Jurgen Klopp’s irritation at a winning strategy is proof that Pep Guardiola’s open infatuation of ex-Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri’s “Sarriball” is complete nonsense. Genius, but nonsense.
Every manager wants to play against an easy team. No manager likes to play against a team that knows how to beat him. No manager likes the playing style of team that beats him. Of course Frank Lampard is not going to go to a presser and say “Well, I hate to play against Ole Gunnar Solksjaer because he knows how to beat me.” However, he doesn’t need to say it.
Jürgen Klopp has beaten a Pep Guardiola team two more times than Guardiola has bested Klopp. Guardiola hates to play against Klopp, he doesn’t have to say why.
Managers love to play against teams that have no idea how to play against them. Teams that they can pump full of goals. The dream. It’s quite obvious, no?
Well, it seemed quite obvious, until Chelsea fans began to use Pep Guardiola’s comments regarding Maurizio Sarri’s Sarriball as a reason to trust Sarriball.
Pep Guardiola was full of praise before and after he humiliated Chelsea in a 6-0 win. It was not difficult to figure out why. Well, again, it didn’t seem difficult to figure out why. Pep Guardiola has eyes, and he has watched Sarriball.
He had lost to Chelsea in the reverse fixture, but Chelsea did not play Sarriball that day. They played Conte-ball, if you will. They sat in a low block and picked their moments to attack Manchester City – everything else fell into place. Chelsea was defensively solid in the home fixture against Manchester City, doing the opposite of Sarriball. That was why they won against Manchester City.
Guardiola had watched Chelsea play Sarriball against other opponents. He must have been disappointed that they did not play that way against him at Stamford Bridge.
After that day in west London, he watched Chelsea play some more Sarriball, much to their detriment. He wanted Chelsea to play that way against him, but he knew that Chelsea were just too smart for that. Or were they?
He saw Chelsea get blown away against AFC Bournemouth some 11 days before he had to face them at the Etihad Stadium. He resorted to praising Sarriball, hoping that the Chelsea coach would listen to his comments and think “There’s nothing wrong with what I’m doing! I have to stick to my playing style. Changing a team’s way of playing is difficult, the problem is not from me!” It worked. Perfectly.
Bournemouth had turned a 0-0 score line to 4-0 in less than 45 minutes against Maurizio Sarri’s Sarriball. It is shocking that Guardiola was still able to convince Sarri to play the exact same way against a much better, much more technically gifted, and much more clinical Manchester City.
Of course Guardiola did not want to make Sarri regret playing a suicidal style against him, so he continued to praise Sarriball, still trying to tell Sarri “Keep doing what you do, buddy! It’s not you, it’s them!”
Chelsea fans began to use this as a point of reference for crediting Sarriball. According to them, because a manager showered praise on a style of football that was not good enough to beat Bournemouth, then that style of play must be good.
On the other end of the spectrum we have Jürgen Klopp, who did not have enough about him to see off Atletico Madrid. Knowing what he was expecting when he played against Diego Simeone, it is not asked enough why Jürgen Klopp made the comments he made about “proper football.”
Klopp wanted to play the Atleti games on his own terms. Unfortunately for him, Atletico Madrid had plans of their own.
Klopp got outwitted. Twice!
Studies show that managers don’t like to lose to the same manager twice in the same Champions League tie. As per Guardiola: if you’re to shower any team with so much praise, shouldn’t it be the team that beat you home and away in a Champions League knockout round?
Klopp instead decided to disrespect fellow professionals, including the players, by attacking their style of play. Klopp did not like Atletico’s way of beating him. Klopp did not hesitate to show his displeasure. He confirmed again that managers don’t like being on the losing side, and they completely hate playing styles that beat them.
Pep Guardiola was full of love for Sarriball because Sarriball was never a threat to him. He kept on loving Sarriball because he knew how to beat it. If Sarriball had won against Manchester City, Pep would not have shown open love for it: the same way Klopp was suddenly interested in his opponents playing proper football because he was unable to beat them.
Klopp’s open criticism of Atletico Madrid’s play was in the hope that Diego Simeone would think “Maybe I should not stick to the way I play. Maybe I should try and play more expansively. I do have the players. I would show the world that I can also play expansively in the second leg.” It didn’t work.