Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel believes comments made by Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola claiming everyone in England including the media supports Liverpool is hard to argue with.
Pep Guardiola made the headline in recent weeks when said everyone in England supports Jurgen Klopp’s side and wants further to jibe that Liverpool has won one Premier League title in 30 years.
Thomas Tuchel believes Jurgen Klopp has a way of painting his side as underdogs and winning sympathy from neutral fans and everyone in the country
What did Thomas Tuchel say?
When quizzed about Guardiola’s comments ahead of the FA Cup final, Tuchel replied: ‘I can understand why he made it. I can understand why he has that feeling. In general, I would say it is hard to really argue with it.
‘I believe I can understand what he meant. There are huge sympathies for Liverpool. I feel that as well, in the whole country.
‘If you fight against it, like Pep, for many, many years, I can understand the comment that it sometimes feels like this. But at the same time, I don’t think it’s only here. It’s in Germany like this and in France too.’
Tuchel added:‘You know Klopp is the master of being the underdog. He can talk you into being the underdog against Villareal and 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 where the sympathy comes from. There’s nothing to be jealous of from my side, Klopp is a fantastic guy, funny guy, one of the 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 tomorrow, then no problem.
‘We take that role, we don’t want to have the sympathy of the country tomorrow, we want to have the trophy.’
Meanwhile, Thomas Tuchel wants to change the narrative on Chelsea’s poor FA Cup final run.
Chelsea had only one FA Cup after making it to the finals five times in six years.
He said: “If I knew I would change it! I don’t know. I can only say that last year we were with me. Also in the final against Leicester. We will try it again. First of all, it is a big achievement to be in these finals.
“ There has to be, unfortunately, a loser. In these finals, there is a special energy, a special atmosphere. There is a special momentum you have to catch and for sure you need a piece of luck to go away with a trophy. We are aware of that. We feel again well prepared. The atmosphere is right.
‘’The momentum is okay after the reaction in Leeds. Everybody knows what we are up to. We want to arrive to give Liverpool a hard fight. I don’t know if there is one reason it is like this. I would prefer to point out the positives. A fifth cup final in six years, it shows the competitive spirit we have.”
