Liverpool are still putting the finishing touches to the team who will take them into the 2024/25 season.
As we’ve known since January, it will be the first time the Reds head into a campaign without Jurgen Klopp since 2015/16.
Klopp’s Liverpool backroom staff did not always stay the same over that time. But during the past five or six years at least, the team around the manager has remained constant.
Liverpool supporters got to know very well the likes of assistants Pep Lijnders and Peter Krawietz, while goalkeeping coach John Achterberg was part of the furniture at Anfield for 15 years.
With Klopp going though, all of these familiar faces have gone with him. And as Arne Slot has arrived to replace Jurgen, he has slowly been assembling a group of trusted lieutenants.
Liverpool should hire Dirk Kuyt
It has been a big task for Liverpool to bring in a whole new staff for Slot this summer. With the season now five weeks away from starting, the job is still not quite done.
It was reported last week that Liverpool are set to appoint two new coaches to Slot’s team.
One of those has now already arrived. On Thursday the Reds officially confirmed that Aaron Briggs has joined to be Vitor Matos’ replacement in the role of first team individual development coach.
That leaves one more spot open to fill. Thankfully, we know exactly the man for the job.
READ MORE: What insiders at Liverpool have already started to notice about Arne Slot’s coaching staff
A recent trend in football has been for clubs to hire former players back in certain roles. Man United have just done it with Ruud van Nistelrooy. Though this has had mixed success, it is always a delight for fans.
For Liverpool supporters, it had looked as though Fernando Torres could return in a coaching position this summer. Torres spent a week shadowing Klopp and Lijnders at the AXA Training Centre, but it didn’t happen.
Instead though, the Spaniard’s former teammate, Dirk Kuyt, would look like a much more suitable addition to Slot’s team.
Kuyt has just led Belgian side Beerschot to the first division but surely could be tempted back to Anfield to be part of the new-look coaching staff.
Dirk Kuyt already knows Arne Slot
According to The Daily Mail, Liverpool have been considering the hiring of former Netherlands international Johnny Heitinga. But we think Kuyt would be a better fit.
The 42-year-old obviously already knows the club well having spent six years at Anfield as a player.
Kuyt has also cut his chops as a coach for several different clubs already. He managed Feyenoord’s U19 side from 2018 to 2020, had a brief stint as head coach at ADO Den Haag in 2022 and has done well at Beerschot since being appointed last year.
Kuyt expressed delight when Liverpool hired Slot, saying that the Reds had ‘made a very good choice.’ A legend at Slot’s former club, Feyenoord, Kuyt has even been invited by Slot to observe his training sessions in the past.
“A while ago I was invited by Arne Slot to come visit,” he said in 2023. ”I grabbed that opportunity with both hands. It’s nice to be part of how things work there. It was a very beautiful experience. For me, it was nice to have been there as a starting trainer.”
It just makes sense!
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