Before the FA Cup final between Chelsea and Liverpool, Thomas Tuchel spoke about Jürgen Klopps very special ability to generate sympathy and attention for his respective team.
“He is a master in being the outsider,” Tuchel said at the press conference before the cup endgame in Wembley on Saturday (5:30 p.m. in the live ticker).
Chelsea trainer Tuchel had been confronted with a statement by Pep Guardiolas about the championship race in England. During the week, the Catalane, who was fighting the title with Klopps Liverpool, said, “everyone in this country, the press, simply all” would keep their fingers crossed for the Reds against his Manchester City.
“Klopp can persuade you to be the underdog, even against Villarreal or Benfica,” said Tuchel. “He keeps doing this, all the time and probably some of the sympathy comes.” Therefore, he was not jealous, assured Tuchel, who followed Klopp both at FSV Mainz 05 and later at Borussia Dortmund as a coach.
“Klopp is a fantastic guy, a humorous person and one of the best coaches in the world and that’s his way,” said Tuchel. “When he trained Dortmund, everyone loved Dortmund – and now he trains Liverpool and it looks like the whole country loves Liverpool.”
Tuchel can feel with Pep Guardiola
He “has no problem” to be the “Bad Guys” with Chelsea: “We don’t want to have the country’s sympathy, but win the title.”
Even if he is not a Liverpool fan, he can understand the club very popular. “This is also due to Jürgen, but it is about what this club stands for, how it runs his business and is pushed by the fans,” said Tuchel. “You can feel that it is all about football and they get huge sympathy for that.”
With Guardiola, the 48-year-old could feel good. “If you fight, on the other hand, like PEP year after year, I can imagine that it sometimes feels like that.”
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Chelsea and Liverpool face each other in a cup endgame for the second time this season in Wembley. Klopps Reds prevailed in the final of the League Cup at the end of February in penalty shooting with 11:10 against Tuchels blues.
