How Liverpool are moving on from Jurgen Klopp's 'heavy metal': No new signings but new boss Arne Slot has tricks up his sleeve including the secret 'sugar huddle'

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It is a challenge to find anywhere in the vibrant Philadelphia that is not bustling with noise or a hubbub of people moving about the crowded city. But the Lincoln Financial Field, in the shadows of the skyscrapers and tourist attractions, offered a perfect setting to just listen to Arne Slot.

Not in a press conference – he has clearly been media-trained since leaving Feyenoord and does not give many secrets away anyway – but a training drill at the home of NFL franchise Philadelphia Eagles. With just one word, the Dutchman demonstrated how the Jurgen Klopp era was a thing of the past.

During the hour or so watching Liverpool be put through their paces in the searing Pennsylvanian heat – it was 35C most afternoons during the Reds’ American adventures – the head coach repetitively barked one order at his new charges: patience.

If there was one word to best sum up the first six weeks of the post-Klopp administration, patience is the one. Unlike the breakneck football of his predecessor, Slot wants a calm and possession-based approach. Less heavy metal, as many described Klopp’s style, more soft rock.

‘Total football,’ was how Tyler Morton described it – a nod to the great Johan Cruyff, Slot’s compatriot and reference point. Fellow midfielder Curtis Jones added: ‘It was like a rush in the past, I feel. We got the ball back, it was a bit too direct I’d say. Arne is amazing. It is probably the happiest I have been.’

 Arne Slot has been settling into his new life as Liverpool manager over the past six weeks

Slot has impressed and a key difference to Jurgen Klopp has been his focus on 'patience' 

The Dutchman's early impact on the squad has helped Liverpool to move on from Klopp

Those comments from Jones were spun as a dig at Klopp – his name was never mentioned – but his words were intended as a compliment to the new boss. He has been working tirelessly trying to make his Dutch style of play go from a foreign concept to second-nature.

Patience, therefore, is the overarching buzzword of his first months. Slot and his backroom team have needed it with many star names on annual leave for much of his tenure. Of the players who boarded the jet from Manchester to Pittsburgh for the tour, it was easier to name those who were not there.

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Indeed, you could make an XI of missing stars that would be good enough to do well in the Premier League: Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Joe Gomez, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez were all absent.

Patience has also been needed by fans when it comes to transfer activity – or the lack thereof. When Fulham signed Ryan Sessegnon on July 26, it meant that Liverpool became the only club in Europe’s big five leagues not to bolster their squad this summer. They still are.

New sporting director Richard Hughes fielded a fair dose of flak from supporters for the lack of new faces but the word from inside the club has always been that they are taking a patient approach. Quality over quantity.

But despite the lack of signings and a touring squad that represented a band doing a concert without their lead singer, it has been an incredibly pleasing welcome to Merseyside for Slot, who was lodging in the Titanic Hotel on Stanley Dock, also the location for Klopp’s boozy leaving do in May.

Liverpool played six pre-season friendlies and won four, losing only against Preston in a training-ground kick-around but beating Arsenal, Manchester United, Sevilla and Real Betis. He is a calm presence on the touchline – which will please fourth officials who grew scared of Klopp – but assertive when needed.

Curtis Jones hailed the new style and revealed it is 'the happiest he's been' while at the club

Patience has been needed on signings, with sporting director Richard Hughes receiving flak

The Reds were in for Real Sociedad's Martin Zubimendi, but the midfielder turned them down

‘Patience, Dom, patience!,’ was the cry from Slot at ‘the Linc’ – as the locals call the Eagles’ stadium – in that training session in Philadelphia. He was talking to Dominik Szoboszlai, the Hungary captain, as he looked to move on from the kick-and-rush football of Klopp.

‘Kill them with passes,’ he continued. ‘If the pass is not on, we start again… patience, boys!’ Mail Sport’s ringside seat for these sessions offered a better insight into the new regime than watching the six friendlies they have played before Friday's trip to newly-promoted Ipswich.

Slot, like a PE teacher, patrols training drills with a whistle. He stops proceedings regularly, then intervenes to undergo a quick game of 3D chess, lecturing his troops on where to be. ‘If we have the ball here, these are the options of what I want to do with it,’ he would say, before listing several ideas.

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He talked about the ‘triggers’ of when to make a certain run off the ball and regularly had his arm around certain players giving them precise instructions. For the average Joe standing on the sidelines, it was a lesson in the levels of detail and passion that have been thrown into curating the Slot playbook.

