Unai Emery wants to smile like Jürgen Klopp | OneFootball

Unai Emery believes emulating Jürgen Klopp’s happy-go-lucky demeanour will serve him well in English football.

Emery’s Arsenal take on Klopp’s Liverpool on Saturday evening – a mouth-watering clash which should give a good indication of how far both teams have come so far this season.

But with the Reds now seemingly fully equipped to mount a strong Premier League title challenge, Emery is well aware that like Klopp, he will need time to get the Gunners to where he wants them to be.

“I want to quickly [reach] our best performance, but I know we need a process,” said the Spaniard, when asked whether Arsenal will need three years to reach Liverpool’s level.

“I know we need time for improving and this development. I want to do it while enjoying every day.

“I look at him, Klopp, and he smiles every day. I want to smile like him. And then the smile is bigger when you win. But I think we need to do things positively and while smiling and enjoying.”

Klopp’s jolliness is a trait not often found in modern football managers, and Emery says it’s a quality he admires.

“Yes. I need to learn also to smile more,” he added.

“When we win it’s more easy, and I smile also. But I need also to smile in other moments.

“But our work is very demanding, and every day we need to be very, very prepared for each match. But then it’s very important also to transmit ones smile to the players.”

Emery is currently reading a book called ‘Good Luck: Creating the conditions for success in life and business’ and the Spaniard has been known to hand out self-help books to his players at previous clubs.

However, he says his Arsenal charges have not yet been given access to his library.

“I usually give the players some books to read, but not yet here. They are books for personal development,” he said.

“I need to continue reading books, I like a lot to learn from other people in the world, different people with success. Then I use [the knowledge] for me, and I use it also to give the players my experience or my learning in every moment.

“[A player’s] performance is about quality and also working together tactically, but the most important is the head, is the mentality.”

The Gunners go into Saturday’s game on the back of a 13-match unbeaten run and Emery is hoping he’ll get to celebrate his 47th birthday with another positive result.

“I want to smile after the match and enjoy my birthday,” he said. “But the most important is the match.”