Fist pumps aren't my style, says Slot as Anfield awaits

Arne Slot was hired by Liverpool as a kind of continuity candidate, capable of managing Jurgen Klopp's squad, believing in a similar style of play. Yet should Anfield witness a home win over Brentford tomorrow, there will be a very different sight after the final whistle. The celebrations will be more subdued. Or his will be, anyway.

- RICHARD JOLLY

“Don’t expect me to go after the game and make fist pumps,” said Slot. “That is not going to be my style.” It became Klopp’s trademark: the trio to the Kop after every Anfield triumph were then followed, in his long goodbye, by the same gesture to the Centenary Stand, the Main Stand and the Kenny Dalglish Stand. It became as much a part of the Anfield experience as “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.

But Slot is a more muted figure. Arguably everyone is. Klopp had a larger-than-life personality and a rock-star charisma that he used to galvanise. He could motivate an individual, a team or a 60,000 crowd. He was a grinning, chest-beating magnet to the cameras. He was Liverpool’s biggest character since Bill Shankly. And his successor has a different approach to winning over the supporters.

“My way of doing things is to let the team play in the best possible way and [the fans] enjoy the team playing, and in that way they will hopefully admire it or I will get a bond with them,” Slot said. “So it is more, let the team play in a certain way and [the fans] like the team and because of that they will like the manager as well.”