In a week which has seen him take several shots at Jurgen Klopp, talkSPORT pundit Simon Jordan has now leapt to the defence of the Liverpool manager following a grandiose claim made by Sam Allardyce.
In his first press conference as the new boss of Leeds United, the 68-year-old bragged that he’s ‘as good as’ the German, along with Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta, in terms of football knowledge (Sky Sports News).
Jordan had branded the Reds coach a ‘liar‘ over comments made about Paul Tierney in the wake of Sunday’s 4-3 win over Tottenham, also calling for him to be banned from Anfield if he gets a suspension and saying that pulling his hamstring after roaring at fourth official John Brooks was ‘karma‘.
However, the pundit has defended Klopp in the wake of the Whites manager’s comments, saying on talkSPORT: “I don’t doubt that he [Allardyce] has a humungous body of knowledge.
“That’s great, but the ability to be able to impart that wisdom into teams that can do better and have players that can develop at clubs that can win is a very different thing from having knowledge in the first place.
“Given that Sam has managed hundreds of games in the Premier League and been responsible for lots of positive outcomes, he can attribute knowledge as being something akin to those that manage at the top of the league.
“But he ain’t no Klopp and he ain’t no Guardiola…he doesn’t operate at their level. There’s an X factor with Klopp and with Guardiola. They’ve got something different, and that’s why they are who they are.”
While we strongly disagreed with Jordan over his other remarks on the Liverpool manager earlier in the week, we’re definitely taking his side on this one.
Allardyce has a fine pedigree in the Premier League from taking charge for 537 matches at eight different clubs thus far (Transfermarkt), but unlike Klopp, he’s never won or competed for major honours domestically or in Europe.
You can check out Jordan’s comments in full below, via @talkSPORT on Twitter:
"He's a very capable manager!" 👏
"But he ain't no Klopp, and he ain't no Pep!" 😬
Simon reacts to Sam Allardyce' comparing himself to Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. 👀 pic.twitter.com/wgIA8y4n0O
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) May 4, 2023