Perhaps essentially the most extraordinary facet of Sunday afternoon at Anfield was how extraordinary all of it felt. Everyone got here for one thing apocalyptic and what they obtained was a league sport that felt like just about every other league sport by which Liverpool beat a aspect who aren’t pretty much as good as them. For a time there was a thought that Liverpool would possibly pay for failing to benefit from their early domination, for lacking first rate probabilities. However Manchester Metropolis are not the just about supernatural power they as soon as have been; finally they made two errors in fast succession, making a gift of first possession after which a penalty, and the sport was Liverpool’s.
Even Pep Guardiola appears to have accepted it’s over. After the – frankly uncomfortable – sight of him clawing at his personal scalp on Tuesday as they tossed away a three-goal lead in opposition to Feyenoord, he responded to chants of “You’re getting sacked within the morning” by grinning and elevating six fingers to indicate the variety of Premier League titles he has gained. Sadly, it additionally denotes what number of of their final seven video games Metropolis have misplaced.
All of which raises two questions. Firstly, can anyone cease Liverpool, who’ve gained 18 video games in 20 video games underneath Arne Slot? And secondly, in what circumstances would possibly Guardiola really be sacked?
Thus far, Slot has a behavior of enjoying groups simply as they hit a hunch in type. It’s to not diminish what he has achieved at Anfield to level out that he’s additionally been a fortunate supervisor. However equally, a variety of the explanation Liverpool’s opponents haven’t been at their finest is that they’ve been enjoying Liverpool, who appear to have discovered a really comfortable center floor by which they’ve lots of the qualities of Jürgen Klopp’s sides with out among the recklessness.
Few managers have left a membership in fairly pretty much as good a state as Klopp did. Most depart when the construction is damaged, however Klopp had begun the method of rebuilding, reshaping his ahead line and midfield over his final couple of seasons. Slot, it shouldn’t be forgotten, has completed this with out including a single participant; which, as Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah strategy the tip of their contracts, might by subsequent season have develop into problematic. But he didn’t depart a aspect that had been so profitable not too long ago that the trail led inevitably downwards. After 4 successive Metropolis titles, there was no motive for anyone at Liverpool to be resistant to vary. Slot has performed the political sport properly, at all times paying acceptable deference to Klopp whereas tweaking to make Liverpool play a barely extra conservative model.
On the similar time, there have been repeated events this season when he has made modifications which have had a transparent constructive impact. Virtually the default sample for a Liverpool match has been a barely featureless first half adopted by a second by which they rating a few targets. Towards Ipswich, Wolves, Chelsea, Arsenal, Brighton, Bayer Leverkusen, Southampton and Actual Madrid, Liverpool improved after Slot’s in-game tinkering. That could be a massively spectacular hit charge, and suggests a supervisor not merely extraordinarily adept at studying the sport tactically however decisive in appearing upon that.
Liverpool’s lead over Chelsea and Arsenal is 9 factors with 25 video games to go. It might be too early to say the race is over, even when we knew how they deal with life when fortune activates them, however that’s a particularly wholesome benefit, significantly given there isn’t any motive to anticipate both Chelsea or Arsenal all of the sudden to embark on a remorseless successful spree – though Arsenal have already performed their away video games in opposition to 5 of the opposite six groups who completed within the high seven final season.
And will Guardiola be sacked? It appears unthinkable. For many of the previous 16 years he has been clearly the very best coach on the earth. Lengthy earlier than he obtained to Metropolis, the membership was constructed to his imaginative and prescient. To interrupt from that will be a seismic act for the membership’s homeowners, far better than, say, Leicester offloading Claudio Ranieri or Chelsea dismissing José Mourinho within the months after they gained a title, particularly as Metropolis battle the Premier League expenses.
However equally, historical past exhibits that after the magic has gone in soccer, it is extremely exhausting to get it again (have a look at Inter in 1966-67, dominant and seemingly en path to a Treble solely, abruptly to lose type, successful solely two of their ultimate 11 video games of the season to finish up with nothing; Helenio Herrera was given one other season, by which they completed fifth).
In a month, Metropolis’s aura has vanished, however who realistically appears to be like a greater candidate than Guardiola to revive it? As long as he feels sufficiently energised, he will certainly be afforded that chance. However what assets he has to try this will in all probability rely, like a lot else, on the end result of the Premier League expenses in opposition to the membership.
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That is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US on the sport in Europe and past. Subscribe without spending a dime right here. Have a query for Jonathan? E-mail soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll reply the very best in a future version
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