Liverpool and Manchester United managers will always enjoy something of a rivalry. There's added spice with Arne Slot and Erik ten Hag at the helm, with the duo having previously gone head-to-head in the Eredivisie — and the former Feyenoord boss says he is "not friends" with his counterpart .
Slot was in a jovial mood in his press conference ahead of the Man United clash, and joked about already becoming acquainted with the English media's tendency to "overexaggerate" (that was in relation to injury concerns around Federico Chiesa ). With that in mind, and not wanting to incur his wrath, we'll make clear from the outset that the Liverpool boss insisted he had a "very good" relationship with Ten Hag and his staff.
However, he stopped short of calling it a friendship. It seems there is no Dutch alliance in the Premier League to speak of just yet, with the pair not having engaged in any social calls.
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"No, no, not friends, no, no, no," he insisted. "Friends is something else, I think.
"A very good relationship, but a friend is someone you see a lot and go out to dinner with. But that is not something we've done in the past, for that we don't know each other well enough."
Exactly how long Slot might get to renew acquaintances with Ten Hag remains to be seen. The Manchester United boss kept his job following the culmination of a somewhat farcical summer review , but is likely already on thin ice, after an unconvincing late win against Fulham and a defeat to Brighton.
Perhaps this feeling of no longer being the flavor of the month from the Eredivisie is what prompted Ten Hag to slam Feyenoord as "overhyped" when news broke that Slot would be on his way to Liverpool. That could easily have stoked early tensions.
The tone since then has been a little more conciliatory, but Ten Hag will be desperate for a good result against Liverpool, not least after Slot dished out a 3-0 humbling during the preseason tour of the US. However, the Reds boss knows to expect a very different occasion at Old Trafford:
"It’s going to be different of course," Slot admitted. "When we played them in the States it was 50/50 with the fans. "The atmosphere will be completely different. I’m not expecting half of the stadium will be cheering for us! What makes it more different is that both players have a lot of different players on the pitch."
Liverpool will have the benefit of key stars like Trent Alexander-Arnold , Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz this time. Slot suggested it was unlikely that Federico Chiesa would be in the squad, but did not rule it out.
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