An overreliance on Guardiola’s genius has sent champions down a diverging path to Slot’s revamped Liverpool
Manchester City look dependent on the enduring individual genius of Haaland, Rodri and Guardiola himself whereas Liverpool have have built resilience in almost every position.Manchester City look dependent on the enduring individual genius of Haaland, Rodri and Guardiola himself whereas Liverpool have have built resilience in almost every position.midfielder Rodri was asked if he ever fancies emulating Pep Guardiola and becoming a coach. “No,” comes the firm response.
Take their struggles in midfield: a problem brought into sharp focus by Rodri’s injury but one they have also tried to address in previous transfer windows. Kalvin Phillips, Matheus Nunes, Mateo Kovacic arrived in the 2022 and 2023 summers for a combined outlay of more than £100m. This summer Ilkay Gündogan was re-signed, a free transfer but with wages likely to be in the region of the £320,000 a week he was earning at Barcelona.
Liverpool, by contrast, have built resilience in almost every position. Obviously players such as Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk are largely irreplaceable. But their absence would not in itself force a change of style or approach. Conor Bradley has established himself as a fine deputy to Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back. Alexis Mac Allister is in a rich run of form but nobody would panic if Curtis Jones stepped in for him.
But it does mean that over time, the collective begins to take on the character of the individual. As Guardiola has aged and changed, so have City: more pragmatic, more stubborn, more bombastic and obsessive,
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