SWEET MUSIC FOR PEP
Guardiola loves how Klopp has turned up the volume but City plan to silence Anfield
WHEN Pep Guardiola was asked yesterday for a musical comparison between his style of play and Jurgen Klopp’s ‘heavy-metal’ football, the Manchester City manager was momentarily lost for words.
‘I don’t know,’ said Guardiola, shaking his head and breaking into a smile.
But he does know he will have to come up with a better response tonight if City are to contain Klopp’s Liverpool and improve on their miserable record at Anfield — where they have won only once in the last 35 years.
The Spaniard knows what to expect by now. That wasn’t the case when he first came up against Klopp in the German Super Cup in 2013 and his Bayern Munich team were overwhelmed 4-2 by Borussia Dortmund.
‘I was new there and it was “wow”. It was a good lesson,’ he recalled. ‘I like a lot the way they play, for the spectators, because in three or four seconds, they are attacking.
‘Maybe it is the best manager in the world creating teams who attack the back four with this amount of players and this intensity, with the ball and without the ball. It is not easy to do that.
‘I think there is not another team in the world attacking this way with so many players.
‘When he (Klopp) speaks about his football being heavy metal, I understand completely. It is so aggressive. For the fans, it’s really good.’
New Year’s Eve might not be the ideal night of the year to keep the noise down. Not when Klopp’s team are in full flight at Anfield and certainly not when one of their title rivals is in town.
But Guardiola believes he has devised ways to curb Liverpool’s attacking instincts over the course of their eight previous meetings.
‘I learn a lot to control those situations, but it’s not easy,’ he said. ‘When you play against teams of Jurgen Klopp, the tactics are so important. You must be at that level, but they have a specific way to attack and you have to control it.
‘I don’t know what will happen in this game. We have to equal their intensity. Anfield will play a big role but what happens in the past stays in the past.’
Guardiola watched Liverpool come from behind to beat Stoke 4-1 at home — a win rounded off by Daniel Sturridge — and reclaim second place from City.
His previous experience of the ground was playing in Barcelona’s UEFA Cup defeat in 2001, but he was unaware that City’s last win there came two years later.
‘That shows how difficult it is for Manchester City to go there,’ he added. ‘We are going to try to change that statistic.
‘There are six teams fighting for the title and for the first four positions. From my point of view, I want to fight until the end of my last chance.’
Klopp, too, is well aware of the importance of the occasion as both clubs try to keep pace with Chelsea at the top of the table.
While Guardiola was happy to discuss Liverpool’s strengths and his recent scouting trip — ‘it was my day off and my family were not here’ — the Liverpool boss preferred to focus on his own team.
‘City are already really good but I am not too much interested,’ said Klopp.
‘I am more interested in us. We are in a very intensive moment, in a good moment and we need to keep on going. I am interested that this team is in a good way and we like how our football is. I know people are excited when they think about the game. ‘The good news is we are involved. It’s not City versus someone else, it’s Liverpool versus Manchester City. ‘We are some kind of a challenger. We don’t care about being favourite, it feels like we are challenging in each game. ‘And now we have to make the people happy again.’ Liverpool will face a City side boosted by the return of top scorer Sergio Aguero after a four-game suspension following his second red card of the season (against Chelsea) and a Christmas break in Argentina.
Guardiola also expects Raheem Sterling to handle playing at Anfield better than he did last season when the England winger was substituted at half-time on his first return to Liverpool since a £44million move to City.
Sterling is assured of another hostile reception tonight but Guardiola said: ‘He’s a fighter. Always it is difficult when the crowd is not on your side. They whistle, it’s not easy.
‘But it is part of Raheem’s growth to become a better player.
‘We are going to try and handle the situation.
‘But obviously he must focus on what he has to do himself — that’s the only way he can handle it.’