Former Liverpool boss Graeme Souness has suggested a leading British coach could do just a good a job at Anfield as Arne Slot. Slot has enjoyed the best start in club history for a new boss after the 4-0 home Champions League win over Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday evening moved him on to 14 wins from his first 16 games in all competitions.
With sole summer signing Federico Chiesa restricted to just 78 minutes, Slot has almost exclusively been working
with the squad inherited from Jurgen Klopp that won the League Cup last season and finished third in the Premier League.
No British manager has won the title in the last 11 years, while only one has won the FA Cup since 2008 and the most recent to lift the League Cup was Kenny Dalglish with Liverpool in 2012.
And in defending the work of homegrown coaches, Souness – who also took charge of Southampton, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United in the Premier League – has pointed to the quality of the players available to Slot.
I would dispute the idea that foreign coaches are better than British coaches,” he said. “Foreign managers are getting better jobs at the moment, but that doesn’t mean they’re better coaches.
“Pep Guardiola inherited a Manchester City side that had won Premier League titles with their two previous managers. Arne Slot took charge at Liverpool and took over what was more or less the finished article. I’m not buying the idea that foreign coaches do anything different to British coaches.
Speaking to William Hill’s Three Up Front podcast, Souness added: “Players are the most important thing at any football club. You look at Guardiola; he had the best group of players in La Liga when he was at Barcelona, he had the best group of players in Germany at Bayern Munich, and now he has the best group of players in the Premier League at City.
Give an English coach the Liverpool, City, or Arsenal squad and they’d do just as well. The City team Guardiola inherited was full of top players, and he’s bought in better players as well.”
