Carragher says Klopp will shade rivalry with Guardiola... on one condition

Jamie Carragher believes that Jurgen Klopp will edge the head-to-head battle against Pep Guardiola should his Liverpool side win the Premier League title again this season. 

The Reds are fighting it out with Pep’s Manchester City at the top of the table, although Arsenal are currently leading the race from the Anfield side on goal difference. 

However, it is Man City and Liverpool who have dominated the domestic scene since 2018 under their respective managers, carving up every league title between them as well as hoovering up plenty of domestic cups too. 

Klopp v Guardiola is the rivalry which has defined the last decade of English football with each side claiming a Champions League title in the process. 

Liverpool have proven to be the only team capable of stopping City conducting a clean sweep of Premier League honours, winning their first league title in three decades back in 2020. 

By preventing Pep’s all-conquering Man City team from winning the league again this season, Klopp will have proven to have shaded the rivalry, according to Carragher, with the 56-year-old set to leave his post at the end of this term. 

City’s spending power is well documented, with Klopp paying much less for players during his time at Anfield than Pep has at City. And that is a crucial factor, says the former Liverpool defender. 

“If Klopp was to win the league this season, in terms of what they've just done in the Premier League, I would probably edge just for Klopp, having to fight against City, the money that City have - more than Liverpool,” he said in his role as Sky Sports pundit on Monday Night Football. 

“How Klopp's built Liverpool, if he could take two titles away from Manchester City, in terms of just English football, I would go for Jurgen Klopp.”

Longer and tougher job for Klopp than Pep

Klopp entered Liverpool back in October 2015 with Guardiola joining City the following summer. 

The Reds were in the doldrums having dispensed with the services of Brendan Rodgers but Klopp completely overhauled the team and put them back on their domestic and European perch. 

Guardiola, meanwhile, took over a City team that had just suffered a poor season under Manuel Pellegrini, although the Chilean’s final term was overshadowed by Guardiola declaring that he would replace him at the end of the campaign. 

That said, City were consistent title winners and cup contenders in the days before the Spaniard arrived. 

“Another reason why I say that is because of what both managers came into,” Carragher continued. 

“You're talking about a team that couldn’t get in the top four for five seasons, they’re in there under Brendan Rodgers but that was an outlier because Liverpool had the best player in the league, maybe the world, at the time in Suarez and then they go back to what we'd expect them to be at that time.

“You then look at Manchester City with the new ownership coming in, it's not just about Pep getting them up there, [Roberto] Mancini, [Manuel] Pellegrini [did it too]. 

“What I would also say in defence of Guardiola, the fact they finished with 66 points [in the season before he arrived] shows that was not a great Manchester City team. 

“This idea that Pep came into the best Manchester City team is probably false. But there's no doubt that he had a lot more quality at his disposal than Jurgen Klopp did, so it was a longer job and a tougher job for Jurgen Klopp.”