By 90min | Created at 2024-11-07 17:33:08 | Updated at 2024-11-15 07:19:45
1 week ago
"Always one game at a time," Arne Slot warned.
Each game seems to topple a new record for the Dutch coach, who oversaw a 4-0 blitz of Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night. While Slot directly got one over Xabi Alonso, another contender to be Jurgen Klopp's successor in the summer, his start on Merseyside has surpassed that of any other Premier League coach.
Luis Diaz's clinical hat-trick secured a 14th victory just 16 games into Slot's tenure. No other coach in the last 30 years of English top-flight football has ever made such a successful start, per the Coaches' Voice.
Most wins in their first 16 games in all competitions, for all new Premier League managers…
• Arne Slot: 14 (Liverpool, 2024)
• José Mourinho: 13 (Chelsea, 2004)
• Carlo Ancelotti: 13 (Chelsea, 2009)
• Avram Grant: 12 (Chelsea, 2007)
• Antonio Conte: 12 (Chelsea, 2016)
•… pic.twitter.com/FbzruzyVpZ
Slot overtook the high watermarks set by Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti, who both won 13 of their first 16 matches in charge of Chelsea. That trophy-laden duo ended their debut campaigns by winning the Premier League title and a domestic cup.
Pep Guardiola is conspicuous by his absence from a list which includes the rather less revered Avram Grant. The Manchester City boss won the first ten games of his stay before enduring a six-match winless snap in October 2016. Guardiola's side never regained their balance from that autumnal wobble. City failed to win a single trophy in the Catalan coach's first season and only secured a top-four finish in the final weeks of the campaign.
Manchester City handed Guardiola a swollen transfer kitty north of £180m during his first summer, while Slot only signed one outfit player - Federico Chiesa for £10m. Jurgen Klopp joined Liverpool mid-season almost a decade ago, inheriting Brendan Rodgers' muddled squad in October 2015.
Klopp endured a much slower start than Slot.
Arne Slot's start compared to Jurgen Klopp
Jurgen Klopp didn't have a perfect start at Liverpool / Ian MacNicol/GettyImages
Wins | 14 | 8 |
Draws | 1 | 5 |
Losses | 1 | 3 |
Goals for | 37 | 24 |
Goals against | 10 | 15 |
Goal difference | 27 | 9 |
The German coach's opening salvo was peppered with flashes of the full-throttle style which would become a staple of his tenure, most memorably thumping Manuel Pellegrini's Manchester City 4-1 at the Etihad Stadium. However, these peaks were balanced by poor showings against opponents unwilling to play into Liverpool's pressing traps.
Slot was stymied by a similar issue at home to Nottingham Forest in September. Nuno Espirito Santo's withdrawn visitors huddled into a low block before springing forward on the counter to score the game's only goal. "It wasn't good enough," Slot fumed after what he described as "a big setback".
Yet, there was no hangover effect. Liverpool promptly swept AC Milan aside at San Siro and have only failed to defeat Arsenal at the Emirates in their subsequent 12 games.
