Thomas Tuchel has agreed with comments made by Pep Guardiola regarding Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp ahead of the 2022 FA Cup final on Saturday.
Chelsea head into the showpiece aiming to salvage a pretty poor 2021/22. The Blues were expected to compete for the Premier League title, but injuries to Ben Chilwell and Reece James derailed such hopes for the most part.
Elsewhere, the Londoners lost to Liverpool in the League Cup final and, despite winning the second leg, were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid at the quarter-final stage.
As a result, should they fail to beat Liverpool on Saturday, a case could be made that 2021/22 will represent Chelsea’s most disappointing season for many, many years. This comes with Frank Lampard, despite not securing any silverware during his only full campaign as manager, having been in charge of the club when they had a transfer ban.
Ahead of the game, Tuchel was asked about Guardiola’s recent comments that suggested everyone in the media supports Liverpool.
And, for the most part, Tuchel seems to agree with this point, stating that it is hard to argue with it.
Asked about those comments ahead of Chelsea’s latest clash against Liverpool, Tuchel said: “I am not a Liverpool fan. I can understand why he said it. I can understand why he has that feeling. In general, I would say it is hard to really argue with it.
“You know Kloppo is the master of being the underdog. He can talk you into being the underdog against Villareal and against Benfica, and it’s a miracle, miracle how they even draw against them. He can talk you into it and he does it all the time, he does it a lot of times. That’s part of it, that’s also from where the sympathy comes.
“There’s nothing to be jealous of from my side, Kloppo is a fantastic guy, a funny guy, one of very, very best coaches in the world and that’s what he does. When he trained Dortmund, the whole country loved Dortmund. So now he trains Liverpool and you have the feeling the whole country loves Liverpool.
“It’s big, big, big credit to him and this is what you deal with when you play a team against him, it’s always like this, but it’s always the fun part and so if we are the bad guys on Saturday, then no problem. We take that role, we don’t want to have the sympathy of the country, we want to have the trophy.”
Chelsea manager backs Pep Guardiola, believing compatriot Jurgen Klopp is a master of portraying his team as the underdog | @Matt_Law_DT https://t.co/GWoG95tMvm
— Telegraph Football (@TeleFootball) May 13, 2022
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