Klopp ready to quell Guardiola, Aguero

It’s a well-deserved win for Klopp whose rivalry with Pep Guardiola has ensued in England.

In a New Year’s Eve game of few scoring chances, Liverpool completed the job after eight minutes as Klopp renewed his former Bundesliga rivalry with Guardiola, the ex-Bayern Munich coach.

“There weren’t many clear chances for either side and I thought we dealt with the threat of (Sadio) Mane, (Adam) Lallana and (Roberto) Firmino quite well”.

Guardiola was in no mood to criticise his team.

The much-anticipated clash between Liverpool and Manchester City at Anfield on Saturday looks like a knockout to determine who can challenge Chelsea for the Premier League title.

You can’t always win games the way you want. Wham, bam, thank you Jurgen. But Klopp will be under pressure from fans from the red half of Merseyside to build on an impressive start to a campaign that has formed the foundations for a genuine title tilt. They will have worked in training on their positioning to stop Guardiola’s side from passing the ball out from the back.

Without delaying anymore, here is the XI Guardiola must choose for Man City to overcome Liverpool…

The 14-time major victor has altered his preparation for the Australian Open, hoping a change of venues for the warmup tournaments will bring a change of luck at the season’s first Grand Slam tournament after a shocking first-round exit in 2016.

But they didn’t have enough creativity to force the goal they desperately needed, and Liverpool’s defensive discipline allowed them to hold on with relative comfort to secure three important points.

Sheyi Ojo or Ryan Kent are probably within a shout of making an appearance but I wouldn’t think Klopp would want to make too many changes; we still do need to win this game as much as we did against Manchester City.

They are by no means the most talented team in the world, but they won’t often be outworked or outran very often, and the tactical organisation instilled by Klopp gives them a chance of defeating even the most risky opponent. However, Aguero’s record at Anfield gives little reason for enthusiasm – he’s failed to score in four Premier League encounters there, which adds further concern to City’s dismal history, having enjoyed just one win away to Liverpool in the Premier League era – beating them 2-1 in April 2003.

Klopp’s men again reduced the gap to leaders Chelsea to six points, with Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, City and Manchester United also in the chasing pack.

“We have to show strong personality, keep fighting and do what we have to do to win the games”. It was kind of a wild game.

“They attack wide sometimes but they especially like to attack from inside, through the middle”.