Coach principles: Arne Slot — Feyenoord
Arne Slot truly is the talk of the town in the Eredivisie and he is doing an amazing job with Feyenoord. In this article, I will focus on his principles more than a forward tactical analysis and therefore the screenshots of the games will be less. Why? I’m someone who has followed the Eredivisie for over 15 years from an analysis perspective and it will become biased if you only focus on what my eyes tell you. I encourage you to watch games and draw your own conclusions, as well as try to see if you can recognise what I’m writing at this very moment.
Contents
- Biography
- Feyenoord — Transfers
- Feyenoord— Tactics
- Feyenoord — Data
- Eye for youth
- Final thoughts
Biography
Arne Slot has been developing rapidly in the Netherlands and can be seen as one of the most talented domestic coaches:
- Name: Arend “Arne” Martijn Slot
- Date of birth: 17–09–1978
- Nationality: Dutch
- Position: Midfielder (player)
- Contract expires: 30–6–2025
- Clubs (player): FC Zwolle, NAC Breda, Sparta Rotterdam, FC Zwolle (L), PEC Zwolle
- Clubs (coach): Cambuur Youth, Cambuur assistant, Cambuur, AZ assistant, AZ, Feyenoord
Arne Slot already was quite the figure within Dutch football, being on the forefront of AZ redeveloping and redefining their idea of playing football. He was put next to John van den Brom at the time, to give some more tactical stability and we saw that culminate in his role as head coach for AZ.
Going to Feyenoord was a move that shook some in the football industry in the Eredivisie. AZ saw his coach leave at the end of the season and put him at non-active immediately. Ajax sweating because they would love to see him if Ten Hag left, and Feyenoord is just very pleasantly surprised to capture such a big fish.
It was expected that he would make an impact in Rotterdam when he signed in 2021, but I don’t think everyone could have foreseen that he would be this successful in a relative short period of time. But that has also shown his talent.
So how did he grasp the ideals and potential of the sleeping giant Feyenoord and transformed them into a title-winning team with a conference league final appearance and a quarter-final in the Europa League? Well, let’s find out.
Feyenoord — Transfers
Feyenoord have seen a true change in players during those two seasons, and it’s good to know what happened in mutations for those seasons.
Going out:
As you can see many players have gone on loan, which isn’t to weird for a club of the magnitude of Feyenoord, but some quality-level players have gone to other clubs and Slot often made hints to the fact that they weren’t good enough to bring Feyenoord where they have to be to compete for the title and in Europe.
Coming in:
Almost the same number of players have come in and strengthened the squad. Not only young players have come in or come up via the ranks of the U21s, but also more seasoned players who know what it is to compete at this level and are more mature during the season. Arne Slot has embraced the idea that a harmony of fearless talent and experienced professionals is the way to success.
Feyenoord - Tactics
Attacking — build up
In the case of the build-up on the own half, Slot’s principles focus on always having numerical superiority over the opposition. This is done to bypass the opposition’s press and move further up the pitch:
- If the opposition presses with one striker, the backs will move up so that the two central defenders always have a 2v1 formation to solve it with a passing style. With attacking play it will create greater advantage going forward.
- When the opposition press with two players, Kokcu will drop deeper to assist the two central defenders and create a 3v2 situation in order to advance up the field. With Kokcu dropping deeper, he will lure some defensive players as well, opening up space further up the pitch.
- If there’s no press from the opposition, the central defenders will carry the ball into the middle third and start operating from there. Getting coverage and options from Kokcu and the rest of the midfield will move towards the attacking third
Slot’s philosophy is based on having an overload at every situation, attacking or defending — otherwise the opposition will punish you. So that’s pivotal and central through his ideas.
Attack — using flanks
There are a few key principles of Arne Slot during the two seasons in terms of attack. One of the first things is that he wants both flanks covered with one player. Many coaches like to create numerical superiority on the flanks, but Slot doesn’t want to do that and perhaps that goes against the traditional Dutch school of football. He argues that there’s a very slim chance of a cross being converted into a goal, so he wants to limit the flanks with one player.
In reality, this means that the fullbacks need to be fit to a different role than a wingback, they need to be versatile in attack towards the midfielder role — which is not always easy. Marcus Pedersen, Tyrel Malacia and Lutsharel Geertruida needed to be converted in doing.
One of the advantages of this is that the wide players invert and also draw a defensive player towards the central areas, leaving more space for wingers like Luis Sinisterra/Idrissi. So how does that look?
Nothing in particular here, Feyenoord (Red) attacking with a 4–3–3 formation, with two players per flank in the wide areas. This is not what Slot sets out to do so the next action is about deciding which player will occupy each flank.
