Pep Guardiola is widely regarded as one of football’s most iconic managers. While his Premier League legacy is second only to Sir Alex Ferguson, his managerial brilliance has also been showcased in Spain and Germany, where he achieved remarkable success with Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
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Throughout his career, Guardiola has amassed an impressive collection of trophies at every club he’s led. He’s coached world-class talent and faced off against some of the most respected tacticians in the game. ..Continue Reading
Among those rivals are legendary figures like Ferguson, Jurgen Klopp, Carlo Ancelotti, and Arsène Wenger. Yet, one name stands out to Guardiola as the most formidable adversary he’s encountered.
Given their intense clashes on major stages, it’s no surprise that he singled out Klopp. Their rivalry began in Germany—Guardiola at Bayern, Klopp at Dortmund—but it was in England, with Manchester City and Liverpool battling for supremacy, that their competition reached its peak.
During City’s dominant run in the Premier League, Liverpool consistently pushed them to their limits, making Klopp’s side the most relentless challengers Guardiola has faced.
Speaking at a UEFA Pro course lecture in Spain, Guardiola reflected on those fierce encounters and named Klopp and his Liverpool team as the toughest opponents of his managerial career.
He said: “Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool have been the toughest I’ve ever faced in my life. There were days when I thought ‘I’ve got him’ and the next day he’d [Klopp] destroy me again. He was the toughest by far. Because of his way of playing, his transitions, because he was very direct, because he attacked with a lot of players. The inside midfielders are usually support players, but Klopp’s midfielders were about attacking space.
“So, he’d force the full-backs to close down a lot, then he’d open you up on the outside with his full-backs. They continually sprinted inside. Firmino would drop back. Salah and Mane’s runs behind him were unstoppable. It was very, very difficult to counteract.
“I give a lot of credit to what we’ve done these years to the incredible quality of the opponent we’ve had to face. Those three or four league titles we won against Klopp are the greatest success we’ve achieved. There hasn’t been a tougher opponent I’ve ever faced.”
Klopp’s Liverpool only managed to get their hands on the Premier League trophy once, but there’s no doubt at all that they pushed Man City to the brink on a number of occasions and they often seemed to have Guardiola’s number on the pitch.