Arne Slot reveals unique reason why he wants Liverpool to win the Carabao Cup

The Independent

·5 February 2025

Arne Slot reveals unique reason why he wants Liverpool to win the Carabao Cup

Arne Slot revealed he has a particular motivation to win the Carabao Cup – because he has never been to Wembley.

Liverpool enter the second leg of their semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 down after Lucas Bergvall’s goal in London but with Slot having a personal reason to want a comeback.

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While Liverpool have won the competition in two of the last three seasons and are the defending champions after Jurgen Klopp’s triumph over Chelsea last season, new head coach Slot has never gone to England’s national stadium, either as a manager or a fan. And that is driving him on.

“It cannot be underestimated,” he said. “Maybe some of these players are already used to Wembley, but it would be my first time to go to Wembley. If you go to England people are talking about Wembley as an iconic stadium, especially if it's a final. So you can be sure that we as a team want to win that game to go to Wembley.”

The Carabao Cup provides Slot with a chance to get his first trophy in charge of Liverpool. His side are leading the Premier League and finished top of the Champions League group stages but while Liverpool could do the quadruple this season, Slot does not want to judge himself on the basis of silverware alone.

He explained: “In life, it's not only about winning trophies. I have to steal something Jurgen said. It is also very important that the fans leave the stadium thinking: ‘When do they play again?’

“I like that sentence a lot because I would love us as managers being judged more on that than only on trophies. How do they play? Is it nice to watch them? Are the fans looking forward to the next game already?

“I agree that we are more mostly judged on the trophies we win, but I judge myself and the players on work rate and the quality they bring during every single game. Jurgen was so unlucky that he played against [Manchester] City and over 90 points was not enough [to win the Premier League in 2018-19 and 2021-22]. How can that happen?”