When you’ve got a huge game like this, the mind games start early. And what a treat we do have when first place Liverpool visits second place Manchester City on Sunday. Before another tedious international break ensues, we have a match up of the two sides that provided the greatest Premier League title chase in history last season.
Pep Guardiola got the mind games party started on the weekend by branding Liverpool scoring sensation Sadio Mane a diver. Now Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has responded with the “I don’t want to bring up sensitive topic XYZ, but oh look at that, I just did!” routine.
You have a feeling that the Friday news conferences for Klopp and Guardiola will be spirited sessions to say the least.
“I am not too sure if I want to put oil on the fire,” said Klopp.
“I am not interested in these kind of things. I promise not to mention tactical fouls. That is maybe already too much, but that is the only thing I say about it!”
Klopp isn’t the only one to have touched on this topic. The tendency of Pep’s teams, and Manchester City as well, to get away with minor fouls has been brought up in public by other managers previously.
Naturally, Klopp was asked why Guardiola would decide to mention Mane’s being booked for simulation this past weekend. Klopp didn’t have an answer and instead choose to provide a response that squashed any potential beef here, and not escalate the situation.
“I have no clue. Do I get asked as well as much about Man City? I don’t know,” the German continued.
“I don’t understand these types of things. My brain is not big enough to think about another team as well. I have enough to do to think about us and deal with all these things. Tomorrow we play Genk and that deserves all my attention and gets it. After that we can speak about Manchester City.”
Liverpool at Manchester City FYIs
Kickoff: Sun Nov 10 4:30 BST, City of Manchester Stadium
Google Result Probability: Manchester City 38%, Draw 27%, Liverpool win 35%
Odds via Betway: Liverpool 6/4 Draw 13/5 Manchester City 17/10
Form Guide: Manchester City WWWLW Liverpool WWDWW
Prediction: Manchester City 2, Liverpool 2
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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