Jürgen Klopp said he believes Arne Slot’s imprint on Liverpool is already “obvious,” adding that he doesn’t miss the job, but he does miss the players.
Slot took charge of his first Premier League match on Saturday, and helped Liverpool a 2-0 win at Ipswich.
It was the first competitive match of the post-Klopp era, as Slot replaced the man who took charge of Liverpool for almost nine years and led them to the Champions League title in 2019, the Premier League in 2020, an FA Cup and two League Cup triumphs.
Replacing the German coach was always going to be difficult, but Klopp said he was delighted when Liverpool turned to Slot and concluded their business early in the summer.
In an interview with ESPN Netherlands, Klopp said: “Arne, yeah. Really good coach. I was really happy when I heard that Liverpool was going for Arne Slot. I wasn’t involved in anything, it should not be like that, and I’m not this kind of guy in the background, still having some strings and stuff. Like I don’t want that. The club is too big, too good. [The] People are too good.
“A lot of things changed since we left. But the only concern for me was, will they get a good coach? Liverpool was early and Liverpool got a top, top, top solution in Arne Slot.”
He added: “I like his football a lot [how he] played it with, with [Feyenoord], so that’s really good. I saw the Sevilla game, the preseason friendly at Anfield — big parts of it were really good. And the league game [against Ipswich], the second half was obviously really good.
“But it’s not important that I like it, you can see he is a very good coach and the team, I know now better than most, is a really good squad, is a really good team. So it’ll work out really well.”
Klopp and Slot spoke in the early stages of the handover period, and have kept in touch since. And having watched Liverpool’s preseason and triumph over Ipswich, Klopp can already see clear signs of Slot’s philosophy making an impact at the club.
“We spoke one or two times [at the start]. I think we texted a few more times. But there is nothing I can tell him what he couldn’t know himself,” Klopp said. “Right now from my side, just to give positive feedback in the beginning because we are all human beings and he worked his socks off.
“I know that because the tour is super intense in a year when you have Euros and Copa, you don’t have the team together, but they come, you have one week until the first matchday and stuff like that. So I think he had similar situation, but exactly the same situation? Definitely not.
“When I saw the games, that’s why I watched it, not to think, oh, how does it look? The work he did was obvious, the ideas obvious. And that’s the best you can say about the coach.”
Klopp has kept in touch with some of the players since leaving the club, including captain Virgil van Dijk.
“Unbelievable player,” Klopp said of Van Dijk. “Unbelievable player. Unbelievable guy. So I miss them. I don’t miss the job, [but] I miss all the people there. We can, we can see each other whenever we want in the future.”
Van Dijk’s contract is up at the end of the season, but Klopp would not be drawn on how things will work out between his old captain and the club.
“I have no idea what he, what they will do,” the former coach said. “And it’s all their own decision. They are grown-ups. They will do the right stuff.”
Klopp is taking a break from management and has vowed to take a year off away from the game. He says he feels “fully charged” having had nine weeks of relaxation since finishing at Liverpool, but is in no rush to return before his self-imposed 365 days are up. He spent the summer with family, watching the Olympics, playing padel and keeping a close eye on how his Liverpool assistant Pep Lijnders is doing in charge of RB Salzburg.
“I didn’t say I can go again,” he said. “It’s just, I’m in a good mood? Yeah. Life is different if we are not responsible for these kind of things, so I really enjoy that.
“I enjoy still watching football and especially Salzburg right now because, [manager] Pep [Lijnders] is super important to me so I like watching it and like to see the progress. I saw Liverpool playing as well [which] was really good. These are the things I watched, but besides that, it was a lot of Olympics and stuff like that.
“Brilliant summer so far. You have to organise the time off as well, because a lot of people want to meet you and stuff like that. So we had to calm down a little bit, but we are fine. We have spent now three proper weeks with the grandkids and the kids together. It was beautiful.”