Arne Slot was guilty of a silly slip of the tongue on Sunday afternoon after the home game against PEC Zwolle (4-0). The coach called PEC ‘not a co-title candidate’, suggesting that Feyenoord does play for the national championship. The trainer was later pointed out by a journalist in the room, after which he corrected himself.
According to Slot, it was not the fault of PEC Zwolle that his team was ahead after more than half an hour. “I do look at their position in the rankings slightly differently,” said Slot about the bottom of the Eredivisie. “Were it not for the fact that with 4 points from 12 games you would not play against a fellow title candidate. But you have to be 4-0 after half an hour of play and you always do that yourself, because if you do not have intensity and If you play without experience, you won’t be able to get a 4-0 lead.”
Arne Slot thought he was not playing today against a “co-title candidate” ???? pic.twitter.com/yzAGCYKb83
— ESPN NL (@ESPNnl) Nov 21, 2021
Shortly after his statement, Slot received a subtle signal from the press secretary of Feyenoord, but did not seem to notice that. “Then I made a mistake”, Slot said when asked. “Of course we are now in a position that looks very good. We are currently the competitor of Ajax and PSV. It would be crazy if I said that we compete with Zwolle for the last place.” Feyenoord is currently in third place, two points behind Ajax and PSV, but played one less game. Slot’s team has the fewest loss points in the Eredivisie and will play the make-up match against Heracles Almelo on December 1.
Slot’s slip of the tongue was striking, as the national championship is not yet being discussed in South Rotterdam. “Feyenoord supporters should above all keep dreaming”, Slot said about this earlier after the victory at Sparta Rotterdam. “I think it’s very nice that we can say that at the moment, because we all know how we started the season and what the expectations were at the time. So it’s very nice to see that people now experience that.”