Former Liverpool goalkeeper Sander Westerveld believes close friend Arne Slot is a perfect fit for the club – even though he never had him on his list of contenders to take over from Jurgen Klopp.
Slot became the first Dutch coach to win the Premier League and only the fifth manager to lift the trophy in their debut season after the Reds clinched the title with a 5-1 win over Spurs on Sunday.
However, if Westerveld had been given a choice he would have gone for ex-Reds midfielder Xabi Alonso, currently the Bayer Leverkusen manager but already being tipped to take over at Real Madrid in the summer.
“It was very strange because I never put him on the list,” Westerveld told the PA news agency.
“I was so with Xabi Alonso, I thought this is perfect: the way he plays with Leverkusen, a former Liverpool player, he’s won the World Cup so he knows about pressure. And then he said no.
“Suddenly I heard Slot’s name and I was like ‘Of course!’. From that moment on I knew he was perfect for Liverpool.
“Obviously I never expected him to win the league, but I was definitely convinced he would succeed here – although not that fast.”
Slot’s calm, low-key demeanour is the antithesis of his predecessor Klopp but Westerveld believes that has provided the ideal conditions to help the players manage the transition so successfully.
In his first season Slot has dedicated himself to making sure he was across everything, with his family having remained in the Netherlands to allow him to focus on the job he was faced with.
Gaffer ✊ pic.twitter.com/j7E7lyu7Cd
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) April 27, 2025
“He doesn’t get carried away when things are going well and he doesn’t get nervous, like when they lost two in a row against Paris St Germain in the Champions League and Newcastle in the League Cup final,” added Westerveld, a member of the Liverpool Legends team which raised over £1million for the LFC Foundation from their match against Chelsea in March.
“He just says ‘OK’ and prepares the next game. You can only change what you have in your own hands and so you focus on the next game, that’s how he works.
“That’s the good thing about him, he doesn’t feel any pressure. That’s why he’s a perfect fit.”
Another former Liverpool Dutchman Dirk Kuyt hailed Slot’s “massive achievement” following in Klopp’s footsteps.
“We all knew it would be very difficult to replace him but the way Arne has done that is amazing,” he said.
“He is what everyone is seeing from the outside, he is the same on the inside. He knows the game very well, communication-wise he is very strong, whether to his players or the media, and that makes him someone to watch.
“It was a big step up for him but in Holland everyone could see already he is a very good manager and of course you want to see good managers working at the highest stage.
“It’s great to see him doing so well. The impact of Arne Slot is already there and that’s a huge achievement so far.”
