Ahead of the Reds impending clash with the Cityzens at Anfield this weekend, Jurgen Klopp has openly hailed his rival Pep Guardiola as the outstanding manager of his lifetime and admitted he has \u201cno idea\u201d why he has a winning record against his Manchester City counterpart.<\/p>\n
The duo will be squaring off potentially for the last time on Sunday when Klopp \u2013 with 12 victories and 11 defeats against the Catalan in a duel that dates back to their day at Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, respectively \u2013 welcomes Guardiola and his side to Anfield.<\/p>\n
Klopp is insistent that it is not a rivalry he and his rival have and that he is not frustrated that he would have won far more had it not been for Guardiola, who has secured five Premier League\u00a0titles to his singular title during their tenure together in England.<\/p>\n
The Liverpool manager enthused: \u201cI don\u2019t feel it is a rivalry, I understand you call it that. We are both pretty competitive and we both want to win games and we both are blessed with having really good players in our teams but it is not a rivalry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The German doyen has been consistently maintaining all the while that Guardiola is the finest coach in the world and went even further in extolling the merits and achievements of the 56-year-old Spaniard.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow could I judge managers from the past?\u201d he said. \u201cBut in my lifetime he is the outstanding manager.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klopp has also been particularly impressed by Guardiola\u2019s enduring hunger and impact on the game in general, saying: \u201cThe way he influenced football: easy as that. Then winning the amount of trophies he won in his career and yet when you see him on the touchline he behaves like he has never won anything before. The desire is absolutely outstanding, I know that 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, [his football was] always possession-based but if necessary he plays long balls.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot say where he is better than me but just see how his teams are playing. There might be areas where I am better than Pep. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having twice finished as a runner-up in the Premier League behind Guardiola\u2019s City, he added: \u201cI was never frustrated. I knew around about 3000 footballers were better than me and still loved the game and all the others were better than me. No, it never frustrated me. In this moment I have a positive record against Pep, I have no idea how that happened. I know I am good at what I do, I know I am not bad. But you ask me who is the best and he is the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
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