As Liverpool gear up to face Aston Villa in a crucial Premier League encounter, Arne Slot shared his thoughts on what promises to be an exciting match.
The Reds welcome Villa to Anfield at 8pm GMT on Saturday, an unusually late start time for a league game.
It will be the third home fixture in a row for Liverpool as they bring an end to a busy period that will have seen them play seven games in a 21-day spell.
Speaking ahead of the game Arne Slot said: “If you ask me now I would say it’s not that difficult because Unai Emery has played in a similar style now for years at Aston Villa.
“It’s almost always the same formation, but it sometimes depends on the player that you can have different characteristics, but his style of play, his idea about football, has been the same always.
“Saying this, that also was the situation with Xabi Alonso, who we studied for I don’t know how many games but never once did he come up with the idea of playing [Victor] Boniface as a left-winger and playing without a No.9.
“That he hadn’t done at all before we played them, but that’s maybe also a compliment – most managers feel that we have a very good team so they think they have to change their game plan, not their playing style, a bit.
“If you ask me now do I expect Unai to change a lot, I would not expect that because he never did this, not if he played [Manchester] City and also not when he played Liverpool in the past few years.
“But in terms of personnel he can change a bit, he has different options in the full-back [areas], different options on the wings, but it’s also been a 4-4-2 that he’s been playing for many years now.”
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