Ahead of their huge clash with Manchester City on Super Sunday, Liverpool manager Arne Slott praised his opponent Josep Guardiola, spoke about Virgil van Dijk’s form and the Premier League title race.
Liverpool head to the Etihad having won their last two games against Aston Villa and Real Madrid. Up until then, they had lost six of their last seven matches in all competitions.
Man City responded well to the defeat to Aston Villa two weeks ago, with both teams looking to close the gap on leaders Arsenal, and the game was broadcast live on Sky Sports.
Mr Slott discussed this and more in an exclusive chat with Sky Sports’ Juliet Ferrington ahead of the Super Sunday showdown…
Slott praises Pep ahead of 1,000th match
Guardiola is set to coach his 1,000th football match on Sunday, and Slott spoke of his longstanding admiration for how the Man City manager has coached his team.
He said, “You always look forward to watching his team play. When you’re analyzing all the opponents, it’s always great to play against his team, because then you can watch five, six, seven games of his team and never get bored.”
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Liverpool head coach Arne Slott says his main focus is on the consistency of his players, rather than paying too much attention to the Premier League table.
“His teams always have very good and clear ideas about possession and always try to make people happy, so at least for me I never get bored.
“In my opinion, it’s fun to watch when a lot of other games aren’t fun to watch anymore.
“It’s a lot of wasted time and there are things I don’t really like about the game, but it’s a very good tool to use to make things difficult for other teams when they play. I would say this is a new tactic in football, something Pep’s teams rarely do.”
“And, of course, the Barcelona team was incredible. We were hoping they would play on Sunday night at 8 o’clock, so it was one thing to look forward to at the end of the weekend.”
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Watch for free: Premier League match highlights between Liverpool and Aston Villa
“Then when he went to other teams, he also invented new things, like the reverse full-back. When you watch his teams play, it’s always special.”
“Many managers have won, but he stands out from many others because of the style in which he has won trophies.
“I wonder if there are many managers who start their careers now and reach 1,000 (games), especially at the level he has worked so far, because it is probably already very difficult to achieve that and there are a lot of sacrifices that come with it.”
“Van Dijk should take criticism as a compliment.”
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk
Slott also touched on captain Virgil van Dijk, with the defender receiving criticism this season. After Tuesday’s win between Liverpool and Real Madrid, he confronted one of those critics, Wayne Rooney.
The pair met on Amazon Prime after Rooney questioned Van Dijk’s leadership and described him as “lazy” when the Dutch international signed a new contract.
Asked about Van Dijk, Slott said: “I have chosen captains at previous clubs where the players were much younger.
“Maybe it’s not completely because they were already the leaders of the team, but I hope it helps them become the leaders of the team.
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Jamie O’Hara gives his thoughts on Wayne Rooney’s criticism of Virgil van Dijk and Van Dijk’s reaction, both as a player and as a pundit.
“But with Virgil, it is clear that he is the leader of this team. When you walk into AXA (training center), when the training session starts, you can hear his voice and feel that he is our leader.
“He’s been a very important part of this club for many years already, but I don’t think there were many captains who were as loud and loud as him. He’s been a very good captain to me and since he’s been captain of this club.”
“He sets the bar at 10 out of 10, and when he gets 9 out of 10 he gets criticized…I think other players get praised for 9 out of 10, but he gets criticized 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, but he was immediately criticized. Maybe he should take that as a compliment, because from there he set the standard.”
Sunday, November 9th 4pm
4:30pm kickoff
“We’re focused on winning games, not league position.”
Both Man City and Liverpool matches are often touted as title contests, but with Arsenal holding a commanding lead, Slott is more focused on winning as many games as possible than league positions.
“It’s obvious if you look at the current league table,” he added. “Arsenal are six points ahead of City and seven points ahead of us, but when we were eight or 10 points ahead with 10 games left[last season]I still didn’t feel completely safe.
“Maybe because we were in the second half of the season at the time, we were already struggling a little bit. Not everyone realized it, but I felt it and I felt it was getting harder and harder to win football games.”
“Arsenal have only conceded three goals and lost one against us, so we’re not worried about the league position at the moment. We’re just trying to win as many games as possible and get into the best position possible.”
“But it’s definitely going to be two very good teams playing against each other and we’ll see what the future holds.”
Watch Man City v Liverpool live on Sky Sports from 4pm on Super Sunday. Kickoff 4:30pm.
