Jurgen Klopp has more than enough incentive to get one over on Pep Guardiola when his Liverpool side meet Manchester City on Saturday. Not only are both teams in with a shout of winning the league, but Klopp carries a miserable streak into the contest, having never beaten his fellow managerial heavyweight in a Premier League away game.
The Reds boss has enjoyed no shortage of success against former Bayern Munich manager Guardiola, whom he also met numerous times while in charge of Borussia Dortmund. In fact, no head coach to have faced the Spaniard on more than seven occasions has a better record than Klopp, who has won 12 of their 28 meetings.
But Premier League match-ups at the Etihad Stadium are the German’s Kryptonite. Klopp’s last league victory on City’s patch came all the way back in 2015, shortly after taking the reins at Anfield, when Manuel Pellegrini was still in charge of the Sky Blues.
Every single one of the 18 squad members for that 4-1 triumph have now moved on to pastures new or retired, and seven league visits to the Etihad have since come and gone without a win.
It’s safe to say that Guardiola firmly has the upper hand in this particular fixture, to the extent that it undermines his own argument about Klopp. Last year, the City boss made a bold claim about his Liverpool counterpart.
“Jurgen has been, as a manager, the biggest rival of my career,” claimed the Barcelona legend. “What both teams propose is good for football, because both teams want to try to be themselves.”
Although Liverpool have enjoyed FA Cup and Champions League wins at the Etihad since 2018, the likes of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson are yet to leave the very same venue with all three points in Premier League competition.
The same goes for Klopp when Guardiola is in the opposing dugout, but doing so this weekend could be integral to Liverpool’s title ambitions, as well as backing up the City manager’s lofty statement. After finishing a whopping 22 points off the pace last season, the Reds are now a single point off the top with only one defeat in 12 matches.
Klopp’s eyes surely lit up when City striker Erling Haaland suffered a foot injury during the international break, but Norway boss Stale Solbakken has assured Guardiola and co that it was only a ‘small knock’.
As for Liverpool; Ryan Gravenberch, Joe Gomez, Curtis Jones and Ibrahima Konate are in contention to return at the Etihad, where Klopp will need all hands on deck to end his sorry streak.
