The Erik ten Hag mistakes that Arne Slot MUST learn from

Arne Slot will take charge of his third Premier League game this weekend as Liverpool take on Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Liverpool’s new head coach has enjoyed an impressive start to life at Liverpool, but he will face his hardest challenge yet as he travels down the M62 to take on the Reds’ fiercest rivals.

Erik ten Hag, Manchester United’s manager, has had a distinctively similar career path to Liverpool’s Slot. Both are winners of the Eredivisie and both moved directly from the Netherlands to one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League.

One stark difference between the two compatriots is their starts to life in the Premier League. Slot has taken the maximum six points from his opening two games in the league, Ten Hag however lost both of his opening games, with a 2-1 loss at home to Brighton followed by a 4-0 thrashing away at Brentford.

Coincidentally both manager will have had exactly the same fixture as their third match in the league, Manchester United vs Liverpool at Old Trafford. Ten Hag came away from that match with a win and Slot will be looking to emulate that result, continuing his perfect start in English football.

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Dressing room dynamics

Whilst there are some elements of his counterpart’s career that Slot will want to reproduce, there are also some Ten Hag moments that Liverpool’s coach will want to learn from.

The Man United boss has been involved in a number of public disputes with high-profile players including Jadon Sancho and most notably Cristiano Ronaldo, who went on to tell Piers Morgan that he felt ‘betrayed’ by Ten Hag and that he ‘did not respect’ his head coach.

Ronaldo was Man United’s highest paid player at the time and left the club shortly after falling out with Ten Hag.

The dressing room fallouts have felt almost constant during Ten Hag’s reign at Old Trafford and at no point has the squad seemed to have much harmony. This is something that Slot must avoid at Liverpool if he wants to become as successful as his predecessor.

Jürgen Klopp was mostly successful at keeping any disagreements between himself and his players behind closed doors and, apart from the odd heated sideline discussion, there rarely seemed to be trouble in the Liverpool camp.

Even last season when Mohamed Salah argued with Klopp after being substituted earlier than he would have liked, there seemed to be very little public fallout between the two and the relationship was kept very professional.

Salah is still at Liverpool and has scored in both of their opening two games, a telling difference to Ronaldo, who now plays his football in Saudi Arabia.

Slot has already had a perceived falling out with one of his key players, vice-captain Trent Alexander-Arnold, but the club have since released an interview with Trent that shows just how much the 25-year-old trusts his new head coach.

Slot will be keen to do his best to keep the harmony in the Liverpool squad and to learn from Ten Hag’s mistakes.

A difference in game management

Another element of Ten Hag’s time as Man United boss that Slot will want to avoid is the sheer number of late goals that the Red Devils have conceded.

In two seasons under Ten Hag, Man United have conceded six 90^th minute winners. For reference, they had only conceded two in the 30 years before Ten Hag took over.

This is something that Slot hasn’t had to worry about at Liverpool yet, in fact his team are yet to concede a goal in a competitive match, but it is definitely something that Slot should avoid.

Liverpool’s problem in recent years, especially last season, has been going 1-0 down early in games and this is something that Slot seems to have fixed for now, but he must make sure that going stronger earlier in games doesn’t leave his side open to late opposition goals.

Ten Hag has also constantly been criticised for his substitutions, and this trend has continued this season.

Although only having seen 180 minutes of Slot’s Liverpool in the Premier League, it is clear that the former Feyenoord man is not afraid to make bold substitutions when needed.

At half time in Liverpool’s opening game of the season against Ipswich Town, the Reds found themselves struggling to impact the game. Slot made the strong decision to substitute Jarell Quansah off and replace him with Ibrahima Konaté for the second 45 minutes.

This substitution paid off and Liverpool dominated after the break, eventually prevailing as 2-0 winners.

Slot revealed after the match that he had identified that Quansah was not winning enough of his duels and that a change needed to be made. This assertive and effective decision-making is something that Slot needs to persevere with in order to avoid facing too much criticism around his substitutes like his rival has.

Media relations

So far in his limited Liverpool tenure Slot has cut a calm figure who isn’t afraid to joke with pundits and journalists and comes across very well in front of the camera.

It has to be noted that as of now Slot hasn’t faced a particularly tough time at Liverpool, he has won both games and his role as ‘head coach’ means that a lot of transfer and contract-related scrutiny has instead been aimed at sporting director Richard Hughes.

Ten Hag hasn’t always been so cool with the media and even stormed out of a press conference at the back end of last season when he was question about Man United's league position.

This rocky relationship with the media hasn’t helped Ten Hag’s public image and was one of a number of factors that led to him almost losing his job following the conclusion of last season.

It will be interesting to see if Slot can keep his current composure if Liverpool do find themselves in a difficult position during his tenure and whether he will take any lessons from how his countryman has handled the English press.

It’s not been all bad for Ten Hag

Although Ten Hag has made plenty of mistakes that Slot can learn from, he has also done some good that Liverpool’s head coach should take just as much notice of.

For all of Manchester United’s issues over the last two seasons, they have won a trophy in each year and also reached an FA Cup final that they went on to lose to local rivals Manchester City.

As toxic as the atmosphere has been around Old Trafford at times under Ten Hag, it cannot be argued that winning two trophies in as many seasons is anything but a success, even if it is only a minor one.

You’ll be hard pressed to find a Liverpool fan who wouldn’t consider two trophies in two seasons a success for Slot but there is an important caveat.

Despite United’s success in cup competitions, they massively struggled in the league under Ten Hag last season finishing 8^th, the clubs lowest finish of the Premier League era and also the first time they have finished with a negative goal difference in 34 years.

Whilst cup success is still success, it is very important for Slot not to lose focus on the Premier League and a top six finished is considered the bare minimum for a lot of Liverpool supporters.

Former Liverpool captain Jamie Redknapp has already gone on record saying that Slot must achieve a top four finish for his maiden season in Merseyside to be considered a success and, when you look at the team that he has inherited, it’s hard to argue with Redknapp.

Sunday’s clash

Although Sunday’s match at Old Trafford has come early enough in the season that it will probably have no real baring on the success of either team long-term, it is the perfect opportunity for Slot to get one over on Liverpool fiercest rivals.

United are in need of a win after losing late to Brighton last weekend and a loss to Liverpool on home soil could set the tone for another disappointing season at Old Trafford.

Although victory is not a must for Slot, it is a great opportunity for him to assert himself as one of the league’s best early this season and the momentum of an Old Trafford win could carry Liverpool to an impressive campaign.

The first meeting between the two Dutch managers could give an insight into what lessons Slot has already learned from Ten Hag and could be an early indicator of just how good Liverpool can become under their new head coach.