Arne Slot and Liverpool’s academy: How will he use young players this season?

It is not just the first team entering the unknown at Liverpool this season.

The club’s academy personnel are also wondering how the youth programme fits into the wider vision of new head coach Arne Slot, after a 2023-24 campaign where young talent was given its chance like never before.

With the seniors hit by a winter injury crisis, manager Jurgen Klopp called on the youth ranks in a bid to keep his final season on track. And the kids did more than that: Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah, James McConnell, Jayden Danns and Bobby Clark all made key contributions in helping win the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea, which turned out to be the club’s only piece of silverware last season. More broadly, their success underlined how Liverpool had established a defined culture which permeated the senior and academy squads.

Klopp was a believer in giving youth a chance. Trent Alexander-Arnold may have emerged as the homegrown totem in recent seasons, but 45 academy players were given first-team debuts during the German’s nine seasons as manager.

His departure in May, unsurprisingly, prompted questions about whether that emphasis would be maintained under the new regime. But Slot’s appointment should assuage those concerns: the Dutchman’s desire to put faith in and develop young talent was a key reason he topped Liverpool’s list when searching for Klopp’s replacement.

The Athletic has spoken to a range of coaches who have worked with Slot in his native Netherlands, and those currently at Liverpool, to build a picture of how the club’s academy could function under his stewardship.

One of the features of Slot’s managerial style is his insistence on treating players equally — regardless of their age.

The 45-year-old is a hands-on coach and very detailed about collective and individual development, and those who have worked with him highlight his communication skills and his consistent level of positive engagement with every player. Individual plans are formulated to help development, and Slot keeps track of their progress.

“He likes developing young players, but not only them — all of the players,” says Go Ahead Eagles assistant manager Dennis van der Ree, who worked with Slot during his time at Dutch side SC Cambuur. “It doesn’t matter who you are, he tries to make people better.”

Slot and Van der Ree formed part of Henk de Jong’s new-look coaching staff at Cambuur ahead of the 2014-15 season. Slot was assistant manager but wanted more responsibilities. The club did not have a functioning under-21 team so, the following year, Slot and Van der Ree were given funds to revamp the youth team, taking the players and putting together the extended coaching staff.

“From the moment I met him, he had a database of clips, and we used it in the first team and the under-21 team to make exercises to train his principles,” says Van der Ree. “He’s really good at convincing people in the way he wants to play but also how to be a footballer, being professional and training hard — which is crucial, especially for young players. He gives players that feeling that everything you say he thinks about and uses to help people get better.”

Slot’s coaching career began in PEC Zwolle’s academy, where he was a youth prospect himself in the 1990s, after he approached the club’s directors about his ambitions to be a first-team coach following his retirement as a player for the club. His task was to improve Zwolle’s struggling under-14s side; several players had left and confidence was on the floor. The process of turning things around was not instantaneous, but once results were heading in the right direction, momentum snowballed.

Arne Slot has always enjoyed working with young players (Geert van Erven/Soccrates/Getty Images)

Slot treated that team as if they were Zwolle’s senior side, setting high standards. His philosophies were clear and he created an elite, professional environment where players felt safe and respected.

Zwolle’s academy had already undergone a cultural shift, with players training early in the morning, then attending school at the Centre for Sports and Education across the road from the training ground, before returning for further training. Slot was a driving force in maintaining that momentum: players would, for example, be given video analysis of their morning training session when they came back after school in the afternoon.

Sessions were competitive, detailed and intense. Individual and collective development was prioritised, along with discipline and education. If players hadn’t met the requirements, they would not be allowed to train.

Slot’s background in academy coaching — and determination to set senior-level expectations for young players — almost certainly influenced his approach to youth football in his first permanent head coach role, at AZ Alkmaar in 2019.

The collapse of DSB Bank, their main sponsors, and the financial issues club owners DSB Beheer had in 2009, had left AZ in financial trouble. The decision was made to commit to youth development, investing in facilities, focusing on data and creating a pathway.

Slot benefitted from the changes during his tenure. AZ were in the hunt for the Eredivisie title in his first season in charge, behind Ajax only on goal difference with nine games to go, before Covid-19 brought that 2019-20 campaign to a premature end in the March. Academy graduates Teun Koopmeiners (then 21), Calvin Stengs (20), Owen Wijndal (19) and Myron Boadu (18) were four of AZ’s six most-used players in that curtailed season.

Feyenoord, too, had prioritised the development of youth talent in the wake of financial problems, and Slot was again the beneficiary when he arrived at the Rotterdam club in 2021. Under his charge, academy players were at the forefront of Feyenoord’s success.

In their 2022-23 title-winning campaign, academy graduates played 12,334 minutes in total, and 10,636 the following year.

