Empire of the Kop
·28 January 2025
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Yahoo sportsEmpire of the Kop
·28 January 2025
Jamie Carragher has claimed three Liverpool players look ‘completely different’ under Arne Slot this season.
The Dutch coach replaced Jurgen Klopp as Reds boss in the summer and currently has his side flying high at the top of both the Premier League and Champions League – as well as through to the semi-finals of the League Cup.
Pretty much all of Slot’s squad have been performing superbly so far this term but there are three players in particular who have caught the eye of former Red Carragher.
“We all get excited by transfers and we always want to see our team improve. And sometimes when we talk about a coach, I almost think sometimes a coach’s role is not almost just buying players,” our former No.23 said on The Overlap (via The Boot Room).
“It’s actually improving the players that he inherits. So when you actually look at Slot, Gravenberch looks a different player. Luis Diaz looks a different player.
“Gakpo looks a different player. So he’s had an influence there. So these are players that were, some of them bought 18 months ago, but they look completely different players.”
Slot really has surprised pretty much everyone by how quickly he’s settled on Merseyside and adapted to life in the toughest league in the world.
He did tremendously well with Feyenoord in his homeland but no one would’ve predicted Liverpool to be flying high on all fronts at this stage of the campaign.
Nothing has been won yet however, and the Dutchman will be more keen than anyone to remind his players of that.
His compatriots Gravenberch and Gakpo have been simply unplayable for the majority of the season while Diaz looks like he’s back to his old lively self.
There are other players who have also impressed, the likes of the world-class Mo Salah and the faultless Virgil van Dijk, but we’d argue that Carragher is probably right to call out these three players in particular.
Let’s hope their performances can continue as we aim to pick up as much silverware as possible during Slot’s debut campaign in charge of the Red men.