Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola says Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp has been his main competitor in EPL

Manchester City Coach Pep Guardiola has admitted that Liverpool Coach Jurgen Klopp has been his main competitor in the English Premier League (EPL).

Guardiola said that Klopp’s unexpected decision to quit EPL at the end of the current season will make him sleep a bit better.

“He’s been my biggest rival so I think he will be missed, I am a little bit pleased because without him I will sleep a little bit better the night before we play against Liverpool but I wish him all the best. He doesn’t admit but he will be back,” Guardiola observed.

The two tacticians have met 29 times, with 12 wins in favour of Klopp and 11 wins for Pep, while 6 games have ended in a draw.

Since Guardiola signed for Manchester City in 2016, he has turned the club into a football powerhouse but Klopp has been giving him a real test, with fixtures of the two teams being the most difficult to predict.

Speaking to the press following a magnificent performance in their FA Cup fourth round match with Tottenham Hotspur on Friday, which ended 1-0 in their favour, Guardiola acknowledged Klopp’s threat in EPL.

“He’s an absolutely incredible manager, I don’t know him closely but I think he’s an incredible person as well. I have the feeling that when he leaves at the end of the season, part of us at Manchester City is leaving too, they have been our biggest rival, Liverpool in the last years,”  he admitted.

After a good run of nine years at Liverpool, Klopp made it clear that he would be stepping down come the end of the season, saying he was running out of energy, a sentiment which later Guardiola reiterated observing that the same once happened to him at Barcelona.

“All the managers feel tired when you’ve done many years, I feel it completely, I felt it at Barcelona so I understand it completely.”

Klopp has posed a major threat to Guardiola in the current campaign, with his side Liverpool currently leading on the EPL table with 48 points, 5 points ahead of the City who are second.

The two titans will have a Premier League match on March 9 at Anfield Stadium.