Jurgen Klopp rejected Pep Guardiola’s claim that the whole country wanted Liverpool to win the title, but insisted that the Premier League would be boring without a serious rival to Manchester City.
Guardiola said that “everyone in this country supports Liverpool, the media and everyone” and “people want Liverpool to win more than us” in a strange outburst after the 5-0 defeat of City by Newcastle on Sunday.
Klopp believes the post-match interview illustrated the tension in the title race against Guardiola more than any statement of fact and likened it to his criticism of Antonio Conte’s tactics after Tottenham’s 1-1 draw at Anfield on Saturday.
However, the Liverpool manager believes that his team deserves more support to ensure a real race for the title and ensure that City will not win the fourth league championship in five seasons at a gallop. “Imagine the situation if we weren’t so close. Then the interviews would be boring, “Klopp said.” You have to make sure there’s a little excitement and there’s an exciting battle over who’s going to stay in the league and an exciting battle over who’s qualifying for the Champions League. closer.
“It [Guardiola’s reaction] is completely normal. We all feel the tension, we can’t say we don’t feel it. After the match with Tottenham, it’s not like I thought: “Great”, but before you can deal with your emotions, you are already facing 20 cameras. That’s what Pep did. I do not take it as a compliment by hand. He probably thought he should note this. You know much better than I do that. “
Liverpool could tie up with City on Tuesday with a win against Aston Villa, although they have played one more game, but Klopp is adamant that Guardiola is wrong in his opinion that the country wants the title back to Anfield. “I live in Liverpool, so yes, a lot of people here want us to win the league – that’s true,” said Klopp. “But even here it’s probably only 50% because other people [Evertonians] were involved in another fight, at least until yesterday.
“As managers, and I had this experience recently, we are obviously very influenced by the game. I said – and would I repeat it? No – but I said after [Tottenham] game: ‘They play as they play and are still only fifth.’ It felt good at the time, but it was wrong. I could no longer respect Antonio and what he does and how he organizes teams.
“I don’t know exactly what Pep’s situation was after he was relegated from the Champions League, which is obviously hard enough to win, but then, of course, Liverpool reached the final and you have these things like, ‘They only played Villarreal, we played with Real “, and then you say what you say. And on top of that, he’s right. I was right about Tottenham. He was right, we only won the Premier League once. I have no idea if the whole country supports us. It’s not the feeling I get when we go somewhere else and play there, it’s actually the opposite, but maybe he knows more about it than I do. ”
Klopp insists that Liverpool will not “stop believing” that they can win the league until it becomes mathematically impossible. He also said that the contenders for the title should be encouraged by their game against the Spurs, although they are losing points only for the third time this year.
“It was not a perfect match, but the general approach, the counter press, was on a completely different level,” said the Liverpool manager, who could remember Roberto Firmino from an injury at Villa Park. “It simply came to our notice then. “Wow, Liverpool’s counter press.” We don’t win it and we just forget it. I do not [forget it] because it makes us keep going.
“It simply came to my notice then [nothing is broken]. That’s how I saw the game. So we keep going. This is the nature of things and this is the quality of the opponent and the goalkeeper and you know we had situations [to win]. If Virg [van Dijk] gets the title here [forehead] instead of here [points to the side of his face]this is at least a better chance than hitting the beam.
“We didn’t score from a set, but we could because everything was almost perfect. We have to accept that. Now we have to use the good things, erase the bad ones and get out of here.
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