Whatever Arne Slot is telling his players at half time, it seems to be working a charm for Liverpool this season
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Sipke Hulshoff and Arne Slot in a conversation prior to the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD3 match between RB Leipzig and Liverpool at Leipzig Stadium on October 23, 2024 in Leipzig, Germany
(Image: Edith Geuppert - GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)
Jurgen Klopp's long-time assistant, Peter Krawietz, once estimated that the former Liverpool boss had only "five or six minutes" to relay the pertinent half-time message to his players. With just 15 between whistles for the end of first period and the beginning of the second, time is of the essence and when the squad have reached the dressing room, there are only a few fleeting moments for a coach to get across what he wants to see in the following.
Speaking in 2020, Krawietz, who worked with Klopp for two decades, told Liverpool's official website: "All the manager has in total for his talk is five or six minutes so you try to do it as quickly, as short and as precise as possible. You really have to try to come to the point - you can’t make a movie that lasts 10 minutes and say: ‘Look here, look there’!' No, it really has to be exactly what we want.”
Analysts get a few moments to show the main problems they want to address in the second period, with the clips shown on a big screen and the themes the manager and his assistants want to get across are usually discussed, according to Krawietz, at around the 35-minute mark of the opening half.
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"Always the question is: ‘How can we help our players? What is necessary to do in the second half?’" said the man who Klopp famously referred to as 'the Eye' for his attention to detail.
With such limited time, only those who have been inside Anfield's home dressing room this season will know how much influence Arne Slot wields, but it's fair to say that his points are being heard loud and clear by the players during the intervals.
"He can raise his voice and tell you he isn't happy but we're trying to get solutions of how we can do it better, with clips and things like that," said Andy Robertson after the 2-0 win over Ipswich in August. "What we said at half-time will stay in there, of course, and you've seen a huge improvement second half and that's why we end up getting the result. We're all listening and there's a lot of team meetings and individual meetings, just trying to be the best version of ourselves."
It's unlikely there is any major differences between how Klopp, Krawietz and fellow former assistant Pep Lijnders worked compared to Slot and his team of Sipke Hulshoff and John Heitinga, so the details offered up by Krawietz remain relevant when trying to decipher what happens during minutes 45 and 46 of Liverpool's fixtures. There are no stirring speeches, angry rants or flying teacups, either. A cool head and an analytical eye are far more impactful, it seems.
“Of course, because of the time pressure it’s stressful!" Krawietz added. "You don’t have too much time, to be honest, so it has to be very precise. These are very intense minutes and then when I am happy that I have found a maximum of one, two or three clips which I think can help, my colleagues Jürgen and Pep come in and I present the clips and tell them what I think could help.
“Then we make a decision together, if we want to show it or not, and the question behind this decision is always orientated on the solution, or one solution, for the second half and if it is helpful for the players that we show it. We make the decision ‘yes’ or ‘no’, and if we decide to show the one or two or three, maximum, clips, then we are going to present and show these pictures to the players. This is the process that goes on.”
Whatever Slot and his staff are presenting at the break has been pivotal to Liverpool's overall season so far. The Reds currently lead both the Premier League and Champions League tables and have generally been much improved in the second half of matches across both competitions to date.
Speaking about what he mentioned during the break of the victory over Real Madrid last month, Slot said: "I felt that we were a bit too impatient. Every time when they threatened us - which didn’t happen a lot - it was from us being sloppy in passing or forcing it too much. So I said: ‘I think there’s more in you guys than you show at the moment. You can play with more intensity and better with the ball. Forget the shirt that you face, just do what you always do and hopefully we can create more chances than we did in the first half.’”
After a disappointing first period that saw them reduced to 10 men against Fulham on Saturday afternoon a much better second half saw them respond through Cody Gakpo before forcing a second equaliser thanks to Diogo Jota after falling behind to a razor-sharp counter from the visitors. The Reds left the pitch feeling frustrated that their exhaustive efforts with a man light didn't bring about three points that would have felt huge in the grander context of the campaign.
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“It was more a tactical shift with when we had the ball and didn’t have the ball," said Gakpo when asked what Slot said at half time of Saturday's draw, "But he mainly spoke about the intensity, trying to get the crowd behind us like they always do, and to go for the goal. That happened, and we did a good job in putting more energy into the game, and the crowd helped us too.”
It wasn't just Saturday that saw them turn in a better second half, though. It's been a consistent theme of Liverpool's season that they grow into games and emerge a much stronger proposition after the break.
Twenty-two of their last 25 goals, in fact, have been registered following the restart and 33 of their 52 goals across all competitions have come from the 46th minute onwards. How much of that is a statistical quirk or the product of those precious mid-match pearls of wisdom from Slot only those on the inside will truly know. But either way, it bodes well in general for a team about to enter the second half of their campaign.