Liverpool face Manchester City at the top of the table with the possibility of ending the Premier League champions hopes of a fifth straight league title a real probability at Anfield
Arne Slot believes the grind of the Premier League is keeping his Liverpool players honest.
The Kop boss takes on reigning champions Manchester City as title pacesetters and Pep Guardiola’s men in crisis after five successive defeats were followed by an epic Champions League collapse in the draw with Slot’s former club Feyenoord. But the Reds have been forced to work so hard by opponents this season that the manager does not sense any evidence of complacency.
Slot said: “What has helped is that every game up until now has been difficult to win. If you have 3-0, 4-0 or 5-0 wins four or five times in a row, then people tend to go ‘ah, this is going to be quite easy.’
“But all of our games have been so tight, and we’ve had to work for it so hard, that all the players feel and know how hard it is to get a result. Sometimes I have to tell them this, but I think that they do feel it themselves anyway.”
Guardiola was so caught up in the drama of City’s collapse against Feyenoord that he accidentally scratched his own face as his team threw away a three-goal lead in the last 15 minutes on Tuesday night.
Twenty-four hours later, the Premier League leaders remained top of the Champions League standings by beating European champions Real Madrid 2-0 at Anfield.
Slot said: “I don’t hope you will ever see me (after losing). But if it does happen, I tend to think I am the same person. If we lose maybe once or twice I might scream at the referee, for example, but people inside this building will also see that if we lose I will be thoughtful and calm.
“That’s not to say I can’t be angry, but in general I am thoughtful and calm.”
