Arne Slot has enjoyed a remarkable first half-season as Liverpool head coach, making a mockery of suggestions the Reds would struggle after Jurgen Klopp’s departure. Topping both the Premier League and Champions League tables, he suffered only his third defeat in charge of the Reds in their dead-rubber against PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday night.

Naming a much-changed side, Liverpool still took the lead twice while defeat meant nothing as they finished first regardless.

Even if they had dropped to second, the Reds would still face one of the same possible opponents (Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica, Monaco and Brest) in the round-of-16.

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Slot’s side had won their first seven league phase matches to qualify for the last 16 with a game to spare, while the Dutchman has won 27 of his 35 matches in charge of the club to date.

And Slot and his side have a most high-profile admirer, with legendary manager Arrigo Sacchi admitting Liverpool have impressed him most in the Champions League to date this season, with the Italian also paying tribute to the Dutchman for how he has managed succeeding Klopp.

“The team that impressed me the most was undoubtedly Liverpool,” Sacchi wrote in his La Gazzetta dello Sport column. “They’re going full throttle.

“Stopping the Reds when they accelerate is practically impossible, as their dominance in the Premier League proves.

“After Klopp’s era, the new coach Slot has managed, with great humility, to maintain certain tactical principles of his predecessor and add a few small details to bring back enthusiasm to the environment.”

Sacchi was memorably the manager of the great AC Milan team of the late eighties and early nineties, leading them to one Serie A title and two European Cups.

The 78-year-old is also one of Klopp’s biggest managerial inspirations, with the German previously saying of the Italian: “Sacchi completely changed how we think about football. He is one of the most influential coaches in the history of the game and a complete game-changer for me.

“Because of him we had to judge the size of the pitch in a new way. I am sure you remember playing with man-marking tactics where you pretty much followed the opponent you were marking to the toilet.

“The pitch always felt incredibly big. Nobody played a high line because many teams played the libero. Before him I was told who to mark and that was it.

“Too often the team with the better individuals won the game because it was all one-versus-one challenges all over the pitch, so if the other player was better than you, how could you win? Sacchi’s organisation made it completely different.”