Ex-Red says Arne Slot is on the 'same level' as Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho

Liverpool's appointment of Arne Slot as their new head coach has come with the seal of approval from former Reds midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum.

Wijnaldum, who briefly experienced working with Slot back in the Netherlands, believes his compatriot possesses all the attributes necessary to succeed at Anfield, comparing him favourably to two coaching greats.

Speaking to Algemeen Dagblad, Wijnaldum shared his high regard for Slot: “I trained at Feyenoord for a few days at the beginning of this season and saw how Slot worked.

"That was of a very high level; I thought that was really great.

"I can compare him to [Jurgen] Klopp and [Jose] Mourinho and say Slot is of the same level."

Wijnaldum is perhaps uniquely qualified to make such comparisons, having played under Klopp at Liverpool from 2016 to 2021 before joining Paris Saint-Germain. From there, he enjoyed a season under Mourinho on loan at AS Roma during the 2022–2023 campaign.

New challenge for Slot

While Wijnaldum believes the Premier League will be a big challenge for Slot, he said: "That doesn't mean he can't replicate what he did at Feyenoord here."

"With Arne Slot, I believe Liverpool has truly secured a fantastic successor [to Klopp].

"It doesn’t matter at all that they don’t all know Slot inside and out in England yet. When I moved from PSV to Newcastle United, I had become the Dutch champion, played in the Dutch national team, and we played European football, but I didn’t have the feeling that they knew much about that there.

"The Premier League is so big and so good, they don’t really look at other countries. It’s somewhat comparable to what I’m experiencing now with the move to play outside of Europe. People just aren’t that interested."

Despite turning 33 last November, Wijnaldum, who now plays for Steven Gerrard's Al-Ettifaq, was named as part of Ronald Koeman's 26-man Netherlands squad set to take part in the European Championships starting in Germany next week.