Guardiola's Liverpool insecurity clearer after Klopp's cheery response ⛈️😓
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Guardiola's Liverpool insecurity clearer after Klopp's cheery response ⛈️😓
The Manchester City boss seemed somewhat irritated by the prospect of fans backing Liverpool in the title race
It doesn’t take a psychologist to see how deeply embedded Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool are in the psyche of Pep Guardiola.
The Catalonian-born manager had already described Manchester City’s main title rivals as a ‘pain in the ass’ when prompted by Peter Schmeichel to point to their biggest potential stumbling block in England.
Despite having dominated the English scene as far as silverware is concerned, the final league standings in all but one of the last three campaigns, not to mention the current season, would more than reflect that.
On course to secure an eighth league title following a dominant display against Newcastle United, Guardiola was inspired, apparently unprompted on this occasion, to steer the conversation back towards the subject of Liverpool Football Club.
The 51-year-old wasn’t keen on warning his outfit to keep their cool with three games to go, nor to praise the Merseysiders for their impressive form in the second-half of the campaign, but rather to accuse one journalist - and neutrals at large - of backing Liverpool in the title race.
Looking beyond the fact that, as Klopp rightly noted in his pre-Aston Villa press conference, the reality is far from different, with ‘sign on’ and Hillsborough chants sadly rife in grounds across the English top-flight, and dipping deep into the well of Guardiola’s insecurity - why on earth would football fans be in favour of Manchester City’s dominance of English football?
No one really wants to watch a fighter jet compete in an air race with a hang glider. But you’d see eyebrows raised if the hang glider won the contest.
There’s a similarly brief sense of achievement attached to applying an invulnerability cheat code to a video game whilst playing on ‘insanity’ mode and slugging one’s way through to the end with little to fear about the outcome.
There’s no journey - to highlight a word very important to Klopp - involved in City’s dominance.
If the bizarrity of his comments didn’t hit home after the 5-0 thumping of Eddie Howe’s men, Klopp’s bemused reaction when informed of his City counterpart’s words must have surely left Guardiola feeling a little sheepish.
One only needs to take a look at how pundits cast their votes in their predicted top fours at the start of the season as evidence of how, arguably, the opposite is in fact true.
If Guardiola still feels the world is against him after all that, he need only attend a handful of Liverpool games to rid himself of the notion that all are behind the Reds in their quest for quadruple glory.
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