Feyenoord make movements with inverting players. The left-back will invert into central areas of half-space, with the holding midfielder moving to te right — forming a square in midfield. The next thing that Slot did was move the right winger to the central areas to strengthen the central areas (6 players in the middle) and allow for the right back to move up down the line.
The reason for this can be found in the fact that Malacia was considered better in the playmaker role and Geertruida/Pedersen better in the winger role — when Feyenoord had the ball. In the 22/23 season this role was still used, but with Quilindcy Hartman on the left back side and with Lutsharel Geertruida on the right back side, but as they are both versatile, they could play both roles.
The next phase is what players will do in that final third on the wide areas. Slot doesn’t like traditional high crosses, so he wants to have the option for low crosses or cutbacks — at all times.
Attack — central areas are key
We have seen how Slot likes to operate with his wide players, but how does that pan out when he wants to create chances — as he emphasises the central areas. Especially the zone between the box and the midfield, which can be roughly seen as deeper zone 14.
First of all, when the flanks use cutbacks, they aim to get into zone 14–17, as that is where many of the attacking midfielders also will arrive to shoot. This has been spoken about in the previous years, but Slot seems to have taken this on.
Now, back to the idea of central areas — Slot believes zone 14 is vital to his way of playing. Slot always wants to create from the deeper zone 14 and believes that zone 14 close to the box, is vital for scoring. He calls it the scoring-zone and the deeper zone 14, the “hot zone”.
Overloading these specific areas is vital for his play in attack and dominating from these areas, but another thing that’s important to him is that one of the first options of the players is to pass in that specific scoring zone.
This is a dramatic view of it but illustrated is the pass towards the striker and that’s one of the first options going forward. So occupying that specific zone and looking for that pass in the central area of the pitch, that’s how he likes to create chances.
Central to this idea is the fact that there’s a need to create overloads with the ball and that the wingers always should be alert to make a run. When the striker gets the ball and he can pass the ball in space for the winger to run into — it’s often a very good opportunity for the Rotterdam outfit.
The transition from attack to defence
Slot has a very interesting approach to losing the ball and the high-intensity press. The high-intensity press can be helpful for a number of situations and can be achieved in different ways
By pressing quickly after losing the ball, you can prevent the opposition from advancing into your defensive third or midfield area. This helps to maintain a higher defensive line and keeps the game closer to the opponent’s goal, reducing the distance your team needs to cover when transitioning from defence to attack.
What Slot wants, is to regain possession of course, but he knows that high turnovers make for great opportunities to score. He wants high-intensity sprints and he doesn’t want a player to back down from it. High-intensity pressing restricts the time and space available to the opposing players. It puts them under immediate pressure, making it harder for them to control the ball, find open passing lanes, or make composed decisions. This can lead to turnovers, misplaced passes, or even forced errors, allowing your team to regain possession in advantageous positions.
It’s focused more on determination than structural tactics, but he wants to limit time and space for the opposition on the ball. Don’t slow down when you approach the opposition, but go through them — is one of his most important credos.
Defence
Arne Slot’s teams from Feyenoord down to Cambuur love high turnovers. The reason for that is that Slot believes that more opportunities come from high turnover than from build-up from deep. And that’s how he likes to defend — with that goal in mind.
His numerical superiority in central areas comes in handy when Feyenoord doesn’t have the ball. One of the first things Feyenoord wants to do is to press and force the opposition to play the ball to the wide areas. Feyenoord play an initial ball-oriented press with a focus on regaining possession of the ball and blocking passing lanes
In this way, Slot has been inspired by Klopp and likes to allow the opposition the first pass. The next passes are then pressed to the side and it can happen in different ways:
- The second attacker (striker+1) can play next to the striker, diagonally or behind him — making it difficult to predict how to act as opposition
- 3v3 when the opposition build up with 3 defensive player and steers them to the wide areas.
- The most important thing isn’t that the positions are being kept, but that Feyenoord can regain control of the ball as quickly as possible.
Another important thing to illustrate is what happens after Feyenoord force the opposition to the wide areas. It might sound counter-intuitive, but they want them to bait a high-risk pass towards the middle. When Feyenoord can intercept that pass, it will lead to a dangerous situation, as we also spoke about in the way they use the central areas into the scoring zone, above.
As the pass is then played, Feyenoord will use those high-intensity press sprints to overwhelm the opposition and that leads to high turnovers.
When the opposition is a bit more advanced, Feyenoord like to defend more compact: they want to keep the distances between their players short. There are a few reasons why:
- Denies space in the defensive third: Compact defending restricts the space available to the opposition in the defensive third. By positioning defenders closer together, it becomes harder for attackers to find openings and exploit gaps in the defense.
