Feature'I knew when I was young I wanted it' – Arne Slot's coaching journey explained

“I think I knew when I was quite young already that I wanted to become a coach or a manager,” the Liverpool boss explained in a new interview – presented by the club’s official training partner, AXA – with former Reds goalkeeper Sander Westerveld.

“My father was a coach at an amateur club and he was also a teacher, so he had a lot of days off, a lot of holidays and then he always asked me if I could do those sessions, and I always liked that.”

A midfielder by trade, Slot would first carve out his own professional path in his home country of the Netherlands, representing clubs including FC Zwolle, NAC Breda, Sparta Rotterdam and PEC Zwolle.

It was at Sparta during the advancing years of his playing days that Slot and compatriot Westerveld became teammates and good friends.

It was then, too, that the passion for coaching that had been within him since deputising for his dad began to turn into a serious plan for his next step.

“When I became a bit older, I became the captain,” said Slot. “And you know how it is, managers always ask – some managers always ask – ‘What do you guys think about it?’ And everybody is quiet, they are all waiting for someone to step up and say something.

“To be honest, it was mostly me then because it also gave me the chance to express what I thought we could improve. Hopefully, as I remember it, in a positive way.

“It was also a chance for me because I really needed the team, I wasn’t a player that could do anything on an individual basis, I always needed my teammates to play OK-to-good.

“I needed the team for sure because I had no individual quality. I couldn’t dribble, I could only pass so I needed my teammates. I could pass quite well for the level I was at. But then you need your teammates to go in the right moment deep and to play you the ball in the right moment.

“Because I wasn’t that fast, if I was free I needed to get the ball in the right moment and at the right timing. So you start to think about that in a younger age if you’re not that fast, and I did this.

“And I always liked to work with people and hopefully to help them – even the younger players in the team – to help them to become better or to play better.”

Slot ultimately hung up his boots in 2013 after a spell at PEC Zwolle, though a roadmap for his tilt at coaching had already been laid out with the club.

A journey in the dugout that has since taken him to the reins of SC Cambuur Leeuwarden, AZ Alkmaar, Feyenoord and now Liverpool commenced with a year at the helm of Zwolle’s U14s.

He recalled: “The last choice I made in my career – to leave Sparta, where we played together, to go to my former club PEC Zwolle – was all about me wanting to become a manager, because I already put in that contract that after I would stop as a player I would become an assistant coach for two years.

“Why two years? Because at that moment you needed two years of experience as an assistant coach before you could do the course in Holland to become a head coach. So I was like, OK, that is the minimum I need to have.

“When I was at Sparta, maybe I could have still played at a bit higher level than the club I went to, Zwolle, who at that moment were a first division club. But it was a choice for my managerial career.”

Having steered AZ Alkmaar into a 2019-20 title race before that Eredivisie campaign was cancelled due to COVID-19, Slot oversaw consistent success at Feyenoord.

UEFA Conference League runners-up in 2022, the Rotterdam outfit were crowned league champions in 2023 and Dutch cup winners in 2024.

The 46-year-old has enjoyed a fine start to life in the Liverpool hotseat, too, with 12 wins, one draw and a single loss since his appointment.

Asked by Westerveld about his approach on the training pitch, Slot said: “I do find it is really important that players come in and before they even go to the training ground they feel like, ‘Oh, it’s going to be a nice day, the exercises will be nice.’

“So, I always want energy in my exercises. I think we might have 10 or 15, or maybe a bit more, certain exercises. We sometimes tweak it a bit or adjust it a bit, but the idea behind most exercises are quite similar. If I see that there are certain exercises that they like, we’re not going to do them every day because that doesn’t help, but those exercises where I feel I only have to do this and they will [love it], I’ll wait for the moment that they are really tired. That could be if we have a training camp that I use this.

“If you want to think that I’ve been successful at AZ, Feyenoord and now Liverpool, if that is true then the reason behind that is not about all the tactics board and tactical things, it’s about energy – players every day having a lot of energy and working really hard to improve. And that they want to come in and they like what they are doing.

“So, if they are around here I think they need to have fun. My job and our job as a staff is to create fun while they are learning. That is also one of the things I have in my team meetings. It’s all about wanting to teach them something but it should also be fun.

“I don’t mean fun in the way that we are laughing only, but if players come in I want to create a culture and atmosphere where players like to be at this training ground.”

He added: “Giving confidence to players is also one of the things I think about. If we have a team meeting, I don’t talk [for] hours about the opponent, I just talk about ourselves.

“Indirectly, that also has to give them confidence; we are not sitting in the room talking [for] 20 minutes about what [the opponent] can do and all these things they can do. No, we are talking about: where can we hurt them? That is much more of my time than where do we have to be afraid of?

“It is all about giving players confidence but if you give them confidence, confidence can grow to a certain point where we can call it arrogance, so you have to find that balance between getting them confidence but understanding what it takes to win every game.”

Slot’s intense focus on the game is clear to see in his manner and his words.

How, then, does he relax and reset when the opportunity arises?

“I play padel with the staff members,” he explained. “We have had two international breaks and one to come – I can switch off really well during those breaks.

“I think I need it as well because I put so much effort during the weeks when we are playing that these seven or eight days, I completely switch off. Of course, sometimes you have a call about how players are doing and you want to know how they are doing with the national teams.

“But then I also do different things, it could be going to a comedian; people here have no clue who he is but Jochem Myjer. [And] I do like to play a game of padel. Some Netflix. But it’s mostly football if I am not working.”