Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool’s manager, has said that Pep Guardiola is the best manager in the world, adding that he is the most outstanding manager he has seen in his lifetime, Fabrizio Romano reports.
Klopp said this in his pre-match press conference in the buildup to Manchester City and Liverpool’s clash on Sunday in a first vs second showdown.
Klopp currently leads the table with 63 points, but with Man City one point behind them, Liverpool will lose the lead at the top of the table if they lose the match against Guardiola’s men. This is the 3rd the Klopp and Guardiola are locked in a title race, and it seems that the race will go all the way to the wire again.
In the 2018/19 season, Liverpool and Man City needed the final day of the season to decide the winner, with Man City winning the league by a point. The same thing happened in the 2021/22 season, where Man City again dramatically won the league on the last day, in fact needing to come back from a 0-2 deficit against Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa.
In both seasons, Liverpool eclipsed 90 points, winning 97 points in 2018/19 and 92 points in 2021/22.
Man City has won the league for three consecutive seasons in a row, and looks to have a good chance of winning it the fourth time in a row. The Manchester club also won the treble last season, winning their domestic league (the Premier League), the UEFA Champions League, and their domestic cup (the FA Cup) in one season.
In February 2023, the Premier League charged Man City with 115 breaches of Financial Fair Play rules between 2010 and 2018 inclusive. These allegations include failure to report correct financial information and failure to report accurate manager and player compensation, amongst others.
The trial will take place in 2024 and a verdict is expected to be reached by the Summer of 2025.
