Slot machine: Liverpool makes record-setting start to season under Dutchman after win at Leipzig
LEIPZIG, Germany (AP) — Call it the Slot machine.
Liverpool’s relentless start to the season under new manager Arne Slot is seeing the team pump out record after record, and the scene of its latest win felt poignant.
Liverpool ground out a 1-0 victory in the Champions League on Wednesday at Leipzig, one of the clubs that Jurgen Klopp — who recently left the Reds after nearly nine years as its popular manager — will soon be overseeing in his new role as head of global soccer at Red Bull.
Few can have imagined that Slot would escape Klopp’s shadow at Liverpool this quickly.
After all, Liverpool has now won the opening six away games of a season for the first time in the club’s 132-year history.
Slot, meanwhile, is the first manager to win as many as 11 of his first 12 games in charge across all competitions in English top-flight history, according to the Premier League’s statistics supplier Opta.
The Dutchman has already guided Liverpool to the top of the Premier League eight games into the season. Now, a third straight win in the Champions League has left Liverpool as one of only two teams — with Aston Villa — on a maximum nine points so far.
“So many great teams have worn this shirt, so many great managers have been at this club,” Slot said. "So if you can achieve something that hasn’t been achieved before, it is almost impossible at a big club like this. To achieve it is always nice.
“Records are nice,” Slot added, “but there is something else that is more nice than records and we both know what I mean, I think — that’s trophies.”
No wonder Liverpool’s traveling contingent applauded Slot as he walked toward them after the final whistle on Wednesday.
“He just has to keep going, keep improving us, keep showing what he wants from us, and have fun with it — and I think we are showing that on the pitch,” Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk said.
“But the season is so long. We’ll stay humble and keep going.”
Darwin Nunez scored the only goal of the game in the 27th minute, with Liverpool needing two smart saves from back-up goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher — filling in for the injured Alisson Becker — to preserve the win.
“If we had left this place with a draw, I would have really felt we had lost something,” Slot said. “For the 70 previous minutes, except maybe for the first 10, we dominated.”
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