Liverpool will take the next step in their pre-season on Tuesday as the squad reconvene on Merseyside. Those who travelled to the US with the Reds enjoyed a day off on Monday after touching down back home.
Meanwhile, the heavy hitters who were enjoying their holidays have returned, meaning the full Liverpool squad is now available and reporting for duty at the AXA Training Centre.
For some, they will now be entering their fifth week of working with Arne Slot. The three friendly games this summer have shown which players have been quick learners under Slot and which may need a bit more time.
As one of the most prominent voices on Liverpool there is, legendary centre-back Jamie Carragher has been watching matters with keen interest.
Jamie Carragher makes Arne Slot observationCarragher is never shy of saying what he thinks where Liverpool is concerned.
The 46-year-old got on the wrong side of Jurgen Klopp once or twice over the years.Carragher has already had his say over Slot, too, critiquing the Dutchman’s first press conference in charge of the Reds. In fairness, Carra has so far been nothing but positive about Slot.
And why shouldn’t he be, things have been very promising up until now. Like all Liverpool supporters, Carragher has been keen to see any changes in the style of play from Klopp to Slot. And speaking to Four Four Two, the Liverpool legend shared his observations so far.
I’ve really enjoyed it [pre-season],” he says. “On the training pitch you can see he’s really hands on, and you can see from the early games that there’s a slight twist on how Liverpool play.
There’s a lot of talk about him being similar to Klopp, which he is, but every manager has his own twist on it,” Carragher adds.
And I think he’s maybe looking to play in the central areas a bit more, maybe making the extra pass, than being a bit more direct as we know Jurgen Klopp’s teams were – they used the flanks so well and games were end to end.
I think the Jurgen Klopp style of play might just be moving slightly towards more of a Pep Guardiola style, with more passes and more possession through the centre of the pitch.
”Arne Slot earns training ground praise
No Liverpool fan will have failed to notice just how animated Slot has looked during training sessions.
It comes as a marked difference to how things were done under Klopp, where Pep Lijnders was the man in charge of running training. By contrast, Slot is very much the main man.
The players seem to have been impressed. Dominik Szoboszlai has praised training this summer and other members of the Liverpool squad have been equally enthusiastic. Even rivals have stopped to give the Reds boss his due.
It has been claimed that rival coaches think Slot may be the best trainer in the world right now. That is high praise indeed.Of course the true test is yet to come. No doubt Carragher will have one or two less complimentary things to say as the season goes on. At the moment, though, all is well.
