It feels on the surface as though Liverpool couldn’t have picked a better time to play Manchester City at Anfield, even if they had the power to do so.
The Reds are comfortably top of the Premier League as we head towards the halfway stage, eight points above defending champions City, who are enduring a six-game winless run in all competitions.
Pep Guardiola’s men, more tellingly, lost five games in a row before the sixth — a draw against Feyenoord in the UEFA Champions League — no doubt feels like a defeat considering they blew a 3-0 lead in the final 20 minutes.
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But while Liverpool manager Arne Slot — who, as fate would have it, was previously the Feyenoord coach — is quickly eradicating all fears he could end up as the David Moyes to Jurgen Klopp’s Sir Alex Ferguson, he still has a tough act to follow in one key area.
Klopp is currently, and could remain for some time, the most successful manager to ever oppose Guardiola teams. The two battled wits both in Liverpool vs. City fixtures for many years, and briefly before that when they coached Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, respectively, in the mid-2010s.
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List of most successful managers vs. Pep Guardiola
Klopp was able to get the better of Pep on 12 occasions — five more than famous Guardiola rival Jose Mourinho.
Four well-known coaches achieved it four times, and four other big names bested the Catalan three times.
And if you study the losses column, you’ll further appreciate how difficult it has been to beat a Barcelona, Bayern or City side managed by Guardiola.
| Rank | Manager/Coach | GP | W | D | L |
| 1st | Jurgen Klopp | 30 | 12 | 7 | 11 |
| 2nd | Jose Mourinho | 25 | 7 | 6 | 12 |
| =3rd | Mauricio Pochettino | 25 | 4 | 7 | 14 |
| =3rd | Carlo Ancelotti | 12 | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| =3rd | Ole Gunnar Solskjaer | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| =3rd | Antonio Conte | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 |
| =7th | Arsene Wenger | 14 | 3 | 3 | 8 |
| =7th | Mikel Arteta | 13 | 3 | 2 | 8 |
| =7th | Thomas Tuchel | 12 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| =7th | Nuno Espirito Santo | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
Nonetheless, Slot can join a few others, including Ange Postecoglou, in getting a win over the all-time great this weekend with so many factors going for Liverpool and against the Mancunians.
And with Guardiola confirming he’ll be in charge for at least another two seasons following the current campaign, Slot has a real chance of breaking into the top five (or even creating a clear-cut top three) if he keeps up his good work so far.