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Luis Miguel Echegaray, ESPNNov 30, 2024, 05:20 AM ET
Welcome to a new season of Onside/Offside! Luis Miguel Echegaray shares his point of view on the latest headlines in the soccer world, including standout performances, games you might have missed, what to keep an eye on in the coming days, and of course, what deserved extra love and criticism. This week: the similarities between Arne Slot and Pep Guardiola as Liverpool and Man City get ready for Sunday’s huge matchup, MLS Conference finals, and Mohamed Salah’s contract situation!
Onside
Liverpool vs. Man City: Why Slot and Guardiola are more similar than we think
In Sun Tzu’s often-quoted “The Art of War,” one particular passage resonates with me: “Know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated.”
The quote is simple yet powerful. And in football? Especially so. If we fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent as well as our own, then the outcome becomes that much clearer. This is why the best managers in the game are not just coaching a philosophy to their squad, they’re also helping players identify the traits of their opponent. That’s half the battle.
Which brings me to this weekend’s huge matchup between Liverpool and Man City, who meet for the first time this season in the league. Managers Arne Slot and Pep Guardiola will show us that they’re more similar than we think, partly because they know each other’s game plans and personalities very well. They might, in fact, be almost identical.
Obviously, Guardiola has the more impressive resume, and despite City’s struggles, there is no doubt of his genius and legacy. That’s not my point. This is about two managers — former midfielders — who at the moment might be more alike than different.
Let’s begin with the obvious: their obsession with details.
Liverpool manager Arne Slot has publicly spoken about taking inspiration from Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. (Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images) (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
“I certainly don’t want to compare myself to Pep, but he is a control freak just like me,” Slot said back in 2023 during an interview with Dutch football magazine Voetbal International. “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.”
In a piece earlier this year in The Guardian, Gaël Clichy, who played for Man City for six seasons after leaving Arsenal, confirmed the Catalan manager’s obsession with detailed perfection. “Pep is all about the details. However you want to play — no matter your ideas, your vision, your love for a certain way of playing — details will take you there,” says Clichy, who played his last season (2016-17) with City in Pep’s first. He would echo, just like Slot, how the stories of repetition and going through every single detail is what makes Guardiola who he is.
Then there’s the way their teams play. At Feyenoord — just like Liverpool — there’s an objective for Slot to play from the back, apply pressure as quickly as possible, notably when the ball is lost, and usually focus in a 4-3-3 formation. Build, baby, build. These are all attributes from a quintessential Guardiola system.
Slot has also said that he shows his team clips of Man City during training. “It is true I showed my players in recent years clips of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City teams,” said Slot, specifically focusing on how Guardiola’s teams press the ball.
But the main characteristic that highlights their similarities as managers is their emphasis on pace and control. This season, Liverpool is deservedly leading the table, but it’s not like they’re wowing us with heavy metal football, Jurgen Klopp’s trademark helter-skelter style. In fact, they’re doing it in a somewhat methodical way. Throughout almost every encounter, Liverpool aim to calmly, almost nonchalantly, control matches with their rhythm. It’s very reminiscent of… Man City.
Well, at least the Man City of old, because right now, especially after what we saw on Wednesday night against Feyenoord, control is most definitely not there for Guardiola.
So, as both teams face each other on Sunday, just remember that you might, in fact, be seeing two sides of the same coin. It just so happens that currently, for multiple reasons, one side is shining brighter.
MLS Conference finals preview
Well, well, well. Isn’t this interesting? As MLS looks ahead to its Conference finals (and you already know my pet peeve, wishing they were just called MLS playoff semifinals), the picture of the Final Four is not exactly what many of us had in mind.
From the top six candidates of the Supporters’ Shield, only one remains. This is very much a classic MLS playoff picture in the sense that it explains the point I always try to make: MLS has two seasons, the regular and the playoffs. A strong mentality is needed for the former, but for the latter, it’s crucial.
Let’s break down the matches.
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1:56
LA Galaxy reach Western Conference final with 6-goal performance
Gabriel Pec, Dejan Joveljic and Joseph Paintsil each score two goals as the LA Galaxy cruise to a 6-2 win over Minnesota United.
EAST: For all the talk regarding No.1 seed and Supporters’ Shield winner Inter Miami CF and Lionel Messi‘s hopes of winning MLS Cup, it’s the other Florida team that has made a great run: Orlando City SC. Oscar Pareja’s side has already made history by reaching their first-ever Eastern Conference final, but they are not done as they look for their first MLS Cup.
Hopefully, they can be inspired by their sister franchise Orlando Pride, who just did exactly that by winning their first NWSL Championship last weekend. The team has a strong South American identity, led by Uruguayan Facundo Torres, who became the club’s all-time leading scorer this season. I have a soft spot for them as their starting XI has two Peruvian internationals, Wilder Cartagena and Pedro Gallese, the best goalkeeper in the game who has never played in Europe.
Orlando should be favorites against the New York Red Bulls, but that’s exactly how RBNY likes it. They love being the underdog. Wins against defending champions Columbus Crew and their local rivals New York City FC can’t be undervalued, and now they also dream of their first-ever MLS Cup.
