“I don’t believe him” – Guardiola dismisses Jurgen Klopp claim about Premier League title race involving Manchester City and Liverpool
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has dismissed Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp's claim that his side are out of the title race. Liverpool defeated Leicester City on Thursday evening to move nine points behind Premier League leaders Manchester City, albeit with a game in hand.
But Klopp was dismissive of his side's chances of challenging City for the title, with the German seemingly conceding defeat in the title race.
Jurgen Klopp claims Liverpool "do not have Man City on their toes yet" in the Premier League title race 📊
Guardiola, however, has dismissed the claim that Liverpool's title hopes are over. He said during his pre-match press conference ahead of his team's EPL encounter with Norwich City this Saturday:
“I don’t believe him,”
When asked if he was in Klopp's position whether he felt his side could make up the ground on current EPL leaders City, he said:
“Absolutely. And he thinks the same, otherwise he would not be the competitor that he is."
He continued:
“Of course he believes he can catch us. In football, anything can happen. But he knows he has to win a lot of games, like we know we have to win a lot of games to be champions back to back."
Guardiola has never been one to downplay the challenge of title rivals despite the comfortable lead his Manchester City side have often found themselves in.
“If the margin right now was 14/16 points I would say we are closer. But nine points and potentially six in case they beat Leeds. So it’s nothing when you have 40 points to play for. Anything can happen,” he added.
Manchester City next face Liverpool on 9th April in the Premier League and it will be interesting to see whether the Reds have caught Guardiola's men.
Guardiola's tenure at Manchester City putting him in the greatest EPL manager conversation
When Pep Guardiola joined the club back in 2016, many rivals were vary of the threat the Spanish manager would bring to their team's successes. That fear has lived out as City have been dominant under Guardiola's management, winning three Premier League titles, the FA Cup once and four League Cups.
The Spaniard currently boasts a hugely impressive win percentage of 73.4%, leading to many start including the former Barcelona manager among the Premier League's greatest managers of all time.
Sir Alex Ferguson is often regarded as the best EPL manager in history with thirteen Premier League trophies to his name.
If rumors are to be believed, Guardiola is ready to create a dynasty at Manchester City which could rival that of Sir Alex's dominance in charge of neighbors United. The only trophy evading Guardiola during his time at the Manchester outfit is the UEFA Champions League.
While there have been suggestions that Pep Guardiola will walk away from #ManCity if he wins the #UCL, the growing feeling around the club is he wants to create a dynasty. @ManCity’s players have been struck at how Guardiola has never looked more at home.
[via @MullockSMirror]