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Liverpool are the team to beat in the Premier League and Champions League this season as they end the year top of both tables.
The Reds have taken advantage of some slip-ups by their domestic rivals to sit eight points clear in England’s top division.
But to pin Liverpool’s current position on mistakes by other clubs would be to downplay the impact Arne Slot has had on Merseyside.
The Dutchman has been nothing short of a sensation at Anfield, making the transition away from Jurgen Klopp’s legendary leadership as smooth as it could ever possibly have been.
One of the reasons why the handover has been so seamless has been the style of football Slot has employed for the Reds.
Although there are similarities to what we saw under Klopp, there have been new things for the Liverpool squad to get their heads around, too.
And according to pundit Nedum Onuoha, some of what’s been on show from Slot’s Reds has been ‘genuinely astonishing’.
Photo by Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images
While Slot and the Liverpool coaching staff deserves tonnes of praise for implementing their ideas so successfully, the players should get a slice of that, too.
Not everyone has adapted perfectly, but for the most part the Reds’ squad have listened to what their new boss wants and executed it exceptionally.
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This has led to Liverpool having much more control over games as they adopt a patient, passing approach.
And speaking to ESPN FC, former Man City player Onuoha says that some of Liverpool’s football this season has been simply ‘stunning’ to witness.
READ MORE: Liverpool told they have been doing something under Arne Slot which is just like Man City at their best
“I’m looking at the two sixes, one comes to the left, one goes to the right.
Someone goes hight to the left, someone drops into the space,” says the pundit.
“It’s so well orchestrated that it leaves the opposition wondering, like, ‘where should I go?’.”
“The way that they play is a way in which everybody understands what they’re supposed to do and they have the trust to know the other person’s going to make the right decision more times than not.
“So, as a consequence it’s like stunning to watch.
From a pure footballing standpoint, right now, the way they are doing it is as good as I’ve seen in recent times.
It’s genuinely astonishing.”
Amongst his high praise for Liverpool’s style of play, Onuoha pinpoints Virgil van Dijk as being the conductor of the Reds orchestra.
“Van Dijk is one of the best players in the league at dictating the tempo of a game,” says the pundit.
“He can play short, back to the goalkeeper, or he can hit a diagonal across to Mo Salah, whatever the moment needs.”
Van Dijk’s role as dictator has been slightly tweaked by Slot, with the captain now being asked to slide balls through the middle to the likes of Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister.
In a more general viewpoint, though, Onuoha is right.
It is not always as all-action as Liverpool fans became used to under Klopp, but there are times when their team has put together some quite ridiculous moves this season.
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