Selective Memory, Klopp, and Slot’s Growing Blueprint

There’s a bit of selective memory going both ways when it comes to Klopp, and it matters when we talk about Arne Slot now. Some people remember the heavy metal peak and treat everything else like it didn’t happen. Others remember the wobbles and act like the whole thing was chaos. The truth, like most things with football, sits somewhere in the middle.

Because we absolutely had periods under Klopp where it was poor. Sloppy defending that made your eyes water. Games where we couldn’t buy a win. And you didn’t have to dig deep to find fans questioning whether the whole approach was suitable for the Premier League, or whether it could ever be controlled enough to win a title.

Klopp’s early doubts didn’t stop the vision

It’s easy to forget how normal the doubts were in that first season and a half. The intensity was obvious, the emotion was obvious, but so was the risk. There were times the press looked half a second late, the back line looked exposed, and it felt like one direct ball could undo us.

Then the injury-hit seasons arrived, and the narrative shifted again: the “high octane” football was suddenly blamed for bodies breaking down, as if the only alternative was to play at walking pace and never get injured. Football doesn’t work like that.

What carried Klopp through those periods wasn’t perfection. It was that you could see what he was building. Even when it was rough, there was a clear idea: aggressive, front-foot, emotional, and at its best, absolutely thrilling. High risk, high reward.

Slot needs the same patience

That’s exactly where I am with Slot’s style. It needs time. Not blind faith, not “give it three years no matter what”, but a bit of perspective. If you can’t allow for development, you’ll never let anything settle.

And I do think you can see the blueprint forming. In the game mentioned, even with the caveat that it was against a side described as arguably the Premier League’s worst ever, there were still patterns worth noticing. You could see more fluidity between the wings, and you could see full-backs linking better with the midfielders and the centre-forward. That doesn’t happen by accident.

Wide wingers, better connections, then reality bites

The switch back towards a system with wide wingers felt like a big part of it. For the first time in a while, it looked like the full-backs and wide players had some proper synergy: creating space narrow, then stretching it wide, then coming back inside again. It was nice to watch, not just effective.

And then, yes, it fell apart in the second half. But it will, because we’re not that team yet. Consistency is the last thing that arrives, not the first.

We’re on the way. Just don’t pretend the road was always smooth under Klopp either.

Written by Faithinworks: 2 January 2026