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Ruud Gullit and Arne Slot explain why they don’t enjoy watching the Premier League anymore

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Ruud Gullit and Arne Slot explain why they don’t enjoy watching the Premier League anymore

Ruud Gullit and Liverpool boss Arne Slot explain to the media why they don’t enjoy watching the Premier League anymore.

On Dutch TV station Rondo, Gullit spoke of falling out of love with the game, following Ajax‘s 0-0 draw with PEC Zwolle.

Gullit said: “I haven’t been enjoying watching football at all lately,

“I watched Arsenal-Chelsea on Sunday, and what a terrible match that was! It’s like Stratego [strategy board game]. The football is terrible to watch.

“I hope that doesn’t become a trend. Every player is super fit, but we’re hungry for players like Lamine Yamal, who can outplay opponents.

“It feels like everything is controlled by a computer. I miss the fun. I think that’s a real shame.

Chelsea captain Reece James also said after the defeat at the Emirates: “This is football now in 2026, 90 per cent of goals are probably set pieces.

“Arsenal are one of the leaders in the world at set-pieces. They are difficult to stop, they scored two today.

“I’m disappointed, but we move on”.

“First of all, you have to accept it,” Slot said in his press conference ahead of the Wolves game. “I think it’s mainly here in the Premier League. If I watch other leagues, I don’t think there’s so much emphasis on set-pieces.

“If I watch an Eredivisie game, I see goals being disallowed and fouls on goalkeepers being given and I’m like: ‘Wow, that’s a big difference’. Here, you can almost hit a goalkeeper in his face and the referee still says: ‘Just go on’.

“Do I like it? My football heart doesn’t like it. If you ask me, thinking about football, I think about the Barcelona team from 10-15 years ago. Every Sunday evening you were hoping they would play.

“Now, most of the games I see in the Premier League are not for me a joy to watch, but it’s always interesting because it’s so competitive and that is what makes this league great, because there is so much competitiveness.

“Everyone can win against everyone. But just as someone who loves to watch football without being interested in winning or losing, just to be enjoyed, I think there’s a big difference between now and three or four years ago in the Premier League.

“Not only because of the set-pieces but because teams have become so much stronger.”

According to the BBC, seven of Liverpool’s most recent nine goals have come from set-pieces, with Slot adding: “It’s very pleasing because firstly that is the reason we have won.

“Second of all, people said well played, and in my opinion we have been better when we lost and better when we conceded from set-pieces.

“The first half of the season, almost every set-piece we conceded went in. Now we start scoring from set-pieces and things start looking brighter and better than when you don’t.”

Everton head coach David Moyes likening some tactics to “nearly wrestling”, and added “that referees really don’t want to get involved in any of it”.

Speaking in his post-match press conference after beating Chelsea, Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta said: “It’s not ugly. You have to play the game that is there for you to play, and against Chelsea, you know exactly the game that you’re going to play.

“For me, it’s a beautiful game to play because they have so much quality, and you have to adapt so much to what they do, and they have to do the same against us.

“So the margins are very, very small, and the duels at the end decide these kinds of games. Hopefully we can play many top games like this.”

Speaking ahead of his side’s midweek game, Arteta on his side’s record on goals from set-pieces and what other managers have said about the tactics they use:

“I am upset we haven’t scored more and that we have conceded [from set-pieces] as well.

“We want to be the best and most dominant team in every aspect of the game. That is the trajectory and the aim of this team. As a club we want to be the same, so we will try to do that.”

On criticism his side and their tactics have received: “It’s part of the job.”

Arteta on whether it is hard not to get drawn into the pressure surrounding the title race during tight matches: “We had to do much better with the ball in in-game actions [near the end of Sunday’s win over Chelsea]. I have got to say all credit to Chelsea as well. They got us into tight situations ans they produced the biggest chance from a cross that is not a shot and David [Raya] has to make a big save.

“Against Spurs we managed to score three goals when drawing 1-1 and won the game more comfortably, so all the time we have to continue to learn.”

Arteta on whether criticism of the club’s set-piece tactics is because everyone is trying to play catch-up: “I don’t know. As an opponent you get upset when you concede a goal. I was really upset by the way we conceded the goal against Chelsea and Chelsea looked really good with the quality they have, look at the amount of set-pieces they score. Manchester United, the same.

“When I was at Manchester City we used to work a lot on them, so it’s something.

“There are phases when one team has an opportunity to do certain things. The game is evolving and becoming more and more difficult.

“Before, when you used to do a game plan and you would invert a full-back or bring an extra player into midfield or a false nine, 4v3 inside, 2v1 inside, everyone behind the ball.

