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The 45 year old Dutch coach, Arne Slote, became his successor. Needless to say, this is an appointment that many people are not optimistic about. However, there must be some reasons why Liverpool, a club famous for scientific decision-making for many years, considers such an unknown coach who has only won one Dutch championship and one Dutch Cup. How did Liverpool define him? Where do you like him?
Data scoring: the top of the top
Klopp announced his departure this summer on January 26, and the senior management of Liverpool had learned the news two months in advance. "Research Director" Spearman and the analysis team immediately received the task of selecting a new coach. The general direction is: ① The guiding ideology of the new coach is to play a football full of vitality, high energy and based on ball control; ② He should be willing to accept the title of "head coach" instead of manager; ③ He should be good at helping players keep healthy; ④ Good at helping players improve. If these conditions are met, the new coach does not need to be famous or satisfy the public appetite.
During that time, the number one candidate in the eyes of the public was undoubtedly Harvey Alonso, and Uncle Zha also praised Brother Long. Richard Hughes will officially take up the post of Sports Director of Liverpool this summer, but he has obviously started his work ahead of schedule to cooperate with Michael Edwards, who returned to Fenway as the Group's football CEO. Hughes was very close to Longge's agent Ibanes, and soon learned that Longge had no intention of moving this summer. As early as February, Edwards and Liverpool executives decided that they needed to find other candidates. Therefore, when they saw Bayern chasing Alonso in a high profile at that time, Liverpool people thought that Bayern might have been busy in vain. However, the news that Liverpool is giving to the media is that even if Brother Long is willing to come, he will not win automatically. Slote has long been a serious candidate for Liverpool.
The data analysis provided by Edwards (who was just promoted to technical director at that time) played an important role when Liverpool selected Klopp in 2015. In Dortmund's last season, Zha Shu fell sharply, but the expected goal data just after the birth of Dortmund showed that Dortmund created a lot of opportunities, just recited the words continuously, which was not enough to question Zha Shu's ability.
Over the past nine years, Liverpool has made more in-depth use of data. Spearman, a Chicago native who studied physics at Harvard, worked as the chief data analyst in Liverpool for five years and later served as the research director. He has always believed in a data system for comprehensive evaluation of multiple parameters of coaches, which includes multiple indicators such as the coach's performance, style, individual performance of players, and compatibility with different players, It can predict the future trend and the degree of fit with a specific job.
In such a system, Slote's comprehensive performance in Feyenoord for three years is very high, which is "the top of the top". Hughes and Edwards were originally interested in Slote. Such a high score result was also a surprise for them, which strengthened their pursuit of him.
Approximate slag uncle, upper limit of elevation
Not only that, Hughes studied Slote's Feyenoord in depth when he was the technical director of Bournemouth, and signed Argentine defender Senesi from the team in 2022. The Bournemouth scouting department later recommended a group of Feyenoord players until Hughes stopped them. "They are not good players, but good coaches and systems."
Liverpool insiders believe that Klopper is a one-off phenomenon and it is impossible to find his replica. But in Slote's case, they saw many similarities with Klopper, such as his intensity of competition, high position closing, and ball control based attack. The Liverpool team believes that these characteristics are the best match with the existing lineup. Moreover, there are many second team players in Liverpool who have entered or are close to entering the first team. Slote's record in letting go of training new talent is also convincing.
The data shows that Slote can achieve more outstanding results than the team strength. In 2022, he led the team to the final of the UEFA Cup and lost to Mourinho's Rome. He was elected the best Dutch coach that year. Later in the summer, although Feyenoord lost a number of key players and the financial strength of the club was not as good as that of PSV Eindhoven and Ajax, Slote led the new looking team to win the Dutch championship in 2022-23 and reach the last eight of the Europa League. This season, Feyenoord won the Dutch Cup and the Dutch League runner up. Slote led the team to play in the Champions League for the first time, ranking third in the group after Atletico Madrid and Lazio, and was eliminated by Rome after being demoted to the Europa League.
In the process of selecting the coach, Liverpool did not ask the current coaching team for advice, but Lindes, the assistant coach who will also leave this summer, spoke highly of Slote. In recent years, he has been praised internally. Nearly ten years ago, when Slote started as a youth training coach, he visited Lindes' home and talked deeply for several hours. Lindes believes that Slote is the best Dutch coach: high tactical attainments, good at innovation, clear style, and personality enough to cope with the improvement of the platform.
