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Arne Slot showed class with Man City comments but title reality is clear for Liverpool
Liverpool boss Arne Slot was complimentary of Manchester City's Pep Guardiola during his Thursday afternoon press conference.
On Sunday, Liverpool welcome the Premier League champions to Anfield, knowing a win will move them 11 points clear of City and Guardiola. Earlier this week, City let slip a 3-0 lead in the Champions League, drawing with Feyenoord 3-3 at the Etihad.
Guardiola and co has not won a game in all competitions for six matches now, and travel to Merseyside this weekend to take on a Liverpool side buoyed by their midweek win over Real Madrid in Europe's elite club competition. While City is in such poor form, conversely, life under Slot at Anfield could not be going better for Liverpool.
In his debut campaign, Slot has guided Liverpool to an astonishing 17 wins from 19 games. They have only lost once - to Nottingham Forest. The other game they dropped points in was against Arsenal in a 2-2 draw.
Nonetheless, the Liverpool boss opted to praise Guardiola during his Thursday press conference, adding he would not be surprised if the Spaniard springs a tactical surprise for his side on Sunday afternoon. "I wouldn't be surprised if Pep comes up with another brilliant idea," said Slot.
"He started inverted full-backs and centre-backs as No.6. So I wouldn't be surprised if he comes up with something to make his team even stronger, so that is why he inspires so many. When he did it we thought he was crazy and then we tried it as it was a brilliant idea. Let's wait and see. If anyone can come up with something new it's him."
He added: "It always depends on circumstances, them conceding three versus Feyenoord had a lot to do with changes they made and extremely unlucky. During a season, these things can happen to any team. Seen it with Arsenal, with Odegaard out and City with Rodri. I hope we don't face those same problems but it always hurts managers when a star player is injured."
Slot isn't wrong when he credits Guardiola for always coming up with an idea. Having one full-back tuck in to form a back three whilst the other inverts to come inside into a midfield pivot to create a 3-2 shape in build-up was a tweak that helped City enormously during the season they won the treble.
Similarly, during that season, he also began playing four centre-backs in defense, allowing for John Stones to step into midfield and be covered by three others - again creating a 3-2 shape that allowed City to dominate.
Guardiola is one of the most intelligent minds in the game - but on Sunday, Liverpool must go into the game thinking they have an opportunity to potentially deal a knockout blow to a Premier League title rival.
The Reds will never have a better chance to flex their muscle against City and show the next era of Premier League domination could come from Anfield.
