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In 2021, Pep Guardiola was reflecting on an epic managerial rivalry that then only lasted a mere eight years. “He made me a better manager,” he said of Jurgen Klopp. When he registered his greatest achievement since leaving Barcelona, it owed something to Klopp, too. In swift succession, his captain lifted the Premier League, the FA Cup and then the Champions League. A decade after scoring for Klopp in a Champions League final at Wembley, Ilkay Gundogan struck twice for Guardiola in an FA Cup final at Wembley. Gundogan felt like a footballing soulmate of Guardiola – as well as a neighbour in the same deluxe Manchester apartment block – but a diplomat had links in each camp: Klopp often texted his former midfielder congratulations when Manchester City won something, just as he got in touch when Liverpool drew Guardiola’s team in the Champions League in 2018. Gundogan is gone now – to Guardiola’s old club and spiritual home, Barcelona – but he remains an example of how the Catalan has been influenced by the manager who has beaten him most often. As Guardiola’s haul from the seasons when they have faced each other stands at five Premier League titles and two Bundesligas, Klopp is likelier to defeat him over 90 minutes than nine months. That Guardiola has always tended to have greater resources is a factor: a mantra of Klopp’s is that he has never wanted to be the best team in the world as much as beat the best. And, with great regularity, that is how he describes City. Now, as Champions League winners, that description is utterly uncontroversial. Yet Guardiola’s methods for establishing superiority have entailed borrowing from Klopp. “I learned a lot from watching Liverpool,” he said in January. He learned from watching Borussia Dortmund, too: his first game as Bayern Munich manager a 4-2 defeat to Klopp’s previous club. It exposed him to the blistering speed of counterattacks in the Bundesliga. A recurring theme of many of Guardiola’s most chastening defeats in the subsequent decade has been a susceptibility to the break against quick transitions; his tactical shifts have often been predicated on attempts to provide protection against them. His use of inverted full-backs coming into midfield began in Bavaria and was designed in part to shield the defence when his side lost the ball. His sudden fondness for full-backs who are centre-backs by trade, however, reflected on lessons learned at Anfield. Explaining Nathan Ake’s role, he said in May: “You need proper defenders to win duels one on one.” He cited four wingers as reasons why, four men he would not want to be isolated against a midfielder masquerading as a full-back. One of them, Mohamed Salah, scored against City in four different games last season. He did not mention Sadio Mane, but the previous season, the Senegalese scored four times against City. One of those multifunctional defenders, Manuel Akanji, was on Liverpool’s radar in the past. He came from Dortmund, like Gundogan: a curiosity is that, during Klopp’s reign at Anfield, City have signed three players from his old club and Liverpool none. The third, Erling Haaland, was a signing that may bear comparisons with Bayern’s raid on Dortmund for Robert Lewandowski in 2014. And yet neither Klopp nor Guardiola is indelibly associated with the conventional centre-forward. The exchange of ideas can be a two-way affair. If one is seen as an apostle of pressing, the other the godfather of passing, there are common denominators and influences in either direction. If there has often been a difference of thought about wingers, with City’s often charged with supplying touchline-hugging width and Klopp’s normally goalscorers in narrower roles, running the channels inside the full-backs, the double act of Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane, who fashioned perhaps the most viscerally entertaining Guardiola side, offered echoes of Liverpool. Meanwhile, there has been a shared fondness for the false nine. Liverpool had the Premier League’s definitive one, in Roberto Firmino; Guardiola had a host of them in the two seasons before Haaland’s arrival. Firmino reflected another tactical priority: with his propensity to drop deep, he gave Liverpool four players in an area populated by a three-man central midfield. City’s fourth player there was often a full-back of sorts, whether Fabian Delph, Oleksandr Zinchenko or Joao Cancelo. Now there has been a role reversal of sorts: Liverpool’s fourth man is a full-back, Trent Alexander-Arnold. The Merseysider readily admits that he is studying John Stones and Rodri in a bid to gain a greater understanding of his midfield duties. Stones, the centre-back who has become a hybrid midfielder, is Guardiola’s latest invention. Meanwhile, Klopp, lacking the injured Andy Robertson, will probably play Joe Gomez as his Ake, a centre-back operating as a left-back. Klopp’s midfield has taken on a Guardiola-esque look, with more technicians and attack-minded players and fewer ball-winners. Guardiola’s last game, the frenetic 4-4 draw at Chelsea, was reminiscent of the kind of confusion the early Klopp teams brought. Perhaps it is a one-off, perhaps a sign that Guardiola, who long embraced control, is instead accepting Klopp-style chaos. Maybe he is missing Gundogan, a midfielder forged in part by a peer but whose style was perhaps always best suited to Guardiola. Meanwhile, the injured afterthought at Anfield represented Klopp’s attempt to add Guardiola’s class in possession: in 2021-22, when Liverpool almost did the quadruple, it seemed as though Thiago Alcantara may be the man who added the extra dimension. Instead, a year later, it was Gundogan, Klopp’s protege, who propelled City to greater glory. It came in Klopp’s worst full season in charge on Merseyside. Yet now Liverpool are revived, once again City’s closest challengers. It is safe to say Guardiola won’t be surprised. Two years ago, he said: “They’re going to come back sooner or later: knowing the club, and the manager.” Now Liverpool are back. Over 10 years and 28 games, rivals have been opposites and influences, a mutual admiration society who have driven each other to greater heights yet providing reasons why either has not won even more. They have shaped each other’s sides and their thinking. And, as ever, their duel could shape a season. Manchester City vs Liverpool will kick off at 12.30pm on Saturday 25 November on Sky Sports Read More Pep Guardiola puts Jurgen Klopp on pedestal as ‘by far’ his biggest career rival The surprise truth behind Klopp’s blueprint to beat Pep Guardiola Pep Guardiola makes Man City vow — even if they are ‘relegated to League One’ Pep Guardiola gives Erling Haaland injury update ahead of Liverpool clash Premier League news LIVE: Updates from today’s press conferences Pep Guardiola not concerned that Manchester City only had eight subs at Chelsea

