With time limited by a packed calendar, only incremental change is possible, pausing transitions for Slot and Guardiola
Time is the enemy of all modern managers. There simply isn’t enough of it. The calendar is too packed, the demands on players too great and, just because there is something almost hypocritical about managers moaning about the number of games they have to play when the fixture list is a direct result of the greed of the clubs they work for, that doesn’t mean their fundamental point is not a valid one.
Transition is always difficult, particularly when it involves not only a change of players but of style. Arsenal may have brought in more players than Liverpool this summer, but it would require a particular obtuseness to think that bolstering and finessing a system that already fundamentally works is a source of greater disruption than implementing an almost entirely new style.
Written by Jonathan Wilson
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/nov/08/overhauls-on-hold-as-fixture-squeeze-sees-has-liverpool-and-city-playing-it-safe under the title “Overhauls on hold as fixture squeeze sees has Liverpool and City playing it safe | Jonathan Wilson”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
