The champions’ dilemma that left Liverpool and Man City in the same hole | OneFootball

They may come to be seen as contrasting ways to lose a grip upon a title. The 2024 champions’ defence of their crown was over before Christmas, destroyed because they did too little to their title-winning team. Their 2025 successors, their manager accepted, may have changed too much. Now Manchester City and Liverpool meet with the possibility that the loser will be 10 points behind Arsenal, out of contention before the November international break.

Champions tend to display a consistency and victories over Aston Villa and Real Madrid allowed Arne Slot to smile: “We were actually very consistent (before then) but we were consistent in losing so that wasn’t the idea.” They visit the Etihad Stadium with the scalp of the 15-time European champions but just three points from their last five league games and an admission that, after a summer when some £450m was spent, Liverpool altered too much.

“Why did I change much more than last season? I agree with you, but not for the reasons you are telling me,” countered Slot. “I’m known as being a manager who prefers not to change but I couldn’t do anything different to what I did.”

His reasons can be aired frequently: Alexis Mac Allister and Conor Bradley had disrupted pre-seasons and lacked the fitness to play regularly, Ryan Gravenberch has had paternity leave, a suspension and a more recent injury. Left unsaid, for obvious reasons, is the tragic loss of Diogo Jota. Nor was it Slot’s fault that Trent Alexander-Arnold opted not to renew his contract and departed for Real Madrid, though Liverpool had rather more agency in selling Luis Diaz, who has had an instant impact at Bayern Munich.

It was Liverpool, too, who chose to commit a record £125m to Alexander Isak, a player with a questionable fitness record, whose decision to go on strike at Newcastle meant he arrived out of shape and who may be on the bench on Sunday but is yet to deliver a Premier or Champions League goal. The remarkable revelation was that Slot had always felt it might take until March for the striker to get back to his best.

“Alexander Isak came in and had to do pre-season inside the season. You could say, ‘Why do you play him?’ But (if not) then he wouldn’t be fit until the end of the season. We knew this before when we signed him that it was going to take three to six months until he’s up to his usual level. But if I never play him, I can’t bring him to that level.”

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Liverpool’s big-money signing Alexander Isak has struggled for form and fitness (Peter Byrne/PA) (PA Wire)

But there can be contradictions. Slot could have changed more, had his recruits been fit. “There has been quite a lot of focus on our £450m spending but I could not use £250m of that until now because Alex has not for obvious reasons been at his usual level and Giovanni Leoni has after one game been out with injury and Jeremie Frimpong has almost always been injured until now.” The combined cost of the trio was nearer £200m just as the summer net spend, which he put at £150m, is in excess of £200m.

But it is also notable that Slot found a winning formula by deploying fewer of his recruits, by recalling Andy Robertson for the flailing newcomer Milos Kerkez. The side that beat Villa contained a lone outfield signing, in Hugo Ekitike. Florian Wirtz, benched for the last three league games, cost £100m. Arsene Wenger has accused him of “destroying” his midfield by bringing in a specialist No 10. Slot has reverted to last season’s trio of Dominik Szoboszlai, Mac Allister and Gravenberch.

“The nice thing about football is that everyone has his opinion about it,” Slot rationalised. “If I need open-heart surgery, I am not going to tell the surgeon what he needs 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.”

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Slot has benched Florian Wirtz for the last three league games (PA Wire)

It was nevertheless notable that Wirtz excelled on the left wing against Real. Slot remains adamant the German can flourish in the middle. “I can tell you if, it is not this season it is the other season or if it is not now it is tomorrow, he will have great performances as a midfielder for Liverpool as well,” he said. City, like Real, were among the clubs who admired Wirtz’s performances for Bayer Leverkusen.

Another similarity on Sunday is that City are in a rebuild, too. Last autumn, Guardiola’s team aged before his eyes. It became graphically clear that his squad was too small, that City had been negligent in delaying their overhaul. He has since signed 11 players. For City, as for Liverpool, it remains to be seen if the overhaul will produce a side the equal of previous champions. Slot is reserving judgments on his own 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 point, either Liverpool, City or both will be so far behind Arsenal that their title race is already run.