I’m not falling for rival’s mind games, says Klopp
LIVERPOOL manager Jurgen Klopp has dismissed what he claims are mind games by Napoli counterpart Carlo Ancelotti.
The Serie A side’s coach, who has experience of facing Klopp at Borussia Dortmund when he was Bayern Munich boss, praised the work the German had done at Anfield and the progress he has made.
Ancelotti said Klopp was “a difficult adversary, a friend; his teams are very dynamic, aggressive, they stand up a lot, they always have an identity”, and they had gone up a level since reaching the Champions League final in May.
However, Klopp laughed it off ahead of their Group C encounter in Naples tonight.
“I like Carlo Ancelotti, he is a fantastic guy. As we say in Germany, ‘He is obviously a smart fox’,” said the Reds boss. “He says all these positive things about us and all these nice things about me, but it is tactics.
“Carlo is so long in the business and he wants to bring the nice fella out in me but I am ready for a real battle.
“I don’t care too much what people say about us. Yes, we have performed on a consistent level in the last few weeks, but tomorrow we need to make the next step up in our development.
“This is a fantastic manager, a fantastic football team and a very emotional crowd so that will be a challenge.”
Liverpool travelled without midfielder Adam Lallana, who has yet to recover from a groin strain, but will have a bench tomorrow which will have the likes of Daniel Sturridge, Xherdan Shaqiri and Fabinho.
Klopp is making his return to the stadium for the first time since he was sent off as Borussia Dortmund manager in 2013 for an outburst at the fourth official.
The German insists he has learned his lesson since.
“It was not my best performance, personally,” he added. “I reacted in a way which was not okay. I still understand why I was not happy with the situation, only the reaction was too much.
“I tried to go in the stand and it was not nice, sitting there and getting all the comments from people around me, so that is why I decided I had to do something about it and I then went with the groundsman into that little room with a Maradona shirt on the wall.
“It was one of the better experiences I had, watching it with the groundsman.
“They gave me two games (ban). Since then nothing has happened so it was the last time I got a bit too excited. Now I know it will not happen again.”