The 45-year-old has finally been officially confirmed as the Reds' new head coach – but what will he bring to Anfield?

Once the dust had finally settled on Jurgen Klopp's bombshell announcement that he would be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season, attention begrudgingly turned to who would succeed the legendary German at Anfield.

For a long while, it seemed like former midfielder Xabi Alonso would step into the hot seat, but the Spaniard has since announced his surprise decision to turn down both the Reds' and Bayern Munich's interest and remain at Bayer Leverkusen. This seemingly catapulted Sporting CP boss Ruben Amorim into prime contention, however Liverpool's interest was then cooled.

The vacuum created by this surprise turn was eventually filled by Feyenoord's Arne Slot. He was Tottenham's number-one candidate following Antonio Conte's departure last season, but the Dutch side playing hard ball meant Spurs eventually settled on Ange Postecoglou.

Liverpool were more persistent. Back in April it was widely reported that negotiations over a compensation package were well underway, with a fee of around €10 million (£8.6m/$10.7m) proving enough to tempt him away from the Eredivisie. Now, after Klopp welcomed him to the club in his own unique way after the Reds' final-day victory over Wolves, Slot has been officially unveiled as the new King of Anfield.

He has seriously impressed in the Netherlands, but is he a good fit for the Merseyside giants? Below, GOAL takes a look at his career, development and tactical philosophy to find out…

Getty ImagesUnremarkable playing career

Slot's playing career was far from illustrious, though according to his former team-mates he seemed to view it as an extended precursor to his coaching journey anyway. He started out at PEC Zwolle, eventually breaking into the first team and helping them to the second-tier title in 2002.

That earned him a move to NAC Breda, where he spent five years before winding down his career with a stint at Sparta Rotterdam and an emotional return to Zwolle, where he clinched a second league title. Those two trophies were the only major silverware he secured as a player.

However, despite the languid attacking midfielder's limited success, his coaching brain was already kicking into gear. Former team-mate Bram van Polen told NOS last year: "Arne was constantly working on the boys in the team during training, already clearly a trainer in the making."

Another ex-colleague, Edwin de Graaf, concurred during a recent interview with The Athletic: "Some players you can see are going to be coaches. I also played with Alfred Schreuder (the former Ajax manager) and both him and Slot… nobody is surprised now they’re both coaches. He would ask the coach why they were using certain tactics. And in the dressing room, he would talk to the group about (for example) a way of pressing or defending.

"He would ask: ‘Why were we doing it this way? Would it be better to do it this way?’. He would make suggestions to his coaches. But he would do it in such a good way. He wouldn’t do it with an attitude: he would ask the coach: ‘What do you think about this?’. He would also very quickly see what the opponents were doing."

AdvertisementGetty ImagesMoving into coaching

Zwolle evidently recognised this potential in Slot, immediately offering him a youth-coaching position when he hung up his playing boots in 2013.

After moving to Cambuur's senior team in an interim capacity a few years later, he was handed his first big break when John van den Brom hired him as an assistant at AZ Alkmaar.

Two years later, he stepped up to the number-one role and made a seriously impressive start to life in the hot seat. When the 2019-20 season was curtailed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, AZ were only trailing leaders Ajax on goal difference with nine games left to play.

The prior campaign, Slot's side had finished a distant 28 points adrift of Erik ten Hag and Co, which demonstrates the transformative impact his promotion to head coach had on the club.

His second full season wasn't quite as impressive, with Ajax running away with the league, but Slot still led AZ to a third-place finish, with the Cheese Farmers – what a terrific nickname, by the way – ending up just a solitary point behind a far more expensively assembled PSV Eindhoven squad.

Getty ImagesThe King of Rotterdam!

With his stock rising, Slot was chosen as the man to reignite some passion at Feyenoord following two years of uninspiring football and results under Dick Advocaat. Despite losing top scorer Steven Berghuis to Ajax, the early signs were good.

Slot guided Feyenoord to third in his maiden campaign, with his side scoring 10 more Eredivisie goals than they managed in Advocaat's last season, while conceding two less. They also reached the Europa Conference League final, where they would eventually be vanquished by Jose Mourinho's Roma.

"Slot transformed Feyenoord completely when he took over in 2021. Feyenoord were often called a ‘sleeping giant’, but that is no longer the case these days," Noel Korteweg, who covers Feyenoord for Dutch football website Voetbalzone, told GOAL.

These exploits would earn him the Rinus Michels Award, given to the best coach in the Netherlands that year, though the following campaign was even better. After an extraordinary revamp in the 2022 summer transfer window, with a string of first-teamers including Tyrell Malacia, Luis Sinisterra and Marcos Senasi all departing, it soon became clear Slot had somehow managed to improve his squad while making a sizeable profit through player sales.

"Apart from maybe 3 or 4 starters, the entire XI left. They then brought in like 15 new players and everyone expected that season to be a transition season," Korteweg added.

But it was anything but with the arrivals of David Hancko, Quinten Timber and Santiago Gimenez having a near-instantaneous effect. Feyenoord thrashed Vitesse 5-2 on the opening day and this set the tone for one of the best seasons of the club's modern era, with Slot's charges romping to the league title, after which he attracted strong interest from Premier League sides.

He decided to stay, though, and Feyenoord might have finished top of the pile again this term, if not for PSV Eindhoven being basically perfect in the Eredivisie. Slot's side did at least get one over the runaway league leaders in the KNVB Cup, beating them in the round of 16 before going on to lift the trophy after beating NEC in an eventful final.

"Feyenoord-fans are very sad that Slot seems to be leaving, but I think that they all know that he kind of outgrew Feyenoord a bit and can't do any better than he did in the last three seasons. Because Slot transformed the club completely, everyone is very curious to see if Feyenoord will stay successful after he leaves," Korteweg said.

Getty ImagesSlot's tactical philosophy

Slot's results speak for themselves, but this is not the only reason why he has quickly emerged as one of the most sought-after coaches in Europe. Perhaps even more impressive than the titles he's won at Feyenoord is how he's managed to completely overhaul the club's playing style.

Under Advocaat, the squad was largely encouraged to adopt a safety-first approach. Slot has a very different way of viewing football. A disciple of Pep Guardiola, he has made Feyenoord extremely attacking in recent years as evidenced by the significant increase in goals scored since he took over.

In fact, he even cited Guardiola's City and Klopp's Liverpool as "beautiful examples" of the style he likes to play. "The goal is not to play offensively, but I believe this is the way to win a lot of games," he told back in 2021.

Usually setting up in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, both full-backs push high and wide, with the two nominal wingers often moving inside to help create devastating rotations in the middle. Players are encouraged to take on their opposite numbers too, with no Eredivisie side registering a higher progressive carrying distance this season.

Out of possession, Feyenoord are similarly eye-catching. They press high, with Slot's side making far more attacking-third tackles since he succeeded Advocaat. However, if they cannot win the ball, they are well-drilled enough to retreat into almost 6-3-1 formation, making it very difficult for their opponents to find space.