Gini Wijnaldum makes Jose Mourinho claim about new Liverpool head coach Arne Slot

Liverpool made the decision to sign Arne Slot as Jürgen Klopp's replacement last month after the German's nine-year tenure as boss came to an end. Klopp decided to walk away from Anfield after feeling burnt out with the pressure of keeping the club near the top of the table and wanted to take an overdue sabbatical.

After several managers were connected with a switch to Anfield as Klopp's replacement, the club appointed the 45-year-old Slot as his successor. Slot had won the Eredivisie title with Feyenoord in 2022/23 and had taken them to the final of the UEFA Europa Conference League, where it lost narrowly to Jose Mourinho's Roma.

Speaking about Slot and his ability for the Liverpool job, former midfielder Gini Wijnaldum was full of praise for Slot, having worked with him briefly a year ago. "I trained at Feyenoord for a few more days at the beginning of this season and there I saw how Slot worked," Wijnaldum told the Dutch outlet AD.

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"That was of a very high level, I thought that was really great. I can compare him to Klopp and Mourinho and then I say Slot is of the same level. Yes, he's coming into a completely different world now, that's just the case. But that doesn't mean he can't do what he did at Feyenoord there."

Slot spent three years at Feyenoord, after a season with AZ Alkmaar in 2019-20. The Dutchman failed in his task to retain the Dutch title last season, as PSV Eindhoven ran away with the league, finishing some seven points in front. However, Feyenoord did win the Dutch Cup, beating NEC in the final.

Wijnaldum, meanwhile, is currently playing in the Saudi Pro League, having signed for Steven Gerrard's Al-Ettifaq in the summer of 2023. Wijnaldum is club captain, and played 29 league games, scoring six times as it finished sixth in the table. The Dutchman played for Liverpool for five years, but left in the summer of 2021 to join Paris Saint-Germain.

Liverpool.com says: Slot has some massive shoes to fill in terms of trying to replace Klopp, but if Wijnaldum, who knows a thing or two about the pressures of playing for Liverpool, has given his seal of approval, then Reds' fans can be hopeful that Slot replaces Klopp more than adequately in the coming seasons. We can only assume he means similar in level of coach to Mourinho rather than the pair being similar characters or in terms of their style of play.