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They can be seen as opposite ways of losing hold on a title. The 2024 champions had their crown defense ended before Christmas after they underperformed for their title-winning team. His 2025 successor, as his manager acknowledged, will have changed much. Now Manchester City And liverpool Find the probability that the loser will be behind by 10 points armoryOut of contention before the November international break.
Champions demonstrate consistency and winning Aston Villa And real Madrid allowed Arne Slott To Smile: “We were actually pretty consistent (before that) but we were constantly losing so that wasn’t the idea.” They visit the Etihad Stadium with the scalp of the 15-time European champions but only three points from their last five league games and an admission that, after a summer in which some £450m was spent, Liverpool made too many changes.
“Why did I change so much compared to last season? I agree with you, but not for the reasons you’re telling me,” Slott retorted. “I’m known as a manager who doesn’t like to make changes but I couldn’t do anything different from what I did.”
His reasons can be aired again and again: Alexis McAllister and Connor Bradley had disrupted pre-season and lacked the fitness to play regularly, Ryan Gravenberch has been on paternity leave, suspension and more recently injury. For obvious reasons, left unstated The tragic loss of Diogo JotaNor was it Slott’s fault Trent Alexander-Arnold opted not to renew his contract and departed for Real Madrid, although Liverpool had more agency selling luis diazWhich has had an immediate impact on Bayern Munich.
It was also Liverpool who decided to pay a record £125 million alexander isaacA player with a questionable fitness record, Decision to go on strike in Newcastle This meant he got in bad shape and who may be on the bench on sunday But have not yet achieved the Premier League or Champions League target. The notable revelation was that Slott always felt it might take until March for the striker to be at his best.
“Alexander Isaac came in and had to do a pre-season within a season. You say, ‘Why do you play with him?’ But (if not) he won’t be fit until the end of the season. When we signed him we already knew that it would take him three to six months to reach his normal level. But if I never play with him, I can’t get him to that level.”
But there may be contradictions. The slot could have changed more if his recruiters were a better fit. “There’s been a lot of attention paid to our £450m spend but I haven’t been able to use £250m of that so far because Alex is not at his usual level for obvious reasons and Giovani Leoni is out with injury after one game and Jeremy Frimpong has almost always been injured so far.” The combined cost of the three was close to £200m, such that the summer net spend, which they put at £150m, is more than £200m.
But it’s also notable that Slott found a winning formula by deploying his lesser recruits, recalling Andy Robertson for unsuccessful newcomer Milos Kerkez. The team that defeated Villa included a sole outfield signing in the form of Hugo Ekitike. florian wertzHe was benched for the last three league games, which cost him £100 million. Arsene Wenger has accused him of “destroying” his midfield by bringing in a specialist number 10. The slot returns to last season’s trio of Dominic Szoboszlai, Mac Allister and Gravenbirch.
Slott argued, “The nice thing about football is that everyone has their own opinion about it.” “If I needed open-heart surgery, I wouldn’t tell the surgeon what he needed to do. I think we have five or six very good midfielders who can all play together, but they need to play more together to get the best out of every single player.”
Yet it was notable that Wirtz excelled on the left wing against Real. Slot remains adamant that the German can thrive in the middle. “I can tell you that if it’s not this season it’s another season or if it’s not now it’s tomorrow, he will be great as a midfielder for Liverpool as well,” he said. City, like Real, were among the clubs who praised Wirtz’s performances for Bayer Leverkusen.
Another similarity to Sunday is that the city is also in rebuilding. Last autumn, Guardiola’s team aged before his eyes. It became graphically clear that their squad was too small, with City negligent in delaying their overhaul. They have signed 11 players since then. For City, as for Liverpool, it remains to be seen whether the overhaul will produce a team on par with the previous champions. Slott is reserving judgment on his team’s title credentials. “The best way to judge the league table is after 19 games,” he said. But the danger is that, by that time, Liverpool, City or both will be so far behind Arsenal that their title race will already be over.