Arne Slot has responded to Wayne Rooney’s declare that the Liverpool head coach doesn’t have the “aura” to handle the membership by pointing to his Premier League title success final season.
Rooney questioned Slot’s suitability for the job, telling The Overlap: “I have met him a few times. He was a nice fella but I just don’t think, for Liverpool, he’s got that aura about him. Maybe this is because you have just come off the back of Jürgen Klopp and it’s going to be difficult for anyone to have that, but I just don’t think there’s that aura about him.”
The former Manchester United striker stated it was “strange” for Slot to be in an obvious “audition” to hold his job so quickly after successful the league however believes failure to qualify for the Champions League would lead to the Dutchman’s sacking. Liverpool sit sixth and play at Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
“We are all different,” Slot stated in response to Rooney’s aura feedback. “The only thing we have in common, Jürgen and me, is that we both won the league – and that’s not too bad, is it? I think the more a manager wins, the more aura he has. I don’t know if you agree with Wayne Rooney, by the way, but if this would be the general opinion then I think people would probably tell you last season I had more aura than this season.
“But maybe he’s the only one who has this opinion; I don’t know, you tell me. It’s the first time that I heard this but I think it’s fair to say that Jürgen definitely has an aura. I can talk about him, not about myself, but he definitely had that. But a winning manager has an aura as well.”
In the reverse fixture three months in the past towards Forest, then managed by Sean Dyche, Liverpool misplaced 3-0. At the City Ground Slot will come up towards Forest’s fourth head coach of the season, Vítor Pereira. Dyche’s strained relationship with Forest’s gamers was a key think about costing him his job, indicating the place the stability of energy is in the fashionable sport.
“I like to do what I’m doing now and that’s enough for me,” Slot stated. “It doesn’t matter who’s the most important person or not at the club. I think it’s always the owners, isn’t it? They have to hire the sporting director, they have to hire the head coach. If they make the right decisions then it’s a better chance to be successful.”
