Klopp lauds Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City ahead of crucial Champions League clash at Anfield

According to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, there is only one difference between him and Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.

Having first locked horns with each other in the Bundesliga at Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, Klopp and Guardiola are now coaches in the Premier League with Liverpool and Manchester City respectively.

The Reds and the Cityzens are set to meet in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, with the first leg at Anfield on Wednesday. In a week’s time, the return leg is slated to take place at the Etihad.

Ahead of the mouthwatering first leg at Anfield, Klopp expressed his respect for Guardiola as he lauded a striking strength of the Spaniard’s teams.

“His teams are always excellently positioned. He always has great teams which make excellent decisions. At Barcelona it was Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Lionel Messi and so on, just to mention the creative players from his time there,” Klopp told UEFA, as quoted by Liverpoolfc.com.

“At Bayern Munich he had fantastic players who made a lot of great decisions. Now, with Gundogan, Silva, Aguero, Sane on the left wing, Sterling on the wing, Gabriel Jesus, they’re extraordinary.

“Positioning is important, but this is not witchcraft, it is not unusual just because the wing-backs come inside, but when the players are in position they move every millisecond in order to be available, and when they are, that’s when the individual quality of the player becomes important, and they control the ball correctly.

“So they’re already well positioned on the pitch, they know what’s going on around them, they are very well orientated and they can pass the ball into the next area. That’s what makes them extraordinary. And whenever they can’t pass they use their pace in order to progress further up.

“And then the space on the wing is free. When you have one good player in the middle, or three or four good players, you need to know how to defend well. Then, boom, you move the ball to the wings and an incredibly fast player runs towards the goalline and crosses the ball into the penalty area. That’s a real challenge, for sure.

“It’s actually a mix of Pep’s skills regarding these aspects and, of course, the extraordinary skills of his players.”

Liverpool were hammered 5-0 by Manchester City in September last year but Klopp’s men avenged that defeat with an exciting 4-3 win at Anfield in January. The win at Anfield saw Klopp garner more wins over Guardiola than any other manager. The record stands at 6 wins, 5 defeats and one draw in 12 games.

And after being asked about Guardiola’s highly successful style of play, the Reds boss insisted there was no little to pick between them.

“There’s no big difference, actually. It’s just that Pep’s teams… Pep has always had better teams than me!” Klopp added.

“You can see that now with Manchester City – they have a lot more points than we do. However, that difference has never been as small as it is now. When we coached at Bayern and Dortmund respectively, that difference was really big.

“And when he was coaching Barcelona, I was at Mainz, so that was a completely different situation. They’ve got a lot more ball possession than I ever had in my coaching career!

“They were always world-class teams and we always had to improve a little bit. That’s about the only major difference. When you have more ball possession, you don’t need to worry too much about what you need to do when your opponents have the ball.

“That’s basically everything. But, apart from that, the difference is not so incredibly large. However, there are always some [differences] at the end of the day.”

City and Liverpool are separated by a whopping 18 points in the Premier League table, but come Wednesday there should be no fear when the Reds walk out at Anfield in the first leg of Champions League’s quarter-final tie.

Guardiola’s City team have been imperious this season but they are not unbeatable. Liverpool have proven that once this season and certainly they can do it again. But for beating City, Klopp would need all his players to perform at the highest order and the fans at Anfield to be at their very best.