Arne Slot gives perfect response after 'boring' Liverpool claim with message to his father
Jason Cundy may have raised the ire of Liverpool fans this week, but Arne Slot has another fierce critic to try and impress - his own father.
The Reds have been in sensational form since the Dutchman took over from Jurgen Klopp during the summer. They’ve lost just two games across all competitions, and are well on course for some silverware as they lead the Premier League by six points, while having already booked their place in the last-16 of the Champions League.
It seems not everyone is impressed though. Following the 2-1 win over Lille this week - maintaining Liverpool 100 per cent record in Europe this season - Cundy laid into the Reds in rather bizarre fashion by labeling them “boring” on his talkSPORT show.
READ MORE: How Liverpool could line up with Arne Slot's 3 biggest transfer needs resolved
READ MORE: Arne Slot has unlocked two more Liverpool options as Federico Chiesa reality clear
The accusation led to a heated exchange with his fellow host Jamie O’Hara and a Liverpool fan that had called in. It seems though that Cundy is the last person Slot has to worry about impressing.
Speaking ahead of the weekend’s clash with Ipswich, the issue of managing fans’ expectations was brought up during Slot’s pre-match press conference, with the Liverpool boss all too aware that not all supporters might be as excited about the way his side plays.
“That is difficult for fans,” Slot said. “My father is a fan as well, and when I call him after the game, he can also say 'it wasn't as exciting as other games'. Then I have to try and explain to him that these games, you can easily lose if you're starting to force all kinds of difficult balls. He's not always agreeing with me!
“As a manager, I was quite happy with our performance against Lille, because they are a team that are so well organized and have so much control, and there was one moment in the game I can remember that Curtis [Jones] tried to play at the halfway line a ball that was a bit of a risk. We lost that ball and they counterattacked us.
“That's the risk you have if you play a low block team. [Nottingham] Forest is probably the best in the league if you play these stupid balls - I call stupid balls, which my father would love to see us playing a bit more.
“There's a difficult balance between taking the risk and conceding a lot, or having control and maybe not creating as much.
“It's a balance we have to find, and I can understand that is sometimes difficult for fans that come to the stadium to see us winning, but hopefully us scoring a lot of goals and an exciting match. You need two teams for that, and the better we do, the less likely it is that teams come to Anfield and say ‘okay, let’s go to a high press and press them all over the pitch’.”
Liverpool.com says: Well said Arne. Liverpool might not be as gung ho as it once was under Jurgen Klopp, but that doesn’t mean they’re ‘boring’ under Slot, and they’ve clearly found a more dependable way to beat teams that are setting up to try and frustrate them. Slot senior will just have to put up with his son winning all of the time instead of entertaining him!