Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola admitted that he overthinks and comes up with “stupid tactics” in the Champions League but would not have it any other way as he prepares for today’s quarter-final tie with Atletico Madrid.
Guardiola, a two-time winner of the competition as a manager with Barcelona, has not won the trophy in 11 years and his teams have often fallen in the knockout stages due to unexpected tactical tweaks and team selection which have caused his system to fail.
“In the Champions League I always overthink — new tactics, tomorrow you will see a new one. I overthink a lot, that’s why I have very good results in the Champions League,” Guardiola said. “It would be boring if I always played the same way. If people think I play the same against Atletico and Liverpool, I don’t like (that). The movements are different, the players are all different with different personalities. That’s why I overthink and create stupid tactics. Tonight I take inspiration and I’m going to (come up with) incredible tactics tomorrow.”
City are up against an Atletico side that knocked out Manchester United in the previous round and Guardiola said there was a ‘misconception’ about how Diego Simeone sets up his teams, explaining they are not as defensive as they seem. “It’s more offensive than people believe, he doesn’t want to take a risk in the build-up but they have quality in the final third,” Guardiola said.
“When the ball is in our half, how competitive they are, depends on the position and movement — they know exactly how to play. In the moments of the game, these situations, they are really good.”
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone enjoys watching Manchester City play and knows his team must step up their game to beat them in the Champions League quarter-finals. “It’s a joy to watch how Man City play,” the Argentine told a news conference yesterday.
“What I like about teams like Man City is the effort they put on trying to recover the ball and maintain possession. It’s nice to see them play. What drives me the most is seeing players of that quality always working and active in their fight for every ball. It’s what all coaches want.”
Simeone is not concerned about Atletico playing the first leg away and hosting the decisive clash at home in front of their fans because “the game is too long and first we need to make sure we do what we’re supposed to do at Manchester.”
Klopp wants Liverpool
thinking in the right way in quadruple quest
Liverpool’s players must show maturity as they chase four titles this season but that is not the only quality they must focus on, manager Juergen Klopp said ahead of today’s Champions League quarter-final first-leg tie against Benfica. The Merseyside club won the League Cup in February and are second in the Premier League having also reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup to remain on track for an unprecedented haul of four trophies this season.
Speaking before leaving to Portugal to face Benfica, Klopp said Saturday’s hard-fought 2-0 league win over Watford was a perfect example of how he wanted his team to approach their matches. “It’ll be massively important but it’s not the only thing if you are mature, it doesn’t help much. But if you can combine quality, desire, excitement and mentality with maturity... you cannot buy that,” Klopp told reporters.
“We have played games before when we were 1-0 up and were still running like mad as if we were not... I want my players thinking in the right way and that’s what I saw on Saturday. We all know one failure, one little misstep, and at least one competition can be gone. That’s no problem for us, we’re just ready for the next challenge.”
Liverpool face leaders Manchester City on Sunday and Klopp said that he had no trouble preparing his players for important games this month. “It’s nice, we enjoy it,” Klopp said. “Training sessions are very short. The meeting we had this morning was shorter than the training session. It’s the situation we would have dreamed of. I don’t think about being better, I think about us being on top of our game. That’s the plan for all the games. You try to improve in general. Benfica maybe aren’t where they want to be in their league but they are tough opponents.”
Liverpool will have a full squad to choose from for the Benfica clash, with Trent Alexander-Arnold back following a hamstring injury and Naby Keita shaking off a knee issue.
Meanwhile, Benfica midfielder Adel Taarabt insisted the Portuguese side have no fear of Liverpool ahead of their Champions League quarter-final tie against the English giants. Benfica will be looking to pull off another shock against six-time European champions Liverpool after already seeing off Barcelona in the group stage and Ajax in the last 16.
“Of course we have a chance, we’re in the quarter-finals,” said Taarabt, who spent seven years in England with Tottenham, QPR and Fulham.