- Reduces the risk of individual errors: When defenders are closely positioned and supported by teammates, there is a lower chance of individual defensive errors. Players can provide cover and support to each other, reducing the risk of getting beaten by skillful opponents.
- Counter-attacking opportunities: Compact defending often focuses on absorbing pressure and quickly transitioning into counter-attacks. By maintaining a solid defensive shape, teams can win the ball and launch swift counter-attacks, catching the opponent off-guard.
- Forcing opponents wide: Compact defending can channel the opposition towards wide areas of the pitch, making it more challenging for them to penetrate centrally. This allows defenders to concentrate their efforts on denying crossing opportunities and reducing the effectiveness of opponents’ attacks.
- Minimizing space for through balls: With a compact defensive block, there are fewer gaps for opponents to play through balls into. This reduces the chances of attackers exploiting the space behind the defensive line, making it harder for them to create goal-scoring opportunities.
It’s important to note that while compact defending offers these advantages, it also has limitations. Teams that solely rely on compact defending may struggle with maintaining possession, pressing high up the pitch, and creating attacking opportunities. That’s why Slot wants a super fit squad, high-intensity sprints at all times to keep sure pressing can be maintained.
Transition from defence to attack
There’s nothing much more to be said to his transition from defence to attack than his emphasis on running, making runs and do it high intensity. Immediately after regaining possession or making a turnover of the ball it’s super important for the attacking players to make runs into the space and the midfielders will progress the play via passing as such.
Feyenoord — Data
In this part of this article, we will look at the data for the 2022/2023 season. We will focus on attack, defence, 3 key players and some rankings of this particular season.
As you can see Feyenoord leads the Eredivisie and have won it. What’s fascinating is that they don’t lead for goals scored or xG via Opta. Neither are they top in goals conceded (fewest) or xGA — but they have managed to average 2,48 points per games, which is the highest.
So where do they shoot from and score from? Where does the danger come from?
Who are the top shooters?
In the visual above you can see the top shooters for Feyenoord in this season. It’s ranked on the number of shots and features goals, xG, shots and xG/shot.
Where does Feyenoord rank in xG/shot?
What’s another interesting part is that Feyenoord score quite low in the average xG per shot, but that can also be explained through the fact that they take a lot of shots from longe range.
How big part of their expected goals do set pieces play?
As you can see in the image above, Feyenoord have 17,9% of their total xG coming from set pieces — meaning they score 12th. This is understandable, as most top sides don’t score exceedingly high on this metric.
Defensive actions: Interceptions and Ball recoveries
Where does Feyenoord conduct their defensive actions throughout the season?
For more data, FBREF is your friend — click on the link here.
Working with youth
Arne Slot’s tenure as a football manager has been marked by his unwavering commitment to nurturing young talent and bridging the gap between the academy and the first team. With a keen eye for spotting potential, Slot implemented a streamlined approach that effectively integrated academy players into the senior squad, thereby creating a culture that allowed talent to thrive.
One of the most remarkable aspects of Slot’s strategy was his belief in the capabilities of the academy players. He recognised the immense potential within the club’s youth system. Slot meticulously identified promising talents, focusing not only on their technical abilities but also on their attitude, work ethic, and dedication to the game. By instilling faith in these young players, he fostered an environment where they felt valued and motivated to prove themselves at the highest level.
Moreover, Slot’s emphasis on a cohesive playing style played a pivotal role in his successful integration of academy players. He recognised the importance of continuity in the team’s approach and style of play, ensuring that the young talents were well-versed in the club’s footballing philosophy from an early stage. By familiarizing them with the team’s tactics and strategies, Slot minimized the adjustment period for the academy players, enabling them to seamlessly fit into the first team when given the opportunity.
Final thoughts
Arne Slot has demonstrated why after Erik ten Hag, he is regarded as one of the most exciting coaching talent in the Eredivisie. He managed to go to Feyenoord and transform them into a team that won the title, but also competed in Europe.
As Slot’s success at Feyenoord caught the attention of clubs abroad, the inevitable move to the Premier League beckoned. The English top-flight presents a different set of challenges and a higher level of competition. Slot’s ability to adapt his tactics and philosophy to suit the demands of the Premier League will be under scrutiny.
While Slot’s track record at Feyenoord speaks volumes about his abilities as a coach, the Premier League is an entirely different beast. The tactical intricacies and the relentless pace of the English game require a different approach. Slot will need to demonstrate flexibility and a keen understanding of the nuances of the league to replicate his success.
Sources: Voetbal International, Trainersmagazine, Opta, FBREF.