“Teams are adapting, teams know after every sequence of play, whether it is a throw-in, a restart of play, an open-pitch situation, after that they know exactly what they have to do and everything is almost man to man.

“So it is not going to be a different game, unless we change the rules, because the evolution of the game is that.”

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola on use of set-pieces in Premier League per BBC Sport: “Set-pieces have started to be important. It was different when I started as a manager.

“When I was a young boy we said the people in England celebrate corners and free-kicks like a goal. I remember perfectly, so nothing has changed in that way.

“Arsenal dictate how they do it and it is an important aspect. Four years ago in the NBA, the three-shot point was not involved as much but now so many teams do it. It is part of the dynamics.

“You can sit and complain but you have to adapt. It’s part of the game. You have to adapt and especially adapt in the way it is conducted in the Premier League. Every country has a specific way to do it and every club have specific ways they play. I understand completely why [Arne Slot’s comments] and in some ways I agree.”

Guardiola on excessive pushing and pulling in the box during corners: “I have my own opinion on that but I will keep the opinion of what happens in the box to me. I won’t share with you. I have shared it with the players a long time ago.”

Guardiola on whether he enjoys set-pieces: “Yeah. It is what it is. It is the business I am in. I am a manager. I can’t say ‘I don’t like set-pieces’. I adapt and do it.

“Football has been played in so many ways since it was created. How it is played in England is different in the way it is played in Spain or Italy. Every manager plays in different ways. How boring would it be if all the managers played in the same way. I have to adapt.

“If I don’t like, I don’t watch but I have to adapt.”

 Guardiola was asked again about set-pieces and how referees can officiate them: “You create a different press conference. I have a specific opinion about that and it remains to me. It is up to the referees. I cannot answer that question. I know my opinion perfectly about that.

“When you are on that subject normally, you lose your focus. The focus is Nottingham Forest and Vitor Pereira. If I start to talk about that, I will be in trouble tomorrow.

“I have a completely detailed and precise opinion about that, but you’ll have to ask the referees. Not to me.”

Manchester United interim head coach Michael Carrick on grappling during set-pieces: “I think it’s gone too far. It wasn’t long ago we were told you couldn’t lay a hand on anyone in the box and we were told it would be clamped down. It’s crept in, the success of corners and being able to put bodies close together has made more teams do it.

“It’s understandable why there are so many teams doing it and trying it. As a game, it doesn’t feel like we’ve got that balance right. I don’t know what to do about it, it’s not for me to decide.

“In the meantime, you got to deal with what’s in front of you, and if it’s allowed, then you got to play to it.”

Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler on the amount of time Premier League leaders Arsenal take before set-pieces.

“For me the main topic is to make a clear rule how much time you can waste for a corner, for a throw-in, for a free-kick because I think no-one recognises it, but when Arsenal has a corner and they are leading, sometimes they spend over one minute just to take a corner.”

Fabian Hurzeler on time-wasting before set-pieces in the Premier League: “Therefore, I think we have to make clear rules because in the end we have a net game time of 50 minutes instead of sometimes 65 minutes, so the game is changing so much.

“If you don’t have a [similar] net game time for all games. We analysed it and the difference is just massive.

“I have the opinion that every supporter who pays a lot of money to go to the stadiums and watch our games should see the same net game time because they pay a lot of money.

“They want to see a football event and they don’t want to see maybe 50 minutes the ball is in the game and 40 minutes the game is not running.”

On his side needing to learn from Arsenal and improve the way they defend and attack set-pieces:

“That’s how I see it [match officials need to clamp down on time wasting at set-pieces], but I think we won’t change these rules immediately, so we know how important set pieces are… that they can be a game changer, so we have to use it as well.

“We have to be very efficient in scoring goals, we have to be more efficient in creating chances from corners and free-kicks and always try to defend them well because at the moment it is a big trend in the league and we definitely need to adapt and to adjust to it.”

Hurzeler on how he prepares his team to face Arsenal’s set-pieces: “I think it’s not about putting more time into it [on the training ground]. Overall, it is the same as in open play – stick to your principles. We have a way to defend corners, we have a way to defend throw-ins, we have a way to defend free-kicks. It is very important that you stick to that and you keep working on your principles, but you can always improve these kinds of principles.

“If you always jump from one thing to another thing then the players always have to adapt and they never get this deep thinking of our principles.

“It is definitely a big strength from Arsenal, they do it in an impressive way this season. They have a lot of good takers, they have a lot of physicality, so it is definitely something we have to take care of, but we will stick to our principles…we will have big belief in our set-up and our players and we are convinced that we can defend it.”



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