Pep Guardiola will surely go down in history as one of the best managers of all time but his fear of Liverpool might just be ruining Manchester City’s image.
The Spaniard boss has been able to deliver the Premier League title at Man City but has not tasted European success for a really long time and right now Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool seem to be his biggest nemesis.
Right now, Liverpool hold a 22-point lead at the top of the Premier League table meaning Man City are more or less going to lose their champion status at the end of the season.
And according to former Liverpool man John Aldrige, Pep Guardiola has a ‘phobia’ of Liverpool which is now impacting Manchester City.
Aldridge told the Liverpool Echo: “I think Guardiola has always had a phobia about Liverpool since that fly-on-the-wall documentary about Man City came out, which showed clips of him saying he was worried about how to stop our front three and that Klopp was going to do what he did at Dortmund.
“This was the season when they got their 100-point title but we knocked them out of the Champions League easily, 5-1 on aggregate, and even though they held on to just about winning the title last season by a point from us, you could see how much we had got under the skin when that clip emerged of them singing that distasteful song about Liverpool when they should have celebrated their own achievement of back-to-back league titles along with the two domestic cups they won.
“Winning the European Cup would salvage the season for Pep but that looks a long way off for them at present and I would certainly have no fears for Liverpool should we draw them in the latter stages and I don’t think Jurgen Klopp and the players would either.
“City certainly seem to have a phobia about us though and I think it stems from the manager.”
Pep Guardiola still has the chance to redeem himself by winning the Champions League and also picking up a few domestic titles but clearly they are not the favourites in any of these tournaments as things stand.
And after Sunday’s loss to Spurs, one thing’s for sure, Pep Guardiola needs to get back to the drawing board and rethink his tactics especially against the big names like Spurs and Liverpool.