Slot’s credentials when it comes to promoting youth appear strong, but Liverpool are a different entity to any of his previous clubs back in the Netherlands — with more high-stakes, high-intensity matches, and greater expectations.

Even Klopp, once his senior stars had returned from injury at the end of last season, backed off on the involvement of the youngsters at first-team level. Can Slot, while adjusting to a new country and trying to fill the void left by one of Liverpool’s most successful-ever managers, really sustain the approach which served him so well in Dutch football?

“I like to see good players and if they are old or young, that doesn’t matter that much,” Slot said in his first Liverpool press conference. “It’s always nice for a club and team that young players come through the ranks. That always gives energy to a club. In the end, it’s all about the quality. If they continue doing well, there will be a fair chance that they will play.”

The reputation of Liverpool’s academy is not spotless. The Athletic reported last summer that the club had admitted to failings after the parents of a teenager who had been on their books submitted a formal complaint relating to the level of mental health support he had been given and how his release had been handled.

But the club seem to have struck a rich seam with their current crop of youngsters, and internally the feeling is that Slot’s appointment will change little in the academy’s processes.

Liverpool’s philosophy aims to eliminate the “Too much, too soon” culture. The academy, under Alex Inglethorpe, has become more streamlined in recent seasons, with squad sizes being reduced to focus attention on those prospects deemed to have the most potential.

Liverpool academy director Alex Inglethorpe (Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

First-year professionals receive a basic salary of £52,000 ($66,000) per year once they turn 17. Contracts are heavily incentivised to ensure progress is rewarded. Players are warned about setting the wrong impression by having flash cars or wearing expensive jewellery and clothing.

The pathway has become even more streamlined since Liverpool’s new AXA training ground was built next to the academy in the Kirkby district of the city. The pitches are arranged so the higher the age group, the closer the pitch they use is to the first team’s sessions. Liverpool’s current crop of talent emerging suggests the pathway is as strong as ever.

“One huge reason for the academy’s success is AXA (the Kirkby site),” Jay Spearing, the former Liverpool player who is now their under-18s coach, told The Athletic. “Moving the first team to the end of that pathway, I think it’s probably the best thing the club has done in a very long time regarding building the connection between the academy and the first team.

“Prime examples of that, on recovery days, were the club captain (Virgil van Dijk) coming down to the front pitch to watch an under-18 game or walking out with Cody Gakpo and Joe Gomez and watching the under-12s play. The connection between the two is incredible.”

Alongside deploying the same system and principles in matches, the under-18s and under-21s train at the same time of day as the first team, so the transition of talent moving up to the higher age group is seamless.

Klopp’s assistant manager Pep Lijnders and elite development coach Vitor Matos checked in daily with academy staff so were aware of everything that was going on and they were crucial in maintaining that pathway. With both men departing alongside Klopp, Slot has appointed Aaron Briggs, who has arrived from Manchester City, as the first-team individual development coach to be the key link between the academy and first-team set-up.

This may have been a quiet summer of transfer business so far at senior level but Liverpool have remained active in their efforts to secure some of the best young talent in the country.

They have already signed 16-year-old Alvin Ayman from Wolverhampton Wanderers for a fee potentially rising to £1.6million, and highly-rated Rio Ngumoha, 15, will shortly arrive from Chelsea.

Last season, 16-year-olds Trey Nyoni and Amara Nallo joined from Leicester City and West Ham United respectively, alongside 14-year-old Harvey Owen from Wolves. They followed previous additions including Harvey Elliott, Clark, McConnell, Ben Doak and Stefan Bajcetic.

Trey Nyoni impressed on Liverpool’s recent U.S. tour (Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)

The lack of senior signings may be a cause of frustration for fans but promoting youth into the first team or developing it to sell on is a core element of club owner Fenway Sports Group’s (FSG) business plan. That will be maintained under Michael Edwards, who took over as FSG’s CEO of football in March, and Julian Ward, the FSG technical director appointed in May.

Ward, like Edwards a former Liverpool director of football, is tasked with overseeing player development across FSG’s football operations, including Liverpool’s academy and their work in the loans market. Alongside Inglethorpe, he will be a key figure in deciding future strategy while Pedro Marques’ arrival as FSG’s director of football development also brings a wealth of experience having been in charge of the academy at leading Portuguese club Benfica.

It is a formidable brains-trust but ultimately the decision over which youngsters are promoted to the first-team environment will be Slot’s.

This summer’s European Championship and Copa America tournaments, which deprived Slot of the chance to work with the majority of his senior internationals from the beginning of pre-season, were a bonus for the youngsters, who had the chance to impress the new head coach at close quarters. Nyoni, in particular, impressed during the three-match pre-season tour in the United States.

The quality and depth of Liverpool’s squad will limit their first-team chances, but the club’s academy players will know that, with Slot in charge, their opportunity could come at any moment.

Additional reporting: Caoimhe O’Neill

(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)