Arne Slot knew Liverpool reality before Gary Neville even made laughable prediction

If there’s one thing Liverpool fans are enjoying more than sitting top of the Premier League and Champions League, it might just be making Gary Neville look stupid.

The former Manchester United captain doesn’t have the best record when it comes to predictions, especially when he’s talking about the Reds. Who can forget him confidently suggesting Manchester United would win a league title before Liverpool, only to be proven wrong just a few months later?

You might think then that he would exercise some caution before making any more outlandish claims about the Reds – but no. The moment the current season rolled around, with Liverpool entering a new era following Jurgen Klopp’s departure, Neville was back at it again.

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Despite being right in a title challenge until the final few weeks of the previous campaign, the former defender saw fit to predict that not only would Liverpool miss out on a place in the top four, but they would even fall short of the top six.

With every passing week, the Reds have given that prediction all the respect it deserved. Now sitting nine points clear at the top after 13 games – and 11 clear of Manchester City after easily brushing the defending champions aside – Neville has finally been forced to backtrack.

“Arne Slot, taking over from Jurgen Klopp, is in dreamland. It's a tipping point kind of day and Liverpool are now incredible favourites for the Premier League title,” he admitted after the Reds’ win over City.

Liverpool fans will no doubt take great joy in seeing Neville left with egg on his face, and it seems Slot might be enjoying it to, having had the Sky Sports pundit’s latest comments put to him at his press conference ahead of the trip to Newcastle.

"He had a different opinion at the start of the season about us, which probably most people had, so he was not the only one — except for our fans,” Slot responded.

It was a very measured reply to what was, let’s not forget, a truly awful take from Neville. But then, Slot knew the truth about his own side even before he’d met his new players.

Explaining how his role as head coach would work compared to being a manager, Slot said in his very first interview with the club back in June: “I think for me it is the way I have worked always and it for me is the ideal way of working, because I can use the most of my time by working with the team and the time that is left will probably be a bit for the family and a bit to talk with Richard about how we can strengthen the team. But we already have a really strong team.”

Slot has repeated that last point a number of times over the last few months, showing a humble nature by acknowledging the strong position his predecessor left his team in. Considering Neville – and others, it has to be said – were seemingly blind to that when they were making their pre-season predictions though, it has absolutely been worth repeating.

There is of course still a long way to go before we can even start thinking about Liverpool winning this season’s title, but the fact that Neville has been forced into changing his prediction so early in the campaign demonstrates exactly what Slot always knew – the Reds are indeed a “really strong team”.