'I was right to criticize Jurgen Klopp but Liverpool has one of the best in Arne Slot'

Raymond Verheijen, known among Liverpool fans on social media as 'The Fitness Egg', was a constant critic of squad conditioning methods during the early days of his tenure. Now, while praising successor .

Verheijen, a former youth player in Holland who had to retire at 18 due to chronic injury, moved into coaching where he worked with Chelsea, Manchester City and Barcelona, along with the national teams of Wales, Holland, Russia and South Korea.

He had previously labelled David Moyes "a dinosaur" during his unsuccessful stint at Manchester United in 2013 and followed up his criticism of Borussia Dortmund when Klopp's Liverpool squad suffered a series of injuries in 2017, .

This long-distance war of words prompted a response from Klopp about Liverpool's hectic festive schedule in 2016: "We play two games in 48 hours, there will be injuries and then some Dutch guy will say things."

In 2018, when Liverpool reached the final and finished fourth in the Premier League, sparking a successful period under Klopp, Verheijen offered what seemed like a backhanded compliment. He said it was "encouraging to see managers like Jurgen Klopp are not too old to learn from their mistakes in previous seasons".

However, Verheijen believes his comments should not have been seen as negative by the former Liverpool boss. "Criticism is actually a positive thing because criticism means that you try to identify and correct flaws," he explained.

"That is a necessity if you want to develop and improve.

"I criticised these coaches based on evidence, I always substantiated my criticism with objective, logical arguments and not my subjective opinion.

"I also always said it in advance. A lot of people criticise afterwards but that is easy because then you already know the end result. I predicted the mistakes."

Klopp's successor Slot has had a record-breaking start as Liverpool boss with nine wins from 10 games in all competitions. Verheijen, a fellow Dutchman, added: "Slot has already developed himself as one of the best Dutch coaches. He has a great tactical understanding of the game."

"When he talks about the game, he is always clear because he keeps things simple and to the point. Also, he has a very football-specific approach which is much appreciated by players."

In an exclusive interview with , Verheijen issued a warning of potential fitness concerns for the Liverpool squad. Already without key players like Alisson Becker for at least a month and Harvey Elliott, whose recovery looks to be on course after fracturing his foot, he noted that coaching changes often lead to more injuries.

"When there is a change in coaching staff, there is a spike in injuries and this spike is significantly bigger if the change in coaching staff also means a change of fitness coach," Verheijen said.

"A lot of fitness coaches aren't football coaches, so they are thinking about fitness in a non-football or isolated way.

"Fitness coaches all have a different way of training, meaning the players' bodies have to adapt to a totally new way of training and that is the main reason for those injuries."