Arne Slot has been advised to take a leaf out of Pep Guardiola’s book as he seeks to instigate a season-defining revival at Liverpool.
The Reds have endured a horrendous defence of their Premier League title so far, losing six top-flight matches already and lagging 10 points behind Arsenal, and even that’s after a mini-revival over the past three weeks.
What we’ve experienced since late September is similar to what Manchester City encountered as defending champions in the final two months of 2024 when they hit an extraordinary 13-match slump which saw them lose nine times and win only once.
Guardiola’s side ultimately recovered to finish third in the Premier League, but that was still their lowest finish in eight years, and it was only with substantial experimentation that the Spaniard eventually hit upon a formula which worked for his team.
Slot advised to copy Guardiola blueprint from last season
Ex-Manchester United chief scout Mick Brown – who worked under Alex Ferguson for more than a decade – has advised Slot to copy the example of his Man City counterpart as he attempts to turn Liverpool’s recent upturn in form into a sustained improvement for the rest of the season.
He told Football Insider: “Liverpool are no different to any other team. This run that they’ve been on, it happened to Man City last season and Pep Guardiola couldn’t do a thing about it. He was in despair and couldn’t wait until the end of the season.
“Eventually, over time, they slowly turned things around and started getting back to winning ways. Pep deserves some praise for that because he stuck at it and tried a load of different things in an attempt to figure out what the problem was, because it wasn’t clear.
“The parallels are all there for Liverpool. It’s almost the exact same situation, and Slot should look at how Pep handled it and try to do the same. Most people expect them to turn things around, [but] it won’t happen as quickly as a snap of the fingers, and it could still get worse for them.
“The manager is being backed to turn things around, so if he can do what Pep did, bide his time and make changes to get a hold back on things, I think that’s all he can do. There’s no immediate quick fix because, looking at it, there’s no immediate problem.”
Slot hasn’t been afraid to change tack at Liverpool
Whilst we understand Brown’s logic and can see some similarities between Liverpool of recent months and Man City of late 2024, it isn’t as if Slot hasn’t tried to deviate from Plan A to try and get a tune out of his team.
He has tried several other formations with varying degrees of success, with the 4-4-2 diamond he utilised against Inter Milan last week proving particularly effective, and he hasn’t been afraid to gamble on fielding players in unfamiliar positions.
That hasn’t always been successful – the experiement with Dominik Szoboszlai at right-back and Jeremie Frimpong in attack against Galatasaray didn’t work – but at least there has been a willingness from the head coach to change tack if his original plan hasn’t had the desired effect.
Recognising a need to address Liverpool’s defensive woes, Slot has been more pragmatic with his setup in our last couple of games, and two wins and clean sheets have duly followed.
We’re reluctant to say that the Reds have fully turned the corner – we though that after the wins over Aston Villa and Real Madrid in November before (ironically) tanking against Guardiola’s Man City – but there have been recent signs of improvement which offer encouragement going into the festive period.
Wins over two out-of-form opponents in Tottenham Hotspur and Wolves are essential to keep the momentum going into 2026, especially with a manic January seeing us play nine times that month.
You can watch Slot’s full post-Brighton press conference below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube: