Arne Slot reveals true feelings about Pep Guardiola in six-word message

Arne Slot used the build-up to Liverpool’s showdown with Manchester City as an opportunity to hail Pep Guardiola as the best manager in the world.

But it was a little aside in private that gave a more telling insight into why the Dutchman believes he can succeed where Jurgen Klopp failed by bringing an end to the Catalan’s domination of the Premier League.

“I don’t look up to Pep,” said Slot in a briefing with the Sunday newspapers ahead of the clash between two teams that have gone head-to-head for the title for most of the last seven years. “That’s not the words I would want to use.”

Just moments earlier, Slot had told the TV cameras: “Pep is one of the best in the world - and in my opinion THE best.”

But with Liverpool holding an eight-point advantage over the four-in-a-row champions, they won’t be suffering from any inferiority complex. Especially after beating European champions Real Madrid more comprehensively than the 2-0 scoreline suggested on Wednesday night.

Twenty-four hours earlier, City saw a 3-0 lead against Slot’s former club Feyenoord evaporate in the last 14 minutes of a game they had dominated. That came on the back of five successive defeats that had shaken City to the core and led to suggestions that Guardiola’s team is now ripe for the taking.

“I got in touch with Feyenoord but not in a tactical way,” admitted the Dutchman. “I just contacted people I worked with to say ‘what an amazing result and congratulations with the unbelievable performance’ and those kinds of things.”

Anfield has been a graveyard for the Blues - both before and after Guardiola arrived at the Etihad to win six titles in seven seasons. City have won just three games on Liverpool soil stretching back to 1956. Guardiola’s only success there came when the stadium was left empty by the pandemic and he went home with a 4-1 victory.

“What is even stranger than that is that the only time Liverpool have won the league in the last 30 years was when there were also no fans,” countered Slot.

“I think the reason for this (record) is that Liverpool have always had great teams as well. It’s a combination of the fans and the players.

“If you only had good fans and terrible players it is difficult to win any game. But if you have very good players and the fans are all behind you, this always gives you something extra.

“I think another statistic is that from the last nine or 10 games we have played against City, we have only won once.

“The last eight times we played Real Madrid we had never won - until the other night when we won. So for me, data and statistics like that don’t mean a lot with this game.”

Slot insists that the only thing the champions are lacking is a stroke of luck.

The worst run of his managerial career came early in his reign at AZ Alkmaar when he drew four games on the bounce. But he feels the Eredivisie in his homeland cannot be compared with the difficulties in winning games in the Premier League or Champions League.

Slot said: “I remember those four draws in a row - but it is also different when you play in the Premier League and the Champions League. In Holland, if you play Europa League or Conference League games and then a league game, it is much easier. You probably aren’t going to lose five in a row.

“In the Premier League and Champions League, this can happen to every team - especially if you are as unlucky as City have been in the last four or five games they played because the results could have been the opposite.

“I cannot answer how I would react (to five successive defeats) until I have been in that position. If I analysed City at the moment, I would say the results are not what they want. But if you look at how they play, I would not be concerned at all.”