Jurgen Klopp cast himself as the philosophical opposite of his rival for Saturday’s crunch match. They have been pitted against each other for a decade now, Klopp and Pep Guardiola, over 28 meetings from the German Super Cup to the Community Shield, via the FA, Carabao and German cups, the Bundesliga, the Premier League and the Champions League. They will be in neighbouring technical areas at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday when Manchester City host Liverpool, just as they are side by side again in the league table, for a game Klopp said he “would watch wherever I was on the planet”. But, once again, he is up against the man he deems the finest in his business. “I don't know how often I have said it but he's the best manager in the world,” he said. And while he will willingly admit that Guardiola is an influence, he compared himself to his great rival by drawing a distinction between them. “Defending is an important part of the game,” he said. “That is where my philosophy starts and his maybe ends.” Guardiola may disagree on that point, given the importance he attaches to pressing. As Klopp accepted: “We are not that close that we have spoken about it.” But Klopp’s blueprint against Guardiola involves defending; which, in turn, is the basis of his attacking. Gegenpressing, after all, is his best playmaker. “I love preparing for a game when the opponent wants the ball because it gives you an opportunity to create something,” he said. Devastating transitions have been at the heart of his blueprint to beat Guardiola. It is one that no one else has been able to copy; not with any consistency. Only one manager has faced Guardiola at least eight times and has won more often than he has lost, and that is the man who has taken him on most often. Klopp’s 12 victories have been spread across Germany and England but have had certain common denominators. Klopp’s teams don’t dominate the ball, and nor do they try to. But nor do they give it up altogether: beating Manchester City with 20 per cent possession, he rationalised, “is really rare and your counterattacks have to be spot on”. And if Liverpool’s sometimes are, they had 37 per cent of the ball when they won 1-0 at Anfield last season, 32 per cent in the 2-1 Champions League victory at the Etihad Stadium, 36 per cent in 2018’s 4-3 triumph at Anfield. Klopp’s sides have to defend well, but the scorelines indicate that the games have not been defensive. Perhaps it is simply testament to the attacking quality on the pitch but those 28 matches have produced 93 goals, an average of 3.32 each. While winning more – 12 to 11 – Klopp’s teams have conceded more goals, 48 to 45; as he knows from 5-0, 4-0, 4-1 and 4-1 results, when City are on top, they can seem unstoppable. “If we can make it really uncomfortable for them, we have a chance,” Klopp said. “If they feel comfortable in their game, no team has a chance.” Arguably, no one else has made life uncomfortable for Guardiola as often as Klopp. Some of the unconventional decisions that have led to accusations that the Catalan overthinks things have come against Liverpool: Aymeric Laporte has played at left-back at Anfield, Ilkay Gundogan as a quasi-right-winger and Jack Grealish as a false nine, none with any conspicuous success. Klopp nevertheless argued that it will be hard for Guardiola to spring a surprise. “We are all kind of predictable so it is not that we have a rabbit in our pocket and pull it out,” he said. “It is football, all the pitches are the same size and it is super interesting.” He knows City want the ball and where they want it. The challenge lies in concentration and organisation, in when to try to take it off them, how and whether Liverpool can spring a break. “Now it is about each space on the pitch you give them on the pitch that they want to explore,” he said. “They really want to play. They are the one team who have four at the back and one of them is the goalkeeper. They don’t only play around their own box, they move slightly higher as well. If we have a solution for that, they will step back and adapt.” Guardiola can seem the control freak of the pair, Klopp the man with a brand of chaos theory. Yet he presented himself as the organiser, the defensive strategist, and the City manager as the ranter and raver. “I am not sure how deep you have to go into our personality to see what we are like,” he said. “I am 56 and I still don't know who I am but Pep is for sure this type of guy who likes to get angry with his boys if they don't want the ball. I have that a little bit. For me, I love to organise other things to get advantage from that and that is deep in my personality.” And that personality, over the years, has equipped him for the seemingly impossible task of facing Guardiola. Read More Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool can benefit from Alexis Mac Allister’s deeper role Jamie Carragher explains how new Trent Alexander-Arnold role can leave Liverpool vulnerable How Pep Guardiola borrowed from Jurgen Klopp to elevate Manchester City Pep Guardiola puts Jurgen Klopp on pedestal as ‘by far’ his biggest career rival Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool can benefit from Alexis Mac Allister’s deeper role Mohamed Salah ‘a completely different animal’ for Liverpool before Man City clash

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