‘He keeps a clear head’: how Slot’s last slump offers blueprint for Liverpool revival

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Just over five weeks after Arne Slot’s Feyenoord had lost a tight Conference League final by a goal to Roma in 2022, they suffered a 7-0 home defeat by Copenhagen in their first pre-season friendly. It felt as if Slot had to start all over again.“I can remember it like yesterday,” says Marino Pusic, Slot’s assistant at Feyenoord and earlier at AZ.

How capable is he of digging a struggling team out of a hole?Feyenoord brushed off their summer of strife to win the Eredivisie, and if retaining the Premier League title looks beyond Slot, Pusic believes his former boss has the skills to turn around Liverpool’s season, which resumes at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday.“It was worrying,” Pusic says, casting his mind back to Feyenoord’s troubles. During the season, these things may fade a bit into the background, but they linger, and at difficult moments they can resurface.”Liverpool, as champions, have also had to adapt to a different approach from opponents, Pusic says: “You’re no longer the one chasing but the team being chased.

“He is genuine, tells it exactly how it is.”In recent months, Slot has been frank about Liverpool’s vulnerabilities, including to long balls. Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte/ShutterstockLiverpool’s poor league start reminds Pusic of one other challenging moment in Slot’s career, during his second season with AZ.