Pep Guardiola admits to ‘learning a lot’ by watching Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool | OneFootball

As Manchester City prepare to face off against this year’s fellow Premier League title contenders in the FA Cup fourth round, manager Pep Guardiola has admitted to taking inspiration from one of his title rivals of previous seasons.

Plenty of the pre-match discussion has revolved around the City boss and his impact on inspiring the Arsenal manager that we see today, after Mikel Arteta spent a significant amount of time working as an assistant coach to Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium.

While Pep Guardiola has been keen to deny any large impact on the excellence of Arteta today, the Manchester City manager revealed who he has taken strong inspiration from during his time in the Premier League.

Liverpool and Manchester City have spent a large part of Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola’s reigns competing directly for the Premier League title, with the 2018/19 and 2021/22 seasons being two of the most intense races for the top-flight crown in recent memory.

This season, Liverpool have somewhat fallen off in their pursuit of another top-flight title, but Pep Guardiola has said his previous seasons competing against the Merseyside club inspired him to change elements of his Manchester City blueprint.

Speaking ahead of his side’s first of three scheduled matches against Arsenal this season, Guardiola has detailed just how much time he has spent watching Liverpool games, and how much he has learned from the methods implemented by his German counterpart.

“I learned a lot watching by Liverpool,” said the Manchester City boss. “It’s the team I watched the most, for obvious reasons, because they were our biggest rival in the last years, and they’re going to come back sooner or later, knowing the club, and the manager, and of course, players they have.”

Pep Guardiola continued, “I tried to copy some things, if I feel it. If I like it, feel it, can adapt with the players I have. Not because they have success, that means I’m going to copy and paste. No, no, no!”

The Catalan coach also explained how he has learned from various coaches throughout his playing and managerial career, pointing towards the latest adaptation to his City side through the arrival of Erling Haaland, and his new style of pressing with Julian Alvarez.

“The many things I do, I learned. Why? Because I was in Germany, and I learned many things playing with Philipp Lahm, or David Alaba as full-backs, for example,” Guardiola said.

“And I’ve been with all the managers that I’ve had; Louis van Gaal, or in Italy with the managers I had, with Juanma Lillo in Mexico. When I’ve been there, I’ve learned a lot. But after, you see your players.”

“And when we play with Erling Haaland now, and when we played with Lionel Messi as a striker (at Barcelona), it’s completely different. The approach, the attacking and defending, is completely different. The way we press for example, when we put Julian (Alvarez) now, and Phil (Foden) together in the middle, our intensity increases in the first step of pressing… it’s huge. And with other players, it’s not.”

Manchester City take on Arsenal in the Emirates FA Cup fourth round on Friday night, as both clubs look to keep their hopes of securing three trophies alive this season heading into arguably the most difficult period of the football schedule.

A win for either side on Friday night may also become a significant psychological advantage heading into the two Premier League ties between the two sides that are scheduled for later in the season.