In aninterviewwith Arsenal legend, Thierry Henry,Pep Guardiola has spoken of his admiration for Jurgen Klopp as the sides gear up for a New Year's Eve title clash.
Adjusting to life in the Premier League, the Spaniard has had a mixed start to his City career. The Citizens got off to a tremendous start, winning their opening six league games, before a 2-0 loss to Tottenham seemed to knock them into a spell of inconsistency that is yet to end - summarised nicely by their 3-1 and 4-2 losses to Chelsea and Leicester respectively
Pep made a comparison between himself andanother former Bundesliga man, who is also having some mixed results due to his playing style, saying:Jurgen Klopp, who I admire a lot for his passion and ideas, I read some time that he said: ˜I don't just want my team to win, I want to enjoy seeing the team play how I want to play.
It's simple. I would like to finish the season with the team playing how I want. Always I am there, on the bench, and we are spectators. When I am sitting there, I want to stand up, looking at my team, and what I see is what I want."
Guardiola's style is a bit different from Klopp's "Gegenpressing" and is focussed mainly on retaining and winning back possession quickly as well as circulating the ball just as quickly in apurposeful manner.
Guardiola's insistence on playing out from the back, however, has landed City in trouble on more than one occasion this season - £50m man John Stones and summer signing Claudio Bravo, in particular.
Guardiola continued:For managers it is to win titles. It will be tough, it will be really difficult. Of course we are going to see in February how our position is, and we'll see after that if we can challenge or not."
He then reiterated his desire to stick to his philosophy, hinting that it is more important that City play the way that he wants than it is to win trophies, adding:The biggest frustration would be finishing a period here at City and the team didn't play the way you wanted.