Whether it’s been worrying about the threat posed by Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, or more recently Darwin Nunez, Pep clearly rates the Reds very highly.
But there’s one man he respects above all: Jurgen Klopp. The City manager has previously spoken at length about his views on Jurgen, and was once again effusive about the Liverpool boss when asked by Sky Sports to name the ‘toughest’ manager he’s ever faced in his career. “Jurgen Klopp,” the Spaniard answered, instantly. “First, we faced [each other] a thousand million times, Dortmund and here. Second because he beat me a lot and that was always a challenge to do it again and again and again.
“I respect him a lot because of the way his teams always play, in Dortmund, Mainz before and now Liverpool. It’s so attractive and so positive.
“We respect each other, at least from my point of view I respect him a lot. Of course we have arguments and I don’t like to be beaten by him, but he has been my biggest rival for the amount of times we play, how difficult it was and the pleasure when we beat them.” Guardiola raves about Jurgen No manager has beaten the legendary coach more times than Liverpool’s ‘Normal One.’ Had it not been for Jurgen, City’s dominance of the Premier League would have been total since 2018.
As it is, the Citizens have won five of the past six titles, but Liverpool have made sure they’ve had to work so hard for two of those. Having also dumped them out of crucial stages of the Champions League and FA Cup, it’s no wonder Pep feels this way about our Jurgen.
Although we obviously think Klopp is on pretty much a level with Guardiola, it’s a feather in the cap of the German that the City boss sees him this way.
Some will dispute it perhaps, but Pep quite legitimately has an argument to be the game’s greatest ever coach. Jurgen should do too, although it’s hard to argue that the City manager’s trophy haul will put him above Liverpool’s boss in the eyes of many. Nevertheless, had it not been for Klopp, Guardiola would have had even more trophy’s to his name.
Having already played out one epic battle this season, it looks like the Reds are going to push Man City all the way again in 2023/24. Time to be a thorn in the side yet again.
Throughout his time at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola has often been full of praise for Liverpool.
From the second this question was posed to Guardiola, the answer was always going to be Klopp.
