Slot explains reason for bringing new fitness staff to Liverpool

One of Arne Slot‘s biggest first-year challenges is to improve Liverpool’s consistency across the entire season, an area they fell down in towards the end of Jurgen Klopp‘s last campaign.

Key to maintaining Liverpool’s winning run will be the players’ fitness come the final months of the season.

Last time around, an intense campaign in which Liverpool were fighting on four fronts despite a multitude of key injuries collapsed in early April.

All in the space of a week, a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford was followed by a 3-0 defeat to Atalanta at Anfield as well as a 1-0 loss to Crystal Palace.

The Reds went on to win only three of their remaining six Premier League matches, thus derailing their title charge.

In all, Liverpool played 58 times last season and by the end of the campaign, the players were visibly less sharp than earlier in the year.

Klopp, also a tired figure, left in the summer and was replaced by Slot who brought with him his long-serving lead physical performance coach, Ruben Peeters.

This came after head of fitness Andreas Kornmayer and head of recovery Andreas Schlumberger departed with Klopp.

Speaking to media including the Liverpool Echo, Slot commented on the prospect of a 60-match season.

The coach explained: “We also have experience of this. My performance staff that worked with me [at Feyenoord] and the ones who are already here have this experience.

“At my former club we have shown that players are capable of playing 50-60 games – although at a different level because the Eredivisie is a different level to the Premier League.

“That is why it is so important for us to have the input of the ones [performance staff] who already have worked for this club. This combination of knowledge should hopefully lead to keeping the players as fit as they can and able to play so many minutes.”

As Slot admitted, the Eredivisie isn’t played at the same intensity as the Premier League, but the coach did have to deal with pressure to go deep into the Dutch Cup as well as the Europa League.

During the 2021/22 season, Feyenoord reached the final of the Europa Conference League, losing 1-0 to Roma at the end of a 54-game campaign that began in mid-July.

Slot continued: “I saw a list of players who have played the most minutes this season and Virgil van Dijk was fourth so hopefully he can keep doing this and the combination of the ones I brought in [performance staff] and the ones that are still here hopefully is going to help us a lot.”

Among the other fitness staff to arrive at Anfield since Klopp’s exit was lead strength and conditioning coach Chris Black, who joined from a role at the FA.

Meanwhile, Liverpool’s overhaul included a promotion for first-team fitness coach Dr Conall Murtagh, who is now in the role of head of physical performance.

Two of the club’s existing physio staff have also seen their roles updated, with Lee Nobes now head rehab physio and Chris Morgan head of performance physio.

Elsewhere, Jordan Fairclough serves as first-team fitness coach and the staff also includes head of PDP fitness Dr Jack Ade and physical performance coach Ed Harper.