Hughes also asked Senesi and other players who have played for Slote. The general reflection is that Slote is good at transmitting energy to players and fans. Like Liverpool, Feyenoord is also a port city that loves football, and the integration of Slote and urban culture has become an additional bonus point for him.
Baldwide? Spalletti?
Has Liverpool considered other candidates? After Alonso announced to stay at Leverkusen, it was once widely rumored that Sporting Lisbon coach Amorim had become Liverpool's first choice. Some Portuguese media even said that Liverpool had verbally negotiated a three-year contract with him. This news is totally untrue. Amorim really wants to come to the Premier League and is indeed on the list of Liverpool, but he has never been a candidate. Liverpool are very angry with the rumours. They don't want Slote, an important candidate, to mistake this job for someone else.
For Amorim, Edwards and Hughes have doubts about his fitness with Liverpool - Amorim likes the three guard system (in fact, Alonso also), but the Liverpool analysis team believes that this may make many players feel uncomfortable; Moreover, in style, Amorim's football rhythm is slower and his awareness of taking the initiative is weaker.
There are many other famous players on Liverpool's list: De Zerby, Nagelsman, Ilora, Eddie Howe, Michel, Fonseca, Sebastian Hoeness (the Stuttgart coach's score is very similar to that of Klopper, and has a high reputation in the Liverpool team), Pippo Inzaghi (poor English has become a major obstacle). However, these people were either basically excluded by Liverpool after discussion, or they were relatively late candidates.
What was really expected to compete with Slote was not the above people, but Balved and Spalletti. At the age of 60, Barbed has made certain achievements in Barcelona, Olympiacos and Bilbao, and scored high on the index of "courage". The biggest problem of Spalletti, 65, is that he has just taken charge of the Italian team and is difficult to leave. The match between the two shows that age is not the main factor considered by Liverpool.
Edwards and Hughes originally planned to reduce the list of 20 people to 10 people, 5 people and finally 3 people to attend the interview. But the actual process was too simple, and Slote easily stood out. They successfully persuaded Fenway President Gordon and other Liverpool executives, and then they negotiated with Feyenoord.
Feyenoord quickly accepted
Feyenoord was surprised to learn the news. Slote has also been involved in the Premier League before, but he refused the invitation of Leeds United and Crystal Palace. Last summer, he ended up with Tottenham without success. But Feyenoord did not expect that Slote would be favored by a top team at Liverpool's level. Later, the whole world heard that Slote was the first choice for Liverpool, and Feyenoord's negotiating position was more stable: he must make a contribution to Liverpool. Klazer, the CEO of the team, is a good negotiator. He always talks with you with a smile on his face. After a long talk, he never gives up.
When Slote renewed his contract last summer, the 5 million euro termination clause in the original contract, which could be activated in the summer of 2024, was erased, and Feyenoord conditionally set a starting price. On April 24, the two sides began negotiations. Liverpool's initial offer of 9 million euros was rejected. This prompted Slote to publicly declare his heart to Liverpool and obviously put pressure on Feyenoord. Two days later, the two clubs reached an oral agreement. The "transfer fee" is 11 million euros, which may also be increased to 13 million euros according to the floating terms.
Next, there will be no substantive obstacles in the process of negotiating personal treatment with Slote. It is worth mentioning that Slote's agent is Pimenta, the "first female super agent in football" who inherited all the clients of Raiola. Harland is her player.
After coming to Liverpool, Slote will bring two assistants. In addition to Ruben Peters, the "performance director", there are also assistant teachers Schleshoff - Van Dyke, Hackpo and Herafenberg should be familiar with him, because he is also the assistant teacher of Ronald Koman in the Netherlands national team.
So far, Slote will soon become the main character after the farewell party of Klopper. Some spectators think of Manchester United after Sir Alex Ferguson retired and talk about "another Moyes", while the image of "bald Netherlands" makes people easily think of the king of Manchester United's press conference. Perhaps Slote can prove that these prejudices are wrong - the research done by Liverpool has said that he is an expert who can cope with the improvement of the platform.
Author: Chief
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