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He has also shared ideas with Liverpool assistant coach and fellow Dutchman Pep Lijnders.

Slot would frequently show his players clips of Manchester City and Brighton to show them how he wanted to play.

“We used a lot of videos of Manchester City and Bayern — he was crazy about Pep, how his teams create space, how they attack,” former AZ manager John van den Brom, who had Slot as one his assistants, told The Athletic.

One such video was of the 2021 Champions League final between City and Chelsea, which he showed to his players in his first team meeting at Feyenoord to demonstrate the quality of the two teams’ attacking play but also how well their defences countered it.

“What was nice for me is that he always thought in an attacking way,” Van den Brom added.

That opens up space for full-back Lutsharel Geertruida, who receives the pass from Timber as Feyenoord progress out of pressure.

This approach is reflected in Feyenoord’s playstyle wheel, which outlines how each team looks to play compared with Europe’s top seven leagues.

Feyenoord’s “Deep build-up” rating (86 out of 99) reflects how Slot will often ask his goalkeeper to keep his passes short into his centre-backs to build through the thirds.

The energy and purpose that Feyenoord play with is analogous to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool — a style that can be direct without making them long-ball team.

This is reflected in their “Circulate” metric (54 out of 99), which might appear average in the context of wider European football, but highlights Feyenoord’s variety in how they advance through the thirds — sometimes speeding the game up with progressive passes and sometimes slowing it down by working the ball side-to-side.

Variety is a key word in Slot’s vocabulary.

His training sessions are high-octane, but he will often rotate the drills to keep his players interested.

“Slot and his coaches ask so much from his players, it’s unbelievable,” says Martijn Krabbendam, who covers Feyenoord for Voetbal International.

And there’s always something new to give the players some joy in what they’re doing.”

All exercises are ultimately centred on Feyenoord increasing their chances of scoring a goal, and when it comes to the attacking phase there are a selection of approaches that have been particularly lucrative this season.

First, Slot’s direct play is shown below against Heracles, where full-back Geertruida finds Wieffer dropping inside the opposition defensive block.

Nieuwkoop fools three Ajax players to pull the ball back to Yankuba Minteh hovering near the penalty spot.

Cutbacks have been a key weapon for Feyenoord this season and for those interested in looking at the tape, goals against NEC, Excelsior, Heerenveen, Almere City, and Lazio will reveal similar patterns of play.

The second benefit of these flying full-backs is to make space for Feyenoord’s forwards to play searching crosses to the back post.

“Take care of your body,” Slot would say to his players.

GO DEEPER

Access all areas at Arne Slot's Feyenoord: Kickboxing, Beckham clips and why he stayed

Beyond the high-possession, high-pressing, clinical attacking football, Slot has shown that he can achieve success without vast spending — a trait that will be attractive to FSG, whose self-sustaining financial model is sacrosanct.

Feyenoord have not spent more than €8million on a player in the club’s history, with a revenue that is comfortably trumped by Dutch rivals PSV and Ajax.
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