Jurgen Klopp has claimed that Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City pushes his Liverpool side to be better and has labelled the Premier League leaders’ consistency as ‘crazy’.
The Reds are six points behind the Citizens as the German boss prepares his side for a trip to Leicester City tonight.
“I think City and us pushed each other to crazy heights,” Klopp said in a recent press conference (via City Xtra).
“Imagine if we had won the Champions League final (2018) the season before we won it? Imagine if we won the Premier League (2019) the season before we won it. It would be absolutely crazy what these players did.
“But we didn’t win that Champions League final (against Real Madrid) and we didn’t win the Premier League.”
“You can say a point (in the 2018/19 Premier League season) but for me, it was 11 millimetres (John Stones’ off-the-line clearance against Liverpool). Their consistency over such a long time was crazy.”
Liverpool finished the 2018/19 season as runners-up and suffered their one Premier League defeat of the campaign against Manchester City.
During the game, City defender John Stones made a remarkable goalline clearance to prevent Klopp’s side from taking the lead – a review of the incident declared that the ball was just 11 millimetres away from crossing the line.
The Sky Blues pipped us to the title by one point that season, so Jurgen is right to point out the incident as a pivotal one.
Guardiola’s side are looking very good this season so it’s imperative that we defeat the Foxes tonight and reduce the gap back to three points.
It’s unlikely that City will drop many more points this term so it’s down to us to pick up as many points as possible before we travel to the Etihad in April.