What are they like: The four players to work for both Klopp and Guardiola open up
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Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp and Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola have undoubtedly been the best managers in the Premier League in recent times.
However, their success relies on very different styles as you have Klopp’s heavy metal football and then Guardiola’s controlled orchestra.
Here’s a selection of quotes from the few players fortunate enough to have first-hand experience of working for both.
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Mario Gotze
Games under Guardiola: 114
Goals: 36
Trophies: 7
“Pep Guardiola was technically one of the best coaches, [playing under him was a] tremendous enrichment,” Gotze told DANZ in 2018.
“But I had the feeling that he thinks only the pitch and leaves out the people and the outside. The empathy was not that big. A world-class coach needs empathy, every athlete is also human and you should combine both.”
Games under Klopp: 116
Goals: 31
Trophies: 3
“It was not easy for me [under Pep], just because I came from Kloppo, who was like a footballing father.
“Klopp was interested in getting me to Liverpool. And I was also interested in working with him again. He is a world-class coach and that’s why it’s always an option. I decided to join Dortmund, but it was not a decision against Liverpool or Klopp. But on the contrary.
“I’m still in touch with Jurgen. Of course, he taught me everything about professional football. At that time, I was just 17 and coming up from the youth team. He introduced me to everything. He let me play.”
Robert Lewandowski
Games under Guardiola: 100
Goals: 67
Trophies: 3
“In my opinion Pep Guardiola makes almost every player better, so everyone can consider himself lucky to train under him,” Lewandowski told Bild.
“I know Pep can improve a team in England,” he told the Daily Mail in 2016. “I think he knows where he’s going and he knows what he needs to do with the team he’s going to so that they play much better.
“Pep thinks about football 24 hours a day. An obsessive? ‘That’s right. He covers every angle to the smallest detail and he always demands 100 percent in training and in games.”
Games under Klopp: 187
Goals: 103
Trophies: 4
“Obviously Jurgen wasn’t my dad, but in different ways he sort of adopted that role,” Lewandowski told Polish publication Prawda Futbolu.
“He was one of the main factors behind my development and he opened the door to the big wide world of football for me.
“He’s got charisma and knows how to create the right atmosphere in a team. On top of that, he’s able to find the right balance between fun and more serious criticism. He’s a coach you’d run through fire for.”
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“I’m delighted I was able to get to know such a coach and such a person as Jürgen because he’s amazing – both as a coach and a person,” Lewandowski told UEFA in 2019. “I learned so much from him and that means a lot.
“I think what I learned from him is the belief I could play at the highest level. He had this influence and it helped me take the next step. He made me realise that I had more potential than even I had imagined. He could see something in me that I couldn’t see.”
Ilkay Gundogan
Games under Guardiola: 147
Goals: 22
Trophies: 7
“Pep has such big charisma that you automatically try your best when you’re out on the training field,” he told Sport Bible. “When you’re not 100 per cent he’s able to wake you up very quickly.”
Games under Klopp: 117
Goals: 12
Trophies: 3
“Jürgen is a terrific coach and he’s capable of motivating his team ahead of every game,” Gundogan said. “He doesn’t mind if it’s a friendly between amateur teams or a Champions League final, for example.
“He’s a top guy who knows how to deal with his players, how to treat them and how to motivate them. And he’s proving all that again with Liverpool – their attack is incredibly strong.”
Xherdan Shaqiri
Games under Guardiola: 42
Goals: 9
Trophies: 4
“He is a very good coach in terms of what happens on the pitch, but his communication was not so good with me,” Shaqiri told the Daily Mail.
“Guardiola doesn’t talk too much about this [leaving players out]. He doesn’t say to the players why.
“Of course sometimes that’s difficult for a player, especially when you are working well and training well. And especially when he speaks around the media and says ‘He is good, he is good. He is the best player’.”
Games under Klopp: 40
Goals: 7
Trophies: 3
“I understand myself excellently with him. I like people who are so open. And that we can talk in German, of course, is great,” Shaqiri told Blick in 2018.
“Klopp impresses me so much that I will say: I want to win the title for this man. And if we continue like this in the moment, then everything is possible.”
Source: Football Planet
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