What happened when Arne Slot met Brendan Rodgers as Liverpool's would be king shows who he really is

Sleuthing Liverpool fans are on the hunt for proof that Arne Slot is the man who has what it takes to step into Jurgen Klopp's size 11s.

But as they pour over his historical record looking for signs of encouragement, there's a firm connection staring them right in the face: his meeting with their former boss Brendan Rodgers last season. Rodgers came within a whisker of scaling the mountain that catapulted Klopp into immortality and is easily their second best manager since the days of Rafa Benitez. And Slot, now into his fourth season at Feyenoord, is clearly a fan.

His team met Rodgers' Celtic twice in the Champions League group stages and speaking before the first meeting back in September, he said his admiration for the Irishman went back further than that. They were within 90 minutes of facing Rodgers' Leicester in the Conference League final, only for Jose Mourinho's Roma to halt that dream in its tracks - as they did with Feyenoord in the final.

As Slot's Feyenoord got ready to welcome Celtic to Rotterdam, he said: “They play football which I like to see. Brendan Rodgers did a very good job with Leicester City, reached the semi-final of the Europa League with football everyone enjoyed watching. This season he has done this with Celtic as well.

"There are players who stand out for me when it comes to the threat they have, especially the striker (Kyogo) and the left winger Maeda. I also like their midfield and the way they play and the style they play. It is my belief that the players all have individual skills, but they can grow because of the team.”

As it happened, Celtic were a match for them over the two games. The Rotterdam game was a proper battle in which Feyenoord had the firepower, even without key man Santiago Gimenez, to down the travelling Hoops. There were chances at both ends but Calvin Stengs had them in front at half-time, and after a second-half meltdown from Celtic that saw Gustaf Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Holm sent off in quick succession, Alireza Jahanbakhsh settled it late on.

By the time they met again at Parkhead in December, Celtic were out, and Feyenoord were marooned into the purgatory of third place and the consolation prize of Europa League football was in the bag. But the relatively low stakes didn't take the sting out of a game both teams wanted to win.

At that point Celtic had gone 15 Champions League games without a win, a run stemming back six years to Rodgers' first spell in charge. But this was where that came to an end.

If Slot was a fan of Rodgers then he was proven right to be here as his team, known for a defensive prowess relatively incongruous with the fire and brimstone typically associated with Dutch football, were outgunned. Luis Palma's penalty was cancelled out by Yakubah Minteh's late strike before Lagerbielke redeemed himself for his red card in the earlier game, popping up with a stoppage time winner that felt like it had been a long time coming.

A visibly frustrated Slot was seen getting into it with the fourth official in the dying stages but he was magnanimous after the game - even if there was a tinge of sticking the boot in. Lazio were in Slot's sights and he inevitably felt the Italians, who equalised through their goalkeeper in stoppage time against Atletico Madrid before beating Celtic 2-1 through Pedro's 95th minute strike, got a fair rub of the green on their way to making the last 16.

There were also echoes of Klopp himself, who has prided himself on a relatively low net spend in making Liverpool competitive with the likes of Manchester City down south. He said: “Unfortunately, one of the two clubs who are reaching the last 16, had some luck. Not in the way that I mean they are not good. But when you score with your goalkeeper in 96 minutes, and also score here at Celtic Park in 93 minutes to win 2-1, those are the moments that can make the difference when you only play six games.

“When you are Man City or Bayern Munich, they maybe doesn’t make a difference because they are 20-per-cent better than every team they play anyway. They don’t depend on luck or bad luck. So, for clubs like Celtic and Feyenoord, you need a clear playing style and also little bit of luck.

“I feel Celtic deserved more than the one point they’ve got until now. And you could call that luck for us or bad luck for us. If they would’ve got more points then tomorrow would’ve been playing maybe for a Europa League position but also a Champions League for the next round.

“So, I do think if you look at the way Lazio are playing in their season in Italy, then it was an ideal moment for Celtic or us to go to the last 16. But I think I just explained why Lazio reached it and these two clubs didn’t.”

A fan of Rodgers and shades of Klopp in the cut of his jib, he may not be Ruben Amorim or Xabi Alonso, but it does appear there's a logic to this one that carries promise. But will he bring the success the Anfield fan base want? Only time will tell.