PEP’S REALITY CHECK
It’s tougher here blasts Klopp
JURGEN KLOPP has told Pep Guardiola that he will never enjoy the same dominance in the Premier League that he had in Germany and Spain.
Guardiola won 14 trophies in four years as boss at Barcelona and another seven in three seasons with Bayern Munich.
But he faces ending his first campaign at Manchester City with nothing at all unless they can lift the FA Cup. That would rank as his worst ever season as a manager, especially after crashing out of the Champions League before the semi-finals for the first time.
City go into the weekend 10 points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea and are by no means guaranteed a spot in next season’s Champions League.
Tomorrow they host top-four rivals Liverpool, whose manager Klopp believes Guardiola has had to learn the hard way just how competitive English football is.
And the Liverpool boss also argues the City job is much harder for Guardiola as he does not have the cream of world-class talent to call on, as he did with Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta at Barcelona.
Klopp said: “We really have to compare the squads. A team without Messi or with Messi? Come on.
“A team with Iniesta or without Iniesta? A team with Xavi at his best or without? That’s the difference. You can’t compare one with the other.
“You can see what he wants. That is probably the most important thing if you judge a manager.
“In football, it’s not the only way but it’s
a way. And it’s his way – and that’s obviously completely okay. “Could he have won a few games more? Yes. Thank God they didn’t, so obviously we are still around. “You know the difficulty of this league and the quality of the players around. “In Spain, there’s always Madrid, and Valencia had a good year. And Sevilla and Atletico of course. “The rest are not as good, or not good enough to challenge Barcelona. So if they are on 70 to 80 per cent, 60 per cent maybe they still win. Here, we don’t have this.” Klopp admits that he needed time to adjust to the demands of the English game after seven years at Borussia Dortmund, where he won two German titles and reached the Champions League final.
But he says that even their rivalry with Bayern did not prepare him for the intensity of the Premier League.
Klopp said: “We lost to Hull this season, and they may get relegated.
Quality
“They are playing really good football and they’re a good side, but maybe next year they are not in the Premier League.
“You don’t have this in other leagues. That’s the quality of the Premier League. It makes it really difficult to succeed every week.”
Klopp will again be without captain Jordan Henderson tomorrow, as he is recovering from the foot injury that has kept him out of action for over a month.
Striker Roberto Firmino, who scored when Liverpool thumped City 4-1 at the Etihad Stadium last season, is back in training after missing last weekend’s win over Burnley with a groin problem and is set to return.
Liverpool go into tomorrow’s game in confident mood, unbeaten in their nine league matches this season against the rest of the current top six, with five wins.
Asked if his players needed their best display of the season to win tomorrow, Klopp added: “We have to deliver. We are going there to get something.
“Usually, you go to City and you can get a point. I think that’s not too bad. Should I be satisfied with this? No. I’m not.
“I really think about what we have to do. We need to know exactly who we can line up. I need one more night to think about this, and then we will go there and try to win.”