Masterminding a title win this season will be Klopp’s greatest achievement in the game and a triumph for his rock ’n’ roll football STAN COLLYMORE
IF Jurgen Klopp leads Liverpool to the Premier League title this season it will be his greatest achievement in football.
Forget my old club becoming champions of England for the first time in 30 years two seasons ago.
Forget the Champions League win in 2019 and the Club World Cup triumph the same year.
Title rivals Manchester City blew everyone away last season and again for much of this season, and were pretty much 10/10 for 18 or 19 months as they did.
So if Klopp can mastermind another Liverpool title this time out then it will eclipse everything else he has done.
They can take big step towards achieving it in today’s mouthwatering clash at the Etihad — a game many see as a shootout for top spot.
As I’ve said before, both sides will want to do anything they can today and again on Saturday when they meet in the FA Cup semi-finals to inflict a psychological blow on the other, and of course a win for either would undoubtedly be a big result in the title race.
But Liverpool still have to face big clubs who are fighting for survival in Everton and Newcastle and City will meet a Leeds side in the same boat as Newcastle.
So there are too many stories still to be written up and down the league for either Pep Guardiola or Klopp to think that one win today will have delivered a mortal blow to the other.
Both managers will be keeping it simple and saying to their players, ‘One game at a time, win it, then move on, and if we win all our games then we will win the league’.
Fascinating
But what’s fascinating about the race is the fact you couldn’t get two teams fighting for the same silverware with two more different styles of football if you tried.
City’s is all about attention to detail
– keep the ball on the deck, lots of triangles, lots of movement, completely pass through teams.
The other is force of will, energy and enthusiasm, it’s rock ’n’ roll football, and while it’s personal choice for everyone, I’d take Klopp over Guardiola as a manager for my team all day long.
I like the way he plays football.
I like those drilled, 30 or 40-yard Trent Alexander-arnold passes from right-back to left wing, I like that he has a proper playmaker in Thiago who keeps things ticking and a front three which has every attribute you could want.
Klopp’s brand of football is just more three-dimensional than Guardiola’s.
Don’t get me wrong, I very much appreciate what the Spaniard has brought to the Premier League and we will miss both him and Klopp when they have gone.
Guardiola plays highoctane, high-tempo football with ruthless passing and movement which has taken that part of the game to a new level.
But if every team tried to be Citylite it would be fairly boring, because there’s not a lot of character and personality in Guardiola’s teams.
They’re ruthlessly efficient and there’s an equilibrium of effort across the team but there are no real superstars who stand up and say I’m the bullfighter, I’m the man.
Liverpool, on the other hand, have bags of personality and character, and that’s what I want to watch.
I want to watch great football and great footballers, and I get that more from Liverpool than I do from City.