Of course, just because he is thorough does not mean he has all the correct answers. This is not to say he is the second coming of Pep Guardiola or Cruyff. And with another caveat that pre-season is often meaningless, his players are grasping his style with open arms and it seems to suit them perfectly.

Slot was officially unveiled at the AXA Training Centre on July 5, the same morning as Labour got over the line to win a landslide in the General Election. Much in keeping with the theme of the day, this was a new man in office wearing red to deliver a confident first public address.

But the 45-year-old did not promise change, just more of the same. He is very keen to respect Klopp’s legacy and, though he insisted he is not a ‘clone’ of the German, he knows the foundations are solid and mass changes would be detrimental.

Slot will not give the splash-worthy headline quotes that Klopp delivered almost weekly during his nine years and prefers to keep himself to himself. He wants to win something before doing any media duties he is not contractually required to do. In terms of aura, he is a quiet encore to Klopp.

His cabinet is made up of a trusted team of lieutenants who are vocal on the training pitch. Right-hand man Sipke Hulshoff regularly leads several drills, while new coach Johnny Heitinga – the former Everton defender – puts on individual sessions for players.

Slot has been joined at Liverpool by a loyal group of staff, who each have significant expertise

Slot, like a PE teacher, patrols training drills with a whistle, and regularly intervenes in sessions

One big change from Klopp has been the attention to detail. In the previous era, team meetings would usually be limited to ‘MD-1’ – the day before a match. Now, Slot and his backroom staff hold meetings almost daily. They vary in time and could be team sessions or individual chats.

Young full back Conor Bradley has benefited from time with former defender Heitinga on improving that side of his game, while Hulshoff has been influential in moulding Ryan Gravenberch into more of a deeper midfielder. They invested bags of time in Fabio Carvalho, who was sold to Brentford for £27.5million.

Another new man is Aaron Briggs, formerly of Manchester City. He is described as the ‘link man’ between the academy and first team – Slot and Klopp are cut from the same cloth in terms of a desire to promote youth – but he also adds layers of detail in training.

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He has been looking after set-pieces in lieu of an official dead-ball coach – they are recruiting one – and has dreamt up a rather wacky corner routine. It involves all players congregating in the far corner of the penalty area before darting into the six-yard box to fox defenders. They call it the ‘sugar huddle’.

Another quirky method used has been from new head of goalkeeping Fabian Otte, who was poached from the United States national team. He has asked keepers to wear American-designed Swivel Vision training goggles, which limit peripheral vision and promote ‘scanning’ the surroundings more.

The thought is that by making life harder for the keepers in training, the easier such actions should be to reproduce in real matches. Otte, who once worked in Nike’s commercial team, has a PHD qualification. The subject? Goalkeeping.

German coach Otte wrote a paper called: ‘What do you hear? The effect of stadium noise on football players’ passing performances’. Another technique he has used in training is to make the keepers wear noise-cancelling headphones to manipulate sensory information, supposedly enhancing concentration.

Slot also puts a huge emphasis on injury prevention and the man in charge of that is Ruben Peeters, who is head of performance. The Belgian has a Masters in sports science and specialises in ‘periodisation’ – how far to push athletes without overworking them – but also looks at sleep cycles and gut health.

Peeters leads warm-ups – one of his favourite drills is to use training bibs as ‘tails’ stuck out of players’ shorts in a game of tig – and was often spotted in pre-season shooting off his chair to tell Slot that it was time for a player to be substituted. It will be interesting to see whether they can avoid another injury crisis.

Slot may not not give the splash-worthy headline quotes that Klopp delivered almost weekly during his nine years in charge, but he was hugely impressive at his unveiling back on July 5

Liverpool played six pre-season friendlies, winning four, and they put in some strong displays

It has not been all work and no play for Liverpool this summer, though. The squad played table-tennis tournaments – Mohamed Salah is still the king – and the card-game Uno. They went to watch the New York Yankees take on the Philadelphia Phillies at the baseball stadium and had visits from NFL icons.

Players and staff recreated a famous scene from Sylvester Stallone in Rocky by running up the 72 steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art – Mail Sport verdict: easier said than done in the east-coast humidity – and posed for pictures alongside famous landmarks.

They kept up the boxing theme with a visit to Front Street Gym, the iconic venue in the city of Smokin’ Joe Frazier and set for the film Creed. After falling short in last season’s title race and with Klopp’s shadow still looming over Anfield, Slot will hope he is able to deliver a knockout blow this season.