Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has rejected a suggestion made by Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp that his side were given more time to prepare between matches over a busy Christmas period.
The Cityzens had an eight-day gap between games over the new year as a coronavirus outbreak caused their league match at Everton on 28 December to be postponed.
But Klopp started a mini feud, complaining that Man City have had more rest than his side in his pre-match press conference as he spoke about the levels of fatigue in his squad.
“We need to play football, train and recover and use each minute to train,” he said.
“We haven’t had a break, City had two weeks off for Covid reasons. It’s a tough year.”
Later, in Guardiola’s press conference, when asked about Klopp’s comments. The Man City Manager wasn’t best pleased as he really groaned, cracked his fingers, licked his lips, then completely mocked Jurgen Klopp’s comments
“He made a mistake, it was two months off, or three months, No four, four months we had off. That’s why we are in top four right now. Jurgen has to see the calendar again. We had Covid, we had one week and we played with 14 players at Stamford Bridge,” he said as quoted by the Manchester Evening News.
“Maybe I’m wrong and it’s two weeks or three weeks, four weeks. When I see him I will say ‘How many weeks, or days, were we off?. Maybe it was a misunderstanding from him. Maybe if he saw the calendar again he would realise it was not two weeks – it was two months.”
When asked why he thought Klopp would make the comments, he replied: “I will tell him tomorrow. I’m not irritated.
“I didn’t expect it, from him I didn’t expect it. He knows it’s not true. Nobody in the Premier League has two weeks off. It might be for a purpose but I didn’t expect he will do it. I thought he wasn’t that type of guy. Maybe I was wrong.”
klopp is feeling frustrated as Liverpool have experienced a downturn in fortunes, slipping from top to fourth – seven points behind City having played a game more – prior to Sunday’s clash between the two sides at Anfield.
The liverpool boss overlooked the fact that City actually had a far shorter summer break than most teams due to their involvement in the latter stages of the Champions League last August.
WHAT EXACTLY DID THESE CITY FANS HAVE TO SAY IN REACTION TO KLOPP’S COMMENTS?
That's mind games pep, don't bite it. Klopp knows what he's doing.
— Shawny (@whynothaaland) February 5, 2021
Klopp is just a cry baby Pep you need to humble them
— 𝑵𝒂𝒔𝒍𝒂™ (@NaslaUtd) February 5, 2021
PEP showing no mercy this season
— Pratik Maity🇮🇳 (@imbluemancunian) February 5, 2021
Love to see it
My love for this guy increases each day
— ellie-mae💙🦋 (@Elliemaew13) February 5, 2021
Pep is always like this , a fighter and talk only facts but literally ever since our win against uefa he's on another level and showing no mercy to anyone..
— Vipul (@vipul21lva) February 5, 2021
OUR MANAGER 🥰💙
It was one week what will Jurgen be blaming next ? Getting every excuse under the sun. Peps response was brilliant look a bit closer to home Jurgen instead of blaming everyone else
— Paul evans (@Pauleva74805147) February 5, 2021
Liverpool have played 8 games since the start of the new year. City have played 10. We had 6 days rest between fixtures due to the postponement of the Everton game. Liverpool had 8 days rest between the Villa Fa cup game and United in the league. Guys chatting shit.
— Lewis (@lewis_bei) February 5, 2021
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