Rafa Benitez believes that Arne Slot has benefitted from inheriting a strong Liverpool squad from Jurgen Klopp, but believes the Dutchman has added defensive balance and organization to the team.
Slot has presided over a record-breaking start to the season for Liverpool, with the Reds having won 11 of their 12 games in all competitions, and a win over Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday will see them return to the top of the Premier League table.
It has been a remarkable start for Slot, particularly considering the magnitude of the managerial change at Anfield, with Klopp having spent almost nine years at Liverpool and overseen the club’s most successful period in decades.
A home defeat by Nottingham Forest is the only time Liverpool hasn’t won this season, with the Reds currently on an eight-game winning streak, and Benitez praised Slot for the job he is currently doing.
“They have been playing with great intensity all these years under Jurgen Klopp and it is very difficult to alter that straight away. Also, as Slot has said himself, it would be crazy to change it immediately,” Benitez said in a BBC column published on the eve of Liverpool’s trip to Arsenal. “So, he is keeping the good things Klopp had and, at the same time, he is giving them a little bit of defensive balance and organisation, which allows him to change their approach when he needs to.
“Against Chelsea they were dropping off a little bit more, but they can still press high. Similarly, they can play penetrating passes forward, or they can use the wide areas and attack with the wingers overlapping. Slot is giving the team more tools, to be sure they can react and adjust depending on the opponent – or so they can impose their own way to play, because if they are much better than the other team they can control possession in the opposition half, and try to find ways to create chances.
“Overall, I think they have more balance and if they can continue to carry a threat in attack then we have already seen that they don’t concede too many goals. Put that together, and it is the key to being successful. They are definitely on the right path, and in a good place to go to the Emirates on Sunday. Beating Arsenal will be a good challenge and a difficult test, but I think they have the belief that they can do it, and that is the main thing.”