Arne Slot comments on Erik ten Hag speak volumes about how Liverpool boss will feel

Arne Slot will no doubt be asked about Erik ten Hag's dismissal when he sits down with the press on Tuesday, but his most recent public comments about the deposed Manchester United manager suggest he will currently be feeling sympathy for his compatriot.

Slot and his Liverpool team inflicted a heavy defeat on Ten Hag at the beginning of September, and ahead of that match he spoke of his "very good relationship" with the former Ajax manager, although stopped short of saying the pair were friends.

"No, no, not friends, no, no, no," Slot said. "Friends is something else, I think. We have a very good relationship, but a friend is someone you see a lot and go out to dinner with. But that is not something we've done in the past, for that we don't know each other well enough."

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After that match, Slot dissected United's tactics during an interview with Sky Sports, almost as if to rub salt into Ten Hag's wound. The United manager had been beaten in his own back yard, and his conqueror had just very publicly explained, in detail, how he had exposed his opposite number's tactical shortcomings.

Ahead of that meeting at Old Trafford, Ten Hag appeared to suggest that Slot had an easier job on his hands at Liverpool than the one he had at United, after inheriting a competitive squad from former Reds manager Jurgen Klopp.

"I'm not here to talk for him [Slot] but Liverpool, it's clear, they are in a different phase of the lifecycle," Ten Hag said. "They have a team that is mature, players who have been playing for a long time together and who are very experienced. We have much more of a mix and have to build a new team.

"There is a team and the structures are really clear, I think the players, the partnerships, the relationships in that team are very clear and that is what he inherited, that has been built over the past years. So things are still the same, but I have also seen some things that he already brought in."

We won't have to wait too long to hear what Slot thinks about Ten Hag's firing by United. The Liverpool manager will hold a press conference on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday's EFL Cup last-16 meeting with Brighton.