Manchester City vs Liverpool: Pep Guardiola is the world's best manager, says Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool and Manchester City are set to face each other in a mouth-watering contest on Saturday, which many people refer to as a “Premier League final.” With only a few weeks left in the current season, the race for the title cannot be tighter. The top two teams – Manchester City and Liverpool – are separated by only one point in the table. A win for City could very well turn the title race in their favour, while a draw will keep the battle interesting till the end. The only way Liverpool can leapfrog their title challengers is by securing the three points at Etihad. The Reds’ manager Jurgen Klopp knows the difficulty in the challenge lying ahead of them but it is one he is relishing a lot.

He also went as far as labeling his counterpart Pep Guardiola as the best manager in the world. Jurgen Klopp, who was speaking to Premier League Productions, was asked how tough an opponent Manchester City are to take on. Klopp was quoted as saying by his club’s website, “If I would be a different person I would be, probably, a little bit depressed about the fact that Pep Guardiola is constantly coaching these kind of teams. Maybe in Dortmund we could’ve won more titles if Pep wouldn’t have been at Bayern. Now, it is pretty much the same, imagine if he would not be here, we probably could’ve won at least one more league title.” 

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“But I am not like this, thank God. So, I am completely happy with our situation. I respect a lot what they do, it’s an insane football team. And, for me, the world’s best manager. So, that’s a combination which makes it quite tricky. But, the good news, they are human beings as well. So, we all feel in moments. We do, they do. You have to be strong enough to be there when they are ready to play, let me say, or to be the reason. That’s how it is.”

Klopp: I really like watching City

Klopp then showered praise on the work Guardiola is doing at Manchester City and informed how much he likes watching City play. “I couldn’t respect it more what they are doing. I like watching them. I cannot say I love a lot of opponents, or competitors, but I really like watching City. So, always when we play them, the analysis is a mix of serious work and real joy… it’s fantastic football. It’s, like, the next level: where can you go with the football team? They set it up in a special way,” he added. 

“They make it really difficult. They make the pitch big in moments. They make the pitch small in the right moments. They have sensational individuals and all these kinds of things. That’s the truth. I cannot hide that. But the good thing is we are not too bad as well. So that helps, obviously, to keep us in a good distance at least.”

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