Arne Slot is looking forward to renewing his managerial rivalry with Ruud van Nistelrooy when Liverpool host Leicester City
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Arne Slot head coach of Liverpool and Cody Gakpo of Liverpool at the end of the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Aston Villa FC at Anfield
Arne Slot head coach of Liverpool and Cody Gakpo of Liverpool at the end of the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Aston Villa FC at Anfield
(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Arne Slot is looking forward to renewing his managerial rivalry with Ruud van Nistelrooy - and is relieved that this time Cody Gakpo is his player rather than opponent. The Liverpool head coach’s Feyenoord side won the Eredivisie title in 2022/23 when the Manchester United legend was in charge of title-rivals PSV Eindhoven.
Finishing seven points clear of PSV, Feyenoord still lost 4-3 at the Phillips Stadion before being held to a 2-2 draw at De Kuip. Meanwhile, Gakpo scored once and claimed three assists in the former before joining the Reds mid-season.
Van Nistelrooy joined Leicester City last month. And having been impressed by his compatriot when locking horns in their homeland, Slot has warned his side that they cannot underestimate the relegation-threatened Foxes.
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“I was expecting you to tell the people over here that I lost once and drew once!” the Liverpool head coach joked. “But you made it positive, saying that we won the league title which was true!
“Cody Gakpo was in his team, but I’m happy that he’s in my team when we face Ruud because Cody, I think he scored.
“Ruud is a very nice person, first of all. I met him once or twice. I think he did really well when he was at PSV because I think for the last one and a half years, PSV have been on top of the league table but if you look at the second half of Ruud’s season, I think they didn’t lose many games at all.
“It wasn’t a surprise that, after he left, they bought so many players because PSV started buying a few more players than they did when he started working there. When he was there, Cody Gakpo and Noni Madueke were sold.
“But he still showed that he could compete for the title. Nice person, good manager, did well at Man United as well. Looking forward to seeing him - especially if we win!
Meanwhile, of Van Nistelrooy’s Leicester side, he said: “I think the positives are that the teams which are positioned in the lower side of the league table, they mostly lose games but since Ruud has been there, they have also won a few.
“That shows you that he’s done really well, especially when he came in. Now I think he’s had two tough results in a row.
“These teams, all of them, it’s special for them to go to Anfield and they know if they go to Anfield then they have to be at their best so they will never underestimate us.
“Hopefully that’s a good thing about these 15 minutes we’ve shown today (conceding goals against Tottenham) that we must understand that we cannot underestimate for even one minute in the Premier League because then we are not as good as we might think we are if we are on top of our game.”