Jurgen Klopp met the media a few hours ago to preview tomorrow’s major clash at Manchester United and we have the video for you at this link. A significant portion of the session revolved around the widely held belief that Mourinho will park the bus tomorrow in the weekend’s headliner fixture.
Mourinho is notorious for doing this kind of thing. If you Google “park the bus” literally the fourth auto-fill is “Mourinho,” the fifth “Man Utd” and the seventh “Chelsea.” The last three United-Liverpool meetings have ended in draws, with the Red Devils managing just a single shot on goal in the last outing, and set a new club record for lowest possession in Premier League play.
Today, Klopp was asked about Jose Mourinho and his decision to “park the bus” during the Anfield meeting.
“I would never use the words. In this specific game, I have absolutely no problem with defending,” Klopp responded.
“I know how the situation is at the moment and what people are saying.
They play a specific kind of football, we play a specific kind of football — and everybody makes a big thing of it. But it’s all about winning and there are different ways to win football games.”
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has also stayed as far away as possible from the term “park the bus” during a news conference this season, when asked about the theme.
Klopp however defends Mourinho’s right to employ the effective, but ultimately boring, style. The German also admits that defending will be a focal point of this match.
“This United team has a specific way of playing football; that’s all. We have to defend there with all we have and not gambling and thinking we are flying when playing Man United. Nobody flies,” Jurgen Klopp continued.
“They are too strong, physically too strong, tactically too strong. It’s not a battle of systems or philosophies. It’s two very good football teams who will face each other.
“When United will attack, I hope all my players are involved in defending, to be honest. And if somebody then says that was parking the bus in that moment then we park the bus — I have no problem with that.”
“Over 95, 97 minutes, of course, we want to bring our football on the pitch as well and that’s difficult to cope with as well to deal with. That’s the plan for this game.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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