Klopp eyes strong finish after City rout; Guardiola hails Foden as ‘incredible talent’

Jurgen Klopp was adamant results remain important to him in Liverpool’s closing games after the newly crowned Premier League champions were humbled 4-0 by Manchester City.

The Reds came down to earth with a bump at the Etihad on Thursday in their first match since securing the title last week.

Klopp’s side still have a 20-point lead over Pep Guardiola’s second-placed team but with six games remaining but the German boss still wants to finish strongly.

“If someone said the result didn’t matter for my team, I cannot help them,” Klopp said.

“Yes, results matter a lot. I am not only looking for results but we want to win football games — that is the reason we work on the training ground, go to away games and play home games.”

One motivating factor could be the challenge of beating City’s record of 100 points from two seasons ago.

Liverpool, who have dropped points in just four games this season, currently have 86 ahead of Sunday’s home clash with Aston Villa.

“To get there we have to win football games and we didn’t do that here,” he said.

“So now we make sure we are ready for Aston Villa and the points tally at the end of the season is the result of the results we collect until then.”

Liverpool started brightly against City, with Mohamed Salah testing Ederson and then hitting the post, but the hosts took charge after Kevin De Bruyne opened the scoring from the penalty spot on 25 minutes.

Further goals came from Raheem Sterling and Phil Foden before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain put a Sterling shot into his own net.

Despite the big points gap, City remain a potent force and could end the season with Champions League glory.

“It’s a reminder how good Man City are,” Klopp said. “I didn’t need that, I knew it before. The surprise that it’s still possible, nice, that in a league where City are playing, someone else can be champions. That’s not very likely with the quality they have.

“We will see next season but it’s a while until then. Next season we will think about next season.”

Meanwhile, Guardiola has told England boss Gareth Southgate he has an “incredible” talent on his hands in Foden after the 20-year-old scored his fourth Premier League goal in three games for Manchester City.

The midfielder produced another impressive performance as City outclassed newly crowned champions Liverpool.

Foden, long tipped for stardom but eased into action gradually in recent years by City boss Guardiola, has struck four times since the Premier League resumed following the coronavirus shutdown.

Guardiola has no doubt Foden is now ready to fill the void the imminent departure of David Silva will create and has also tipped him to shine in Southgate’s England side.

“All the managers around the world love to work with good players,” said Guardiola, who coached Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi at Barcelona.

“The success we’ve had as managers is because we’re training incredible talented players and Phil is one of them.”

The City boss added: “We can count on him as a midfield player, a winger, even as a striker because he has an incredible sense of goal and a vision.

He said Southgate, who has yet to give Foden his debut, had an “incredible talent for the national team on his hands”.

Foden formed a formidable triumvirate with Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling as Liverpool, a week after celebrating their first title in 30 years, were swept aside at the Etihad.

Agence France-Presse