“Over the years, the newspaper cutting has started to yellow with age. It has a rip down one side and, almost four decades since it was printed, its owner cannot be sure how the damage occurred. Bert Snippe has just pulled up a chair and introduced himself as a former team-mate of Arne Slot’s father, Arend, from the village team, VV Bergentheim, whose story is intrinsically linked to Liverpool’s modern-day success. Arend never played professionally but he was called up for the Dutch national amateur team. Mention his name in Bergentheim and the people who have seen him play all seem to be in agreement: he was the best footballer VV Bergentheim ever had. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
Arne Slot (third from left), aged nine, in a Dutch newspaper
The Arne Slot story: From Dutch Bible Belt to Liverpool – and why ‘it all comes back to his father’
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“It is a problem dominant football teams are experiencing across the world: with so many opposing sides deploying a low block, meaning they sit deep on their 18-yard line for the majority of the game, how do you find a way to goal? With space behind the defence strangled and the centre of the pitch condensed, plotting a course requires precise combination play. Most teams have to go around the block but that usually means crossing the ball, and statistically those do not translate into goals very often. In light of those convoluted routes, Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has made the executive decision that going over all those bodies is the best policy. …”
“It is a staple of English football. Despite the progression in modern football tactics, it is remarkable how many managers point to a specific part of the game in their pre- and post-match interviews. The second ball. With the influx of overseas coaches over recent decades, it feels like a rite of passage to note the importance of second balls when striving to win a game of Premier League football. Most notably, early in Pep Guardiola’s first season with Manchester City, he recalled how 
Scissors Kick 