Pep Guardiola's hidden Man City role that helped Arne Slot get Liverpool job

Liverpool's new head coach Arne Slot has previously cited Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola as a source of inspiration.

Monday saw confirmation that Slot would be the next head coach at the Anfield club. Slot replaced Jurgen Klopp, who had spent close to nine years in charge of Liverpool following his appointment in October 2015.

City and Liverpool have battled for several Premier League titles in recent years, with Guardiola and Klopp forming a fierce rivalry on the touchline. Next season will see Guardiola go up against Slot when City face Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium and Anfield.

Slot has spent the last three seasons at Feyenoord as manager of the Eredivisie club. The 45-year-old guided the Netherlands outfit to the league title last season and won the KNVB Cup final against NEC Nijmegen just last month.

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Well before the links of Slot making the switch to Merseyside emerged, the Feyenoord boss was already being tipped to eventually move to the Premier League. It was amid these links that Slot outlined how Guardiola has been his source of inspiration across his career, and what he enjoys most about watching City's matches.

"I certainly don't want to compare myself to Pep [Guardiola], but he is a control freak just like me," Slot told Dutch news outlet Voetbal International in May 2023.

"If I look at myself, I try to win a match in the week before it is played, by conveying the training, pre-match team talks and tactics to the players as perfectly as possible."

Slot added: "There is no team in the world I would rather watch than Manchester City, followed by Napoli, Arsenal and Brighton.

"But City - and again it is not my intention to compare us with them - have a similar style of play to how we want to play with Feyenoord: 4-3-3, building up from the back, wanting to apply pressure quickly."