Manchester City will come under “huge pressure” following the announcement that Jurgen Klopp will leave Liverpool at the end of the season, according to Martin Keown.
The former Arsenal defender says Klopp’s impending departure could galvanise the Reds as they seek to win the Premier League title, and that may cause problems for the reigning champions:
“I have seen this with [Arsene] Wenger [at Arsenal], he never made massive announcements, but he never hid anything and sometimes I thought he should. It brings more from the rest of the group.”
“He [Klopp] wants it out there and I think it will work and I think it puts Pep and Man City under huge pressure, the energy it will draw from this team.”
City have work to do in the title race
With Pep Guardiola’s side currently 5 points adrift of the Reds at the top of the table, they need to perform well in the second half of the campaign to finish first.
Keown suggests that the job of overhauling the current league leaders has now got harder following Klopp’s announcement but we shall have to wait and see whether that is the case.
Guardiola’s experience should help City
If Liverpool do ramp up the pressure between now and May, it won’t be anything new for City’s manager and some of his players, who were involved in epic title races during the 2018/2019 and and 2021/2022 seasons.
Neither team gave an inch in those campaigns, winning week in, week out for months on end but it was the Cityzens who came out on top on both occasions.
Guardiola seems to thrive under such pressure, and there is every chance he can spoil Klopp’s farewell and beat the Reds to another trophy.
