Ahead of a huge clash with Manchester City on Super Sunday, Liverpool boss Arne Slot has praised his opposite number Pep Guardiola, discussed the form of Virgil van Dijk and the Premier League title race.
Liverpool head to the Etihad having won their last two games against Aston Villa and Real Madrid. Before that, they had lost six of their previous seven games in all competitions.
Man City have responded well to a defeat at Aston Villa two weeks ago, with both teams aiming to close the gap on Arsenal at the the top of the table, live on Sky Sports.
Slot covered this and more as he sat down for an exclusive chat with Sky Sports’ Juliette Ferrington ahead of the Super Sunday showdown…
Slot praises Pep ahead of 1,000th game
Guardiola will manage his 1,000th game in football on Sunday, and Slot spoke of his long-time admiration for how the Man City boss has coached his teams.
He said: “You’re always looking forward to watching his team play. When you are analysing every opponent, it’s always nice when you play against his teams because then you have the privilege to watch five, six, seven games of his team and you never get bored.
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Liverpool head coach Arne Slot says his main focus is consistency from his players rather than paying too much attention to the Premier League table
“At least I never get bored because his team always have a very good and clear idea in ball possession, they always try to make the people happy.
“It’s a joy to watch where so many other games are not, in my opinion, a joy to watch anymore.
“It’s become more [about] time-wasting and things I don’t like that much about the game, but which are very good tools to use to make it difficult for other teams if they play against you. It’s a new tactic in football, I would say, but this is something Pep’s teams hardly do.
“And of course, the Barcelona team was unbelievable. Hoping they would play on a Sunday night at 8pm, so there was one thing to look forward to at the end of the weekend.
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights of the Premier League match between Liverpool and Aston Villa
“Then when he went to his other teams, he also invented new things like the inverted full-back. It’s always something special if you watch a game on one of his teams.
“A lot of managers win, but in the style he has won his trophies, that is why he stands out compared to many others.
“I wonder if there are many managers that start their career now that will reach 1,000 [games], especially at the level he’s worked at, because it was probably already very hard to achieve that and there’s a lot of sacrifices coming with that.”
‘Van Dijk should take criticism as a compliment’
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk
Slot also touched on his captain Virgil van Dijk, with the defender coming in for criticism this season. He confronted one of those critics, Wayne Rooney, after Liverpool’s win against Real Madrid on Tuesday.
The pair met on Amazon Prime after Rooney had questioned Van Dijk’s leadership once he signed a new deal, which the Netherlands international described as “lazy”.
When asked about Van Dijk, Slot said: “I’ve picked captains at my former clubs where the age of the players were much younger.
“Maybe not completely because they were already the leader of the team, but I’m hoping that could help them to become a leader of the team.
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Jamie O’Hara gives his opinion, as both a player and a pundit, on Wayne Rooney’s criticism of Virgil van Dijk – and Van Dijk’s response
“But with Virgil, it’s so clear that he’s the leader of this team. When you walk through the AXA [training centre], when we start the training session, you can hear him, you can feel he’s our leader.
“He’s already been so important for this club for so many years, but I don’t think I’ve had many captains that were so vocal, so loud as he is. He’s been a very good captain for me and since he became the captain of this club.
“He sets the bar at 10 out of 10 and when he has a nine out of 10 [performance], he sometimes gets criticised as well… I think other players will get compliments for a nine out of 10, but he gets criticised for that.
“He had similar form to last season, but there were one or two moments this season where he could have done better defensively and he got criticised by that straightaway. Maybe he should it see as a compliment, because that’s where he set the bar from.”
Sunday 9th November 4:00pm
Kick off 4:30pm
‘I’m focused on winning games, not league table’
Any game between Man City and Liverpool is often billed as a title-race clash, but with Arsenal holding a commanding lead, Slot is focused on winning as many games as possible rather than the league table.
“If you look at the current league table, it’s clear,” he added. “Arsenal are six points ahead of City, seven points ahead of us, but when there were 10 games to go [last season] and we were leading by eight or 10 points, it didn’t feel completely safe to me yet.
“Maybe also because back then we were in the second half of the season so already struggling a little bit. Not everyone noticed, but I felt it and it was harder and harder for us to win a game of football.
“Arsenal have only conceded three goals and lost once against us so at this moment, it’s not about looking at the league table. It’s just trying to win as many games as you can and give yourself the best position you can.
“But definitely two very good teams are going to play against each other and what the future will bring, we will see.”
Watch Man City vs Liverpool on Super Sunday live on Sky Sports from 4pm; kick-off 4.30pm.
