Former England international Owen Hargreaves has had his say on Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp’s recent war of words with Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.
The top two teams in England face off at Anfield on Sunday, and the mind games have been ramped up recently. First Guardiola subtly accused Reds attacker Sadio Mane of diving, before Klopp threw in a little dig at City’s propensity for tactical fouls.
Now, Hargreaves has weighed in: “There’s a bit of competition from the managers, as well,” he told BT Sport. “It was a little jab, wasn’t it? And Klopp does that as well.
“You give one, you get one. The reason the guys are here at this level is because they’re amazing competitors, and that little jab from each other was just that little competitive side coming out.”
"It was a little jab – you give one you get one!"
"He had a little nibble though!" ??
Owen Hargreaves and @MicahRichards discuss the mind games between Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp… pic.twitter.com/7RYEqdd4Gt
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 6, 2019
OPINION
It’s no surprise to see Klopp and Guardiola going at it in the media in the lead-up to Sunday’s game. You get the sense that the Liverpool boss had wanted to refrain from a war of words if he could, but Guardiola made the first move and the German couldn’t resist throwing in that tactical fouling dig. We’ve seen this time and again over the years from top class managers. Sir Alex Ferguson was an expert at mind games, while Jose Mourinho used to excel at them as well. People like Arsene Wenger and Rafael Benitez got on board with them later on as well, and so it’s no surprise to see Klopp and Guardiola squaring up to each other in the media in the build-up to the biggest game of the season thus far. Sunday’s clash is absolutely pivotal for the Premier League title race, and so any advantage either man can get for his team is massive. That’s what they’re both trying to do here.
