Gary Neville has praised the debut season of Arne Slot in Liverpool as one of the “best coaching performances we have seen” in the Premier League history, with the Dutchman about to eliminate the title on the first time of asking.
Liverpool was third favorites to win the division at the start of the season, behind the top two of Manchester City and Arsenal of last season at odds.
But after a stunning run of 26 unbeaten matches and only two defeats throughout the season, the Reds are now a point away from crowned Premier League champions and will be their second title with a draw against Tottenham this Sunday, live on Sky Sports.
In addition to the speed of Slot's adjustment to working at one of the largest clubs in the world, Neville with so ease brought a special tribute to his ability to switch from the shadow of the Jurgen Klopp -Dynasty.
“I think he has frankly performed an absolutely brilliant task,” he said on the podcast of Gary Neville. “I think that at the start of the season – none of us can rewrite history – there were not many fans of Liverpool who thought they would win the competition, let alone someone else.
“I don't remember an expert or analyst or journalist or fan who really said that Liverpool will win the competition. It was Manchester City of Arsenal. So to do what they have done is very special.
“During a season, the coaching performance of Arne Slot is one of the best we have seen.
“And I say that with the light from whom he took over. One of the greatest personalities and characters that we have seen in the Premier League, a Liverpool icon and legend. Have to establish in that dressing room and control and authority, but knowing that he would probably never be able to do it in the same way as Jurgen Klopp.
“Nobody can be the same personality and character as he was. But the way in which he dealt with the conversations around the contracts all season, he treated those conversations. They then signed two, I think the most important two of those players, Van Dijk and Salah, the last few weeks.
“It is also the way in which he is calm and composed on points where it might not have gone as well for them as he had wanted.”
Central to the success of Slot in Anfield is the form of star attacker Mo Salah, whose performances had been questioned last season in the midst of what seemed like a public fall-out with Klopp on the Touchline in West Ham in one of the last matches of the former coach.
Since the start of the season, however, the Egypt International has brought its game to new levels at the age of 32 the record of the Premier League objectives of the Premier League goals of a 38-game season, with five more games of this campaign. The Golden Boot 2024/25 is also almost certainly on its way to his personal trophy cabinet.
Neville explained the adjustment that he had seen from the attacker and said: “Salah left someone who made beautiful, brilliant runs between full-back and center-back, like Mane in the past, but he always made them from that right side.
“He now plays very differently, where he doesn't really press anymore. Not that he was once great in printing, but he drives a bit forward when Liverpool defends in that kind of split triker position. The ball is played over his head.
“They have come up with a kind of way to place him out to get the best out of him. He was a constant threat to Leicester.
“Slot had to get the best out of Salah again and let him feel so comfortable. And people say, well, they are great players, they are world class players. Of course they are.
“But still, they can be upset and postpone fairly quickly if they are not with the right type of manager, these kinds of players. They are difficult to manage if they are not with the right type of personality.”
Perhaps the biggest individual performance of Slot was the transformation in Ryan Gravenberch, who became the No. 6 shouting to follow the decline and departure of Fabinho, and the subsequent failure to sign Martin Zubimendi of Real Sociedad in the summer.
“The players I would classify as six out of 10 players, he made them seven out of 10,” Neville added. “That is the most impressive for me. And the players who were perhaps six and a half, seven out of 10, he made eight out of 10.
“The will of Gravenberch and Gakpo, who might think:” Are they real top -liverpool players? ” And now you look at them, you see Gravenberch against Leicester in the last game.
Liverpool – look out to win the competition at a canter, apart from an unprecedented collapse in the last weeks of the season – and things have to be packed on Sunday when they organize Tottenham live on Sky Sports.
The performance of the Reds are sometimes criticized for a lack of real competition for their title Push, with the nearest Chasers Arsenaal more than 10 points behind the run-in a few weeks.
“They will not be pushed at the end, but that is not their problem,” said Neville. “That is the problem of the others. It is the problem of the city.
“It is the problem of Arsenal. It is the problem of Chelsea and Villa, Newcastle, Tottenham, Manchester United, all the clubs that spend a lot of money who want to think they would be there.
“Liverpool has now recruited very well for a number of years, but I thought of the start of the season, I think I had them fifth.
“I thought there would just be a natural fall, as is sometimes when a Wenger leaves or a Sir Alex Ferguson leaves. There is just a natural drop. So that's why I think the manager and coach deserve enormous credit.”