‘Guardiola is responsible for Man City’s phobia of Liverpool’

Joe Williams
Pep Guardiola Jurgen Klopp Manchester City Liverpool

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has “always had a phobia about Liverpool”, according to John Aldridge

The Citizens pipped Jurgen Klopp’s men to the Premier League title by a single point last campaign in a thrilling title race.

However, the story has been wildly different this season as Liverpool have dominated the league, leading second-placed City by 22 points in February.

And former Liverpool striker Aldridge thinks the Reds have got “under the skin” of Guardiola and City over the last couple of seasons.

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Aldridge told the Liverpool Echo: “I think Guardiola has always had a phobia about Liverpool since that fly-on-the-wall documentary about Man City came out, which showed clips of him saying he was worried about how to stop our front three and that Klopp was going to do what he did at Dortmund.

“This was the season when they got their 100-point title but we knocked them out of the Champions League easily, 5-1 on aggregate, and even though they held on to just about win the title last season by a point from us, you could see how much we had got under the skin when that clip emerged of them singing that distasteful song about Liverpool when they should have celebrating their own achievement of back-to-back league titles along with the two domestic cups they won.

“Winning the European Cup would salvage the season for Pep but that looks a long way off for them at present and I would certainly have no fears for Liverpool should we draw them in the latter stages and I don’t think Jurgen Klopp and the players would either.

“City certainly seem to have a phobia about us though and I think it stems from the manager.”