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Jurgen Klopp, manager of Liverpool /CFP
Premier League defending champions Liverpool are about to meet Manchester City, one of the major challengers, at City of Manchester Stadium on Sunday night. The Reds' manager Jurgen Klopp shared how he felt about the competitions with City's manager Pep Guardiola at the pregame press conference.
The last time Liverpool played at City of Manchester Stadium on July 2, they suffered a painful loss of 4-0. Of course, the Reds already secured their first Premier League title three days before that game, but losing by four was still not a pretty outcome.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain #15 of Liverpool deflects a shot by Raheem Sterling of Manchester City in the Premier League game at the City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England, July 2, 2020. /CFP
"If you are not 100 percent focused on the game against City, you will lose big! I'm not sure I needed that game as proof, but that's 100 percent the case," said Klopp. "It's the first time we won the league in England, so I had no idea how to prepare the next game, actually. I didn't want to overdo it like 'Boys, forget it, (forget) what happened three days ago… now it's City, and we can show the whole world blah blah blah'. I didn't do that, I'm not sure if it was right or wrong."
"So I know that my boys wanted to win that game, but we were not as focused as we are usually in these games. That says not a lot but explains a little bit. Still, we played some good football that night, unfortunately, we didn't score, and they scored four times. That's how it was, but it was not the most heavy defeat in my life."
Pep Guardiola (L), manager of Manchester City and Jurgen Klopp, manager of Liverpool. /CFP
As managers, Klopp and Guardiola met 19 times so far and the 53-year-old German led by a bit with a 9win-2draw-8loss record, which did not happen very much in Guardiola's coaching career.
"I'm happy we don't meet that often, to be honest, because of the quality he and his teams have. No, I'm not aware of any records. I know that we met from time to time, and I know we didn't lose all of them, but I know that all of the games were incredibly difficult, incredibly difficult, they are very intense. That's the only thing I am concerned about really and not how we played in the last game in the summer or the game before that, whenever it was – that we are just ready to compete in a game," said Klopp.
Currently, Liverpool went 5-1-1, ranking 2nd with 16 points, the same as leading Southampton, but the Reds also played one fewer game. City played two fewer games and are 12th on the table with 11 points (3-2-1).