Gary Lineker has been impressed with Arne Slot’s start to life at Liverpool and how smooth the transition has been from Jurgen Klopp.
Following Klopp is a formidable task, but Slot has overseen an impressive start to the season, with the Reds currently second in the table a point behind Manchester City.
Slot has guided Liverpool to four wins from their opening five games, with their only defeat a surprise loss to Nottingham Forest at Anfield earlier this month.
Lineker impressed with Slot
The Dutchman is very much working with the same squad Klopp had last season which is packed with quality, but nonetheless his start should be praised given how big a change having a new manager is for Liverpool.
The Reds have only conceded one goal in their first five League matches and are the joint third highest scorers so far with ten goals, which is impressive.
Lineker has been really impressed with Slot’s start to life at Anfield and expressed his surprise at how smooth the transition has been from Klopp so far.
“I think we’ve talked about this before, I talked about it around a week ago,” he told The Rest is Football.
“It’s essential for Arne Slot to get [off to] a good start, particularly after following Jürgen Klopp, which is never going to be easy, really, really difficult.
“But I would think we’re all a little bit surprised at how smoothly the transition has been. I know they lost that surprise result against [Nottingham] Forest, but that aside, you know, an away win in the Champions League against Milan was excellent.
“Four wins out of five, right near the top of the league, they’d have snapped their hands off at this, his coaching staff, wouldn’t they?”
Slot has a genuine chance to win a trophy in his first season in charge and Liverpool kick off their defence of the Carabao Cup against West Ham on Wednesday night.
The loss against Forrest was surreal…it was almost a throwback to the closing six matches last season – where they went from contending to win the Premiership to down the gurgler – with similar results to the one against Forrest – if you look at the touches and chances inside Forrest box – you almost think well how do they not score – well all the forwards seemed to be at the races and not at the game or even in the right frame of mind to score, as their attempted finishes displayed a lethargy – with Salah being the most conspicuous (mind you he was off it as well at Bournemouth)…so yeah Slot called it a ‘MENTALITY’ thing and I think he was a 100% right….it’s not a problem with ability but a mind problem (I sometimes think given the always ‘FORTRESS AINFIELD’ media hype sometimes they can fall into the trap oh we are at home we are going to win and forget to win – no matter where you have to perform better than the other side (by scoring more times)…it’s down to Slot to make sure the “MENTALITY’ loophole does not ever bear it’s ugly head ever again. YNWA