Pep Guardiola reveals Arne Slot is already forcing him to do one thing since replacing Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool boss

09/13/2024 10:25 AM

Pep Guardiola admits he has to binge-watch Liverpool to gain a better understanding of Arne Slot's method.

The Manchester City boss has been thrown a curveball with the departure of Jurgen Klopp at the end of last season.

The pair went head-to-head in the Premier League over an eight-year battle for English football supremacy.

Prior to that, they fought for the Bundesliga title during the Spaniard’s time at Bayern Munich and Klopp's reign as Borussia Dortmund boss.

Klopp's departure may have brought the curtain down on one of the Premier League's greatest managerial rivalries but the Liverpool-Manchester City battle appears to be alive and well.

Guardiola now has the task of working out a way to overcome Slot's methods ahead of their first showdown at Anfield on November 30.

Both sides have maximum points from their opening three league games with the table already taking a familiar look.

Speaking about the adaptations he has made since Slot's arrival, Guardiola said: “When I play a new club in the Champions League that I don’t know, I see much more than playing against Arsenal, for example. Of course I want to watch Arsenal a lot, but Mikel has been there four or five years.

“And before with Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool. Now I have to watch more Liverpool because of Arne: I don’t know exactly what they do. But with Jurgen, we knew each other better.

“When I was younger, I watched much, much more than now. Now I’m lazier. I think I watch well enough to understand what the opponents want to do. I try to choose the right footage to show my players, to convince them of what to do to try and beat them.”

Slot is relishing his first crack at the City boss later this year having revealed his decision to take over at Anfield was in-part due to the intense City-Liverpool rivalry.

“I think for everyone who loves football it was a fantastic era to watch the both of them getting the best out of each other,” the Dutchman said in June.

“Liverpool came along and like I just told you about the rivalry between City and Liverpool and the many games we as football fans saw, it wasn’t a difficult choice to make.”

The Reds boss gears up for a pivotal Premier League home double header with Nottingham Forest visiting Anfield on Saturday before Bournemouth head to Merseyside next weekend.

Liverpool open their Champions League campaign at AC Milan on Tuesday in the club’s first appearance in the competition since their round-of-16 defeat to Real Madrid in March 2023.