Ten Hag’s Old Dig at Slot Rings Truer as Liverpool Falter
Football never forgets, and it’s got an even longer memory when receipts are involved. In the final weeks before he was shown the door at Manchester United in October 2024, Erik ten Hag took aim at Arne Slot’s set-up at Liverpool. Back then it sounded like a man bristling at his fate. Now, with the dust settled and Liverpool limping through a season without silverware after a title-winning debut under Slot, those words carry a different weight.
The interview that lit the fuse
Speaking to Voetbal International, Ten Hag argued that Slot had strolled into a far smoother operation at Anfield than he ever found at Old Trafford. The gist? Klopp and Pep Lijnders left a coherent, balanced squad and a club structure fit for purpose, whereas United were still trying to remember what they were supposed to be a decade on from Sir Alex’s exit. He even poured a little cold water on the raves about Slot’s Feyenoord, pointing out that Peter Bosz’s PSV were a level or two above in just about every department at the time — from possession play to pressing and sheer intensity.
Slot’s start: champagne first, flat beer after
To be fair, Slot’s first act was sparkling: Liverpool bagged their second Premier League crown under his watch, a cracking debut campaign by any measure. But the encore has been decidedly off-key. This season has drifted into nothingness, the title defence never really got out of first gear, and more than £400m has gone on marquee arrivals like Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz without the medals to show for it. With hindsight, Ten Hag’s assessment of Slot’s head start at Anfield wasn’t far off the mark.
United’s chaos and Ten Hag’s defence
Ten Hag wasn’t shy about his own record either, and why would he be? He lifted the League Cup in year one, the FA Cup in year two, and did it while firefighting injuries and a club culture that looked like a filing cabinet tipped over the stairs. The third-place finish in season one promised a platform; the injury-riddled eighth the next year ripped it away. You can quibble with his style, selections and signings, but you can’t say he ducked the crossfire.
How the quotes have aged
At the time, the comments looked like sour grapes from a manager bracing for impact. Today, they read more like a blunt bit of truth-telling. Slot did inherit a squad and structure tuned to challenge; his first season validated that. The second season underlines the flipside: even with a strong base and lavish spending, keeping a side on the summit is another game entirely.
The wider cast and the moving parts
Context matters. United pivoted to Ruben Amorim after moving on from Ten Hag. The Dutchman, for his part, took the Bayer Leverkusen job after Xabi Alonso’s departure, only to be cut loose after three competitive matches in early September, before resurfacing upstairs as FC Twente’s Technical Director. Football careers can turn on a sixpence; narratives do as well.
So, who really had it harder?
Liverpool had continuity, identity and a recruitment pipeline humming when Slot arrived; United had legacy weight, fractured decision-making and a squad built across too many eras. That doesn’t absolve Ten Hag of his misses, nor does it let Slot off for a tame title defence after a lavish window. It simply underlines what Ten Hag was hinting at: start lines aren’t equal, even if finish lines are.
Final whistle
Strip away the emotion and the headlines and you’re left with something rather straightforward. Ten Hag’s message — however self-serving it sounded back then — wasn’t wrong. Slot walked into a strong house; turning it into a fortress again is on him. As for United, the mess Ten Hag described was real, and two trophies amid the rubble isn’t nothing. The game moves fast, but it doesn’t erase context.
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