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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp accepts that he may not have prepared adequately for his last meeting with Manchester City, having won the Premier League the week before.
City’s defeat at Chelsea seven days earlier sparked frenzied celebrations between the team, at their Formby Hall hotel base, and fans as they confirmed the end of a 30-year wait for a league championship.
Liverpool received an honor guard from the deposed champions at the Etihad a week later, but that was all the respect they received when they were humiliated 4-0.
Klopp admits it was difficult to strike the right balance in terms of preparations after the club’s long wait and then a three-month season hiatus due to the Covid pandemic when there were doubts as to whether the campaign would continue.
“If you are not focused 100% on the game against City, you will lose a lot. I’m not sure the game is a test, but it’s 100 percent true, ”Klopp said.
“It was the first time we had won the league, so I had no idea how to prepare for the next game.
“I didn’t want to exaggerate and say ‘Forget what happened three days ago, now it’s City and we can show it to the whole world.’
“I’m not sure if that was right or wrong. I know my guys wanted to win that game, but we weren’t as focused as we usually are in these games.
“Not much, but that explains a bit. Still we played good football that night: unfortunately we didn’t score and they scored four times.
“It was not the hardest defeat of my life.”
While that loss was a tick in Pep Guardiola’s win column between the two, Klopp remains the manager who has beaten the Spaniard more than any of his peers.
The German has won nine of 19 meetings as coach of Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund before that, although he has not won in four Premier League visits to Etihad since Guardiola took over in 2016.
“We should meet much more often, but I am happy that we don’t because of the quality of their teams,” Klopp added.
“I’m not aware of any records, but I knew we would see each other from time to time and we didn’t lose them all, but the games were incredibly difficult.
“We were really ready to compete and you need a near perfect organization, you need to be really brave, cause problems for them too.
“It is not rocket science, but it is intense and there is enormous pressure.”
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