Liverpool manager Arne Slot on Anfield, Jürgen Klopp's legacy and his footballing philosophy

Replacing the popular and successful Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool looked to be a tall order for any coach, but Arne Slot has settled in well in his first campaign on Merseyside following his summer move from Feyenoord.

A creative midfielder in his playing days, Slot coached Cambuur and AZ Alkmaar before winning a league title and a domestic cup in three successful years at Feyenoord. The 46-year-old made a positive start with Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League, his side winning 3-1 at AC Milan, and he is now looking forward to his first European night at Anfield.

On playing at Anfield

There are [clubs] where you need to do a lot of good things before they start to support you, but here, the stadium is on fire from the first second, like it was at Feyenoord as well.

I know how special a home game at Feyenoord was, but the home games in Europe were even more special. So, because people told me it's the same here at Liverpool, I expect a lot when we play the first game against [Bologna]. I'm definitely looking forward to my first experience of European nights, a European evening.

On Jürgen Klopp's legacy

The culture of this team, the culture of this club, the hard work, the players showing up every day in training sessions, trying to bring the best out of them... Sometimes, if you come to a new club, you need to get that culture in, but that was absolutely not necessary over here.

I inherited a lot of quality, but maybe even more importantly, I inherited a team, a club that was already fully focused on hard work and trying to get the best out of the team and individuals every single day.

I wouldn't say I was surprised by that, but it was nice to see that it was just like Jürgen told me, because he told me that that was the culture and I experienced this from the start.

On what success looks like

I see a successful manager as a manager that has a playing style you can see day in and day out, and that he can combine that with success. For one team, success is winning the league, and for another team it's staying up. But, developing individuals combined with the team will always generate success, in my opinion.

If you work at a club like Liverpool, I think trophies... I wouldn't say they're expected, but in the last nine years that Jürgen worked here, he won a lot of trophies with a certain playing style. So, if you work at clubs like this, you always have to aim for winning something, and that's not going to be easy because you're in competition with a lot, a lot of good teams. But that's a good thing because, if it's easy, then you don't value the prize you win enough.

Arne Slot instructs his Liverpool players during the win at AC MilanLiverpool FC via Getty Images

On developing his footballing philosophy

If you asked my father now, he would say, "He does everything different as a manager to how he was as a player." I always make the same joke. I always say: I was not so fast, some people called me slow, and that helped me maybe a bit with game insight. I needed the team to get to a certain level because, individually, I couldn't go around three players. I always needed my team-mates where I could play them my passes.

I had to think a lot about the game; maybe that's what helps me now. At a certain age, I felt like, "OK, if a team-mate of mine plays this ball, it normally leads to losing the ball, and if we play a different ball, it leads to success." At the end of my career, that became more and more clear to me.

I was lucky enough that then the Barcelona team started playing, and I saw similar patterns, not in terms of how we play it, but more: OK, this ball which we sometimes play – and Barcelona constantly plays – leads to success. And that's helped me create my own philosophy about football.

Arne Slot (left) in action for Sparta Rotterdam in 2008AFP via Getty Images