NewsJürgen Klopp press conference: Man City clash, Anfield factor and Guardiola

A top-of-the-table showdown awaits the Reds as Pep Guardiola’s team, who trail Klopp’s leaders by a point in the standings, visit Anfield.

At his pre-match press conference today, the manager was quizzed on the scale of this weekend’s fixture, his reflections on competing with City and Guardiola during his time with the club, and more.

Read a summary below…

On how big a game this feels to him at the moment…

Big game. City games [are] big games always. Were always. Will probably always be. Title-race decider? I don’t know who brought that up – I think it’s really early. If you go through all the different possible scenarios, then I don’t think after whatever result anybody should open the bottles of champagne. Nothing happened then. But it’s three points. It’s an incredibly strong opponent. We don’t hide that we want to win that game, but knowing how difficult it is. But that’s it pretty much. It’s a big game, I understand that 100 per cent, and we are really excited about the fact that we are part of it.

On the importance of ‘the Anfield factor’ in matches like this…

Yeah, I don’t have to tell that… yeah, Anfield has from time to time a real impact on our game! Yeah, come on. The atmosphere in the stadium, the atmosphere our people can create… am I allowed to say it is second to none or is then anybody offended by that? It is really good and energising. Massive. These are the games you want to play, these are the games you want to get the ticket in the stadium, these are the games you want to watch. This is a very special game. And yes, Anfield for us is a massive, massive factor. It would be a bit embarrassing today if I would say, ‘Please help us.’ People will.

On whether he has enjoyed the rivalry between his Liverpool and Guardiola’s City…

Yeah. I don’t feel there is a rivalry. I understand that you call it like that, but there is no rivalry. We are just both pretty competitive, we both want to win football games, we both are blessed with having really good players in our teams. And that’s it pretty much. But it’s not a rivalry. We have said it before, if we meet in the future it will be full of respect. So far, we did not have the opportunity to meet each other more often. But I think I said it often enough how much I respect him. We would have a lot to talk about, definitely, so that’s all fine.

But on Sunday it is not about me having the opportunity [for the] last time [to manage against Guardiola], it’s anyway not sure because maybe in the FA Cup – for that we have to get through the next round – we could meet again. I don’t know who is playing at the weekend in other leagues in the world, to be honest, but it is probably the game of the weekend and of Sunday. Being able to be part of that is massive and fantastic for everybody. Now we have a couple of players in the team who didn’t play these kind of games now 20 times, but the excitement they have for it is pretty special. We want to give it a try, that’s all we can do, we never could do more. And we do it with our tools, so let’s see what we can make of it.

On a potential personal battle in the game between Virgil van Dijk and Erling Haaland…

If you watch the movements of Erling Haaland, incredibly smart, bringing himself in the positions. So he has no battles with one defender, he has battles with different defenders in the last line. He is smart enough for not being around all the time the one defender he might consider as the best one or not. Again, I understand that, but football doesn’t work like that anymore. I thought actually the time of man-marking was gone but it’s coming up again. We have to defend City. If Virgil van Dijk would be able to nullify Haaland, then [Phil] Foden fires the ball from 30 yards in the far corner or Kevin De Bruyne is doing exactly the same or Rodri is arriving or whatever, or Bernardo Silva is doing that. It is just not possible to say Virgil against Haaland. Yes, of course, if Haaland is not scoring then that’s good, but they have enough other options to do that. [Manuel] Akanji after a set-piece and all these kind of things.

You just cannot play like that, I don’t think a second about that, that they play against each other. There are moments definitely where that will happen 100 per cent and hopefully we will be on the better end of that. But this football game is about so many aspects and we have around about 48 hours to prepare for it and that’s what we do. We try to give the boys the right information. I am very excited about the game, that we can play it and we can play it in the situation we are in. It is much better than in other situations we had before. We know we are good, we know the opponent is really good, and now let’s play the game.

On the mentality his squad has shown this season…

The boys showed an exceptional mentality throughout the season. It started with red cards, strange red cards we got early in the season, playing with 10 men, winning the games, stuff like this. Then, a crazy injury situation which we are still in, it is really tough. But yes, the boys showed an incredible mentality and I am really happy with that. But we will see. This is now the decisive part of the season so showing until early March great mentality, you don’t even qualify for [European] football with that if you would stop it now. You have to keep doing it for the whole season and then we can talk about that. So far, so good, now let’s go from here.

On the main things he admires about Guardiola…

The way he influenced football, easy as that. Then, winning the amount of trophies he won in his career but you feel like when you see him on the touchline, he behaves like he never won anything before, like the desire he has. That’s absolutely outstanding. He’s outstanding in so many aspects. I do the job myself so I see excellence when I face it, and Pep is definitely that. So many different things over the years he did with his teams, always possession-based obviously, but even if necessary he plays long balls. Like, brings Ederson in years ago and all of a sudden [Sergio] Aguero waits 20 yards in the other half and he fires the ball there and then you think, ‘OK, that’s difficult to defend now’, the next challenge. So many different things he did over the years. I don’t know, how can I judge managers from the past? But in my lifetime he is the outstanding manager, definitely.

On competing with Guardiola, whether it has made him a better manager and if it has frustrated him to be denied more trophies by him…

I was never frustrated towards Pep. I don’t know them but I knew around 3,000 footballers were better than me and still loved the game. And all the others were better than me I didn’t know. So, I have no problem with that, absolutely not. That never frustrated me. It made me definitely a better manager, to find solutions against these teams to win these games. In this moment, I just got told now, I have a positive record against Pep. I have no clue how that happened, to be honest! But it is all fine. I know I’m quite good at what I’m doing as well, I don’t want to sound like somebody who is happy to be here and I can’t face these kind of [managers]. I know I’m not bad. But you ask about the best and for me, he is the best, bam. That’s why I say it, nothing to do with me. We face [each other] twice or three times or four times a year, that’s it. All the other time I do the job without facing Pep Guardiola, which is quite good, to be honest! It’s all fine.

On Jarell Quansah’s progress…

Massive, massive development. Massive. He just stepped up. He came back and it wasn’t that everybody in the club was saying, ‘Yeah, he will be the next one.’ We knew he is a real talent, we knew he has massive strength, especially on the ball, stuff like this. But how will he deal with the next-quality Premier League strikers? How is that physically, stuff like this? We wanted to give us the chance and him the time to show that, and we thought the situation in the squad is right to do so. If you want, centre-half No.5 in that moment. Joey [Gomez] was not immediately planned as a right or left-back back-up, because we had obviously Conor [Bradley], who then got injured, and we had the two left-backs. So it was not necessary, so we thought that was a good situation to have a look. He showed immediately that he wants to be in the team in each session and it’s a joy, a pure joy, to have him.