I absolutely love hearing former Liverpool players explain what it was really like working under Jürgen Klopp and Arne Slot.
From the outside, both managers achieved an incredible amount at Liverpool, but Andy Robertson has now revealed just how different their approaches actually were.
And there is one part of his explanation that really stood out to me.
Klopp was all about Liverpool. Slot was much more focused on the opposition.
Robertson, who spent nine years at Liverpool and worked under both managers, explained that Slot was far more heavily focused on statistics and data than Klopp.
“Arne Slot was really into stats,” Robertson explained, describing how Slot brought Ruben Peeters with him.
He said Peeters was “always on his iPad” and that even something as simple as players doing too many sprints in training could lead to him getting involved.
Everything was being measured.
Robertson then explained that the biggest difference became even more obvious when it came to tactics.
And this is where I think Liverpool supporters will find it particularly interesting.
According to Robertson, Klopp’s mentality was basically:
If we execute our game properly, nobody can stop us.
It wasn’t about constantly worrying about what the opposition were going to do.
It was about imposing Liverpool’s own style.
As Robertson put it, Klopp was always thinking along the lines of: “If we do this, nobody can match us.”
And that perfectly sums up the Liverpool we watched for so many years.
The intensity.
The pressing.
The attacking full-backs.
The front three.
The relentless counter-press.
Liverpool knew what they wanted to do and, more often than not, tried to force the opposition to deal with them.
Robertson says Slot was different.
With Slot, Liverpool would spend much more time analysing the opposition and preparing for how they were going to deal with the opponent’s particular tactics.
If they do this, we do this.
If they change that, Liverpool would have another response.
Robertson even made the rather striking observation that under Klopp, Liverpool “never changed”, whereas under Slot they would constantly adapt to the opposition.
That doesn’t necessarily mean one approach was right and the other was wrong.
It simply shows that the two managers had very different footballing philosophies.
And I actually think that helps explain why the transition from Klopp to Slot was fascinating to watch.
Klopp had built an identity so strong that Liverpool could almost make opponents adapt to them.
Slot inherited that foundation but introduced more tactical flexibility and opponent-specific planning.
Robertson was perfectly placed to notice the difference because he experienced both approaches from the pitch.
And there is something else I find fascinating here.
The data side of modern football has become absolutely enormous.
Under Slot, players weren’t simply being judged on what supporters could see during a match. Training loads, sprinting, physical output and countless other measurements were being monitored.
That doesn’t mean Klopp ignored data, of course. But Robertson’s comments suggest that it wasn’t as central to the daily footballing philosophy as it became under Slot.
And that tells us something about how much football has changed.
Liverpool under Klopp were built around a powerful idea:
Trust our game. Make the opposition deal with us.
Slot’s Liverpool were much more:
Study the opposition. Understand what they want to do. Then find the best way to beat them.
For me, that’s one of the most interesting insights we’ve heard from a Liverpool player about the change between the two managers.
We all watched the football.
We saw the tactical differences.
But Robertson actually lived through both methods every single day.
And when a player who spent nine years at Liverpool tells us that Klopp wanted Liverpool to stick to their blueprint while Slot wanted them to constantly adapt, I’m listening.
Two managers.
Two completely different approaches.
And yet both left their own mark on Liverpool.
That’s what makes Robertson’s comments so fascinating.
Klopp wanted Liverpool to be Liverpool. Slot wanted Liverpool to be whatever Liverpool needed to be to beat the team in front of them.
I think that’s a brilliant insight into the two eras.
Jamie (The Kopite View)
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