despite only having the ninth largest wage bill.

While FiveThirtyEight only gave them a 22 per cent chance of winning the title at that point, they had easier away games than leaders Ajax - whom they had already beaten twice - based on average league position. They might just have gone all the way.

At Feyenoord, Slot’s potential became reality. They won the league in 2022/23, then recorded the highest points total in club history in their title defence the following year. With that form continuing for the Reds’ head coach in England, he has averaged 2.29 points per game across his 157 league match career, 87 points every 38 games.

If there was a concern with Liverpool’s new gaffer when he took the role, it was that he hadn’t achieved anything in the Champions League. Feyenoord finished third in their group last season, failing to qualify for the knockout phase with a game to spare.

They were then eliminated in the last 32 of the Europa League, having reached the quarter-finals of that competition in their Eredivisie title-winning season. Slot’s leading European achievement was steering Feyenoord to the first Europa Conference League final in 2022, in which they lost 1-0 to Roma.

That was a very decent effort with a club that hadn’t got to the round of 16 in any continental competition for two decades. However, Jürgen Klopp had already been to a Champions League final when inheriting a Reds side that was in Europe’s second-tier competition. Slot would expect to do better in the European Cup with Liverpool than he had with Feyenoord, but he needed to.

Kopites need not have been concerned. Even though the Reds were handed the joint-second hardest draw (according to Opta) this season, they finished top of the 36-team pile. It’s worth revisiting Slot’s experience in the 2023/24 group stage. Combining that with what happened this term reveals the Dutchman is building a strong body of work at Europe’s top table.