Arne Slot is already establishing a reputation as a straight talker in the early weeks of his reign as Liverpool head coach, and he’s given a typically candid assessment of his ‘relationship’ with Erik ten Hag ahead of the trip to Manchester United on Sunday.
The two Dutch tacticians go head-to-head at Old Trafford this weekend in their first competitive meeting in English football, having faced each other in the Eredivisie previously and in a pre-season friendly with their current clubs at the start of this month.
The Reds boss was asked about his United counterpart in this morning’s press conference, and he declared that while he has enormous respect for the 54-year-old, he stopped short of describing it as a friendship.
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Slot said (via Liverpool Echo): “It’s as good and normal a relationship as I have with other managers. The relationship I would call it very good; we all respect each other because what the managers did at their former clubs.
“Friends? No, friends is something else but it’s a very good relationship. A friend is someone you see a lot and go to dinner. We don’t know each other well enough.”
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Slot wasn’t sugarcoating that he views Ten Hag as a respected compatriot rather than a friend, although it’s not exactly in the same ballpark as the open animosity between Rafael Benitez and Alex Ferguson in the late 2000s, or Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger throughout their Chelsea v Arsenal days.
The two Dutchmen have come up against each other four times in the Eredivisie, with a 50-50 split of victories and defeats (one apiece at home, one each away), although the Liverpool boss took an early psychological edge with the 3-0 win over United in pre-season in South Carolina.
He and we will be hoping for a similar result on Sunday, although the 45-year-old is well aware that the setting will be very different this weekend, as will the competitive edge which comes with a meeting of two eternal rivals in the Premier League.
Slot and Ten Hag will no doubt share a mutually appreciative handshake before and after the match on Sunday, but for the two hours or so in between, any amicability will be put to one side in the fevered pursuit of northwest bragging rights!
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