Big Shoes to Fill #YNWA

On Sunday, Liverpool FC was crowned Champions of the Premier League with four games to spare.  The Norbury household, including our teenage Dutch exchange footballer and even Mrs N, were over the moon.

As a super fan, it’s great news...

But from a business perspective what’s remarkable is that when former manager Jurgen Klopp left the club last season, no one expected the club to be strong contenders.

Klopp’s personality, charisma and personality gave him iconic status at Liverpool; he won the hearts of the fans (and even many rival fans and non-football fans), and changed the club on and off the pitch.

So, when Liverpool announced new manager Arne Slot would be appointed to take over this season, everyone said he had the biggest of shoes to fill.

Yet, the transition from Klopp to Slot was not only seamless, but hugely successful.

How was this possible?

Well firstly, Slot didn’t try to be Klopp, or a tribute act, he was simply himself with his own Leadership style.

He made his job to build on and improve the outstanding foundations left behind by Klopp.

Slot only added one player to the squad and focussed on developing and improving the existing players he had.

Slot was a data man and turned this into insight. In his first meeting with the players, he had all the data from the season that they were champions, along with all the data from Klopp’s final season. Slot used this Scorecard to show the players exactly what they had to do, what their 100% looked like, and when they fell short. It wasn’t just a case of saying: ‘work harder’.

Slot set-up his team to play in a 4-2-3-1 formation on the pitch, a move away from Klopp’s favoured 4-3-3, which made them less predictable to play against, and able to operate higher up the pitch without the ‘manic aggression’.

Off the pitch, Slot made changes to routine; he bought training time forwards, he introduced a process called ‘body wake-up’ which involved breathing exercises, players no longer had to stay in a hotel the night before home games, and training sessions were longer but less intense to reduce the risk of injury.

Finally, Slot recruited key experts to help him behind the scenes that he knew and trusted, including a specialist in periodisation (the science of optimising training loads).

With 25 wins in 34 games and just two defeats, Slot's side made the top spot their own and have looked down on the rest of the Premier League since 2nd November!

So many lessons for however long you’ve been in business for, and whatever industry you’re in.

And here’s to next season! #YNWA

BW,

Martin

Martin Norbury

Investor | Business Mentor at Advocate | Author of I don’t work Fridays