'Made himself look ridiculous' - Arne Slot's bizarre kick-off routine goes viral as 'one of his worst' coaching ideas comes back to haunt Liverpool boss

Slot finished his playing days with PEC Zwolle in the Dutch second division and hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons after coming up with a bizarre kick-off routine. The routine involved flicking the ball up and launching it straight into the penalty area where on-rushing attackers would simply slot it past the goalkeeper. Slot's plan worked well in training but did not go to plan when it came to the real thing.

PEC Zwolle attempted the routine and saw it fail almost instantly. The initial flick up set Slot up nicely to hammer the ball forwards but he succeeded only in smashing it straight up into the air, gifting possession and the initiative straight to the opposition.

Zwolle’s manager at the time, Art Langeler, told The Athletic: "By firing the ball as high as possible into the penalty area, the idea was our three strikers would run forward and be there (for when it dropped) on the edge of the area. And who knows what would come of that? It looked funny, of course. And if you didn’t know the background, you’d think, ‘What on earth are they doing? They just shoot the ball into the air’. No, this was a brilliant failure, let’s leave it at that.”

Former Zwolle coach Jan Everse told The Athletic it was one of Slot's worst ideas: "He made himself look ridiculous — it was unbelievable." Everse went on ponder if the intention was: “that the opponent burst out laughing, doesn’t recover and they could profit from that.

“But it was still a ridiculous idea. Arne has a lot of ideas — this, unfortunately, was one of his worst ones.”

Slot's tactical prowess does seem to have improved over the years as he's gone into management. The Dutchman is on course to win the Premier League in his first season at Liverpool, as Reds just 16 points from the remaining nine games to guarantee top spot. Liverpool are back in action on Wednesday against Everton at Anfield.