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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Connor Dunn

'Like Liverpool play now' - Ilkay Gundogan opens up on Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola style

Ilkay Gundogan has opened up on the differences of playing under Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola.

There are not many players in world football to have plyed their trade under two of the world's best managers but Gundogan has given details on both their styles in a wide-ranging interview with Mr Porter.

The Germany international played under Klopp at Dortmund and described the manager as "intense and emotional" while he said current boss Guardiola at Man City is meticulous in his tactical planning.

"Like Liverpool play now," Gundogan said when describing Klopp's style at Dortmund. "A lot of intensity and emotion, not just from the crowd, but also the manager and from inside the players themselves.

"Pep and Jurgen are very different kinds of manager.

"Both are great and have personality types I get along with, but Jurgen is the motivator who prepares you to go into battle while Pep is someone who pays an incredible amount of attention to the tactical details of the game, he always wants a plan and to see patterns in the game.

"That’s why he likes players that are smart, flexible and versatile."

Gundogan also revealed in the interview that he realised Guardiola was interested in him while playing for Dortmund.

At half-time during a Bundesliga game against Bayern Munich, the Catalan boss clearly had the midfielder in his sights.

“I’d been told by a couple of people that he liked me as a player, but then we were waiting in the tunnel to go back out and he came past and gave me a little hit in the stomach and smiled in my face. I kind of knew then,” he said.

Incredibly, Gundogan ended up living in the same apartment block as Guardiola after moving to Manchester.

“I have given him maybe one lift home from the training ground in five years,” he added. “And I barely see him in the building unless it’s in the lift or reception. He’s really easy to deal with. He gives me my space and I give him his.”

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