Arne Slot is being compared to Erik ten Hag. Is that fair?

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Then you get into October and you think, ‘We’ve got to change the manager’.” Carragher acknowledged that Slot’s achievement in winning the Premier League in his first campaign elevated him to a level above Ten Hag at Manchester United, but the point stood. On Saturday, Mohamed Salah delivered a stinging criticism of Slot’s approach, calling for Liverpool to return to “being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear”. “It cannot be negotiable and everyone that joins this club should adapt to it,” said Salah, who will leave the club at the end of this season. “Winning some games here and there is not what Liverpool should be about.” Salah’s comments followed a limp defeat at Aston Villa that increased criticism of Slot and questions about his future in the job. We asked Manchester United reporter Carl Anka and Liverpool reporter Andy Jones to debate the parallels between the two Dutch coaches and whether Liverpool should be concerned. Anka: Ten Hag’s first season in charge of United delivered silverware, Champions League football and the hope that the club were beginning a new dynastic period. Then 2023-24 happened and misfires in the transfer market, a widespread injury crisis and an overambitious tactical gameplan saw everything unravel. Perhaps I’m being too harsh, but it is fascinating to watch another Dutch manager have a positive first season built on the goals of a wide player (Marcus Rashford/Mohamed Salah), only to watch said player get deprioritised following the summer signing of a new striker (Rasmus Hojlund/Alexander Isak). Jones: Both came in and steered the ship in the direction of progress. The following seasons saw a wrong turn and regression to the point where many supporters have given up. In isolation, Liverpool’s summer business was very good, but there are so many mitigating factors to consider. Injuries, new player adaptation and recruitment focusing on technical players while the rest of the league prepared for a fight. There is also the impact of everyone losing a friend and team-mate in Diogo Jota a few days before pre-season. How does a head coach deal with that? That being said, the brand of football has been miserable. All the traits that made Liverpool so good last season – pressing, controlled threat and a compact defensive structure – have been largely non-existent. Slot has struggled to find solutions tactically, with the exception of making matches into low-event games, but personnel have played a part in that too. Ten Hag’s side couldn’t possibly have been as bad at defending set pieces though, surely? Anka: Not when things were working for Liverpool, but the team’s current state bears a few similarities to United’s turgid football from Ten Hag’s second season. United in 2023-24 were weak pressers of the ball in the front three and had huge injury problems in their defence. The result was a team that was stretched thin in both boxes, creating a “doughnut midfield” that was underpowered and easily bypassed with quick counter-attacks. I don’t believe Slot wants Liverpool to play this way. Much like Ten Hag, he’s been dealt a strange set of cards. But like Ten Hag, he’s also playing them in a strange way. Liverpool fans, I sincerely ask you this question for the comment section: what does Slot want Liverpool to do when they don’t have the ball? Jones: You’re right, Carl, and Slot has said as much during the campaign. He wants his team to dominate ball possession, but he also wants them to press opponents out of possession. The problem is, either through profile or performance, they have struggled to do that at the required standards. Slot’s system relies heavily on wingers, but Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo’s ineffectiveness has been a real issue. So, too, has ball progression from their initial build-up phase without Trent Alexander-Arnold, as well as a lack of patterns of play in the final third. Out of possession, Slot is not a full-on, high-press manager, he likes to set traps. The problem is, when your side lacks intensity, aggression and cohesion, those traps are easy to spot and avoid. Liverpool have become that soft touch that teams find easy to play against — it was the same feeling I had about Ten Hag’s side. Anka: Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Manchester United at the start of last season was damaging for Ten Hag, not only for the manner of the defeat, but also for an impressive post-match interview where Slot calmly explained the structural problems at the heart of Ten Hag’s system. Slot was not only seen as a better tactician but also a better communicator. Ten Hag found it difficult to be funny or charismatic when speaking in English and looked worse in comparison. Slot has lost a lot of that charm across 2025-26, and his repeated references to the Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain from March last season have grown weary. He’s been a little too honest about Liverpool’s problems. Jones: Not a press conference goes by these days without a section of the fanbase finding a fault with one of Slot’s answers. He is typically Dutch, straight-talking and honest, but sometimes he can be too honest. Repeatedly talking about PSG or low blocks have rubbed people up the wrong way, but when he kept bringing up the 1-0 defeat by Nottingham Forest in his first season, that didn’t bother people as much because Liverpool were winning. He is a good communicator who tries to properly answer every question, slipping in the occasional attempt at humour. What has changed is he has spent this season speaking after a lot of defeats and even more poor performances. Liverpool fans thrive off connection: they want their manager to show emotion, motivate them and make them believe. It’s less of an issue if the results are good, but it is when things aren’t going well and people are looking for something to get behind. Anka: Sir Jim Ratcliffe once described Ten Hag’s contract extension as “an error”, saying he wanted to give the Dutchman the “benefit of the doubt” after the FA Cup win. The argument for keeping an underperforming manager tends to centre on whether there were enough mitigating circumstances behind a bad season, and whether the club can use their summer to make the correct changes in player recruitment and wider infrastructure to fix things. United failed to do either in the summer of 2024, and you could feel fans and players slowly lose faith. Liverpool fans are booing Slot’s tactical decisions. Andy, it feels like he’s lost buy-in. Once that happens, cut the chord. Jones: I’m one of the shrinking minority that would give Slot the benefit of the doubt because I think his job has been made very difficult due to injuries on top of an unbalanced squad – yes, they spent a lot, but too much emphasis was placed on quality, not quantity. Problems have snowballed due to underperformance from key players and a squad-wide loss of confidence. No doubt, there are big questions for him to answer tactically, which new, more-suited personnel should help with, but there is no doubt it would be a gamble to continue with him. More importantly, it feels like he has lost too much of the fanbase. Estimating it at about 80 per cent of supporters who are ready to move on might be being kind. The idea of a managerial change in October if Liverpool stick with Slot feels ominous, because a couple of poor results will bring back the negativity currently engulfing the club and his position will become untenable. Anka: Ten Hag’s post-United career saw a disastrous three-game spell in charge of Bayer Leverkusen, where he fell out with nearly every important player and senior executive at the club. Ten Hag’s team will argue he was set up to fail during a difficult transitional period for the club after Xabi Alonso’s successful spell. German media described him as an odd communicator with unusual training habits. Next season will see Ten Hag skip management altogether, taking up a new role as sporting director of his boyhood club FC Twente. Slot is unlikely to have a Leverkusen-style bust-up but he, too, might return to the Eredivisie one day. Jones: Slot is clearly a talented head coach. You do not rock up to the Premier League and ‘fluke’ winning it in your first season. The squad he inherited was strong, but his tweaks improved it. A lot of what comes next depends on the conditions of the job that you take. After a season like Slot has endured, you can imagine he would take his time to consider his next move. The Eredivisie may make the most sense, and you would expect him to do well again, but compared to the current stylistic profile of the Premier League, there are other top European leagues which his system and philosophies would probably suit better right now. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms