In his first season at the helm of an English club, Jurgen Klopp has learnt quite a few things about football away from Germany. With a fixture against Arsenal coming up on the horizon, the Liverpool manager was all praises for the longest serving Premier League manager ahead of their clash.
Klopp’s appreciation of Wenger is nothing new as the German held him at a high stature given the work he has done at the London franchise. Klopp now has spoken out saying his admiration for the 66-year old has only increased after moving to England.
My respect goes up day by day because it’s really intensive to work in the Premier League, especially in a team with international matches (for their players) too,” the Reds manager said.
“He had always my biggest respect but now it’s a little bit bigger since I’m here. That’s really a brilliant job he’s done – 19-and-a-half years.
“He’s a high-quality manager, one of the best in the world for sure. This long period, it’s really rare that you can do this but he did. He’s a football maniac, in the best (sense of the word).
“It was always a challenge to play against him and again a challenge that I’m looking forward to.”
Arsene Wenger leads the head to head race against the German when he was in charge of Borussia Dortmund with 3 wins, 2 losses and a draw. But Klopp will hope that his team’s record against big sides in the Premier League this season will have its say in the match at Anfield.
The Red’s have not lost to Chelsea, City, Arsenal, Tottenham and Leicester City in the first round of the fixtures and will try and take all three points from the Gunners on Wednesday.
Talking about the victories against big sides, Klopp said, “After 10 minutes at Chelsea it was a very, very good away game and from the first second against City,” he noted.
“The main information we should take out of these two matches is we have to be really good. If we are good, then it could fit for this game of course.
“But Arsenal, together with City, are the two best teams at this moment in the Premier League. To stay in a good position against Man City, they need all the points, they cannot (pick and choose) where they want to get it.
“They will show us that they have real ambitions this year. They’re in a good moment.
“We can be, we’re not that consistent in the performances in the last weeks but (the 1-0 win over) Stoke was a good sign of what my team is capable of.”
In other news, Liverpool have completed the signing of Steven Caulker from QPR on a loan deal to ease out the pressure on the squad with growing injuries. It will be interesting to see if the on-loan defender will start the game against Arsenal.