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Arne Slot has aimed a thinly veiled criticism at Arsenal - and other Premier League competitors - before Liverpool's encounter with Manchester City. The Reds are preparing to take on Pep Guardiola's squad at the Etihad Stadium this weekend, hoping to narrow the distance to the Gunners in the championship battle.
Arsenal have established a commanding position at the summit of the division, having claimed wins in all of their previous five fixtures. The north London side could potentially stretch their advantage to nine points before Sunday afternoon's blockbuster meeting if they succeed in overcoming Sunderland.
Slot has voiced his enthusiasm about locking horns with Guardiola, characterising his side as a 'joy to watch' - in contrast to others. Speaking to Sky Sports, the Reds' boss said: "You're always looking forward to watching his team play.
"When you are analysing every opponent, it's always nice when you play against his teams because then you have the privilege to watch five, six, seven games of his team and you never get bored.
"At least I never get bored because his team always have a very good and clear idea in ball possession, they always try to make the people happy. It's a joy to watch where so many other games are not, in my opinion, a joy to watch anymore.
"It's become more [about] time-wasting and things I don't like that much about the game, but which are very good tools to use to make it difficult for other teams if they play against you.
"It's a new tactic in football, I would say, but this is something Pep's teams hardly do. And, of course, the Barcelona team was unbelievable. Hoping they would play on a Sunday night at 8pm, so there was one thing to look forward to at the end of the weekend.
"Then when he went to his other teams, he also invented things like the inverted full-back. It's always something special if you watch a game on one of his teams. A lot of managers win - but in the style he has won his trophies - that is why he stands out when compared to many others.
"I wonder if there are many managers that start their careers now that will reach 1,000 [games], especially at the level that he's worked at, because it was probably already very hard to achieve that and there's a lot of sacrifices coming with that."
Jamie Carragher made a comparable observation earlier in the week, though Gary Neville disagreed with his viewpoint. Speaking on The Overlap's Stick to Football podcast, the former United defender said: "Carra said the other night on Monday Night Football... I thought that it was really interesting, because, to be fair, I disagree with the point, but he's not here – and I wish he was here – he said he hates long throws and somebody else said it yesterday. They hate long throws. I'm like, I love long throws."
On Tuesday, the former Liverpool defender sought to set the record straight.
Carragher said: "For the 100th time, I didn't say that I hate set-pieces or long throws! What I don't like is every team taking long throws - and the time it's taking out of the game.
"I totally get teams doing it who struggle and lack the quality of getting the ball in the box. I also like seeing how teams cope with them.
"But teams that have great technical players and have spent hundreds of millions on them should be getting the ball in play as quickly as they can to get these players on the ball. I'm no football snob, but this is taking the game backwards!".
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