WEST: Here’s to the LA Galaxy, who have made it this far in the playoffs for the first time in 10 years — the last time they won MLS Cup (a record fifth title), when their team was managed by Bruce Arena and included Robbie Keane, Juninho and Landon Donovan, who retired after the game.
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This team is an exciting unit managed by Greg Vanney. There is so much offensive talent, which includes Serbian striker Dejan Joveljić. He is sandwiched in-between two wingers who arrived this season: the Ghanaian Joseph Paintsil and the Brazilian Gabriel Pec. All three scored braces in the team’s 6-2 win against Minnesota United last weekend.
But none of it works without their architect, Riqui Puig. The product of Barcelona‘s La Masia is the brain behind the entire operation. They are up against the experienced Seattle Sounders, who finally put an end to a 10-game rut against LAFC and came out victorious thanks to Jordan Morris‘s 109th-minute winner after conceding first.
“The mantra of the Sounders, the mentality of the group, is we never quit. We never give up,” said their manager Brian Schmetzer after the game, who hopes to lead the club to a third MLS Cup. “Guys that want to even think about giving up, they’re no longer with us. It’s just the overall spirit [and] mentality of the group. They understand that coming in.”
And that’s what I love to hear. If you want to win the MLS Cup, you need to be a dog with a bone. No matter the glitz or glamor of any opponent, the mentality of a title-winning team should be relentless hunger. We’ll find out the hungriest of them all soon.
Offside
Liverpool and Salah’s expiring contract
On Sunday, after Liverpool’s 3-2 win over Southampton, Mohamed Salah — who scored a brace in that game — gave an interview in regards to his expiring contract, which is set to expire next summer.
“Well, we are almost in December and I haven’t received any offers yet to stay in the club, [so] I’m probably more out than in,” said Salah.
This propelled a response from former Reds defender, Jamie Carragher. “I must say I am very disappointed with Mo Salah,” he said, during his role as pundit with Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football. “Liverpool have Real Madrid midweek [in the Champions League] and Man City at the weekend. That’s the story right now.”
“If he keeps putting comments out, his agent puts out cryptic messages, that is selfish. That is thinking about themselves and not the football club.”
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1:46
Marcotti: Liverpool would be ‘stupid’ to give Salah anything he wants
Gab Marcotti and Julien Laurens disagree over the current contract standoff between Liverpool and Mohamed Salah.
Salah’s comments also reached his manager Arne Slot as he was asked about it ahead of Wednesday’s game with Real Madrid. “I’ve said many times, I don’t share this. If I look at my line-ups, Mo is more in than out,” affirmed the Dutch manager, who also responded to Carragher’s comments regarding Salah. “I don’t think it distracts Mo. I think it brings the best out of him,” said Slot. “I talk to Mo about what I expect from him, like I do to all the players. He’s in a good place at the moment.”
Whether you agree with Carragher or Slot is not the point. And it’s worth noting that, according to reports, talks between Salah and the club are positive.
I think the bigger point here is that this contract situation is clearly weighing on Salah’s mind, which may be why he gave the quote in the first place. And some could say it’s fair for him to feel disrespected, if that’s what he’s feeling. He is arguably one of the club’s greatest players. I don’t know what he’s thinking — only he and his agent Ramy Abbas Issa can answer that — but I do know that there is an uncertainty over his future with the club. And it’s not just him, as Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk also have expiring contracts. Unless there are new deals, all three can negotiate with non-English clubs from New Year’s Day.
As my colleague Mark Ogden noted earlier this season, the silence from Liverpool’s operations is not unusual and it naturally fits the familiar club routine of keeping in-house business away from the media and the general public. But it also adds anxiety to the fan base.
Here’s the rub: there are massive to-do tasks for Liverpool’s owners Fenway Sports Group and their CEO Michael Edwards, because these three players are not just squad members, they’re integral parts for Liverpool — perhaps the three most important players.
The clock is ticking to figure out their outcomes. Until then, questions will only continue to circulate among the fan base and more headlines will continue. It’s the nature of the beast. And the longer this drags on, it’s not the club that wins. It’s those three players and their agents.
Final word
Inter Miami’s U-13 team traveled to Rosario, Argentina to take part in Newell’s Old Boys’ Newell’s Cup, a North and South American youth tournament. And who was Inter Miami’s U-13’s No. 10? Lionel Messi’s eldest son, Thiago.
Lionel Messi, born and raised in Rosario, was part of the Newell’s academy for five years before he left for Barcelona — and the rest is history. It must have been pretty emotional to see his son play in this competition, surrounded by the same pitches and memories where he started his own story.
This photo from earlier this week of Thiago in front of a TIFO of his dad lifting the World Cup is quite special.
Thiago Messi (left) of Inter Miami looks on with a banner of his father Lionel Messi in the background during the game against Newell’s Old Boys on November 25 in Rosario, Argentina. (Photo by Luciano Bisbal/Getty Images)
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