Slot on Liverpool's City Challenge: "The Word Easy Never Comes to Mind"
Today at 02:01 PM
With a draw and five losses from their last six, Manchester City are in the worst form of the Guardiola era. Liverpool don't want to help them turn things around.
Every week and every game is important for a side that aspires to challenge for titles and trophies. Every win is worth three points or advances you to another round of a knockout cup competition. There's always going to be pressure to perform and deliver.
Some week, though, feel more important. Some weeks feel as though they could end up defining a season. For Liverpool, this is one such week, with Manchester City up next on the weekend after Wednesday's Champions League tie against Real Madrid.
In Europe mid-week Liverpool most certainly delivered, with the final 2-0 scoreline hardly flattering the host Reds. Now, if they can do the same against City on Sunday, it's fair to say the hope and belief around Arne Slot's first Liverpool side will be sky high.
"The word easy never comes to my mind if I think about City," was Slot's response when asked about the unique challenge of facing the most dominant force in English football over the past decade in what might be their worst ever run under Pep Guardiola.
"I know everybody looks at their results and I have seen them as well, but if you face them you analyze it and, for example, against Brighton they were 1-0 up and could have made it two or three. Against Tottenham they could have been up by two or three.
"And against Feyenoord, they were 3-0 up, completely dominating the game and all of a sudden it was 3-3. The problem now might be Rodri is out but we all know, at least I think, that [Guardiola] will come up with a solution and their form will go up again."
The goal, then, is to make sure Liverpool don't do anything that makes it any easier for City to turn things around on the weekend; to limit the chances it's against the Reds on Sunday when Guardiola's side find an answer to their issues and click back into gear.
On form, it seems a perfect time to face Man City. To think that the stumbling City seen in November is what they'll look like the rest of the way, though, would be foolish. But just maybe it will be the Reds can stretch out their struggles for one more game.
