Pundit says Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has shattered Pep Guardiola myth

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John Aldridge believes Liverpool have shattered the Pep Guardiola myth after their dominant Premier League title triumph.

Aldridge believes German coach Jurgen Klopp has put his Manchester City rival into the shade this season.

Guardiola led City to the Premier League title in each of the previous two seasons, picking up a record 100 points in 2017/18 and 98 points in retaining the trophy in 2018/19, finishing just one point ahead of Liverpool.

Now Liverpool goalscoring great Aldridge, who himself won the old First Division crown with the Anfield giants in the 1987/88 season, believes that the dominance shown by Klopp’s side is a sign of things to come.

Having collected 86 points from 31 games, Liverpool will break City’s Premier League points record if they win five of their final seven games. The next of which sees them travel to The Etihad on Thursday where Liverpool will receive a guard of honour.

“We all recall the eulogies that flowed in the direction of Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City side as they became the first in the Premier League era to reach 100-points for a season when they won the title a couple of years back,” Aldridge told the Sunday World.

 

 

 

“Guardiola was hailed as a master who had reinvented football, even though those singing his praises overlooked the fact he was handed £500m to build a team that were tipped to dominate English football for years to come.

“Well, if you are the genius many people say you are Pep, what does that make Klopp in a season when he has put you in your place in no uncertain terms by winning the Premier League with embarrassing ease?

“Just two years on from that 100-point milestone being reached, all those records for City can be shattered by a great Liverpool squad that has banished the notion that Guardiola and his dream team are unbeatable.”

 

Liverpool need to secure their legacy

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This season’s success for Liverpool comes off the back of the club winning their sixth European Cup last season. And now Aldridge admits the challenge is for Klopp and Liverpool is to build on this triumph and repeat it in future seasons, in a similar vein to the sides of the 1970s and 1980s that won 11 titles in 17 years

“What they need to do next is secure the legacy of a team that should go down in history as one of the best we have seen in English football,” he added.

“I was part of the 1987/88 Liverpool team that won the old First Division title with plenty to spare and we should have won it the following season when we were denied by a last-minute goal from Arsenal, even though we were by far the best team over the course of that season.

“Liverpool then won the title for an 18th time the following season and if you had told me back in 1990 that we would have to wait until 2020 to add No.19 to the record books, I would have been horrified at the prospect.

“It was embarrassing for a club of Liverpool’s stature not to win the Premier League title for so long, especially when they got so close on numerous occasions and couldn’t quite get over the finishing line.”

By Matt Johnson

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